Six Years Old!

Carter turned six this past Tuesday! Josh and I were looking forward to this birthday even more than normal, because it was the day we got all our cuties back after Bianca’s arrival!

Carter really got the best of both birthday worlds, because Grandmother made his dream birthday breakfast before bringing the kids home. Then when they got home, the kids got to immediately hold their new baby sister, and then Carter opened presents! Then in the evening, Grandpa dropped off Carter’s requested birthday dinner–pizza–and we had the cake and ice-cream Carter had selected weeks ago. Grandma and Grandpa Monson also came by and brought even more gifts! The only complaints Carter had were that both Fay and Portia did something unkind to him during the course of the day, which he took SERIOUS exception to. He believes, and I agree, that people ought to be exclusively nice to you on your birthday. (And every other day, really.)

A little about Carter these days:

Carter’s interests are impressively varied. He likes riding his bike and scooter, and is making a lot of progress with each; he likes crafting and coloring; he likes adventuring in the back yard; he likes school; he likes building things and watching Josh work on whatever he is building; he likes reading; he likes video games; he likes helping in the kitchen and yard; he likes dancing and making music; he likes eating. And he’s happy to engage in basically whatever the family is doing. He’s a seriously fun dude to have around!

His Lego creation
He climbed it all by himself

One thing I love to watch Carter do is play with the dog. The girls like to snuggle with her or try to walk her; but Carter likes to get down and play with her. He will play chase and keep away and fetch with Charlotte for several minutes at a time. Charlotte would never admit it; but I think she probably missed Carter most of all while the kids were all gone. I wish I had a picture of them playing together.

Carter has lots of fun, creative ways of entertaining himself. He–along with his accomplice, Fay–finds ways to recreate experiences he’s had or things he has seen others use with whatever he can find available around him. They both amuse and amaze me with what fun inventions they contrive.

Carter’s homemade computer

Another creative thing that is purely Carter is his “wood.” Whenever Josh has extra pieces of wood or other parts of workshop projects, Carter will claim them. He gets Josh to help him screw, hammer, drill, saw, etc. his things together into some random assembly which he basically always calls his “wood.” He has been doing this for probably about two years, and now his sisters are seeing that it is pretty fun and cool. Again, I wish I had a picture!

For Christmas, Carter got a camera. He frequently takes pictures and videos, and they are always a hoot! We’re still working on getting the pictures uploaded before they accidentally get deleted, so we don’t have a full repertoire to choose from; but here’s a little taste of the fun he has with his camera.

Carter is also a fabulous brother! I asked him yesterday what he thinks of having 4 sisters! (For some reason, that just seems like so much more than 3 did.) He declared, with an exhausted expression and voice, “Ugh! Too many sisters!!” But the truth is: he loves every one of them. He plays with each of them in a unique way and manages to enjoy all (well, most) of their ultra-girly activities while still being the boy.