Out of the Mouths of Babes

Well, I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any pictures for this post, but I thought that in addition to sharing pictures, this would be a good medium to share and keep track of some of the fun or interesting things that the kids say or do.

In this case, it’s obviously about Kyle since Kaitlyn is not quite ready to start talking. I just thought this was a fun little anecdote that shows the level of thinking and reasoning that he has for one so young.

Brother Meets Sister

One of the more exciting things about bringing home baby Kaitlyn was seeing Kyle meet her for the first time. We had been telling him about his baby sister for some time and he kept asking when she was going to pop out of Mommy’s belly.

Finally, after a couple days of telling him that his sister had popped out, he finally got a chance to see her for himself. Later, I’ll be working on posting some video of the initial meeting, but for now, take a look at how brother and sister got along their first time together.

Welcome, Kaitlyn

Well, after almost a week, I’m finally getting a few moments to post pictures of Kaitlyn. We’ve got lots of pictures (go figure) so I’ll probably post them a few at a time and maybe eventually catch up to how many pictures are being taken.

Before we get to the actual pictures, I suppose I should make sure to post the statistics in case some of you didn’t already receive that via phone call, e-mail, Facebook, text message, picture message or some other form of media we used to get the word out.

Getting Ready for a Change

For anyone who hasn’t already heard, we’re “on call” to induce labor starting tomorrow morning at 7:00am. As I understand it, we’ve got about a 90% chance that they’ll actually get us in tomorrow.

That means, that if all goes smoothly, we’ll have a brand new, bouncing baby girl…possibly by this time tomorrow. How exciting is that?!

Happy Thanksgiving

And what a Thanksgiving this will be! As we gather up the family and spend time together, we are eagerly awaiting baby Katie’s arrival. For a while, last weekend, we thought we might actually have been able to celebrate her having been born, but she decided to wait until after the holiday, it seems.

Nonetheless, a new baby, an adorable little boy, a new house, a beautiful wife, a loving family, a good job, a good church…the list goes on and on. And thank goodness we have days like today to help remind us to focus on those things instead of the other things.

Sleepy Boy

After months and months (well, years really) of trying to figure out why Kyle just doesn’t not consistently sleep through the night, we finally got a bit desperate to figure it out before Kaitlyn arrives. It doesn’t happen every night. Some nights, he actually stays in bed all night. Most nights, he gets up once. Then…there are the really bad nights.

We figured that when Kaitlyn arrives, we’re not going to get much sleep anyway. However, if we have her and Kyle getting up throughout the night, we won’t get any sleep. This, we feel, would be a bad thing.

Preparing for His New Job

I know that this is a really weak, superbly lame attempt at trying to keep up to date here, but…it is what it is. Of course, on the one hand I can think that for the first couple weeks Kaitlyn is here I might have more time to post more pictures and keep up with the blog. But then again, we’ll have a newborn and a toddler running around, so will I actually end up having less time to keep up?

Anyway, enough of that. The main reason for posting this was to show that Kyle is working really hard, preparing for his new “job” as the official “big brother.” Since Joelle was watching a friends little baby a couple weeks ago, Kyle had an opportunity to get some hands-on training so he’ll be ready.

It’s Fun Being Three

Well, it’s true that he’s been three for about a month and a half now. In fact, it won’t be long before he’s “three and a half.” But, nonetheless, we figure that a month and a half at this age is probably not going to bring about a huge number of changes, at least in physical appearance.

Although he didn’t take a nap that day (big surprise, there) and the appointment was not until 4:30pm, he actually ended up doing pretty well. Bribing with Oreo’s seems to work pretty well for behavior modification. (Sorry, Dad. No Hydrox.)

Kaitlyn is Coming! Kaitlyn is Coming!

You probably already knew that. But, one must think of titles to these posts in order to help people identify the content. It’s a blog thing.

So, if anyone here happens to be connected to us via Facebook, you probably saw updates about the fact that we went for Kaitlyn’s 3D/4D ultrasound today. Because she was so low and because of where the placenta and the umbilical cord were, it wasn’t very easy to get good images. But, we got what we could and I wanted to share a few of them here.

Moving Along

Ok, first I have to say...pun intended. Second, yes I recognize that that was really lame. But, as you may have noticed, I haven't been writing a lot so my skills are getting rusty.

So, for those of you who don't know (and this is one of my excuses for not having written recently) we just moved into a new house and are renting out our old place. We've been kinda busy with moving out of the old place, prepping it for the renters and then moving into the new place and getting that all "homified."

Why Stay with One When You Can Do Two?

I think I have somehow managed to completely out-do myself and come up with what is perhaps the cheesiest title for a blog post ever. Especially when you consider the double-meanings which I assume you’ll catch on to in just a couple paragraphs.

