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Sunny The Builder

One nail at a time, James is teaching Addison all about his love of building and constructing and making.

She seems quite intrigued by these lessons and enjoys lending a hand.

Last night, they began creating a banister for our upstairs stairwell. This whole ordeal was prompted by our scariest parenting moment to date, something that transpired in the wee hours of the morning a few nights ago.

Our upstairs hallways is quite compact, and all five rooms open directly onto the stairwell. When purchasing the house, James and I knew what a hazard this posed, particularly to our smaller human dependents. Our first project was to install a railing, as that was glaringly missing from the picture. See evidence of crazy hazardous stairwell below:

We’d been dilly dallying on installing a gate, for as you can see from the pictures, we had a rather odd corner with which to deal when thinking about gate installation. We propped our laundry hamper in the stairwell’s path in the hopes that that would serve as a temporary fix.

And yet, not surprisingly, the inevitable happened. In the middle of the night, Sunny awoke from a scary dream and before either James or I was awake enough to intercept her, she made her way from her bedroom to ours, except she turned one “doorway” too early and found herself tumbling down a full flight of stairs rather than into bed with mommy and daddy.

You guys? The sound of her screams and her body bouncing down that stairwell will haunt me for eternity. I can feel the hair on the back of my neck rising and my stomach churning just reliving the situation. Just envisioning how truly catastrophic it could have been. We are so so so SO stupidly fortunate that besides taking years off of our lives with fright, Sunny was completely unharmed.

DO NOT ASK ME HOW.

By the time James and I made it to the stairwell and turned on the light, she was standing at the bottom of the stairs, crying, but standing, holding her blanket, looking around like how in the heck did I wind up down here?

I scooped her into my arms and sobbed right along with her. Grateful that she was unharmed. And embarrassed and mortified that our own procrastination had put our daughter at such risk.

#parentingfail

Since then we’ve been gating her into her bedroom at night, which she HATES. It has turned bedtime into a total nightmare, but we keep explaining that it is for her own safety. Last night, James rounded up some scrap wood from the barn and constructed a funky, shabby chic banister on which we’ll attach a proper safety gate.

Please note that this Instagram was taken, with love, from the porcelain throne. We’re multitaskers chez Cart.

Sunny absolutely delights in assisting with the project.

Almost as much as she delights in telling other people about her dramatic fall down the stairs. Her favorite part of the story is when she announces, “And Mommy screamed, OH JESUS! OH JESUS!”

Ya know, I could have screamed something much worse. Brava me for watching my language in a moment of utter panic.

Images of the completed project forthcoming…

Photos: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart

Drunken Sailor

Danger Baby is on two limbs. Time to batten down the hatches. And invest in a one year old sized construction hat.

Throw Back

A friend of ours from college sent us an email this weekend titled “Trip down memory lane.”

Included in the email was a link to a series of pictures he took of us at the beginning of our senior year.

Memory lane, indeed.

James asked Chris to shoot these images as his one year anniversary gift to me. That’s right, there we are, 21 years old, celebrating one year of coupledom.

Go ahead. Vomit in your mouth a little. It’s totally nauseating.

Chris also snapped our senior portraits. We experimented with our Blue Steel looks…

But ultimately decided that these photos more accurately captured our personalities…

I wish we didn’t waste so much of our younger years bemoaning every little flaw. I look at these photographs and think, “Daaaaamn! Looking good girl! So wrinkle free! So blemish free! So filled with that youthful glow!”

And yet at the time, I didn’t focus on any of those positives.

My mother’s right. Youth is completely wasted on the young.

*Sigh*

At least I’m appreciating these pictures now.

Photos: Courtesy of Chris Lee

The Poconos

Another beautiful summer weekend. Another opportunity for us to coat ourselves in sunscreen and play outside.

Another opportunity for the girls to learn the joys of splashing in the water.

Sunny, in typical cautious first born fashion, is wary of the water and it takes great coaxing to lure her in.

But we’re working on it…

Courtland, on the other hand, is our baby fish. Although she was less than thrilled with the addition of the lifejacket.

Clearly, it didn’t deter her aquatic play too severely.

We did remove the lifey to allow for easier movement when building grand sand castles with Big Sister and Daddy.

And yes I just referred to a life jacket as a “lifey.” Old habits die hard.

Addison thought building sand castles was the coolest thing since finger dancing (which she did like a pro during our car ride out to Pennsylvania. She even developed a move she dubbed “Four Dancing.” Hold up four fingers in the air and shake ’em around to the beat of your favorite tune… voila! FOUR DANCING!).

Courtland thought destroying sand castles was the coolest thing since learning to navigate the world on two limbs. I’d say that her sand castle destroying powers are far superior to her walking abilities at this stage. But I fear it won’t be long until those scenarios are reversed.

James got to do what he does best, which is be a dad. And it was extra special because it was in his favorite place on earth. A place that was so much a part of his upbringing that it has become the essence of who he is. And now it’s our daughters’ turn to have this place seep into their very beings.

I watched this scene transpire and just kept thinking about when I met James nine years ago and I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.

His reply?

A dad.

I’d say that he’s achieved his dream quite beautifully.

In the afternoons, we spent time on the porch watching Courtland walk.

