May photos

swimming- he loves to people watch at the pool.

watching daddy mow the lawn

Lazy Saturday

Whewwweee! We have been tired lately. This morning Carter woke up at 6 am (I don't like this latest trend Carter!) I had trouble sleeping last night so I was already awake. Carter and I played for awhile. While playing I heard him say new words, "Bird" and "Zebra" although I couldn't get him to repeat zebra afterwards. He seems to be having another burst in communication right now. He has developed a new laugh in recent weeks. He still does his same old giggle and belly laughs, but now he will manipulate objects in what he perceives as a silly way and he will say, "hah hah hah." This happens when he smooshes food, or puts food in his cup of milk, etc.

His "uh oh" is back after being on hiatus for about 2 months. Those were his first words and he used to say them ad nauseum, but then he stopped for awhile. I have learned that babies do this. They learn how to say something and you don't hear it for a while and then all of a sudden it comes back. Now it comes out in this chirpy voice that cracks me up.

He is trying to figure out what to call Szenka, his grandmother who takes care of him. He has said her name before, but I guess he is finding it hard and now goes around saying, "Dada" and then "Mama" right afterward whenever he talks about her.

Earlier this week he showed us that he likes to somersault when he is on our bed. He tries to do it himself and he sets himself up all cute, tucks his head under and then falls to the side. But normally he is good about waiting for us to push him over, which is a relief because I would hate for him to attempt to somersault off the side of the bed.

This week I had the worst scare at school when a student bumped heads with another student and fell into a seizure and then lost consciousness. I think I'm going to be a nervous wreck about Carter hitting his head for awhile now. This child appeared fine afterwards and had been sent to lunch by the nurse. Just goes to show how it is very difficult to assess the severity of head injuries at first. Luckily the child is now ok.

Other than that, we had a fun day planned - swimming, first haircut, etc. But it rained and we all were so tired that we just took turns napping and taking care of Carter. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Here are Carter's latest favorite things:
1. Books: Vroom Vroom, Moo Baa Laa La La, Things that Go, Animals on the Farm, Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See?, The Going to Bed Book, among others. His least favorite is still Goodnight Moon!!???

2. Poking sticks into sand and dirt- He will sit and do this for up to 30 minutes!!!!

3. Stuffed animals- Myrtle the Turtle, Horton the Elephant, Mr. Zebra, Mr. Frog, Mr. Tiger

4.Pushing a small shopping cart around the room

5. Throwing things like blocks and balls all over the place saying, "Ay yay yay"

6. nesting objects inside bigger ones

7. blowing bubbles in his cups while drinking

8. somersaulting

9. climbing on and off the bed and sofas

10. opening drawers and doors

11. playing peekaboo in many different ways

12. "The Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" "Row Row your boat" "Patty Cake" "Five Little Ducks"

13. being outdoors

14. wielding a pen/marker or crayon

15. Patting mom's belly, poking her belly button, popping my puffed cheeks, playing with my lips and ears.

16. Reading books and pointing things out

17. Holding a broom- This is promising :)

18. watching daddy mow the lawn

19. watching animal kingdom and Thomas the Tank Engine on tv.

20. Willy the Cat.

Carter takes his first class and has his first dip in the pool

Carter and I took a class at the Little Gym yesterday. It was fun. They have lots of mats to climb and he was completely in his element. The class has some structure, and some of the older, regular kids knew what to do- when to high five, when to go get supplies, etc. It was tough to keep Carter from wandering out of the circle during instructional time. He wanted to explore the mats further, but once he got into what we were doing on the mat, he liked learning new skills such as how to buck like a donkey, do a flip over a hot dog roll, a somersault, ride on a parachute, etc. I got just as much of a workout as he did since I was running around chasing him, lifting him etc. He loved the bubble machine they had. I decided that that machine is way better than blowing bubbles by hand since half the time I blow, the soap just spits out and no bubbles result. I need to get one. When the balls were passed out, Carter refused to hang onto the one I kept giving him, or even pick one up off the floor. Instead he kept trying to steal other kids balls right out of their hands. I see many future time outs during playdates ahead for Mr. Carter if this keeps up.

Carter also went swimming. He enjoyed that very much too. Although next time we are going to take some toys to play with in the baby pool. I will get pictures of him swimming soon.

14 months old ralking around

Carter's walk is between a walk and a run now. I'll call it a ralk. He is full of personality and loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooves being outside.

Easter

Carter had two egg hunts before the rain spoiled everything. One at the library was very easy- eggs were right out in the open. My mom's was more challenging. She is cruel that way, but Carter prevailed and found all the eggs. My mom is also more ambitious than I am. She had Carter dye eggs-hence the bib. He had a good time. Thanks grandmothers for being more in the Easter spirit than I was that day! Next year I'll make it up to you Carter- we'll have a hunt at our house and we'll whip out the wax crayons while dying eggs.

Walking and Eating

Here is about a month's worth of photos. I am still a slacker with a capital S.

Carter at almost 14 months

Carter is pure joy right now. If I thought he was irresistable before, now I don't know what to call this, becuase he is even more irresistable. He toddles around now pushing his "pop pop," finding treasures in other rooms and bringing them in to show us.

He loves to peek out from behind doors and then hide again when we "discover" him. It just cracks me up.

He is calling us by our names now. Last weekend he started with "Dada" and this past weekend, he began to say, "mama." It is so cool to hear those words. He also says kitty now, pronouncing both syllables correctly sometimes. He has begun to shake his head and refuse more though. Especially food. He used to feed himself more. Now he shakes his head and pushes the food away, throws it everywhere, or just spits it back out. I have begun to give him vitamin supplements becuase he's barely eating when he's with me. I hate to spoon feed him still, but after waiting for him finger feed and seeing him just play, I get desperate. He was in the 30th percentile weight wise when he was 12 months, and now I'm sure he's even less. Many of his twelve month pants just fall right off his hips. But, after worrying about every stage in the past, I have learned one thing: they survive and they eventually get there. I know we will both eventually figure out what he likes to eat, how to present it to him and he will be able to feed himself by third grade :)