So, you saw the other day the good news about Kyle and his progress in his potty-training. Well, that apparently just wasn’t quite good enough for him. On Monday, he decided that peeing in the potty was only the beginning. So, yes, I’m actually taking the time to write a post about the fact that my almost-three-year-old son pooped in the potty for the first time yesterday….twice!

Just In Time

For some time, now, we’ve been talking amongst ourselves about hoping the Kyle is potty-trained by the time Kaitlyn is born so that we don’t have two kids in diapers at the same time. As Kaitlyn’s due-date draws nearer and nearer, we were starting to get a bit worried.

Then, Kyle would start saying things that would seem to indicate that he was ready to try potty-training. But then, he would sit on the potty for almost three whole seconds and then declare that he was done. We would try distracting him to keep him on the potty a little longer…reading books, giving him a toy to play with, etc.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game…

Last night (yes, I’m actually that caught up) Kyle got to go to his very first professional baseball game. For his very first game, he got to see the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4 to 1. (Sorry, Pepere. That’s just the way the ball bounces…so to speak.)

We were able to get tickets through Mommy’s work and we sat in the Picnic Pavilion where they had all-you-can-eat hot dogs (which was probably a good thing since they were kinda small), popcorn, peanuts, chips, bottled water and a soda fountain.

In the Studio

It’s not all that often…in fact, it’s never happened to me until this week…that you get to record in a professional music studio. Man, was that a lot of fun. I’m so glad someone I knew decided to go to school for music production.

Last October, I had the opportunity to get together with some friends from my old church and play at a fund raiser where we opened the evening by playing a set of old jazz standards. After that, was a nice dinner, followed by a somewhat more grooving set of blues/rock.

Taking Precautions

We just had something happen to us a few days ago (see...I'm almost caught up) that hasn't happened in quite some time. It was one of those things that hit you all of a sudden and really freak you out.

The other night, just after some friends had left, Kyle was walking toward the kitchen and stopped. As he's looking down at the floor, he tells Mommy, "Look, Mommy. There's a bug on the floor." As Mommy comes over and starts looking at the floor, she doesn't see anything at first.

The Wiggles....Again

Yes, it has now gotten to the point where we have now gotten to see some live shows more than once. That would be, The Wiggles! They were just in a couple weeks ago and Mommy and Grandma took Kyle and his cousin Nathan to see them live. The boys had a great time.

So, now we've seen the Wiggles, Elmo, Ringling Bros., Disney on Ice, Playhouse Disney and the Wiggles again (though I didn't get the middle ones in the right order). Here are some of the pictures that they got at the show just to help you better understand what the boys were seeing. (That's my subtle way of saying that there are no pictures of the boys themselves.)

Dinos!

What do you know! We're almost all caught up. Here we are up to a few weeks ago when Mommy, Kyle, Jessica and A. J. went to the Dinosaur museum. I'm not sure how interested A. J was in dinos, but Kyle has been getting really into them lately. So, he was quite excited to see dinosaurs...especially T-Rex!

Another nice thing about this trip is that there are actually a couple shots of Mommy for a change. Let's face it, she's entirely too pretty to keep hiding from the camera all the time and people just need to see her more often so they can be jealous of me. :-)

Look What I Found!

Technically, this picture is from a group taken when Kyle went to the Dinosaur museum. But, for no better reason than the content of the picture, I decided to post this one separately. When you scroll down and see the picture, it will likely be quite obvious why that is.

Needless to say, this caused a great deal of laughter for all parties present at the time. The gross part was where this was found....in the door of the van. Who knows how long it was there!

Little Monkey

A few weeks ago (yes, I’m still that far behind) we had gone over to hang out at with some friends. Their son, Adam, seems to be one of Kyle’s favorite people and just loves playing with him.

I wish we had gotten some decent pictures of when Kyle and Adam were actually sitting in the dog kennels with the doors closed, but then maybe it’s just as well that there is no photographic evidence of that so that nobody can take it the wrong way and call CPS. But, we did get a couple pictures of Kyle giving Adam the spider-monkey treatment!

Bowling

Another thing we did on our trip to Prescott was…we went bowling! This is always an exciting thing to do with a toddler. Especially one who doesn’t get that certain bowling balls are heavier than others, that you’re not supposed to put your hands by the ball return and that at this age, you really should use the little ramp that they have so your ball doesn’t stop halfway down the alley.

That said, Kyle did manage to have a pretty good time, over all. It started getting a bit less fun at the end as he had not napped, so he was getting a bit tired and grumpy. We did manage to have some fun, though.

Kyle Digs Chicks

While up in Prescott, we decided to stop by one of the indoor swap meets. As we were making our way in, there was a lady outside with some tables set up. It looked like she had cleaned out the attic after 30 or 40 years and put everything from 8-tracks to ancient transistor radios out for sale.

She also had a small cage with some baby chicks. If we got nothing else out of anything there was to offer, at least Kyle got to hold one of the baby chicks. He thought it was fun.

