Carter - 15 Month Update

We were supposed to have a 15 month appointment and I was going to be able to blog about his stats, but since his pediatrician’s office is not wonderful at scheduling, we don’t get to have the 15 month appointment until April 12, when he’s 15 1/2 months old.  Frustrating.  I digress.

I remember the days when I referred to Carter as my “bundle of joy”.  Well, he’s 15 months old now.  He’s not so much a “bundle” anymore as he is a “running, screaming bottomless pit of energy”.  Boys.  What can ya do. 

Here’s the things that happened this month:

• Probably the biggest thing that happened this month was the attempted transition from two naps to one.  An attempt which failed miserably.  Carter doesn’t take two long naps anymore.  Both naps range from 1-2 hours, but usually around an hour and a half.  In the past week, he’s gotten to where he won’t really sleep for the 2nd nap.  He just lays in his crib playing with his animals.  We tried to drop the 1st nap cold turkey and just give one nap at around 12.  This worked great the first day, but not so much the days following.  So then we tried to keep him sleeping his first nap around 11 and then just let him have “quiet time” for the 2nd nap since he didn’t sleep.  But then he started falling asleep for the 2nd nap after an hour of quiet time, which meant we usually had to wake him up after about 10-15 minutes of actual sleep (if we didn’t wake him up, he wouldn’t be tired for bed time).  So now, we’re playing with the idea of putting him down for his first nap, but only letting him sleep an hour or so, in hopes that he’ll be tired enough to take the 2nd nap and actually sleep.  We’re still in this transition so we’ll see how it goes.  It’s such a weird time for him.  He is NOT ready for one nap.  That much I know.  But he doesn’t exactly need two long naps anymore either. 
• On March 12, I noticed two extremely swollen bumps in the bottom of his mouth and it turns out they are teeth coming through.  His first MOLARS to be exact.  I’ve heard horror stories of molars cutting.  Apparently they are the worst.  They still haven’t broken through the skin yet, though.  And so far, there’s really only been one day where he was a terror because of it and even that was only for a couple of hours.  For the most part, he has taken it pretty well.  I imagine that once the molars come through, it will be time to make that first dentist appointment.  Momma’s in the Hoover area….know of any good pediatric dentists? 
• His hair DESPERATELY needs to be cut.  I know that seems like a weird statement if you’ve seen my child.  From a distance he still looks bald because his hair is BRIGHT blonde and very thin.  Regardless, it’s uneven at his forehead and it drives me nuts.  Plus his hairs are starting to go over his ears and I’m having to brush it behind his ear.  I plan to take him to my hairstylist (she does free first cuts for kids) once busy season is over.  I go to the same lady that my MIL and SIL go to and both of Jen’s twins had their first haircuts there.

• I’ll know more about stats when we go to the doctor, but as of now, Carter appears to be roughly 31.5ish inches and 23lbs.   This puts him around the 30th percentile (ish) for weight and 70th percentile (ish) for height.  I’m looking at charts online which are a big estimate so until his 15 month appointment on April 12, I won’t know the exact percentile numbers.  He’s tall and skinny though.  That’s been his motto most of his life.
• At this point, numerous people (including complete strangers) have commented on how much Carter looks like Justin.  I guess I just don’t see it.  I see Carter as himself.  I could see Justin and even Justin’s dad Gordon, in some of Carter’s features when he was younger, but I guess I just see Carter as Carter now.

