What Carson Has Been Up To

It has been awhile since I've just written about what Carson does in her day-to-day life.  She is developing and growing and learning constantly!  Here's what's new in the world of Carson Bean:

1. Talking--she has picked up several new words, and it's easy to tell that she enjoys being able to communicate more clearly with us, even if it's just to point out a dog in a magazine.
Here are some words she says & how she says them:

This=dis
That=dat
Doggy=doddy
Monkey=doddy
Uh-oh=ah-eee
Fish=tss
Cheese=chchch (think of a kid with a retainer)
Tickle=ttshss
Sock=(always whispered) sah-sah-sah
Kick=kkkk (sort of like clearing her throat)
Hi=Hhhaaaiiiii (very drawn-out and silly)
All done=aaaahhhh daaaaah
Ball=ba

2. Finger Foods--Carson is eating almost entirely finger-foods now, although she still enjoys lots of yogurt and the occasional bowl of rice cereal.  She is picky in a weird way--she'll love a food one day and despise it the next.  It's *really* fun to try to pack her food for Jana's, since I never know what she's going to feel like consuming.

3. Running--she can pretty much run from place to place now.  Of course, her sprints often end in a tumble, but she gets right back up and keeps on trucking.

4. Getting Every Tooth She Will Ever Have--at least, it seems that way.  She has 4 top, 4 bottom, and a molar or two has popped through, while some other molars are hanging just below the surface of her swollen little gums. I feel like I birthed a piranha.

5. Snot--Carson and Lila have invented a new game called "pass the cold."  Jana and I are forever trying to guess if each round of congestion is a new virus or simply the one the other child had last week.  Lord only knows where they're getting all these germs (well, they're toddlers, so I guess we probably know too).  Bottom line--I feel like C has a perpetually snotty nose, and I'm kind of ready for it to stop.

6. Practicing for the US Women's Soccer Team, 2032--I can't tell you how proud Brandon is that she started kicking things around on the den floor recently.  She has these plastic fruits Gram gave her, and one day, she just decided kicking the apple around would be fun.  Since then, she has been hard-core training (not really) with every ball in sight.  Here's a video of her kicking (and sometimes I think she's trying to grab the ball but her feet just get to it first).  I love how, when Brandon walks in, she gets so excited to show him.
And you know I have to make a disclaimer:  although we really like our camera, which takes excellent pictures and also takes video, I really wish we had known the video camera part doesn't auto-focus.  You have to manually focus it, which I am still learning to do smoothly.  Obviously.  In this video, I am attempting to hold the camera, zoom, manually focus, keep the dogs away, and enjoy the moment--and I accomplished almost NONE of that successfully.  Seriously. Take some Dramamine if you get motion sick.
Enjoy!