Big-Boy Bed

You'll have to excuse the fact that in order to get Kyle in the picture and try to get the bed itself into the picture, we had to take the pic from a weird angle and there's a bit of a wall-eye effect going on. But, for the most part, you can at least get some idea of Kyle's new bed. He's getting to be such a big boy!

At this point, it should also be pointed out that Kyle is becoming more aware of the fact that he's going to have a little sister. With the installation of his new bed, he has been moved out of his old bedroom which will soon be getting changed and prepared for "Baby Katie."

Infectious Smile

For today's post, it's just going to be a quick, one-picture deal. I'm not entirely sure where this was taken or what the story is behind it. But, this is such a great smile, I figured it would be a shame not to share it with everyone.

Coming up after this will be some pictures of Kyle's new big-boy bed, some pics from a recent trip to Prescott, the dinosaur museum and the Wiggles show. Just to give you a taste of what's to come in the next few days.

Legos

No, you're not imagining this. I really am posting something again...already. And it's still photos from further in the past than they should be. So, we have here some pictures of Kyle and Nate playing at the Lego exhibit at the Science Center.

Once again, in the interest of time and yet still getting these pictures out to you, I'm keeping the editorial short. This time, even to the extent that I'm not going to put any captions on these pictures. Mainly because I could really get verbose making up entire stories based on the pictures.

Children's Museum

Well, I'm trying to get caught up on posting. I haven't been keeping up with the pictures being taken and so now I've got to get caught back up. Hopefully, for your sake, that may mean a flurry of new pictures and stories and such.

So, in my first attempt to get caught up, I looked through the camera and figured I'd start with the oldest pictures first and then catch up by getting more and more recent. The earliest pictures I found were from a trip that Joelle and Kyle took with Jessica and Andrew to the Phoenix Museum for Children. Let's get going with them...

It's Official

Well, for the last few weeks we've been going over names for our little girl. For the most part, we had decided what we wanted, but just needed to decide on how we would spell it.

As of yesterday, it would seem that it has been decided as Mommy just bought the first of probably many little "trinkets" with the name Kaitlyn on it. In this case, it was a little wallet-sized card that could fit it beside a wallet-sized picture.

Summer

For those of you here in AZ, you already know this. But, for the sake of those elsewhere in the country...this is for you. I just thought that perhaps I might do something to try to help you feel better about the weather you might be having.

As most of those outside of AZ who get this are probably on the east coast, predominanty in the New England area, you're probably going back and forth about how one day it's really nice and then it's raining. Or it's nice in the morning and then overcast or showers in the afternoon. You just don't know what's coming or when.

New Baby Pictures

So, did you think that I had forgotten all about updating this blog? Seems like it's been a while since I put up anything new here. But, the long wait is now over and we have some pictures of the baby from this morning's appointment.

It Ain't Easy Bein' Green (In Arizona)

After a lot of hard work by a lot of people, our yard has been completely tranformed. After the first two weeks of having to water like crazy, we were finally at the point where we could start using our yard. How exciting is that!?

So, just so people can get some idea of the how the fruits of all our labor turned out, here we are just two weeks after our sod was first laid down. Take a look at how nice and green everything is! Not a color we're used to around here.

The Results Are In!!!

Well, today was the fateful day. The day that I was going to learn whether or not I was going to have to get a couple more jobs to support my family. The day when we found out if the little bun-in-the-oven was going to be a girl or a boy.

So far, after taking an over-the-counter gender test, it had come back as a boy. But, nonetheless, Joelle was holding out hope that the test (only about 80% accurate) would have been wrong. Her doctor and her nurse both were saying that, given the symptoms she was getting this time around, they thought that it would be a girl.

Kyle Kisses

When little kids give you kisses, it's always a wonderful, yucky, sometimes even sticky experience. They're so slobbery that you tend to end up needing a towel. But there are times when little kid kisses are not just wonderful. Sometimes, it's quite a source of all-out laughter!

The other night, Kyle was...well I suppose "attacking" is the correct word...attacking Mommy with kisses. Not only was he cracking us up. He was cracking himself up as well.

I'm an Uncle!

Well, OK, technically I've been an uncle for some time, now. Between Alexis, Sydney, Gillian, Anthony, Olivia, Jack and Nate, I've been an uncle several times over. But now, a new niece has been added to my growing repertoire of uncleness.

Sure, this is the Carrington blog and some people may wonder why there are Jones' on here, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that my sister was a Carrington long before she was a Jones, so let's just say she's been grandfathered in. So, now that she's a new mommy, I can still post pictures of her daughter.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Part 3

It was the second weekend of our back yard project and quite a bit has happened. As you saw the other day, the curbing was put in yesterday morning. Since then, there has been quite a bit of activity in and around our back yard.