• As far as milk goes, we’ve slowly been getting rid of the sippy cup right at bedtime.  He’s been at 4 milk feedings a day for a while (breakfast, lunch, dinner and right before bed) and we’re trying to get him to just 3 meals like we do.  Now, the only time he gets a 4th milk serving is when he doesn’t drink enough milk in the first three so we have to use that 4th feeding to fill him up on some calcium.  But lately he’s been drinking everything we give him, so on days where he has had plenty of milk in the other three milk feedings, we drop the one before bed.
• Carter has never been a fan of sandwiches, which is unfortunate because it’s hard to give him something to eat at Mother’s Day Out.  I usually end up giving him a stage 3 food and a fruit pouch.  He’s slowly learning to eat turkey and cheese sandwiches though.  He’s hesitant with big people bread for some reason.
• Words he’s saying - in addition to all the ones he was saying at 14 months, he now says “purple” and he tries so hard to say “light” it’s just not coming to him naturally.  He also knows the difference between blue and purple!!!!  I’m so proud of that.  I held up the purple “5” in the bathtub and said “Carter what’s this?” and he said “pur-pa” (that’s how he says it").  Then I got the blue “X” and asked him what that was and he said “boooo” (also how he says “blue”).  I can’t believe he already knows two colors!!!!  But honestly, as far as words go, he says everything y’all!  Anything he hears us say, he tries to say.  He’s attempted numerous words but he only understands what so many of them mean.
• Justin took Carter on his first ever road trip.  I was sad I wasn’t with them, but glad that Carter got to see his great grandparents.  Justin and Carter, along with his sister Jennifer and her husband Aeron and their twin girls, drove (separately of course) to Pensacola to spend a few days with their grandmother (the kids great grandmother).  She bought a whole bunch of toys just for those few days.  They LOVED being at her house.  She has a gigantic backyard that the kids literally wore themselves out running around.  Carter did well on the trip.  Justin stopped at a rest stop for lunch on the way there.  Carter slept over an hour on the way back so he didn’t stop.  He utilized the DVD player at times, but at other times, Carter just looked out the window and laughed at things outside.  It was a successful trip and a great starter for our family trip to Gatlinburg that we’re taking the weekend after the April 15th deadline (momma NEEDS a vacation!).

On the left, Cynthia and Carter were pointing to people in picture and saying “Nana” and “Papa”.  Cutest thing ever.  On the right, this was just a random picture Justin snapped and sent to me.  It looks like he is very intent on reading this manual!

On the left, Justin and Jen took all the kids to a park in Pensacola to meet some family members they never get to see and their 10 month old daughter.  All the kids played together and had fun.  Carter looks like such a big boy in this pic!!!  On the right, he was OUT after a day of non-stop playing!

• Outside.  Lord help us.  Our child LOVES being outside.  If I take him outside to play for 10 minutes or so and then pick him up to bring him inside, he will arch his back and scream bloody murder.  He frequently will walk up to the back door and just cry while reaching for the door knob to try to open it.  I’m hoping to find a way SOON to keep him from constantly wanting to be outside, but honestly, I think it’s just because it’s been winter and he’s been cooped up for too long inside.  We’ve had some pretty amazing days with weather lately and we’ve taken advantage and taken him outside to play and he loves it.  I’m sure once summer rolls around and we do it more often, it won’t bother him if he’s not outside every waking minute.
• Speaking of door knobs.  While Justin was in Pensacola with Carter, he learned how to open doors.  The kind with a straight handle as a door knob.  The doors in our house all have actual knobs so it will take him a while before he’s tall enough and coordinated enough to learn he has to turn the knob.  But that little discovery in Pensacola has taught him to at least TRY to open the doors.  So he can reach the knobs if he’s on his tippy toes, and just last weekend, while trying to turn the knob, he was able to turn the lock on the knob.  Yes, he locked the door.  Luckily I was in there with him.  I know I am going to have to have Justin show me how to unlock our doors in case Carter locks himself in a room!  Luckily, there are two ways into all the rooms on our first floor.
• He knows where his head and tummy are as well as what a nose is.  He says “nose” and points to our noses, but I don’t think he’s realized yet that HE has a nose.  We’re still working with that and also on mouth and ears and hair (and that he can’t pull mommy’s hair).
• The kid will very rarely sit down to watch TV unless he is strapped into the carseat and is in the car.  There’s just way too much other stuff to explore!
• He crawled up the entire set of steps in our house (with me behind him of course).  We have gates at the top and bottom of the stairs so his “exploring” of his abilities are limited.  The steps outside are much fewer, only two or three.  He likes trying to go up those steps in an adult way (foot on the step instead of the baby way-knee on the step).  He always bends over and feels the step with his hands first though.  As if he wants to make sure that it’s sturdy enough for him to step on.  It’s hilarious.  But he feels so accomplished when he steps up on a step.  Once he discovered this, he became obsessed with walking on different “levels” of the ground.  If that makes any sense…probably not so let me explain further.  For example, the slight step up from the front porch to the foyer inside.  There’s also slight changes in levels between the sidewalk and the grass.  He likes to test his abilities and step up and/or down.  When he is able to change levels on things without falling, he starts clapping and saying “yaaaay” and then he’ll do it again.  He does it over and over.  He’s so proud of himself!
• We got some shoes for summer.  Three in fact.  Some white sandals to go with the (dare I say it?) smock outfits I got him at Cotton Tails in Birmingham.  Yes, I said he would never wear smock, and yet I have caved.  Anyway, I got him some white sandals, some brown open toe sandals and a pair of “baby running shoes” (Saucony’s to be exact).  He looks like such a big boy in them!!!  They measured his foot and he is now a size 5!  FIVE!!!  How is this happening??  I remember his first visit to Stride Rite to get his first pair of shoes and he was a 3 1/2 and that was only like 6 or 7 months ago!   His foot is still wide, too.  So all of his shoes are 5W.
• Drinking.  Carter has been introduced to drinking from an adult cup…and he loves it.  I started doing P90X a couple of weeks ago (trying to knock that off the list) and when I go in my workout room to do the workout, I always carry a huge cup of water in there with me.  Carter saw me drink from it one day and he ran to me and pointed to the cup so I gave him a sip.  He was not good with just one sip!  He wanted to constantly drink from it.  I had to go fill my cup back up with water because he drank all of it and I ended up giving Justin a separate cup so he could give Carter water while I finished working out.  The next day, he wouldn’t drink much milk from his sippy cup, so I put it in a big people cup and he guzzled it. 

