santa

mommy and daddy took me to the mall today.  daddy kept grumbling about mommy wanting to go the saturday before christmas, but mommy kept saying something about this dude named "santa."  we drove round and round and round until daddy decided to park our big, giant car in a spot with a "c" on it [compact cars].  i laughed when daddy had to climb over the middle and out on mommy's side of the car because he couldn't open his door.  we went inside the mall and i saw this wondrous sight with trees and lights and LOTS of kids.  there was a really long line and mommy said we had to wait in the line to see the "santa" dude.  after waiting a while, mommy bought some cookies and we had a yummy snack....still waiting in the line.  after what daddy said was "forever" [really an hour and a half], we made it the "santa" dude.  OH MY GOSH!  It was santa claus ~ he was in a bright red suit, with a hat and long white beard.  at first, i didn't really want to talk to him, but daddy convinced me that i should because he's the dude who is going to bring me presents on christmas morning.  mommy, daddy and the picture-taking dude were jumping around like fools trying to make me laugh, so i finally gave in and smiled.  it was pretty cool!

duke, the dude and lala

This is "Duke" our Elf on the Shelf -- he keeps an eye on the dude to make sure he's behaving!

 Spontaneous hugs to lala Lucy

A Super Baby ornament for a true Super Dude!  (one of his nurses gave him this when he was in the NICU)

riley's bubba

my mommy is away for work, so i get to talk to all of you tonight.  this is going to be all about riley's "bubba," travis, and how he needs your happy thoughts and prayers.  travis is the best big bubba anyone could ask for and i know this because riley and i shared a room in the nicu when we were at duke.  travis was there visiting riley anytime his parents would let him visit.  recently, travis's mommy and daddy [you may know them as Lindsey and Jay Souza] found out that he has something wrong with his spine.  i don't know how to spell it, so i'll let you go to their blog to read more about it.  they will be traveling to duke and putting their trust in the doctors and nurses there to fix travis just like they fixed me and riley.  my mommy said that dr. h won't be able to fix travis because that's not the kind of fix-n he does, which is sad because dr. h is the bestest surgeon in the whole world, but i know that travis's doctor will be great, too.  please think of them as they go through a very scary time.  [i hope that they will stay with us so i can play with riley!]

here's the link to more information on big "bubba" travis: http://lindseysouza.blogspot.com/2010/12/dec-7.html

xoxo,

c-a-r-t-e-r

i can spell my own name!  mommy puts my letters on post-it notes and then i line them up on the floor.  if you ask me what my name is, i tell you "ter-ter"

rudolph