Things I Don't Teach Carson

I remember when my niece was little she called her freckles, "sprinkles." And we all thought it was so cute. And I remember my sister being a little annoyed when someone corrected her and she stopped calling them sprinkles and has forever since called them freckles. Kids grow up and words sort themselves out, but why rush them when they're just learning to talk?

Here are some times when I don't correct Carson:

• He says "chickenmunk" instead of chipmunk. 
• He gets excited to ride the "alligator" (elevator).
• When he saw these pictures I put on his wall, he said, "Jesus givin' me a hug!" It was the most adorable thing, and I would never tell him the child in the picture wasn't him.
• He says "Ready, Set, Hike!" Instead of ready, set, go. I DO blame Taylor for that, but I don't correct Carson because I think it's cute.
• When we watch Disney movies and the castle comes up at the beginning he says, "A temple!" And why not? It looks like a temple anyway.

I'm so glad Carson is at an age where he's talking a lot and learning so fast. I'm also glad he's not at an age where kids would make fun of him for saying something wrong so I can keep smiling at his little misnomers. Here are some other cute things he's said/done:

• He started saying, "Need the camera, so cute!" when he feels like he's doing something camera worthy. Like this face:

 Or this face:

We were on our way to church last week when from the back seat he notified me of a need for the camera. Luckily, it was in my bag, because when I got it out he made this cutest face:

• Lately when we've been getting Carson up in the morning or after a nap he says, "I'm so happy." I don't know where he got it, but it's adorable. Another thing he says sometimes is, "Mommy? (or Daddy?) Are you awake?" Which is funny considering we're walking into his room, but he got it from Taylor who would always say, "Carson? Are you awake?" when he'd get him up.

• He loves the aquarium and has for months been quoting the dolphin show ("From the deep, it will rise" "Higher, higher, raise it higher.") But in the last couple months he's also made friends with the penguins and tries to feed them pretzels. One day we went right before they got fed and the penguins would actually follow him and his pretzels occasionally diving at the glass for a bite.

Apparently, it was cute enough that even random strangers wanted to document it:

Anyway, we love our Carson. We're so proud of how much he's learning and the cute, funny things he says and does. We really love being his parents and are excited about adding another little boy to our family.

Looks a lot like Christmas

We love celebrating Christmas! It's so fun to celebrate with Carson. He gets so excited every time we see a snowman or a santa claus. He loves talking about baby Jesus and the big star that helped the shepherds find Him. At least once a day he asks to watch Frosty the Snowman. If we say no to that he'll ask for Rudolph. The other day we were on our way out when he asked to watch Frosty. I reminded him that we were leaving so he answered himself, "Maybe later." It made me smile.

He loves presents, but it's nice because he doesn't care what's in them yet. He says, "For me? Thank you for the present!" It is so cute I just want to give him presents all the time. Taylor asked him if he's been a good boy and he said, "yes?" in a hopeful voice then Taylor asked what he wanted for Christmas and Carson said, "a present?" in the same voice. It was so cute. And if you ask him what kind of present he doesn't really know, he just likes opening them.

A couple weeks ago we had a fun day celebrating, starting with a Christmas parade. We know Carson liked it because a couple days after the parade, Carson got right up in my face to be sure I was paying attention and said, "I'll be riiiight back," then walked to the front door. I asked where he was going and he said, "Going to the parade, see lotsa snowmen, be riiiight back."

Ready for it to start!

He loved the marching bands!

But not so much the nose a clown gave him...

 Since the parade went right past Taylor's office, we decided to stop by and see where he works. Carson loved it, he felt very at home.

 Later that day we went to a stake nativity festival, but Carson had had enough celebrating for the day.

And here are some other pictures:

Our tree.

Playing with some trains. Thanks Liz!

Helping with the "christmas sticks"

Meeting Santa at the ward Christmas party.

Anyway, we love the holidays. We didn't skip Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving trip out west, but I don't have any pictures so I can't blog about it, haha. Merry Christmas everyone!