Here’s a few other pictures from the month:

 

All a kid really needs is his footie pajamas, a hoodie to keep the ears warm and a fun (empty) sprite bottle to play with :)  It makes for a happy happy kid!

He’s picked up on how Justin and I drink things from bottles.   It’s hilarious to watch him play with them!  He is also LOVING blueberries these days.  He gets so excited when he sees them and he grabs one with each hand and shoves both of his hands into his mouth at the same time.  It’s as if he is afraid we’re going to take some of the blueberries from him so he has to eat them fast!

Left:  Going on a hike with daddy at Red Mountain park.  Right:  Gangster Carterman on St.  Patty’s Day.

 

And this, my friends, is what happens when those fruit pouches go wrong ;)

Overall, I’m loving my sweet sweet boy and this age!  He is so much fun right now.  I can’t wait until we’re in full blown summer and taking constant trips to the Zoo or the McWane Center and going to the pool and hanging out on the golf cart WITHOUT a blanket.  His little brain is learning something new every single day and I adore watching him figure things out on his own.  Only TWO MORE WEEKS until my work craziness is over and then I will have every single Friday off and only be working 34 hours a week!  So much Carterman and mommy time to come :)

Blog Lovin’

I see now why I kept seeing these posts for Blog Lovin’.

I must admit, I never used Google Reader.  I don’t use my phone to look at blogs, I only look at them when I’m at the computer.  So I never needed Google Reader because I would just go to my blog and look at my blogroll and see what new blogs were out there for me to read. 

Once Google Reader went away (apparently), I started seeing all my blog friends post a link to their blog on “Blog Lovin”.  I decided to research this a bit and turns out there’s an app that will automatically let me know when one of my friends has a new blog post.  That’s pretty nifty I guess!  So I went to search for my blog on the site and sure enough it was there.  I tried to “claim” it as mine but it said I have to make a post with the following link in order to claim it:

'>http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4955267/?claim=4s96nj8q6f8">

Follow my blog with Bloglovin!

So now I get why everyone has been making these posts with these links.  They have to claim their blogs in order to use the app.  So in case you’re interested, here’s my blog lovin’ link!

He Said/She Said

So on Valentine’s Day this year, I noticed a TON of bloggers doing this he said/she said quiz with their spouses.  I thought it was a super cute idea (who doesn’t love to quiz their spouse on their relationship and find out how much they REALLY listen????) so I copied the questions and sent them to Justin via email and told him to answer them.  Problem was, he didn’t respond back.  Until today.  So random that he sends me an email today with the answers. 

