Carter in NC - Surprise!

We went to NC again last weekend as a surprise! On Saturday, my family celebrated my grandfather's 80th birthday and my uncle Scott's 50th birthday, and Carter and I flew in to attend. They didn't know we were coming, which made it a lot of fun! We flew in on Friday afternoon, and then drove up to my aunt's house in Mount Airy on Saturday. Carter and I snuck in and hid out in a bedroom while we waited for the party to get started.



Carter had some adventures while we were hiding. He played with all sorts of things, and even fell off the bed! (He was fine, though it definitely scared him, and me.)



And then it was time to surprise the birthday boys! Mom put Carter's cousins in a wagon and pulled them around the house, and back by the bedroom where we were hiding. Carter then joined the group, and was pulled out into the living room to surprise everyone!



It was a lot of fun! Carter enjoyed playing with his cousins, and was very tired by the end of the day.



On Sunday we spent the day with my dad and step-mom. It was a rainy day, but they have a large finished basement, so we were able to have lots of fun playing inside. Here is Carter with his Grandma Christian:



And here he is playing with their dog Mitzi. By the end of the day, he was saying "dog" when he saw her!



Here he is playing with a dog toy that he found really fascinating:



My sister Donna and her children Aidan and Emma were there, as was my step-sister Lynn with her daughter Taylor, so Carter was able to play with his cousins again.









Carter even got to pet some horses that evening. He wasn't afraid of them, even though their heads were bigger than him! I didn't get a picture of that, unfortunately.

On Monday we went up to Mount Airy again to spend some time with my grandparents. We went out to lunch and Carter enjoyed exploring their house. Here he is checking out the piano:



Here is a video of him and Mom playing the piano. He kept stopping and touching the music, as if it was time to turn the page!



We finished the day by spending the evening at my sister's house, where Carter got to play with his cousins again. He especially enjoyed playing with a toy truck of Aidan's. His eyes completely lit up when he saw it, and he was just fascinated! It's funny how conscious I've been about buying gender-neutral toys for him, and here he loves a truck! He's never been interested in stuffed animals or anything cuddly at all. These days he loves anything with wheels. He wants to spin the wheels and then push the toy around on the floor. We haven't taught him that; he's just drawn to it. :-/

That night I discovered that we had actually missed our flights home that day. I had intended to fly home on Tuesday, but somehow the tickets were booked for Monday. So we had to re-buy our ticket home, and the only seats available were at 6:00 am. Ugh. But it was so early that Carter slept pretty much the whole way home, which worked out well.

Carter is getting tired and whiny, so I need to wrap this up and get him to bed! I will post more tomorrow if I can about all the new stuff he's doing.