Watching her learn to play guitar with her Uncle Ted.

Watching her giggle and grin with that ridiculous toothy smile.

And of course, watching her play with the pack of dogs, including our two beasts and three other canine friends.

We’re all pretty smitten with this little girl.

And her big sister, of course.

Our Sunny Sunshine.

Put the two of them together and we’re powerless against their wishes.

Even when they’re cranky pants like Miss Kaki below.

We sipped cocktails on Saturday evening. Even Courtland got in on the action.

Although, James may have imbibed one cocktail too many, as when dessert was presented at the table on Saturday night, he looked over at Sunny and said, “Oh, you better be careful. It looks like your cake may have some poop in it.” (It was Tiramisu, btdubs, so perhaps best that he try to deter the three year old’s consumption of coffee).

HOWEVER, I don’t think James anticipated the hysterics that followed this comment.

I WANT A BETTER CAKE! I WANT A BETTER CAKE! I DON’T WANT TO EAT POOOOOOP!

You can always count on me for poop discussions, eh? I promise, Sunny is fine. And James quelled her cries by swapping cakes and consuming the alleged feces cake himself. Way to take one for the team, Daddy.

And, of course, we made sure that Ursa got in lots and lots of swimming, wowing the pants off her many admirers…

Oh my gosh! Do you see that dog? She only has three legs?

Sunny happily took on the roll of Ball Throwing Extraordinaire, i.e. Ursa’s Favorite Human.

Look at her go! She’s incredible! Way faster than most dogs who have all four legs!

Seriously, this dog knows how to kick butt. She beat many a cancer-free, four limbed canine to the ball. Over and over and over again. She’s such a happy, resislient animal and continues to inspire us daily. Especially her human sisters…

I hope that your weekends were equally inspired!

Photos: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart

Five Years Ago

Five years ago today that amazing man appeared at my childhood home in the wee hours of the morning. A pink Ring Pop in hand.

For those of you that know me (and my non-morning personality), you’ll understand why my initial reaction to his presence at 5:30 in the morning was, “What the hell are you doing here?” rather than something more appropriately sweet and loving.

He was there to ask me to spend the rest of my life with him. Something that I had planned on doing long before that morning of July 21st, 2007. In fact, right around week two of knowing one another we realized that we were in this relationship for the long haul. It just took us a little under four years to formalize the sentiment, and five to make it official.

And oh what an amazing thing began five years ago today, not the least of which is two beautiful little girls and a house full of crazy love.

James, Bebe, can I keep you? 143.

Photo: Courtesy of IGalaCart’s Instagram feed

*It’s also wild to note that I began this blog exactly three years ago today. Pretty incredible how much has changed since that moment when, exhausted, alone, and sleep-deprived, I sat down at the computer with my 2 month old nursling and began writing. I’m so pleased that I haven’t stopped. This place brings me such joy and perspective. Thank you all for following along.

Week 49

This week’s images are a bit fuzzy, but we’re presenting them anyway for fear we’ll miss these final weeks altogether if we don’t. Hard to believe that in three weeks, Courtland will be one full year. So much has happened, and yet, it feels like just yesterday I was rolling around the Berkshires with a 9 month belly filled with baby and ice cream.

Courtland: 49 weeks
Addison: 38 months

Currently Reading

I am mixed bag of emotions regarding Marissa Mayer’s response to being named Yahoo’s CEO in the midst of her pregnancy.

This article sums up my feelings precisely.

Ultimately, I am thrilled that a pregnant woman is now holding such a position of power and leadership. I am more frustrated with our culture and societal values than I am with how Mayer responded. She is doing what she must do within the confines of what her career path demands. But she could at least acknowledge these limitations and demands. These standards and precedents.

I’m brought back to this article:

To be sure, the women who do make it to the top are highly committed to their profession. On closer examination, however, it turns out that most of them have something else in common: they are genuine superwomen… These women cannot possibly be the standard against which even very talented professional women should measure themselves. Such a standard sets up most women for a sense of failure.

Truth.

Friends

These three have no idea how lucky they are to have each other.

Oh but they will…

Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart

A Girl and Her Dog

Addison’s love for Ursa has only grown since her amputation.

Yesterday we took Urs to the vet to get her second round of chemo. Sunny couldn’t have been prouder to help her along the way.

Also? Do note the latest addition to Cartwheel Farm. A fence! To contain all manner of beast. And to keep all manner of beast out. That was our first goal when we bought the house. Glad to see it’s only taken us 4 months to accomplish. Thanks to calming dog treats from Zamipet, we are able to calm him whenever he gets separation anxiety.

Oof.

Photos: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart

Food Commandments

James has drunk the Michael Pollan Kool-Aid.

Although, as he enjoyed pointing out, he doesn’t drink Kool-Aid. It violates The Commandments, as he’s taken to calling them.

We’ve been paying attention to these “Food Commandments” for some time, but James recently made a list that he hung on our fridge to serve as a daily reminder of what we’re striving for when it comes to our family’s approach to food and nutrition.

I thought I’d gussy it up a bit. Naturally.

Anything we’re missing? How does your family approach food? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Design: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart
Commandments: Courtesy of James Whaley Cart, Inspired by Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin