Happy Birthday Carter!!!

Our little miracle is 1 year old today!!! 17lbs 2oz and 28 inches long (though official measurements will be taken at the dr. on Friday). What a year it has been and SO many changes!!! I gave Carter lots of extra snuggles today, as I wasn't able to snuggle, hold, or even meet him on his actual BIRTH day.

He is such a happy little boy who claps, signs "more", seems to understand the word "no", has LOTS of babbles, makes very funny noises with his hand in his mouth (thanks to Papa teaching him), is very interactive and plays "games" (like trying to escape: he crawls slow, turns around to see if I'm chasing him, then takes off crawling as fast as he can!). Carter is also very independent in that he likes to feed himself (solids - he would still rather someone hold his bottle for him). He eats just about anything...but LOVES when Grandma Rose (or anyone) feeds him ice cream. He stands along furniture and tries to climb up/on/into EVERYTHING. Carter attempts to walk, but generally moves too quickly and just falls forward. He is also very much a "mama's boy" if I'm anywhere in sight. Carter is also learning to play the piano. Okay, he loves to stand on his tip-toes to reach the keys...but he plays quite nicely! I think I have a future musician!

We started Carter's birthday with birthday pancakes (Carter got a bit of whipped cream on his, Joshua and Justin also got sprinkles!). Then we ran some errands and had lunch at McDonalds (this probably makes me a HORRIBLE mom...taking my child to McDonalds on his first birthday...but Carter enjoyed sharing Justin's chicken nuggets....and discovered that his voice echoed in there which really amused him!). Then we went swimming, got ready for/had his birthday dinner/cake, then more swimming! He should sleep soundly tonight!

Here are some pictures from our small birthday party today (even though his BIG party is on Sunday...we had to make sure he got a cake for today!):

Birthday Pancakes:

Opening a card from Great Grandma Mary:

Carter was eager to dig right in!

Last Sunday we went to the Sterling Renaissance Festival. Everyone had a GREAT time - though I was very worried Carter would sleep the entire 3 hours home, then be up all night. Luckily he fell asleep at 7:30pm....and STAYED asleep until 7:30am!

Carter, with his cousins Joshua, Katie, and Justin:

Watching the joust:

Justin, Joshua, & Katie on a camel ride:

Aunt Jen, Cousin Owen, Aunt Tammy, and Uncle Jon watching the Human Chess Match:
Papa, Carter, Daddy, & Grandma watching a show:

Pictures from Carter's Birthday Party:

Happy Father's Day!! (and other stuff)

For Mike's first Father's Day, Carter gave him a homemade card, and a picture frame with the picture below (among other stuff):

Cater & Daddy relaxing

Carter's first haircut has finally been completed. I attempted to cut it at first (and did 'ok'...at least it lessed the mohawk a little bit)...but as an 11 month old, Carter did NOT want to sit still, and kept trying to grab the scissors. A couple days later, Papa was giving all the boys haircuts with the Flowbee (I know, some of you are laughing now, but I must say it's probably one of the best purchases Grandma & Papa ever made!). So, Carter got his haircut finished.

BEFORE:FLOWBEE!! (Horrible cell phone picture)After: Lookin' good!Having more fun swimming in Grandma Rose's pool! I think we have a water baby!

11 months!

As I'm finishing up the 2009-2010 school year, it brings back so many memories of the first time I thought that Carter could possibly arrive early. It was my 2nd to last day of work for last school year when I had my initial stay in the hospital due to high blood pressure, and here I am packing up my classroom for this year. What a year (okay, 11 months) it has been!

Carter weighed in Sunday at 16lbs 12oz. Almost a pound since last month! It's no surprise either, with the way he eats lately. If there is food on the table, he wants to be eating it. He can eat almost anything (except lunch meat, honey, and nuts), other than food that is hard or needs to really be chewed - as he still doesn't have ANY teeth.

Carter has learned to wave, and will mostly do it on demand now. When we go out, he sure attracts a lot of attention between his cuteness (though I may be biased), jumping/bouncing, and new found skill of waving. I also think he may use the wave as his way to say "Ok, it's time to leave". We were at our new house for several hours the other night, and he was getting very tired and antsy - and he just started waving and waving.

He has also learned how to SCREAM - which is a lot of fun when we're out to eat or in other public places (luckily he hasn't done this in church yet!). The other day he was sitting in his high chair waiting for breakfast, and my back was turned to him, talking to Mike. Suddenly, I hear this LOUD SCREAM "Maaaa Maaaaa!" I turned around with this look of "Oh no, did my child really just SCREAM my name?!?" I still don't think the "Mama" part of it was intentional though - he will say mama, dada, baba, etc. but doesn't seem to correlate them to actual people/things yet.

I gave Carter his first "hair trim" on Sunday, to try to even out the mohawk a bit.

This is pre-hair trim:But he got too tired and decided to take a nap half-way through...
11 Month Pictures at our new house:

Trucks and Tractors and Jumping on the Bed!

All things that involve movement. I think we have a future amusement park kid on our hands! To start with, Carter is ALWAYS jumping. He goes crazy in his exersaucer - but even out of it, he jumps. He doesn't stand still, he jumps. He also loves being tossed in the air, or purposefully falling over backwards so mommy will catch him (yeah, not so much fun for mommy!). As you'll see in the video - he also discovered jumping on his bed!

Carter had his first ride on the kids' John Deere gator on Monday. He seemed to like it (until Justin made it shake too much!). Then the next day he got a ride on Papa's big tractor!

Finally, Carter also likes his Run Behind Truck. What? It's supposed to be a walk-behind? No, Carter just runs. Well, the video he is walking, but that was just the first day. Yesterday he RAN back and forth across the patio with his dump truck probably 20 times or more!

Swim Time!

Having fun splashing around in the pool Grandma got me!Helping Papa at our new house!
Time for my FIRST swim in a BIG pool - at Grandma Rose's!

Videos!

Finally got a good one of Carter standing without purposefully falling over backwards!!!

Here are those videos:

Carter crawling (though now he is much better/faster than in this video!)


Carter saying "DaDa"....he DOES say "Mama" now too!

Carter demonstrating another use for his exersaucer!

10 Months!!!

Wow - Carter turned 10 months old yesterday!!! Weighing in at 15lbs 12oz, 27.25 inches. We didn't get to do pictures until about 8pm - so he was quite sleepy. This is just a preview, I'll hopefully do some more!

The next couple of weeks are going to be an adventure as I am only 1-handed (had a cyst removed from my left wrist yesterday morning). Sure makes it tricky with such an active baby!! He is now 1/2 army crawling, 1/2 regular crawling. Nothing stops him! He will go over, around, or through just about anything to get where he wants. He is also pulling up to a stand all the time, but the problem is that Carter likes falling backwards. It's a game to him since mommy always stays close enough to catch him. He still eats some baby food - but is also eating a lot of table food - potatoes (mashed & sweet), carrots, peas, pancakes, meat, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, just about anything!

Carter has been saying "dada" for awhile now - but it's more like "dadadadadadada" - not really any association. However, I swear he said banana (ok, "nana") while eating a banana last week. He also babbles many other consonant/vowel sounds, and I THINK he even got out "mama" at dinner last night. He certainly is a momma's boy these days - doesn't like having me out of view if he knows I'm home.

I will also be adding 2 videos - one of him saying "dada" while I try to tell him to say "mama". The other is him CRAWLING! Enjoy!

Just pictures!