Some Firsts From Our House

Last week, Carter went to North Carolina with my parents for the entire week. My dad has been doing work on the Georgia Pacific plant outside of Goldsboro, North Carolina and Carter wanted to go on the airplane back to "Caroline" as he calls it, with his Didi. Of course, all he had to do was mention this to Didi and he jumped all over it. Last Sunday, we said goodbye to our baby and set out to do some remodeling while he was gone. We had decided to convert his baby bed into a "big boy bed" and thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to do this. With the help of Mack Daddy (this is what the boys call Todd's dad), Todd took his baby bed apart and turned it into a full size bed. Mack Daddy also helped us rearrange his furniture a little to make more room for him to play in his floor. It was an emotional time for me, and while Todd didn't quite understand why I teared up, all I could think about was the day that my mom and I put his bed together because I could not wait for Todd to get home to help us. I was about 8 months pregnant and could not wait to meet my first-born child. It was hard for me to believe that he was old enough to sleep in a big bed full time! At any rate, with his room complete, we waited until he got home on Friday to tell him about the change. We told him that we had a surprise for him and took him upstairs for him to see. He stood in shock for a minute before saying "I have a big boy bed". It was too cute! He really seems to like his bed and is sleeping better at night-he doesn't toss and turn so much! We were scared that we would have a difficult time getting him to stay in his bed, but so far, it hasn't been too bad. The fact that we put bed rails up on both sides of his bed help out tremendously! He is very proud of himself for sleeping in his bed and we are too! He is becoming such a little boy, now if we could just conquor potty training!!

Jackson has decided within the last couple of days that he wants to totally feed himself. Before now, he was content with having some food to pick up on his own, and would allow one of us to feed him as well. Not anymore! He wants to do it all himself. It is so funny and it brings back so many memories from Carter trying to feed himself. Jackson isn't quite sure how to manipulate a fork or spoon so, after a few minutes of trying to get food on his spoon, he usually ends up holding it with one hand and picking up the food with the other and shoveling it into his mouth. He does not want you to try to take the spoon from him though! It doesn't matter that he isn't using it!! Today was no exception to his newfound independence. He wanted chocolate pudding but would not let me feed it to him. While he has tried feeding himself before, he has never tried anything quite this messy! He screamed until I gave him the pudding cup along with his spoon. He did a much better job than I thought-he actually managed to get some of the pudding in his mouth! I couldn't resist taking some pictures of him. For the life of me, I could not get him to laugh though. He really takes eating seriously!!

We hope you enjoy some of the firsts at our house-I'm sure that there will be more to come!! Keep checking back often!

Christmas 2005

This Christmas was probably the best Christmas that I have ever experienced. There is just something about seeing Christmas through the eyes of your children that is so magical, especially when those children are 14 months and 2 1/2 years old. Carter started asking Santa Claus for a "Thomas Train Table" back in September. He has become fascinated with Thomas the Train and all of the characters that come along with it. Mommy and Daddy had to do a lot of research on Thomas and his friends as we were not familiar with him at all. It's funny at how quickly we have become "experts" on the entire topic! However, Carter will quickly correct anyone, including us, who do not get the names of his train pieces right! We were very nervous about both of the boys seeing Santa as we did not know how they would react to him. Both of the boys did very well-Jackson was in awe of Santa's beard and even tried to pull it off, laughing the entire time!! Carter was a little reserved at first, but quickly warmed up and told him exactly what he wanted! More than anything, it was absolutely awesome to talk to the boys about the true meaning of Christmas, and for Carter to actually understand about Baby Jesus and his birthday! While Jackson does not understand this quite as well as Carter does, he would point to Jesus in the manger and say "baby". It was too sweet!
Christmas morning was absolutely wonderful at our house. Carter woke up a little cranky, as he had stayed up until around 3:00 a.m. waiting to see Santa. I told him repeatedly that Santa would not come unless he was asleep and he would reply each time with "Mommy, I'll wait until I hear him, then I go downstairs and see Santa." (Needless to say that Santa was quite tired when he left our house at around 4:45 a.m.) We woke him up and told him that Santa had been to our house and that he had indeed left some toys for him and Jackson. He quickly returned to his wonderful self when he saw his train table full of Thomas the Train pieces! That moment was priceless to us!
Jackson was very eager to see what Santa had left him. He woke up bright-eyed at 7:30. He wasn't too happy that he had to wait on his brother to go and play with all of his new things. When he finally got downstairs, he walked around in amazement, not sure of what to play with first. He finally spotted his red "tot rod" car and got in without hesitation. He knew exactly what to do once he got in and mashed the button to make it go. He laughed hysterically as he rode around our living room! He also enjoyed playing with the train table!
Needless to say, Santa was very good to our boys! In addition to all of the toys that Santa left at our house, Mimi and Didi gave Carter a John Deere shirt, hat and tractor which have quickly become some of his favorite things. They also gave him a ride on Thomas The Tank Engine that is battery operated and goes around of the track. We have difficulty getting him off of it at times! Jackson got a rocking horse from them that neighs and shakes its head and tail when you press its ear-it is very realistic! Mack Daddy gave Carter his end table that matches the furniture in his room and gave Jackson a Winnie The Pooh TV and DVD player that we plan to use in the boys playroom.
Yes, Christmas was very magical for us this year. We enjoyed spending time with our family in Tennessee and South Georgia and getting together with our family in Conyers on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. While every holiday is special, this one will definitley be remembered as one of the best for us! We hope that each of you had as wonderful of a holiday as we did!

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! We have decided that we would try to do better in 2006 about updating our family and friends on everything that is happening at the Zittrouer house! We thought that this might be the easiest way to do that. Please bookmark this site and check it often, as we will try to update often. Please check back in a day or two for some of the latest pictures of the boys!