He's growing up too quickly!

I can't believe how fast time flies. I have a 18 month old!!

He's learning so much And he understands almost everything we say. I can ask him to look for things for me now and he does it. I couldn't find the remote earlier so I asked him and he ran around until he found it. It was cute.

And he can tell us if he's hurt now and where he's hurt. If he bumps his head or stubs his toe he'll show me where it hurts.

And he's cutting his incisors right now. These have been the worse teeth so far. He's never really been a bad teether though. He's just not sleeping that well, he's drooling a lot, sticking everything in his mouth, and whines while holding the side of his face to tell us it hurts. Poor guy.

That's about it for now. His 18 month appt is in a couple weeks so I'll update after that, if not sooner.

Have a merry Christmas everyone!!




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Hello? It's me again!

Hey everyone! It's been awhile so I thought it'd be time for an update.

Everyone here is doing great. Grant is working ALL THE TIME but he still finds time to be a great father and husband. And he's been doing a lot of studying for certification tests at work. He has another test to past tomorrow then it's on to the next cert. These certificates wood definitely look great on his resume.

I'm doing great also. I got a promotion at work so I'm doing a totally different job now. It's more difficult but this job suits me better. Plus I like a challenge. Overall work is going great. It's nice to have a job that you enjoy doing. And in my spare time I'm playing with Carter.

As for Carter he's doing great as well. He's learning so much it's so surprising. He's able to tell me when/where something huts, which is great, he's able to understand what I'm saying and even communicate back to me when he wants something. He's just so much fun.

Today Carter is 17 months and 13 days old.

Halloween

What a fun Halloween we had. There's a church here in town that we've gone to a couple of times recently and today we worked at their Trunk or Treat festival. Carter had a lot of fun running around and eating way more candy than he should have. It rare that he gets candy so tonight was a big treat for him. Then we came home and went to a few houses in our neighborhood.  Sorry these pictures are blurry, it was dark and I took them with my phone.

 

Here's a picture from Halloween last year for comparison.

Today Carter is 1 year and 4 months old

OMG I suck at blogging so here's an update

So ya, are you seeing a pattern in my absence in this blog? It seems like I'm always apologizing for not posting more often. Here's a brief rundown of our schedule so you can get an idea why;

5:00 am I wake up (unless it's Friday, then it's 4:30) go to work and work from 6:30-3:00 (6:00-2:30 on Fridays). Meanwhile Grant gets up (about an hour after me), gets ready, wakes up Carter, gets Carter ready and takes him to daycare to get to work by 8:00. We both have a half hour commute to and from work. After work I pick Carter up from daycare and we go home and get some mommy-son time for about 2-3 hours everyday. On a good day Grant gets home at 6:00 pm, sometimes later. I usually have Carter fed and mostly worn out by the time Grant gets home but we make it a point to all play together as a family. Around 7-7:30 we start Carter's bedtime routine which includes a shower, PJ's, brushing his teeth and a bedtime story. He's usually in bed around 7:30-8:00. After I pick up the tornado of toys that Carter left behind and clean up the dishes that's when Grant and I get to spend time together, talk about our days and pay attention to Coco. We usually try to get to bed around 9:30 or so. Then lather, rinse and repeat. That's our day in a nutshell so you can see why I'm always running short on time. As busy as we are I wouldn't change a thing, I love our schedule and I think it works great for us.

Okay now for the real reason you read this blog...Carter. Carter is doing great and he's changing so much every day. To make it easier (easier for me, I'm not gonna lie) I'm going to use bullets to update you;

• He's walking (obviously) and getting really good at it. It's weird not carrying him anymore. He walks to his bedroom for bedtime now.
• It seems like every other day he learns a new word. Currently he says; Mama, Dada, what's that, right there, ya, down, duck, bird, moooooo, rawr, dog, more, tree. There's probably more, that's all I can think of.
• He understands a lot of what I say. It's just so weird that I can ask him to do something and he knows what I'm saying, that doesn't mean he does it though. =)
• He is such a ham!! When we're in public he totally flirts with all the ladies. He even blows them kisses, it's so cute!
• He's starting to throw little tantrums. When we come in the house from being outside he'll jump up and down and cry. One thing that will ALWAYS cheer him up? Coco. If Carter is mad, hurt, grumpy or tired it doesn't matter if we call Coco over to him he's all better. 

