Our last week of summer waaaaaaaaahhh

Summer will live on for Carter, but not for Mommy. I have to go back to work next Tuesday and I am trying to relax and savor these last moments. Nevertheless, it's hard when you have three months of maternity lesson plans to make a dent in, and a major case of nesting going on where you feel this urge to start shifting Carter's nursery into the office which will eventually house both boys.

Carter is feeling no stress though fortunately. His cut is healing nicely, although he still talks about it constantly. In a desperate attempt to declutter my mind, I boxed up 2/3 of his toys and bought some bins to put the toys on a rotating system so he will continually have some novelty in his life. The house is much less cluttered and he seems to be playing longer with each toy now.

This week he finally started building blocks again. He started at 12 months stacking a couple blocks, but in spite of my encouragement, he found greater joy in knocking them all down, and that's all he did until I recently decided to run with his favorite word, "On" and tell him that I was putting the block "on" the other block. He took notice and now he likes to say "on" and "off" when attaching and detatching Duplos.

I also cleaned all the "I'm a clueless new mom books" out of my closet since I feel like an old pro now at dealing with babies. I went to Half Price to trade them in for new books for Carter. I got $40!!! That bought Carter about 8 new books. He especially loves the Scholastic On the Go book that has like every truck that exists in the entire universe in it. Since he can stare at those static trucks for several minutes saying, "Wow!" I thought he would really love me if I could show him those trucks in action. So I introduced Carter to some YouTube videos about excavators, bulldozers, dumptrucks and firetrucks. Sure enough, I am mom of the year in his book now, and I have learned a thing or two myself. For instance - a bulldozer does more than push things around, it also has a ripper that rips up dirt. Fascinating stuff. I'm on my way. Maybe Youtube can teach me football, baseball and all the other sports in easy to digest five minute videos.

Carter also loves garbage trucks. He used to be fascinated with digging through the trashcan until he mastered the words "ew" and "yuk" and now he treats the trashcan like the plague. The same thing happened with the word "hot." Once he learned that word, we identified many household dangers as "hot" so he would stay away, and he does. This worked for electrical outlets, water heaters, stoves and ovens.

Carter has really gotten into nursery rhymes too now that he's seen the animated versions of all the major ones on Youtube. He is doing the hand gestures to the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "This Is the Way We Wash Our Hands" songs.

In spite of my efforts to put off exposing Carter to tv until he is two, I have fallen victim to Desperate Housewife syndrome where I just run out of energy at some point in the day and feel the need to have a child who will sit still on the couch for thirty minutes. So we have started one show a day. Usually it's "Yo Gabba Gabba," "Thomas" or this dvd on nursery rhymes I got for free. It is freaky how drugged he looks when he watches tv. He barely talks and doesn't always dance along or move his hands along to the songs unless I physically make him, but I know it's going in there becuase if I say anything that even loosely resembles something he has seen on tv, he will go to the tv and insist on turning it on. The sad thing is, that now there is no turning back. Nothing indoors beats the tv. He asks constantly for the tv to be turned on. I wish I could take him outside more often, but I can't take this heat at any point in the day.

Anyway, that basically sums up this last week of summer. I am not looking forward to going back to work, but I take comfort knowing that I will be off again soon. I will be a sleepless zombie with my hands full of two high maintenance little guys, but I will be home again.

Carter's collision with mommy's behind

Carter peeping through the hole in his bouncer

Carter has an obsession with bananas- peels and all.

Carter enjoying sandbox time outside

Well Carter is 17months now and I am proud that I have kept him alive that long. After this week, I am even more thankful for that. Carter was helping me fold laundry Monday morning and when I got up to put away some towels, he came running around the table and I accidentally bumped into him with my behind. His head fell against the edge of a shelf in the kitchen and left a small gash. I was home alone and wasn't sure what to do except stop the bleeding. Damian told me to take him to the Dr. before the emergency room and that's when I found out he needed a few stitches. He didn't have to have traditional stitches though becuase now they have some newfangled glue.

He refers to his "boo boo" many times during the day. Each time he says it with the saddest voice and a very solemn look while pointing to his forehead. He just melts my heart with his cuteness. I am just hoping that the scar fades well.

He loves hide and seek right now especially when Daddy is around. He also loves his new castle bouncer that his sweet, slightly insane father blew up with his own lungs when he couldn't find the adapter to the pump.