Friday night, Shaun picked up a U-Haul trailor and brought up 900 sq. ft. of sod. Once we got it to the house, Billie and I, after adjusting the sprinkler heights, emptied the entire load of sod and piled it next to the house so it would be in the shade most of the next day.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Part 2

Well, here it is not quite a week later and we've made a bit more progress on this backyard project. I was totally unaware how quickly one can get people out to do certain things and was pleasantly surprised when I learned that we could have someone come out to do curbing in time for the weekend.

The guys were scheduled to be at our house between 8:00am and 10:00am. So, I got up around 7:00am and went out back to try to smooth out the ground on the path where the curbing would be laid down. I was out there for probably 10 or 15 minutes when Joelle came out and said that they were at the door. So much for preparing the ground. Fortunately, they did a great job doing the stuff I had planned on doing.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Just about the time you all probably thought that I had completely given up on the idea of ever adding new content here, suddenly a new post arrives in your inbox or feedreader or whatever method you're using to see new updates. To really keep you guessing, this post is a bit different from the others that you've seen. It's not about Kyle or the new baby (well, maybe indirectly it could be).

With much thanks to Billie (Joelle's mom) and Bob (Joelle's dad) and most of all to Al (Billie's beau), we managed to get a large portion of work done on a backyard project. I wish, in retrospect, that I had thought to capture more pictures along the way. Unfortunately, the pictures posted here were the first ones we ended up taking, so you don't quite get the whole effect of the before/after and t he process throughout.

The Little One

Normally, that title might suggest that you were about to get another update on Kyle and his travels through his little, toddler life. But, no. Not this time. Once again, this one is in reference to the other little one whom we have yet to meet in person.

I’m not going to take up much of your time with a bunch of writing, but I thought that perhaps those of you who don’t have an opportunity to be nearby might like to see some video of the peanut-sized, latest soon-to-be-an-addition to our family. I will take a moment, however, to make one quick disclaimer regarding the quality of the cinematography. It should be understood that I am not a professional camera-man and therefore I have not trained myself to always keep in mind the quality (read that as “aim”) of the image as my preference tends to be to view events through my own eyes. This can, at times, have a less than desirable effect on how well the camera is aimed at the intended target.

Base Jumping

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the sport of base jumping, this is essentially a sport that involves jumping off of very high place that are not airborne. This would include such things as cliffs and tall buildings. Typically a parachute of some type is involved as not doing so would be far more dangerous than the sport already is.

Kyle recently decided to start practicing, though on a much smaller scale, his own style of base jumping. This was not something he came up with on his own, however. His cousin, Nathan, was instrumental in “helping” him learn this concept as Nathan loves jumping off of things, too.

Cars

Here's the boys with Lightning McQueen and Mater.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Disney Railroad

Kyle on the Disneyland Railroad. This kid does love trains!

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Disney California Adventure Parade

Friday afternoon, we headed over to Disney's California Adventure theme park for the parade. We managed to find a good location with available benches so we could all sit down and relax...at least while we waited.



The boys did great and I think they really liked the parade. It was very cute.



The first thing we saw was the float with the characters from the upcoming Disney Pixar movie, "Up." That was the way the parade was getting kicked off. What we didn't realize was that it would be about 20 to 30 minutes later before then next float came. We almost started to wonder if that was the entire parade and it was over.

Catching Bubbles

Kyle and Pop Pop catching bubbles after the parade at California Adventure theme park. I'll post the parade pics later. Too many to send from Blackberry.

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A Boy of Many Hats

We stopped at the Disney store and tried on some hats. Some stayed on long enough to get pictures. Others...well...not so much.

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The Disney Dixieland Band

Playing some of the old standards. Very refreshing to know this music is still being kept alive!

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Indiana Jones

This is what happened to the last guy who looked into the forbidden eye!

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Thunder Mountain

Fixin' to get on the Thunder Mountain Railroad. Too bad Kyle ain't here. He loves trains.

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Casey Jr.

Kyle loves riding the Casey Jr. Train!

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It's Morning

Here's the Lehmans with the Disney topiaries in fron of the hotel.

We are officially on our way to the park.

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The Disneyland Brigade

Shortly after arrival in Downtown Disney, we caught up with everyone to figure out dinner.

Good luck finding seats for this many people!

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Disneyland

Well, we made it to Disneyland! While here, I'm going to try something
new...live blogging our trip via Blackberry.

I've never live blogged before, much less from a Blackberry. So we'll see
how this goes.

TTFN!

Our Little Larva

It’s probably a good thing Kyle can’t read quite yet. If he could, he might start getting a bit jealous that his yet-to-be-born sibling is already getting a lot of attention here on the blog. It makes me wonder, if we’re posting regular pictures of the baby starting at the embryonic stage, does this indicate that we will avoid that “second child lack of pictures” thing that many families seem to go through?

