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 :)