Well it’s not Valentine’s Day anymore, but it was still fun so I’ll post anyway.  Below are the questions followed by what she said and then what he said:

• Where was our first date?
• she said: Rainforest cafe when he came to visit me in Nashville when I lived there. 
• he said: Rainforest Cafe
• Where was our first kiss?
• she said: At his house after going out one night
• he said: In my bed.  Well the second time.   (He got more specific than me – we were just watching TV in his room FYI.  I did spend the night at his house that night but he slept on the couch.  What he means by the “second time” was that it was our 2nd first kiss.  The first “first kiss” was in high school so we don’t count that).
• Who said I love you first?
• she said: He did
• he said: Me
• Which of the following breakfast cereals best describes your wife’s family’s opinion of you when they first met you (Crazy Flakes, Just Right, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms or Fruit Loops)?
• she said: Just Right
• he said: Just Right
• Your wife is waiting at the doctor’s office.  Which magazine will she read?  Good Housekeeping, People, Glamour, or Coastal Living? 
• she said: People
• he said: People
• If she were ordering drinks at a restaurant for dinner for both of you, what would she order?
• she said: Waters
• he said: Dr peppers
• Which of these does your husband have the most of (sense of humor, sense of time or sense of adventure)?
• she said: Definitely adventure, but sense of humor is an extremely close second.  He has ZERO sense of time.
• he said: adventure
• How many pair of your wife’s shoes would you say are not in the closet right now (this is basically a stab at cleanliness…how many of my shoes are all over the house?)
• she said: 0.  Unlike someone in our household, I pick up my shoes!
•  he said: 1
• What is his ultimate favorite movie?
• she said:  I’d be surprised if he even knew.  He’s not a movie person at all.  He’s more of the guy that watches shows on TV.
• he said:   don't know
• If I were a character from Friends, who would I be? 
• she said:  Monica – Pretty sure he’ll agree because I’m OCD about cleaning the house and it drives him nuts!
• he said:  Monica
• Which one of us hogs the bed covers at night?
• she said: I honestly don’t think either of us do, but I’m pretty sure he’ll say I do.
• he said: You
• Who is better at handling money?
• she said: Easy – me.  I’m an accountant.  I keep a separate excel spreadsheet of our budget and record all expenses on a daily basis.  I’m a lot more of a money saver and Justin is a more of a money spender.
• he said: You
• If you could have a second honeymoon, where would your wife want you to take her?
• she said: Probably somewhere like Tahiti or the Maldives
• he said: Paris (he knows me well.  I didn’t think of this.  I love Europe and want to go to all the major cities.  I love the history there!)
• Which room is the messiest room in your house?
• she said: Probably the living room with all of Carter’s toys all over the place.  But as far as dirt goes, I’d say the bathroom.  We don’t scrub it and clean mirrors and countertops as much as we should.
• he said: bathroom
• What did you have for dinner the night you got married?
• she said: Good question.  I don’t remember.  We had a plate set aside for us so that we could eat together before heading into the reception, but neither of us could really eat.  Adrenaline, I guess.  But I know I ate some cheeseburger sliders and some fried rice (we had the biggest selection of reception food EVER).
• he said: nothing really
• How long does your husband spend in the shower?
• she said: Depends on the day.  Most days about 30 minutes.  He’s such a girl.  I don’t even take showers that long!
• he said: 20 min (BOLD FACE LIAR)
• Which of the following Valentine’s gifts would your wife prefer the most:  a beautiful  bouquet of two dozen red roses, you offering to clean the house for a month, or a one hour massage given by you?
• she said: Clean the house for a month (my love language is Acts of Service, what can I say)
• he said: clean house
• Who is the most patient in your marriage?
• she said: Me
• he said: you
• When was the last time your wife went to the dentist?
• she said: It was before busy season, so at least several months ago
• he said: few months ago
• What is your husband’s favorite breakfast food?
• she said: chick-fil-a
• he said: chick-fil-a
• On average, how long does it take your wife to get ready to go out?
• she said: About an hour or so
• he said: 1 hour
• If your husband could only have one of the following desserts, which would he choose:  Cheesecake, apple pie, ice cream, chocolate pie
• she said: Cheesecake
• he said: Cheesecake
• On average, how much does your wife spend at the grocery store each trip?
• she said: Around 120 or so
• he said: 150
• Who gets along better with the in-laws?
• she said: I do
• he said: you
• Who was the first person you told about your engagement?
• she said: Our answers won’t agree on this because when it happened we both got on the phone immediately.  I called my mom and sisters.  I think he called either Rob or Bonnie (his parents already knew).
• he said: rob

So we are on the same page for the most part :)  That was pretty fun…kind of like playing the Newlywed Game.  Back to work for me!  LESS THAN THREE WEEKS PEOPLE!

