Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent the day with both families. Carter played a lot with his cousin Kelli and Aunt Diana. He continues to roar like a brown bear. It is just the funniest thing and everyone enjoyed trying to get him to roar on command.

He ate a little bit of our Thanksgiving feast. He tried the sweet potato casserole at both houses and seemed to like it. He didn't eat much all day. I hope he's not getting sick again.

Carter's 9 month checkup

Carter had a busy day today. He had his nine month check up and everything looks good. He is now 28 and 3/4 inches long, his head circumfrence is 18 and 1/4. Both of those measurements are in the 75%tile. He is 19 lbs. 3 oz. that is the 30th percentile.

After that appointment, we went to the Otalarynthologist (I think that's how it's spelled) and had the cyst on his ear checked out. Fortunately, it is nothing to sweat about and I'm glad I can cross one more thing off my ever growing list of random mom worries.

He also looked at his frenulum becuause I am concerned that Carter is tongue tied. He doesn't babble much and I have long suspected that this might also have been why he couldn't breast feed very well. It turns out he does have a bit of a problem with that. I asked the Dr. how it would affect his speech and he said that he would be able to speak, but would likely have articulation issues. So we'll probably schedule an appointment to have it clipped over the next vacation.

Nine months in a couple of days!!

Whew I can't believe how fast time is flying!!

Carter is back to his healthy self again. He has been very cute. Some new things he started doing recently are tilting his head from side to side to see us from different perspectives.

He started to bang coasters together for the first time this week.

And, he is flapping his arm up and down when we ask him to say bye bye with more consistency. He still doesn't do it when we ask him to say hi.

Here are his new favs:

1. airplanes in the sky
2. dancing the rumba with mommy
3. hiding his fishy in the toy microwave and opening the door
4. picking up coasters from the coaster holder and hearing the cling cling when they are banged together.
5. spilling Willie's water bowl and trying to slurp water up from the floor before he is caught.
6. the cloth milk carton with the rattle inside.
7. knocking on street lamp posts
8. knocking the shampoo into the tub
9. trying to get in the refrigerator/freezer and dishwasher when they are open.
10. baby yogurt

Little hands, snotty noses, toys and lots of slobber

Here is my son playing in his room last week when he was sick.

At the park

Carter went to the park for the first time today. He tried out the swing, the rocking horse, the tunnel, the drawbridge and the slide.

nearly 8 and 3/4 months

Well it was another good week in Carterville. Another new incisor tooth is poking through and I am amazed at how big his front tooth is. I almost thought that he was accidentally growing a permanent tooth. But, I looked at pictures of other babies and he's normal. Phew!

He now has 5 teeth and his other front tooth looks like it's about to grace us with its presence. I love his toothy grin. Now I just have to be more careful when I wipe his teeth and gums. I read that once he gets 6 teeth he is ready to graduate to the bigtime and use an actual toothbrush. Hopefully he will decide to comply with those guidelines.

Other new developments this week: Carter can stand alone for 10 seconds. That's his record so far. He is gaining the confidence to let go of his supports now and he gets a big grin on his face when he's balancing. I am going to try to capture it on video tonight at my parent's house.

He also suprised me and drank from a regular cup with no assistance. He enjoyed that immensely, but he is still working out the mechanics of lifting the cup slowly to his mouth so he won't get too much water too quickly.

He also earned himself a new nickname: Brown Bear. While he was sick, he started to growl and make funny sounds with all of his congestion. Well, that has cleared, and we are left with a dry roar pretty similar to the one we make when we read Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See to him. He loves to roar at everything now. I hope this little phase lasts awhile. He's cracking me up.

8 and a half months

Well Carter is nearly 8 and a half months old now and he is moving right along in spite of still being sick. I think his ear infection has returned from the way he's tugging on his ears. He has a cough, gooey nose and can't seem to get rid of the mucus. I take him to the Dr. tomorrow so we'll see what happens.

What else is going on with him? Well, he's started to make cool sounds with all the congestion he has. He is growling and blowing raspberries. He is becoming a lot more verbal, but I still have not heard mama or dada yet.

He is also a lot more personable and happy go lucky with us, although still completely deadpan serious around strangers unless they make some silly face at him. He usually needs about 5 minutes of being around someone before he will return to his normal self.

He's definitely discovering more cause and effect things from light switches, to dropping things from high chairs- I swear he can say uh oh in his own little way! He is enjoying reading with us and is really working at separating the pages so he can turn them himself with out me separating them for him. Yesterday I noticed that he seems to be understanding that his thumb is pretty handy for that purpose. I gave him a puff this week, but he has trouble getting them into his mouth, so he's not quite ready to start feeding himself, but we practice every day. I hope that when he starts feeding himself he will fight me a lot less when I feed him. I have a small bit of dread every time it's time for a feeding. That and changing diapers. He is so fiesty and squirmy!

My favorite thing is how he is kissing things if he sees me kiss something first like a stuffed animal. He still opens his mouth to kiss, but it's a different looking action than him simply mouthing something (which he does all the time).

He is able to stand on his own briefly now and is cruising furniture. He learned how to turn a corner while cruising this week.

He also knows now what is prohibited in the house and goes right to those things. He turns around and looks to see if I'm noticing him and when I do, he smiles. Today he was heading toward the bathroom and when I started trying to go get him, he scurried so fast- I have never seen him try and escape me that quickly. It was cute.

New sights: He saw a monarch butterfly on our milkweed plant and fish last night at a Chinese restaurant and was enthralled.

New favorites:

1. the goose sound
2. books- finally he seeks them out- yay!
3. hair
4. sniffing sound
5. having sweet nothings whispered in his ear
6. rolling balls and formula canisters
7. watching cars
8. peeking out the small window and banging on it when we leave in the morning.
9. the cool air toy that Szenka found at a garage sale
10. turning the radio on