How often I hear about parents who take bazillions of pictures of the first child, hundreds of their second, maybe a few of the third and any children after that tend to only be found in group photos. Maybe we won’t be like that. Maybe we’ll just have so many pictures that we’ll have to look at buying disk space on an Internet hosting site with unlimited storage. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. It’s pretty cheap and you can usually include the cost of your own domain name. But I digress.

Funny Story

Well, I say “funny” although it could also be “scary.” It was just that kind of funny. Not really the “Ha-ha” kind, but the “OMG!” kind. Though I write about it with tongue firmly planted in cheek, if the situation were reversed, I’d be freaking out like you wouldn’t believe.

By now, you’re probably thinking I should finish qualifying things and just tell you what happened. Ok. You’re the loyal reader. Therefore, you’re the “customer” in this situation. So, here you are…

The Latest Tadpole

Well, it's official. We have a tadpole!

I've been avoiding this topic on the blog during the last few weeks because this is generally the type of news that I prefer to share with most family and friends via phone call or in person when possible. However, there may be some out there to whom this will be news. If you are that person, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I probably at least tried to call you and tell you about it before you learned about it this way.

Strange and Unexpected

Imagine my surprise when I looked at my e-mail this morning and saw a message from The Carrington Family blog. The reason for the surprise is because I actually didn’t write a post yesterday, so I was not expecting anything at all to be sent. But that was not the end of the weirdness.

What was even more surprising was the contents. You probably saw it, too. A familiar looking post referring to a poll available on the blog regarding how these posts are delivered to your inbox or feed readers. Something strange was afoot. I was beginning to have some deja vu.

Pearly Whites

Well, as Kyle continues to get older, we continue to have "first" experiences. Sometimes they're good. Sometimes...well...not so much. But one thing is certain. There truly does seem to be a first time for everything.

In this case...teeth cleaning! Yes, Kyle has been to his first dental cleaning. We were a little unsure how this would work out. Lately, he's been getting to that stage where he is a bit uncertain around new people. So, the idea of a stranger poking around in his mouth was something we weren't quite sure he'd warm up to very quickly.

More Karaoke Fun

Ok, so yesterday we showed some really cool video of some very talented ladies. Today, we bring you the up-and-coming rising stars of the karaoke mic. These two guys have a great attitude about singing in public and don’t seem to have any shame. But, I guess that’s because they’re too young to really care what people think of them.

Both doing their own arrangements of the world-famous Alphabet Song, here are Kyle Carrington and Nathan Lehman. Let’s hear it for them, everybody!

Very, Very Karaoke

I'm not quite sure if Karaoke is actually the Japanese word for Easter or not, but the two concepts seem to have collided with the destructive force of two toddlers and a non-toddler-safe piece of technological equipment. Perhaps that might be the modern day equivalent of when toddlers 15 years ago would put peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches in mom and dad's VCR.

The fun part, here, is that while certain people (whose names rhyme with Billie and Michelle) are probably anticipating a video of their lovely grandchildren enjoying the wonders of Grandma's home karaoke machine (a.k.a. "Do-it-yourself home torture kit") they are in for a much bigger surprise.

Ostrich Sleep

Kyle seems to be quite similar to his Mommy and Daddy in certain respects. At times, he is quite his own person and it is difficult to tell which of us he inherited certain traits from. Other times, our parental genes were so in-line with one another that the there was no other option but to have been passed on to our child.

One case in point is mornings. One thing is quite certain...Kyle is not a morning person. Nobody in our household is a morning person. We all prefer to lay in bed as late as possible and then slowly emerge from blissful slumber over a period of, ideally, hours. In the case of the older two-thirds of us, we reluctantly drag ourselves out of bed (at the last possible minute before we're destined to be late) and sleepily stagger through the first 15 - 20 minutes until our bodies finally, grudgingly recognize that we are up.

Face 2 Face

At what will probably have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I had the distinct pleasure on 3/26/09 of attending one of the greatest concert performances I have ever been to. None other than Billy Joel and Elton John, once again touring the world together and sharing the stage.

There was never any question that this was going to be a fantastic show. I seriously doubt that there could have been a different outlook on a show like this. In the past, I had missed opportunities to see these two legendary performers together, though I did get to see Joel in concert about 10 years ago.

Super Soccer Star: Part IV

We now arrive at the end of Kyle’s first trip to soccer practice. Never mind the fact that he has already gone to a second session and will go to a third in less than two days. Yes, I’m recognizing that, once again, I’ve fallen behind on my blogging.

The end of the session was actually a bit on the anti-climactic end of the spectrum. Let’s just say, as the pictures will show, it had to do with kids in a parachute. Kyle doesn’t care much for parachutes. Doesn’t like them at Busy Bodies, doesn’t like them at soccer.

Super Soccer Star: Part III

Here it is! The moment you've been waiting for. I'll give you a moment to collect yourself, sit down, take a few deep, relaxing, cleansing breaths and then we'll get moving with the pictures. Let's not rush it. No scrolling down recklessly in an effort to beat the system.

