Carson and Braden have always had completely opposite levels of thirst. At meals, for example, Braden may have a sip of his beverage while Carson will have two glasses.

The other day, Carson chugged two cups of milk in front of Kristin, who remarked, “wow,  you must be really thirsty.”

Carson replied, “I am thirsty.” That was stunning, as his ability to make sentences and use pronouns is more advanced than Braden’s ability at the same age.

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Carson has regressed in terms of drop-offs at preschool. Since early March, he often clings to Brian’s leg, and the teachers have to pull him off and hold him so that Brian can leave. Carson will make a face like he’s about to cry, and a few times he has. Fortunately, he gets over it quickly.

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Braden was excited for his Easter egg hunt. We hid eggs in the living room and in parts of the backyard for him. Carson’s eggs were much easier to spot; we hid them in the dining room and the deck.

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It’s been a few months now, but Carson is permanently out of high chairs, much earlier than when Braden stopped using them. It can be difficult at restaurants, as sometimes Carson will get up to walk around, plus he’s a little short to eat over the table.

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The boys often fight over the same toys. Any particular toy isn’t popular until the other is playing with it. Braden is getting better at sharing, but Carson is not.

Journal holidays, preschool, talking

On Monday, Feb. 3, Carson started preschool at the same Montessori school that Braden is attending. Kristin previously took Carson on two “trial” days, but this week, he was on his own. First, it was an odd feeling (like traveling back in time) to bring a lunch for him–required for the toddlers–but something we haven’t done for Braden for two years.

Carson did cry the first three days when Brian tried to leave. However, Thursday and Friday he walked right up to the teacher and didn’t make a fuss at all. So, hopefully that means he’s adapting (we’ll see come Monday).

The two brothers will only be at the same school for one semester (plus the summer), as Braden will start kindergarten in the fall.

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That same Monday, Braden turned five. We went to his class at 11 a.m. to do the annual celebration; we brought zucchini muffins for his classmates. Several of them thought it was amusing to see us two days in a row, as we hosted a birthday party for Braden at Madtown Twisters on Sunday and invited his classmates, about 10 of whom came.

It was super cute to watch all the boys crowd around Braden as he opened his presents. Many comments were about how much they wanted the same toys. And of course, the kids had a blast going through all the gymnastics equipment and bouncy fort.

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We gave Braden Braden a Nintendo Wii game, and he picked it up super quickly. It’s fun to watch him play and see his level of hand-eye coordination.

Journal birthday, preschool

Brian spotted a big, fat rabbit living under a tree between our backyard and the neighbor’s yard. The other day, Brian showed the kids the rabbit, telling them that the rabbit was eating food. Carson repeated it, saying “rabbit eat food.” We guess that is technically his first sentence, as he probably did understand every word he said.

Otherwise, Carson’s vocabulary continues to grow, and he’s quick to repeat anything he hears. He knows to say “more please,” he says he “Thomas” when he wants to watch Thomas the Train and he says “choo choo” to watch The Wiggles (the opening song has the lyrics, “choo choo chug-a-chug-a”). The latter is reminiscent of Braden saying “bow wow” to watch a different Wiggles DVD (that opening song had “bow wow” in the lyrics).

For some reason, Carson’s pronunciation of “no” has turned into “not.” We’re not sure how this happened.

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As expected, Braden loved Christmas more than Carson, even helping his brother open his presents. The kids helped Kristin decorate the Christmas tree, and Carson only periodically tried to remove a few ornaments in the month of December.

We think the most popular gift was a foot-powered (like the Flintstones) car with roof for Carson. Both he and Braden battle over who gets to ride it.

To make room in our playroom, Kristin packed up most of the infant toys, as well as some of Braden’s toys (that formerly belonged to Brian, much to his dismay). Brian also had packed up some infant toys after removing the gate that we used for a playpen for Carson.

For a while, Carson did play throughout the playroom once the gate was put away, but now he primarily plays with his toy cars on the staircase. He started doing this one day a few weeks back, and he hasn’t stopped. We have to be careful when we talk down the stairs and not trip on any of the cars.

Journal holidays, playroom, talking

We took Braden and Carson to see their second ever movie at a theater on Sunday. If you recall, their first movie was an IMAX film about the space shuttle, which we watched at Kennedy Space Center last November.

This time around, we saw the 10 a.m. matinee of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.” Of course, Braden enjoyed it, along with all the candy and soda he consumed. Carson did well for the first hour or so eating popcorn and candy and drinking tons of soda. However, for the final half-hour, he walked around the aisles, but at least he was within arm’s length of our seats.

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Carson’s breakfast habits have changed. He doesn’t like Multigrain Cheerios anymore, often electing to eat Ritz Crackers or something else. He also doesn’t like sitting in his high chair at breakfast time, preferring to sit with Braden in the living room and watch TV.

Speaking of Ritz, it’s funny to see Carson hold onto a stack of crackers (sometimes other things like Wheat Thins) for hours, eating one every now and then. He’ll play, watch TV and move about all while holding onto the crackers. He’ll even move the crackers to his other hand when he needs to free up that hand.

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Carson certainly knows the word “no” now. For example, as he’s coming down the stairs, if we try to help him, he’ll yell “no!”

Journal going out, talking

Carson screams all the time, and it’s always at the top of his lungs. Although Braden usually plays nicely with Carson, sometimes Braden takes away Carson’s toys, and Carson then lets out a piercing scream.

Other times Carson gets clingy to one person, and if another person tries to hold him, he screams.

Carson also has begun kicking and screaming when his clothes or diaper are changed. Braden did the same thing at the same age of18 months, so we know we have a while to go with Carson.

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Carson is still not speaking but at least he’s beginning to repeat a lot of words. It’s cute when Braden tries to teach him to talk. At least Carson usually understands what you’re saying to him.

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Whenever Carson realizes we’re about to go somewhere, he runs to the door to get his shoes. He also will hand you your shoes. He still kicks his shoes off in the car but at least not as often now.

Journal talking

We drove to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in mid-July. We were worried if the kids could stand a 12-hour drive, but it turned out okay. We had scheduled to stop every three hours or so, which helped. We also had plenty of activities for the kids, and I think Brandon was perfectly occupied. Carson, on the other hand, would watch a DVD for a little bit before trying to play with it and then ultimately stopping the DVD. Carson is not known for sleeping in the car like Braden does, but on the trip he finally slept to help pass the time.

As you can see from the photo album, we did a lot of things from going to museums to mountain climbing to shopping to amusement parks and so forth. One day we went to a petting zoo and both Braden and Carson fed a lot of the animals, including goats and deer. On another day, Braden rode some roller coasters at Dollywood. We also spent a lot of time at the pool at our resort.

Typical of our vacations, neither Braden nor Carson slept well. They shared a bedroom together and when one woke up in the middle of the night, he would wake up the other. We drank about three cups of coffee each every morning to fight off the effects of a terrible night’s sleep.

Journal vacation

Poor Carson stuck a Cheerio deep us his nose. We tried to get it out with a thin straw to no avail, so Brian researched methods on the Internet. We then tried to use suck it out with a tube-device, but that didn’t work either. Finally, Brian plugged Carson’s other nostril and blew in his mouth to try to force out the Cheerio. It didn’t work the first time, but the second time yielded success! All of sudden there was a wet Cheerio on Brian’s arm.

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Our streets were under construction for two weeks for repaving. Carson loved watching the construction vehicles, constantly pointing at them.

Journal accident

On Memorial Day, Brian brought most of his childhood toys home for Braden (and eventually Carson) to play with. It was like Christmas all over again for the kids. Braden especially like the Legos and the ninja turtles.

But the best moment was when Brian had to head upstairs, and Braden–who normally is too scared of the basement to play by himself–said he was going to stay put to continue playing.

Just to show it wasn’t a fluke, Braden went downstairs by himself the next day and played until he was eventually called upstairs for dinner. This is a breakthrough, since it means Braden is capable of independent play.

Now if we can only get him to sleep with the lights off …

Journal basement

When Brian was young, he used to build a lot things (e.g. the proton pack from Ghostbusters) with paper and a lot of tape. Braden has taken after his old man, making endless objects with those two materials.

Look what Braden made today. Yep, it’s a toilet, complete with a seat and the flushing handle. We didn’t know what he was doing until he said, “I have to pee,” and then sat on the toilet and pretended to use it. What a funny guy!

Journal creativity

Carson quickly went from walking a few steps before tumbling to walking in a zig zag as he tried to maintain his balance to walking just about full-time. He did this around the time of Braden’s birthday, meaning that he started truly walking about two weeks earlier than his brother did.

However, Carson still isn’t talking much (no “uh-ohs” like Braden), and he hasn’t perfected how to blow a kiss (he just leaves his hand on his mouth).

Also odd is that Carson can feed himself, but he can’t/won’t drink from a sippy cup without our help.

He does know how to kiss, though! If you pucker your lips at him, he’ll walk up to you and kiss you. It’s so cute!

Journal walking