The Easter Bunny

Our church had it’s children’s Easter celebration this past weekend.  Justin and I got Carter ready and met with his sister Jennifer and her husband and their twin girls.  We ate breakfast and then attempted to get pictures with the Easter Bunny.

I was hesitant about this.  Carter didn’t have the best reaction to Santa Clause (see video):

So naturally I was fearful of his reaction to the Easter Bunny.

Well, he sort of proved me wrong.  At first we got a couple of decent shots of him with the bunny (no framers though).  He wiggled and squirmed a bit, but at least he allowed the bunny to hold him.  He kept reaching up and touching the bunny’s nose and tongue.

After taking pictures, we went to the gym where the Easter Egg hunt was being held since it was raining outside.  Here’s what an Easter Egg hunt looks like when it’s in a gym instead of outside:

Eggs everywhere for the taking!

So the Easter Bunny came into the gym and just stood in the center of the room watching the kids all go after the eggs.  Carter was ZERO interested in eggs.  He made a straight line for the bunny.

He literally followed this bunny EVERYWHERE.

And he even cuddled with the bunny.  I guess he thought the outfit was soft :)

Either way, mommy was proven wrong by Carterman.  He actually did like the Easter Bunny.  Other pictures from the day:

Cynthia kept putting her basket on her head because it made Carter laugh.  She has even begun to say his name.  She says “Arrr Arrr”.  I know, it sounds like a dog, but that’s what she says when she refers to him.

Anything to make her cousin laugh, I guess :)

The Gault family.  Justin’s sister, Jennifer, her husband Aeron and our twin nieces, Cynthia (left) and Celia (right).

 

Me and my boo :)

And here’s a quick video of Carter’s push-and-pull relationship with the bunny.  He looks ready to get off the bunny’s lap, but when he does, he just follows him and laughs!

Learning Colors

Couple of things to note during this video.  First, you may hear me sniffing my nose very loudly.  Prior to recording this video, he thought this was HILARIOUS.  Not so much while on video though.  Just wanted to point that out so people don’t think I’m crazy.  If you’re a mom, you know we all do the weirdest things just to make our babies laugh because it’s the sweetest sound on the planet.  Second, he totally knows the color blue, I promise.  He for some reason didn’t want to say it.  But he says “Boooooo” when I hold up a blue letter.  And finally, because I’ve gotten this question a TON by people that see his bath pictures on Instagram, the colored water IS on purpose.   We have some Elmo water tablets that turn the water certain colors.  It only comes with red, blue and yellow, but you can mix to get other colors.  I mixed yellow and blue to get the green in this video.  Carter LOVES the colors of the water.  Here’s what it looks like in case you’re interested (purchased at Wal-Mart but they have them on Amazon, too):

The GORGEOUS Weekend

If you live in Alabama, chances are you were outside at some point over the weekend.  With the sun shining and the highs in the upper 60’s low 70’s, I think most of us stepped out from the winter funk and enjoyed the weather.  Not to mention that time change happened, causing it to be daylight longer, which was FABULOUS. 

On Friday, we got our brand new golf cart.  The one we used to have was actually my mom’s and since she was in the process of moving, she needed somewhere to store it until she got all her stuff packed away and such.  We gladly offered to store it in our garage.  Carter LOVED it.  It was one of his favorite things to do.  Back then, he was less than a year old and he still fit in the Baby Bjorn carrier on my chest, so usually that’s where he was during the golf cart ride.  Then winter came and it was too cold to use it and that’s when we gave it back to my mom.  With these recent spurts of great weather we’d been having, we knew we would want one again when spring time came so we started looking.  As soon as we got our tax refund, that’s what it went to.  The new cart got delivered on Friday and we took it for a stroll around our neighborhood and the neighboring Ross Bridge.  We went to visit my friend Ashley that lives there and she snapped this picture of us.  Our first golf cart ride as a family on OUR golf cart :)

On Saturday, Justin went to Oak Mountain to run 20 miles.  During that time we had extremely beautiful weather, so Carter and I decided to go around the neighborhood, but this time in his Radio Flyer wagon.  This was the first time he’d been in it and he loved it as well.  This kid just loves all things outside.  Honestly, our entire weekend was spent outside.

It was a little windy that morning so that’s why I still had him in the long sleeves. 

Once Justin got home, we went on another golf cart ride.  It was a quick one because we had to come back home so momma could get ready.  A long time friend of mine and Justin’s was getting married that night so my mom watched Carter-man while we attended the wedding.

Me and Justin on the left.  This was actually taken mid-laugh for us both.  On the right is the girls in the photobooth.  This fabulous photo booth during a wedding idea became popular after Justin and I got married.  I think that was the time when people just started doing it but it wasn’t very popular yet, like it is now.  I LOVE the photobooth!!  We had so much fun.  Justin and I did some pictures in there too but I didn’t take a picture of them for some reason.

Would you believe my iPhone took a picture this good??  Crazy!!!  Anyway, these are all the high school guys.  They referred to themselves during high school as “Da Boyz”.  The Bronco in the background is Bob’s (his actual name is Michael but we’ve all called him Bob since middle school) Bronco that he had in high school.  He sold it to someone he knew with the conditions that he be able to borrow it when he wanted.  What a great occasion to bring it back into the group…his wedding day :)  Some of these guys I see on a normal basis and others of them I haven’t seen in 10+ years.  It was great to be around all of them again.

We went to pick up Carter from my mom’s after the wedding and brought him home and put him straight to bed.  I was worried because by the time he went down it was 8:30pm Saturday, which was 9:30pm Sunday!  Fortunately, he took the time change like a champ and didn’t wake up until just after 8am the next day. 

He woke up and we played a bit downstairs.  We went outside and played in the backyard too.  We never really play in the backyard, especially recently because it’s been so cold.  But I figured it was time to let him enjoy it.  Again, 70 degrees.  Amazing.  He ran all over the yard and enjoyed pointing to trees and saying “Bur” which is Carter talk for “bird”.  I put him down for his first nap and was hoping he’d sleep well because we were meeting Tiffany and her baby boy Harper at the zoo after his nap.  I had to wake him from his nap :(  I hate disturbing such innocent sleep.

But as soon as he heard me open his sock drawer he shot up faster than I have ever seen.  Huge smile on his face like he knew we were about to go somewhere fun!  I got him dressed and we left the house to meet the Lobdell’s.  I brought the Radio Flyer wagon since he liked it so much.  Harper and Carter both sat in it towards the beginning of the walk around the zoo.  Eventually Harper moved to his stroller so he could nap while we were walking around. 

He had a blast at the zoo!  He particularly likes the train ride.  Kid loves the wind in his face, what can I say. 

We tried several times to get a pic of all four of us and this is the best we could get!

We went home and I put Carter down for nap number 2.  He slept over 2 hours and woke up with some INSANE hair.

You know it’s been a good nap when the hair shows it ;)

When he woke up we went on another golf cart ride and before you know it, it was bed time.  I had so much fun with my little man this weekend.  We love the outdoors!

**If you’re on Instagram and are friends with me, you’ve seen most of these pictures.  Sorry for the repetitiveness!**

#1, #25, #35 and #96 - CHECK!

The fact that I’m knocking four items off my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days may seem misleading…as if I actually have free time to do things right now!!!  These things are actually things I completed a while ago (some as long as months ago) but just never got around to updating the actual list.

#1 was to win Bingo at work.  My firm allows all of it’s employees to play bingo, but the game is an incentive for us to submit our time that we bill our clients into our system on a timely basis.  So for example, the time I worked yesterday, on Thursday, was supposed to be entered by noon today.  If anyone does it late, they have to pay $10.  That seems harsh, but let me be the first to say that this payment is hardly enforced.  They usually send out emails before noon to remind everyone to submit their time.  The pot is $250 and if two people win it, they don’t have to split the pot, they each get $250.  Which was what happened to me.  Me and another guy both had bingo last Friday and we both got a check for $250.  Here’s my card:

You have no idea how hard it is to win this.  There’s close to 200 people total playing this game.  There are people that have been employed with our firm for 10+ years that have never won bingo.  I was honestly starting to think that I would never be able to mark this off!

#25 was to obtain a door wreath for every holiday.  This item was rolled forward from my first 101 list and I was a little irritated about it.  All I needed was an Easter wreath and when I looked for one two years ago, I could NOT find a single one I liked (this was pre-Etsy).  This year I finally found a good Easter wreath!  I’ll post a picture of it when I actually hang it on the door.  Too early for that :)

#35 was to watch all episodes of the Big Bang Theory and get caught up to now.  I started watching this show WELL after it initially came on TV so I had some catching up to do.  But I’m all caught up now and DVR the new ones as they come on….not going to lie though, they need to spice it up.  It’s just not all that interesting to me anymore.

#96 was to get the garage cleaned up and looking normal.  Justin and I actually did this last night because we just recently purchased a golf cart and there’s a chance it may be delivered today so we needed to make room for it.  So we cleaned all night after Carter went to bed.  I don’t have a picture though.  I know you’re all devastated.

Carter Videos

I love having videos of Carter.  I mean, LOVE having these.  We had videos back when Justin and I were kids, but they are just so rare.  And I don’t have ANY as a baby.  Oldest one I have was probably when I was 5.  So I really do think it’s so special and extremely important to take as many videos and pictures as you can of your mini-me’s while they’re young.  And I love how far technology has come.  The quality on the iPhone is so clear and it’s just so easy to shoot a video on my phone! 

Anyway, here’s a couple of videos of Carter I took over the past week.  He is such a big boy now, y’all.  I mean, I can’t even remember when he was a baby!!!  It seems like he has been walking and talking forever. 

The video below is of Carter getting ready for a bath.  It was like he was getting a running start to get into the tub.  He ran to the hallway, turned around and then ran to the tub as if it was going to help him jump over the side and make it on his own without us having to pick him up and put him in the tub.  The really funny thing about this video was that towards the end, Carter picked up his pants and tried to throw them in the tub.  Justin caught them and put them back on the ground, but the Carter did it again.  He was laughing hysterically because he thought it was a game.  I wish I hadn’t turned off the video when I did and you could have seen the laughing.

Carter has learned to dance with his arms.  He’s always bounced up and down when his toys play music as his way of “dancing”, but now he moves his arms too.  At the very beginning he almost look like a break dancer bustin’ a move!  He was having so much fun with it that he kept falling over laughing. 

These are the kinds of things baby learns when left with daddy all day:

And here’s a couple of pictures of my big boy after church on Sunday.  His favorite thing to do now is to walk on the sidewalk on our street!

He literally just walks up the sidewalk pointing at trees and birds and all things nature!

I absolutely love this pic of him!  He was running to Justin who was behind me.  Maybe it’s the clothes he’s wearing, but he just looks so grown up already :(

Busy season update - I am currently at my last big client until April.  After I leave this client, I get to go to the office to wrap up all the jobs I have started but not finished.  So at least I’m starting to feel like I’m accomplishing things instead of just continuing to add things to a never-ending to do list.  The corporate deadline is March 15th and that’s next week.  Woo hoo!!  In total, only just less than 6 weeks to go.   So looking forward to having every Friday off and having 3 day weekends with my Carter-man!

Carter - 14 Month Update

14 months?  Really?  I just can’t believe it.

Carter is so past the baby stage in my opinion.  He is a full blown BOY toddler.  He is so rough (hence the emphasis on BOY toddler).  He frequently runs through the house without looking at where he’s going which usually ends up in bumps, bruises and crying.  Poor kid.

Here’s some things that happened this month:

• We took Carter for his very first hiking experience.  He was SO excited about being in the little hiking backpack on Justin’s back.  He had his sunglasses on and was looking everywhere.  He especially loved watching people zip line (we were at Red Mountain Park where there are zip line courses).  All was great for about 30-45 minutes and then he started whining and we had to carry him in our arms the rest of the way.  I blame this on hunger.  He was STARVING.  He barely ate lunch that day and I had a banana with me that I gave him, but once the food was out he wasn’t very happy.  We’ll try this again later and have more food on hand :)

On daddy’s back

He kept pulling Justin’s sunglasses and eating  them!

This is the first time we saw the zip liners.

And this is the second.  He was mesmerized!

• New words.  Here’s all the things Carter has begun to say:
  • Tee (tree)
  • Tay too (thank you)
  • Pee (please)
  • Die-pa (diaper)
  • Daddy (we’ve graduated from dada to daddy-no such luck on mommy though.  He actually calls both me and Justin “daddy”)
  • Doggy
  • Bird (this is probably his favorite thing to do this month.  He loves looking out the window at the trees and pointing at the birds flying around the trees)
  • Papa
  • Gigi
  • Tur-eeee (Turkey)
  • Uh oh (not only does he say it, but he says it at the right time-usually when he drops something)
• He came home with even more art work from school.  I just LOVE getting this stuff.  I am so going to be that mom that hoards everything her kids make as they grow up.  Oh well.  Once this school year is over, I plan to laminate all of them.

• He has begun to learn how to run, or at the very least, walk quickly.  He usually runs from something while looking directly at what he’s running from which causes him to bonk his head on a wall or a counter or a chair or something of that nature.
• We transitioned into size 4 diapers.  The 3’s still fit, but the 4’s were just easier to get on and off.  He’s still using his last box of 3’s but from here on out it’s 4’s.
• He’s finally gaining weight.  At his 12 month appointment he was 21lbs 6oz (and even this was a stretch because he had literally just finished drinking a 6oz bottle of milk before he got weighed.  As of his actual 14 month birthday, he was 22lbs 10oz.  I promise I try everything I can to get this kid to gain weight.  He has been, for the most part, always in the 20-30th percentile range on weight.  He eats food like it’s going out of style too!  The problem is how active he is.  He burns every bit of calories he’s getting.  Is he our child or what?!?!
• Good lord the poop.  The kid poops 5 times a day.  Which probably also contributes to the inability to gain weight.  That’s almost as much pooping as the newborn stage!! 
• I love footie pajamas.  REALLY love footie pajamas.  Unfortunately, they’re hard to find over 12 months.  They still make them, but they are not easily found.  Due to this, I attempted a normal pajama this month for Carter which was a long sleeve shirt with pants and socks.  I was afraid he would try to take the socks off but he didn’t.  So we probably won’t be buying any more additional footies than the ones we already have.  Once he outgrows those, normal PJ’s it is!
• If you start singing “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” he’ll start clapping his hands.  It’s adorable.
• He started really using the monogrammed chair my mom got him for his birthday.  In the past, if we want him to watch TV so that we can do something really quick, we just strapped him in his bouncy seat.  But now he doesn’t really fit in it anymore.  So we’ve been working with him to learn how to sit in the chair mom got and he picked up on it this month and frequently will go sit in the chair with Henry (see picture below).  There’s no straps on it and he knows that so now the challenge is to get him to sit down and stay there to watch a full episode.  Right now he sits for about 5-10 minutes tops and then moves on to something else.

A few other random pictures from the month:

Pretty sure this was when I was singing “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”.

On the left:  We were headed to church and I was so excited about this ADORABLE sweater I got him from the clearance rack at Buy Buy Baby.  $5 people.  $5.  On the right:  this is the picture I was referring to above with the chair.

After church that same day we took him to the park to play on the swing set.  It was one of those rare beautiful and warm days in February so we took advantage :)  Isn’t he the sweetest?!?!

We’re really excited that daylight savings time happens next weekend.  It’ll be daylight until 7:30!!!  Woo hoo!  Not to mention that the high next weekend is in the 70’s!  It’s kind of funny.  See, pre-Carter, I LOVED winter and everything about it. The sweaters, the coats the snow possibilities.  But now, I hate it.  I can’t go outside with Carter and play because it’s too cold.  We love golf cart rides and just walking around the neighborhood but it’s way too cold for that.  So the Morris household is certainly looking forward to warmer weather and more daylight :)

Sorry if I haven’t been around the past week.   I’ve mentioned the 7 experiment that my Sunday School class is doing and I will go into more detail later, but this past week was media week.  So we all fasted from big media outlets.  I’d already gotten off facebook, so my fasting came with Instagram, Twitter and the blog.  I haven’t blogged nor looked at anyone else’s blogs since last Sunday and if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you’ve probably noticed my absence there as well.  Again, I’ll make a whole blog about 7 experiment when we’re done, but for now, my apologies for my absence, but I’m back now :)