To recap, we've now seen Kyle do some preliminary stretching exercises, learn a little about the "soccer stop," and kicking cones around then picking them back up with his feet. You've seen him do the "crab walk" and even make some funny faces.

Super Soccer Star: Part II

And now, here we are back for another highly anticipated episode of "Super Soccer Star" which, I think, is one of the lamest titles I've come up with in quite a while. However, due to the fact that this has some pictures of Kyle (which if we're all keeping it real...it's the only reason you're reading this in the first place) I figure I can get away with a certain degree of lamishness. (There! Hadn't made up a new word in a while. That felt good.)

When we last left our toddler, he had just been kicking over a bunch of colored cones that were spread all over the floor. I can tell you, after that, things got even more exciting. Check out what happened next!

Super Soccer Star: Part I

Dealing with a toddler who is an only child can sometimes be lots of fun. And I use that term very loosely. Those of you with more than one child who are more than a couple years apart can probably relate to that.

While there are a great deal of studies on the statistically ideal amount of time to wait between children, one thing is certain. After two and a half years of being the only child, Kyle seems to have gotten quite used to that fact. As such, Mommy and I thought it would be a good idea to get him into things that would require a bit more social development. In this case...sports!

Nate & Kyle Going for a Ride

This past Thursday, since Mommy was able to stay home with Kyle during Spring Break, she offered to watch Nate so the boys could hang out together. One of the things they did was they went for a bike ride.

So here we have a few pictures of the boys getting ready to go around Anthem in the new bike trailer. Mommy wasn't sure if she was going to be able to pull both boys. Up until this day, Daddy had been pulling the trailer and it was just with Kyle. She did pretty good, though.

A Day Out with a Friend

The nice thing about having a mommy who is a teacher is that they get a week of for Spring Break. This often anticipated holiday week is viewed quite differently by mommy-teachers than it is by many students. Rather than spending the week at the beach, partying and getting into trouble, mommies get to spend time with their kiddos! I think they have it way better than the "Spring Breakers."

In the case of Kyle's mommy, this gives her a chance to catch up with friends that she doesn't get to see very often. This year, Spring Break was no different. Earlier in the week, Mommy and Kyle met up with Jessica and Andrew. While we unfortunately do not have pictures of either of these two beautiful ladies, we did catch some shots of the two handsome little boys that were with them.

Playing, Watching, Reading

Kyle loves having company. He loves when Ryan and Dylan come over to play. They run around the house, and by the time their done, almost every toy, truck, game, puzzle and stuffed animal has managed to find its way out of it's "home" and onto the floor somewhere.

Not only that, but they make sure that his bed is stripped down to just the sheets and all the blankets, animals, pillow, sheet and everything are also on the floor with the rest of the toys. Fortunately, Ryan and Dylan are typically very good about helping to pick up before they leave.

Ah-So!

Admittedly, that's a pretty corny title for a blog post. I mean, honestly. Who comes up with this stuff? You'd think that it was handed to me by one of the writers of "America's Funniest Videos" or something.

For those who don't know, there is a popular Japanese teppanyaki restaurant that we love going to called Ah-So! The food is great and it's so much fun watching the chefs cook and do all their tricks while they prepare your food. If you get a table with the right group of people, it can really be a blast!

Aren't Blackberries Cool?

By Blackberry, of course, I mean the handheld device/smart phone rather than a delicious, healthy fruit. And by "cool" I of course mean "geeky".

So, there I was sitting in the van outside Cool Cuts where we went to get Kyle's hair cut. Mommy had already gone in to put his name on the list. Kyle, however, did not go in yet because he had actually fallen asleep in the car (a very rare event, indeed). At this point, one has to wonder how this and the previous paragraph are even remotely connected.

Hide 'n Seek

It never ceases to amaze me how children process things differently when they do not have the benefit of all the presuppositions we have as adults. How wonderful would it be to address many of the problems and questions we have as adults with the perspective and purity of a child?

Take, for instance, one particular toddler that I am personally somewhat fond of...my son. (Yeah, I'm sure you're really surprised I was going there, weren't you?) We shared, a while back, some pictures of his Thomas the Tank Engine bed. Well, you probably noticed in those pictures that there is a little toy chest at the front of the bed.

Good Morning!

While everyone always seems to spend so much time talking about the "terrible two's" I must say that one thing that doesn't get enough attention is the fact that, while they can be really trying at this age, they can also be enormously cute. One minute, you question whether or not you should just eliminate them and make another one. The next minute they've got you belly-laughing.

This morning was no exception. Well, okay, actually we just went pretty much straight to the belly-laughing.

Time Out!

Back in December, I had posted an excruciatingly adorable picture of Kyle standing in the corner. As will often happen with two-year-olds, he was in need of a time-out.