He is becoming more interested in faces and emotions, watching me draw familiar things like cats and fish (the only things I can draw), certain commercials on tv and climbing into toy trucks, boxes, and standing up on dangerous things such as the coffee table, his rocking horse.

He reads for longer times now and is filling in the words I leave out when I read books. My favorite book to read is, Moo Baa La La La becuase he sounds so cute making all the sounds.

This week he added the sound, "dong dong" to his vocabulary when we sing the tic tock song. He also said "boo boo," "poo poo," "ni ni" for night night and, "na na" or "bona" when referring to a bananna.

He loves to say "nana" and if it were up to him, every meal would have a banana.

He is super friendly with others. He loves to approach another person/baby, wave and lean in to kiss them. I think he is going to enjoy having another baby around even though I know it will be a big adjustment for him.

Fourth of July 16 months and almost 2 weeks old!

My my my. My baby is turning into a boy really really fast. This week he has had a fever, but seems to be getting better now. Saturday I enjoyed a mom's day out to get a pedicure and a massage which was much enjoyed becuase I pulled something in my upper back when I picked Carter up out of his crib. Then I got home and played with Carter for the rest of the day. In the evening on the way home from Grandpop's house, we saw fireworks. Carter kept saying, "Boom boom boom." He enjoyed them, but his favorite is still a sighting of the moon.

Today he "helped" Damian in the garden. He played in his sandbox and I enjoyed misting him with water.

This was the first week where Carter started mixing longer strings of sounds into sentences that I cannot understand yet but I am excited to be hearing new sounds coming out of him. He has begun saying, "Done," "choo choo, bubba (bubbles), and "boom boom." He is also starting to say "daddy" sometimes instead of "dada." He is working on learning how to say, "oh yeah" which is what one of his musical tables says and he smiles every time he hears it.

Not sugar and spice and everything nice

Here is Carter's favorite play medium: a birdbath at my parent's house that he fills with mud.

Carter at Cousin Dave's

Two weeks ago we went to my second cousin's graduation. Carter fell in love with their cat. He loves all cats, but this one was perfect-soft and sweet.

One of those days you laugh about later

Well it all started out so beautifully. We woke up, had delicious applesauce pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. We began preparing for the dinner we were going to grill this evening. Around 2:15 we went to a get together at the pool and had a wonderful afternoon swimming. Afterward we were pretty tired, but Carter had already napped so I watched Carter while Damian took a nap. Carter was in great spirits for about an hour and a half afterward when all the sudden he started smacking his lips like he does when he's hungry. He also clutched his tummy. I told him I would get his food ready, and he followed me into the kitchen. During the next fifteen minutes he became so fussy, that I couldn't believe it.

When the food was ready, he was so upset he wouldn't eat or drink anything. His body was all tense and he looked like he was in severe internal pain. He was screaming for "Dada" and so I woke Damian up. Even when Damian tried to comfort him he wouldn't calm down, he only became worse. So we got in the car and started to drive to the emergency room scared to death that he had swallowed something sharp. I knew he had a poopy diaper, but was in such a rush to get to the hospital that I didn't change it.

Luckily, when we got into the car and began to drive, he calmed down. We drove all the way to the hospital and by the time we were almost there, he was playing peekaboo with me. So we drove back home. When we got inside the house, the screaming started all over again, but I was less worried this time so I changed his diaper. That was when we discovered he had developed a diaper rash. It was so bad that he couldn't even walk right. After we put the ointment on it, he was a mess. The only thing that calmed him down was going outside. However, considering we had already spent so much time outside today and it was miserably hot, I was not keen on being out there. He would only be happy inside when Damian was inside and burst into tears every time Damian or I put him down. In hindsight, I should not have told Damian to go ahead and grill the chicken since every time Damian went out to check the grill, Carter had a meltdown.

The roughness continued. Bathtime was awful becuase Carter could not even sit in the water without it hurting him. He would not eat anything during this whole time. (He had also eaten very little at lunch). He was so fussy and overtired. But fortunately, when we all sat down for dinner, I managed to get him to eat yogurt with rice cereal mixed into it which has worked before when he has gone on hunger strikes. Phew! After he ate, he was in better spirits and fortunately went down to bed without the huge drama we were expecting. So Dad, now WE have a story that we will someday tell our poor Carter ad nauseum. :)

cuddling with Willie and rocking his horse

Carter loves to cuddle with his cat and rock his horse. And play with the diaper bin.