Somehow

Our cupboard has a countdown.

Yesterday, there was only one little cupcake left standing.

And this morning, Carter took it down.

Today is a big day.

Because somehow, he went from this...

 

to this.

 

He started soccer again,

and he loves having the coach try to steal his ball away.

 




He also started t-ball... and though he definitely doesn't catch every ball or hit every time, he tries hard, keeps at it, and smiles -- and really, what else matters?

He loves riding 4-wheeler with his Dad, and somehow, he's now old enough to learn to drive his own.

 

One day he showed me one of his front bottom teeth was loose,

  

 


and then, somehow, before I knew it, he was handing me his tooth at the park, making Tooth Fairy gift requests before I could even get the tooth wrapped in a tissue for safe-keeping.

(Top left: Carter wasn't too impressed with me waking him up after falling asleep on the couch to get a picture of him holding his tooth in his Tooth Fairy pouch.!  The Tooth Fairy gives quite a stash of gifts for the very first lost tooth... especially this time, when Mrs. Tooth Fairy bought a gift, and then Mr. Tooth Fairy stopped one day and got a gift also!  So, this first tooth of Carter's scored him a lot of stuff!)

 He used to dislike having any water in his face... washing hair in the bathtub was often upsetting and putting his head under water at swimming lessons was simply out of the question.

And now, during swimming lessons, his teacher sometimes has a hard time getting him to listen because he'd rather be under the water.

Last year, Rylee mastered the monkey bars, and Carter did his best to keep up. 
But, after one bar, he was asking for help.

This spring, on one of our first park visits of the year, he climbed up there to give it another shot.  

And somehow, he managed to get across all of the bars without once asking for help.

On Sunday, we will celebrate Carter's birthday with a Chuggington party,

 

because, somehow, Carter is already FIVE!

Happy Birthday Carter!  WE LOVE YOU!