Carter Meets Piper

I'm happy to report that I'm not raising a danty little boy. We do, however, feel like Carter is a bit like a bull in china shop right now. Everytime Carter picks up a block there's a certain amount of anxiety that runs through the shoulders of Bethany and I. Who knows where it's gonna land.

It does appear as though Carter is going to be a wonderful big brother. He is very gentle with Piper. He gets quite concerned when she cries and runs around the house letting everyone know until someone gets Piper calmed down. He likes to hold her too. He practices holding his monkey the way he would hold Piper. It's very sweet, that is, until he chucks the monkey across the room and moves onto something more exciting. I think we have a little more work to do before we let him fly solo with her ;-)

More Piper

Here are a few more pictures taken by our friends the Heavilands.

Piper Rose Long

Well, my little darling is here. Piper Rose was born on 12/14 at 1:54 A.M. She weighed in at 7lbs 80z and 19.25" long. The labor went really well. Bethany only needed to push for about 20 mins. Both Mom and Baby Girl are doing great. Here are a few pictures to tide you over. I'm sure there will be several more posts over the next couple of weeks. Carter hasn't met Piper yet. I'm sure that will make a great post ;-)

...by the way, this Daddy is completely enamored with his beautiful little baby.

Labor... I think

Well, I think I am in labor. I have had contractions now about 4-5 minutes apart for almost two hours. We are going in to the hospital. I am really hoping it is not false labor. I will be really embarrassed. Check back in the morning. Either they will be a picture of a baby or one of me looking really sheepish.

Nope.

For all you anxiously checking the blog for exciting news - there is no baby yet. I am still very pregnant.
On a happier note, I had a wonderful birthday. My darling husband surprised me with a wonderful weekend. We dropped Carter off with his buddy Charlie (and Charlie's mom of course) and then went out to dinner at the Melting Pot. After wandering around for awhile through the Christmas lights downtown, we ended up at the Nutcracker! It was the first time I had ever been to it and it was quite fun. Already feeling very spoiled, Andy took me to a hotel downtown for the night! It was so much fun and so relaxing.
I really do have a wonderful husband.

Well, I am off to vigorously mop the floor in hopes of stimulating labor. I will let you know how it goes.

An update...finally!

My goodness, I can't believe it has been over a month since I update the blog. Time flies! What have we done since I last posted, let's see....
Nana came for a short visit to help us do some projects and get ready for the baby. In the few short days that she was here we made curtains for nearly every room in the house and hung them up. We organized, rearranged, shopped, and decorated. It was pretty much a minor overhaul of my house. We Goldsmith ladies, we get things done....fast!
We have been getting ready for the arrival of baby girl. We have about two and half weeks left. For those who care or even know what it means, I am one centimeter dilated and 50% effaced. I am hanging in there. At this point I am just ready to meet the little gal, however I realize that it means the end of just Carter and me time and that makes me a little sad. He is going to be a great big brother. He already tries to give her his milk, via my belly button. He likes to pat her and hug her.
We have been getting ready for Christmas. I am trying to have all my Christmas shopping and such done by the first part of December. I think that I am going to make it.
I think that may be about it. We are staying busy. Carter is always busy. We have decided that he is bored with his toys. I have been trying to come up with new things for him to do. He loves doing the dishes. I will fill up the sink with water and give him several bowls and spoons and he will literally stand there for an hour on a chair "washin". He also loves "drummin" (notice the pattern here: everything ends in "i-n" including his new word "uppin" which is primarily used as a verb i.e. " I need to be uppin")

Here are my boys repairing the sink. Carter loves using tools. He will quite frequently go into the kitchen and get a fork and use it as his tool for "workin".

Mumpkins

On Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch. Carter was of course thrilled with all the "mumpkins" and dirt that were everywhere. Although, he thought that pumpkins were a little poky. He spent most of the time we were there running around saying "oh get it".

On Sunday we went to Carter's friend James' birthday party. It was a costume party. Mom and Dad were lame and didn't dress up, but Carter made a really cute lion.

Here is a little video of Carter dancing. He is very particular about the kind of music he wants to listen to. I went to the library and got some cute little kids cds but he didn't like them and kept asking me to turn them off. Right now his favorite seems to be Nickel Creek. He doesn't mind Coldplay, but definitely didn't like John Legend.

Baby Girl Wiggles

I thought that there are probably some family members out there that might enjoy this little show.

Pygmy Goats and Pumpkins! What Could be Better?

So Daddy is writing this blog entry. This is the first blog entry I've ever made. Pretty exciting day. The family had a fun little outing to a local pumpkin patch this last Saturday. Carter was introduced to the wonderful world of farm life. Carter was most excited about the baby piggies. He was less excited about the chicken who bit his finger.

He had a great time with little ducklings and the bunnies.

No so sure about the calf though...
Some how I managed to get myself stuck in the rabbit pen. Don't ask. Here I am looking a bit sheepish while my dear wife capitalizes on my moment of temporary misfortune.

Chill'n with the homeboys.

Pygmy goats rock and so does this video.

I have a real cute little family.

Baby Girl

Here is our little Darling.

This Week

This week has been a beautiful! It feels and smells like fall. On Sunday we went to one of our favorite parks to do, what else (say the boys) but through some rocks. Carter didn't want to go near the "waves" (miniature sloshes of water) because they are scary he says. So we stayed by the little pond.





We built Carter a little fort. He really like it. It worked well for him but was slightly cramped when he wanted Mommy and Daddy to join him, Puppy, and Monkey. He also liked to eat his snacks in there.

On Saturday Andy went to go learn how to brew beer, which will be our new hobby he tells me. Not to be out done in creativity Carter and I did some finger painting. He was a little hesitant about it at first...

But he soon got into the spirit of finger painting.