Now, I don't recall precisely the reason for him being in time-out at that particular moment. Perhaps he wasn't listening. Or maybe he was hitting someone. Those are usually the two most common reasons for getting into time-out.

What's Been Happening?

Well, it's been a little bit since I've updated everyone on stuff and things and happenings. While I don't actually have any new pictures to post (don't delete the message yet) I thought I'd just give a brief update as to what's happening in "Kyle-topia."

First, yes I just made up yet another term. Though I'd rather not spend much time on that because far more clever things have received less time and attention. So, let's move on from that, then. Shall we?

The Votes are In

A couple weeks ago, I had posted a poll asking about what you all would like to see as the future of how these updates are delivered to you. I want to to thank each and every person who took the time to respond. Both of you. :-)

In light of all two votes, here is the final decision. One vote was sort of middle of the road and was not very concerned for the future of this feed. The other was quite adamant that everything continue the way it has been thusfar and to not change anything.

Valentine's Day

Actually, it would be a misnomer to refer to this as "Valentine's Day" because the events described herein took place prior to said holiday. It took place, instead, on the dreaded Friday the 13th.

At the time of my awakening on this bright, beautiful morning of February the 13th in the year of our Lord two-thousand nine, it did not occur to me that this would be a significant fact. The plan was in place. The flowers were ordered. The balloons were ordered. I had the day scheduled to take off.

Slackers 'R Us

So, once again I am ashamed of my natural inclination toward slackerness (though I never seem to have trouble making up words). But, in this case, I think there was due cause.

I shared previously what a fun and exciting weekend we had while Kyle had the flu from Friday night until later Sunday. In fact, I ended up staying home on Monday just to make sure he had a full recovery and was able to take solid foods, rehydrate and all that.

A Quick Reminder

I wanted to send out a quick reminder to those who have yet to cast their vote for the future of how these updates are sent out. I'm afraid that if you do not cast your vote for your desired outcome, I will have little choice but to chuckle politely to myself if you are dissappointed in said outcome.

While it would seem that peole turned out in record numbers to vote in November, 2008, I must assure you that this vote is far more important than any you may have placed in a ballot box just over three months ago. The fate of the world could, quite possibly, be in your hands. Don't leave it to chance!

Remember, the deadline is midnight on Saturday the 14th. Make your vote count!

The Weekend

Well, I can't say it's been all that great of a weekend. Kyle was more than a bit out of sorts the last couple days. Here it is, Sunday evening, and he's only now starting to show signs of wanting to play a bit.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself for those who, like me, have these obssessive compulsive tendancies and need things like this told in chronological order. In our case, our story begins on Friday night.

We've Come a Long Way, Baby!

Though it may seem like a cheap, lazy way to come up with another post, I thought it would be neat to take a trip into the past and take a look at how far we've come. Many of you remember, of course, that wonderful day almost two and a half years ago.

So, now that we've got lots of pictures of Kyle more recently, let's take a trip back in time to see what he looked like back then. Enjoy the pictures and have fun remembering where came from.

Need Your Feedback

It has been a rather long time since we have done a poll on the Carrington Family blog. So long, in fact, that one has never actually been done. Ever.

After today, however, everything will change. Birds will start flying north for the winter, people will start taking more pictures of their third child than they did with their first, airlines will be on time, gas prices will go down and, best of all, we can no longer claim that we've never done a poll.

A New Day

While everyone was busy getting ready to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday, we were busy celebrating something quite different. Although we did watch the game later that day (still bummed about the Cards losing, but it was at least an exciting game), the highlight of the day was mid-morning.

Now, usually most of the stuff that I write in here is about Kyle. And most of the reason for that is because he's quite a bit more interesting than I am. I realize that this is not a difficult accomplishment, but it is what it is.

Blog Reader 101

As recently as last night, it was brought to my attention that perhaps not everyone who subscribes and receives regular updates from this blog are fully aware of some of the features and functions herein. I won't mention Carla's name, but whoever it was, I thank that unnamed individual for helping me to see that not everyone is aware of these things and that I should perhaps help with a few pointers.

Gotta Start Them Young

While, on the one hand, Kyle will not likely be the next Tiger Woods, that certainly doesn't mean that he can't get an early start to learning things that could eventually lead to a promising professional career. In this case, in music.

I know...I know. There are probably masses out there thinking that, as a parent, my objective should not be to push my child into a profession in order to live vicariously through him. If you did think that (or something very similar) please know that this is not a matter of Daddy pushing anything on Kyle. He does this because he keeps asking to. If he doesn't ask to play, I don't bring it up.

A Day at the Zoo: Part 2

Let us continue our journey through the animal kingdom today and look further at Kyle's trip to the Phoenix Zoo. Today, we get to see orangutans, Kyle trying to go hug the elephant, and trying on masks at the gift shop.

