We were supposed to be sushi...

Can't you tell??? Ha ha. I think Carter looks more like Luke Skywalker in some pictures. Damian is mad that Carter had to wear tights. "Mantyhose" is what I call them. Gabe's costume is designed to be a sushi roll, while Carter's bodysuit is the actual rice and the tuna is the pillow on the back tied with seaweed green ribbon. I got the idea from one of the billions of parenting magazines I keep receiving though I have never bought a subscription. Halloween was sad this year because I was out of town with Damian and Gabe and the grandparents took Carter trick or treating. I wish I could have been there for that. We went to Austin for a conference and had a nice time though. Damian got to bond with Gabe back in the hotel while I was at the conference and we got to hit all our favorite Austin restaurants during my free time.

At home

Gabriel and Carter remained great buds during week two. Carter loves kissing Gabe's hair and still remains fascinated by the baby. Gabe is awake a little more now, but still remains a very quiet baby. I expect the colicky crying for no apparent reason to begin soon, so I am enjoying this while it lasts.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what foods I can eat while nursing. I recall strawberries being on the list of problematic foods and Gabe seemed to be really uncomfortable yesterday. So I am going to abstain from strawberries to see if I notice a difference.

Introducing Gabriel

Gabriel Ryan- Carter's younger brother was born Thursday, October 1st weighing 8 lbs. 15 oz. He has lots of dark hair and blue eyes. He shares a birthday with his father which I think is pretty cool.

Carter loves the "beebee" as he calls Gabriel. He loves to point and smile at him and come up and say, "Hi." He comments on Gabriel's tendency to, "ni nap" (his new combination phrase of saying night night and nap at the same time). The only thing that really disturbs him is when Gabe cries. He has a very shrill shriek and a loud cry which causes Carter to cry too if he's not expecting it. I notice that if I say that Gabe is about to cry, he handles it much better.

We are very thankful he is healthy. I am particularly grateful that the pediatrician noticed right away that he was tongue tied and that it was corrected with a frenectomy that same day. It has made breastfeeding possible which makes all the difference in the world.

We look forward to posting more stories about Gabe, so stay tuned. Here are some pics.

Day in the park

We went to the park today. It was fun. We bought bread, but Carter got too distracted to make it all the way to the ducks. He was happy watching the train, playing with pebbles and running through the water.

Willie Nilly

Carter loves Willie, our very patient and loving cat. I wish Willie could live forever. I don't know if I'll ever find another cat so fabulous as he.

Labor Day weekend

first trip to Discovery Green
Fascinating water faucets

Fascinating fountaingrass

"I want outside!!!!"

Well I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It seems as though Carter is going to learn to talk just fine. This week he has ammassed many new words to his vocabulary and more two word sentences. He is constantly jibber jabbering and it's so much fun to hear his little voice always working. The doctor only wanted to see 20 words by 18 months and he is well over that, so I am relieved. I guess not every baby needs to babble before learning how to talk. Hopefully I won't worry so much with the next one.

Carter is interested in "seeing" everything now. He always asks to "see" whenever we are washing dishes (meaning pick me up and let me see the sink with the bubbles in it). He loves to help organize laundry. He said quite clearly the other day, "Iwandattowel" then spent 20 more minutes pulling out every towel and saying, "datatowel" He loves pulling out the towels, requesting them, etc. Usually, he unfolds everything I've folded, but if I ask him to find his "pajamas" or look for "shirts" he will rummage through and pull them out and say "more" each time he finds something of the same category. Last night he listened to me and put away all of his "jammies" in his pajama drawer so he was actually helpful! I am excited to see this of course :)

Aside from that, he is really still into the same stuff as last week. Still infatuated with the alphabet, itsy bitsy spiders, and everything that "goes." He is under the weather this week, but he now blows his nose just fine so we don't have to use that suction thing anymore. He is drooling constantly and acts like his mouth hurts when eating rough foods so we think he's getting some more molars. Fortunately, he's eating normal portions again this week. At the beginning of the week he went a few days seriously only eating a few bites of yogurt and a banana the whole day. Even my laid back mother-in-law started to try and spoon feed him again just to try to get him to eat something. But now I mash a Flinstones vitamin up into a powder and give him that just to make sure he gets his iron and I can relax.

