First haircut

Carter finally got a hair cut. I asked Damian if we could take him to the salon and then next thing I know, Damian is whipping out the trimmer. I should have known better. Damian had that very same day almost completely hacked down my beloved fig tree under the guise of "trimming it so it won't grow into the neighbor's yard and block the sun for the other plants. Well, I think Damian was out to get revenge for me nagging him incessantly the past two months to start the tradition of taking Carter to go get his hair cut becuase Carter now sports a buzz cut. I do have to say that although he absolutely in no way looks like a baby now, I do kind of like it on him even though buzz cuts are not my favorite style. It suits his spritely personality.

Being home with him this week has been a lot of fun. We have gone to the park, the children's museum and tomorrow we'll go to the pool. He has developed an obsession with the moon and now wants to read every book we have with moons in it. During the day he points to the sky and says "moon" fifty billion times. Tonight there was no moon and we were bummed. He is still obsessed with kitty cats as well. He is insisting on reading Eric Carl's From Head to Toe before every nap and bedtime. He likes moving his body like the animals.

We are enjoying hearing him talk more, dance more and run around all over the place. This is just a precious age seeing his developing personality. He has become so affectionate. One sad development that I thought I was going to escape is that he now cries whenever one of us leaves. It breaks my heart. When Damian goes to work, he asks for him all day long.

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.