With no further hesitation, and to minimize the amount of waiting that you will have to do with respect to getting to the point of this post in order that you may not have to continue to bother with having to read a great deal of superfluous fluff (a.k.a. my writing) and instead go on to enjoy the pictures and see what a great day Kyle had at the zoo which is one of his favorite places, although it must be said that he did enjoy Disneyland a great deal as well, but since that is not in Phoenix, the zoo could be counted among one of his favorite places in the Phoenix area which is why he seems to be enjoying himself so much in the pictures that we are immediately going to get to rather than continue to drone on and on in what may constitute one of the longest single sentences written since some of the stuff that the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans.

A Day at the Zoo: Part 1

After a few days off, I'm now getting back into the thick of things. And so, here we are taking a look at Kyle's trip to the Phoenix Zoo last Sunday.

It was a great deal of fun! One of the best parts was getting there. Not until we were just about there did we realize that the PF Chang's Rock -n- Roll Marathon had the necessary roads blocked for us to get there. So, after a bit of driving around, we finally managed to get to the zoo!

Who's the President of the United States?

Welcome to the 21st Century!

Today, we try to bring to our loyal fan-base something new and different. You've obviously seen the various blog posts. You've seen lots of pictures. If you've been following this blog long enough, you've even seen a slide-show of pictures.

One of Nate's Christmas Presents

Welcome to the final "Christmasy" post for this year. After this, I have officially used up all the pictures I have of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, pre-Christmas, Christmastime, the Christmas Holiday, Holiday Season and "The Holidays." (There, I think I've covered everything. Sorry, if you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or something, but this being a predominantly Christian family, so we tend to not celebrate either of those holidays. Nothing personal.)

One of Nate's "big" gifts for this year was a new race car bed. It was all decked out with the Cars / Lightening McQueen bedsheets and everything. New kid beds are always so fun because they are so excited to sleep on them! I'm not sure if excitement is the emotion you want when you're hoping for them to fall asleep, but sometimes it may work.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

Well, Merry Christmas about a month ago, anyway.

I'm finally starting to get caught up and now we're actually at the Christmas Day pictures. Aren't you excited? I know you've been waiting and waiting.

Christmas Morning

Ok. Today, we're going to make this short and sweet. Well, short anyway.

The primary purpose of this post is to show that, while not quite as obscene as the very first Christmas with Nate and Kyle, things really haven't backed off a whole lot quite yet. This was officially the boys' third Christmas and, as you can see, there was still a fairly monstrous pile of presents.

Cookies and Milk

Ok! It's Christmas Eve. Santa will be coming tonight to leave presents for all the good little boys and girls. He'll be working all night and won't really get a chance to stop for dinner, so he'll probably be pretty hungry. Let's go ahead and leave him some chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk for when he gets here.

Get Ready to Wiggle

The boys were giving one present to open on Christmas Eve at Grandma's house. This is becoming a sort of tradition and this year was no exception.

So, today we have some pictures from Christmas Eve with the boys and their first present. It was lots of fun! In fact, I think the grown-ups may have had at least as much fun as the kids.

Just Before Christmas

Welcome back from a hiatus of a few days or so! I hope everyone's New Year is going well so far.

With us still being a bit behind on pictures anyway, I figured that it wouldn't be much worse if I release the pics on a somewhat slow pace (compared to the lightning fast pace I used to post the pictures of Disneyland...about a month for three days of pictures).

Best Buddies!

Sometimes, we come across pictures of scenes that just have a level of cuteness not often achieved and even less often, captured on camera. We did, however, recently have just such an experience. Note that I say "we" almost as though I had anything to do with it. (Well, I suppose since one of the boys is mine, I did have something to do with it, but that's really reaching.)

You may want to sit down for this one because, while Kyle and Nate are often cute, little can be done to prepare you for the level of adorability you are about to experience. (Yes, I'm also making up my own words, now. Jeannie will understand.)

More Site Updates

All righty, then!

So, after a brief time with the new site design/layout/template thingy (that would be a technical term, for those of you non-techies out there) we have received feedback from several people that the site looks really cute, but it's hard to really see some of the pictures because you can see the background through the pictures of Kyle.

Child Prodigy

Well, I don't have the Christmas pictures yet, but I thought this was kinda cute. Kyle used to use my drumsticks, but they were a bit to long and unwieldy for his little hands. So, we picked up some Kyle-sized drumsticks at Toys 'R Us and it seems like he was doing a whole lot better with the right sized sticks.

Here he is bashing away on daddy's Yamaha electronic kit. (This kind of drum set has a volume knob!) Welcome the next Neil Peart!

Disneyland '08 - Part VII

I know what you're thinking....

How long does it take to post pictures of a three day trip to Disneyland? And.... where the heck have you been for the last couple weeks? I mean, seriously...nothing new since 12/30/08? What's going on here? We're all waiting for Christmas pictures and we're still not even done with the vacation pics from over a month ago! That's it...I'm canceling my subscription to this blog. It's run by a bunch of flakes!