Carter is about 3 weeks away from getting a new brother. He loves to lift up my shirt and pat/slap my tummy. We are all getting excited. I am finally to the point where I want this baby out even though it means I won't be sleeping much. I can't sleep well anyway right now and I'm tired of all the pregnancy symptoms. I am amazed that I have typed so much today. I started this post a few days ago and after three sentences, my hands were numb from the carpal tunnel syndrome I always get in late pregnancy. Anyway, I am going to sign off and go take some pictures of Carter outside in his new little outfit.

Paparazzi

Yes, I even follow him into the bathtub. He never gets one ounce of privacy. I tried to not reveal anything potentially embarrassing to him in the future. I hadn't taken any bathtime pictures since he was four months old. I feel like since I have been cooped up inside most of the summer due to the heat, I haven't really gotten to take pictures of Carter doing anything that he hasn't already been photographed doing. Except bathtime. I wish I could access the 4 month old bathtime shots, but they are on a disk somewhere and I'm too lazy to find them.

Carter turned 18 months old this week. He had his Dr. appointment and everything is looking good. I learned that I have to trust him to feed himself. No more feeding food to him to get him to eat more than three bites. I need to believe that he can survive off air alone. So I have been pretty good. I haven't encouraged him to eat any more than he wants to even when I feel like he hasn't eaten enough. She doesn't mind that he was in the 75th percentile weightwise when he was born and now is in the 25th, so I guess I don't need to either.

He is rapidly turning into a 2 year old. He is talking a lot more, making a ton of different sound effect noises and sometimes learning three new words in one day. He is currently working on all words with the "oo" and "ee" sound, and this week his new words are shoe, choo choo, hoot hoot, woo woo, wee! bee, pea, me, momMY, see, turtle, and knee. He loves the alphabet song and identifying the letter decals on his wall. He says almost all of them and the cutest is when he says "W." He is also sounding like he is trying to say a wide variety of two word sentences but we can't make out what he means.

He has what seems like at least 20, lay down on the floor, kick and cry temper tantrums per day. The poor guy is constantly getting things confiscated due to his creative uses of riding toys as stepping stools.

When he is not rebelling though, he is the same old sweet, loving and amusing Carter.

Some examples of how he keeps us amused:

1. He will say "wow" about 200 times in one grocery store visit. He doesn't use an indoor voice.

2. He makes the fish sound by stroking his fingers down his lips to go "blub blub" even though when water drains from the bathtub, he makes the same exact sound without using his fingers.

3. He sniffs the flowers on my flower print maternity top.

4. He runs behind a table, ducks down and hides even when he is in plain view in order to avoid getting dressed, going to bed, etc.

5. He says "hmm" whenever he opens a closet to pick what to wear and when he is trying to figure out where a puzzle piece fits.

6. He knows exactly which buttons to push to lock the car and honk its horn, to turn on the tv, dvd player and the computer, and hang up the phone mid conversation.

7. He rides the cat like a horse

8. He points to things that are against the rules and says "ah ah" as in "no no." but then breaks the rules anyway.

9. Will often go to time out corner willingly as soon as you say, "If you keep that up, you're going to time out."

Here is a list of his current favorite things

1.trucks -all

2. brushes- all (bottle, hair, tooth, etc.) He likes to drag them along the floor and sweep with them.

3. Riding toys-all

4. books about trucks- all

5. animal books

6. making animal sounds-all

7. nursery rhymes/finger plays involving tickling

8. Hide and seek

9. puzzles, shape sorting, block building , nesting/stacking cups

10. scribbling on the magnadoodle, making requests for mommy to draw the moon, bananas, milk,water, turtles and kitty cats

11. butterflies

12. bananas, sweet potato, fruit, fruit bars

13. bubbles

14. the moon

15. cats and dogs

16. his stuffed animals

17. Sleeping with lovey dog, lovey bear, santa bear, blue satin blanket, frog, Yurtle the Turtle and Horton the elephant

18. Mommy and Me nursery rhyme DVD