Carter had his 15 month check up last week and it went well. The pediatrician was very happy with his language development. She said she only expects a 15 month old to say about 3 simple words. She couldn't believe that Carter was saying two word phrases. She said his large motor skills are right on track so next she wants us to work on fine motor skills such as scribbling with a crayon/marker on a piece of paper.

Overall we're all doing great! Another post to come shortly about my favorite memories of Carter and for that one you'll be hearing from both Grant and I.

**UPDATE**
I see now (almost 2 years later) that I never posted Carter's stats. So here they are, although unfortunately I don't remember what percentile he was in:

Height: 29"
Weight: 20 lbs and 7 oz.

Camping

We went camping this last weekend with some friends and had a fabulous time. We stayed at our friend's cabin which was SO nice. It was more like a house than a cabin and it was only about 1/4 mile from the lake. Carter LOVED it too. He's such an outdoor baby. Sunday morning he laid in the hammock for about an hour and hardly moved. It was funny because he was listening to the birds chirp/sing and he was talking back to them. Here's what he looked like;

We had so much fun and I can't wait to go back. We're going camping again Labor Day weekend but with a much larger group. Not sure where we're going yet, there's so many options. Here's the rest of the pictures;

In other news, Carter is cutting a molar. Part of it has already broken through. I didn't even know that he was teething again until I saw it had already started coming in. He currently has his two bottom middle teeth and his four top teeth. I guess he's going to skip a few and go straight to the molars.

Not much else to say. Carter is doing great and staying healthy.

He's almost walking

Carter is SO close to walking. His auntie Jess, uncle Ryan and cousin Cole gave him a lion toy for his birthday that he can either walk behind or sit on and ride. Well until today we've always had it in the position so he could ride on it. Tonight though, I wanted to see if he could walk behind it. Well he caught on very quickly and in no time he was running around the house behind it. Here's a couple of videos that I got.





I know that he could walk without assistance if he'd just let go.That's okay though because I have a hard enough chasing him when he's crawling, I can't imagine how quick he'll be when he's walking.

More

That's the word Carter said for the first time tonight..."more". I've been working on teaching him that word for a few days now and he said clear as day on his first try.

We're all doing great. Carter is so close to walking but he's just not ready to let go yet. He's been ear infection free now for a couple of weeks too and I'm hoping he stays that way.

I still have some blog posts I want to do, I just need time to do it. And I have some very exciting updates about the wedding planning business Alexis and I started.

For now though I will leave you with some photos:







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12 month pictures and updates

I'm a little late on this but better late than never heh? So...my baby is ONE now. Yep, I'm freaking out just a little. =)  

He had his 1 year well visit on Wednesday. The appointment was originally set for last week but he's had ear infection after ear infection so we just incorporated his well visit with a follow up to check his ears. He's had an ear infection off and on for like 2 months now. I don't like it! This last one was the worse, he had a fever for 3 days and he was so miserable. 

Updates from the doctor;

I talked to her about tubes for Carter's ears because of all the infections and she said if he has 1-2 more infections in the near future then she will refer him to a ear nose and throat specialist. Tubes are not something we originally wanted to do but after going through what we've been through the last 2 months we're both considering it now.

 She gave us the go ahead to start switching him over to whole milk. Several months ago she mentioned possibly keeping him on formula for a few months past 1 year old to get the extra calories but she's pleased with his growth and we've come to the conclusion that he's just a smaller than average child (just like Grant was).

 Stats:

Weight; 18 pounds 11 ounces (4th percentile)

 height; 29 1/4" (34th percentile)

Head; 80th percentile

While his weight was low it's actually pretty good considering he's been sick off and on for 2 months. I was real happy to see his height jump up so much because he's usually around the 15th percentile.

Carter is continuing to do well, even being sick. He's actually crawling now, which is funny. He started "scooting" around, more like an army crawl, at like 7 months or something but just recently realized that it's easier and faster to crawl on his hands and knees. It's so cute to watch him because I'm not used to seeing that. He wants to walk so bad. He will pull himself up onto anything (including a wall) and walk holding onto it. His favorite thing to do is to pull himself up on the TV stand, walk around the bookshelf, then walk all the way down the hall by scaling the wall. It's hilarious.

He's talking so much more now. He's not saying many words, it's more gibberish, but he thinks he's talking. He will carry on a conversation with himself for awhile.

We got Carter's one year pictures taken last weekend and they turned out so good. They actually turned out so good that instead of buying prints I spent way too much money and bought the CD of all the images with the full rights to them all. Haha. I'm not going to post them here until we have a chance to give them out to family and friends...but I will give you a little preview.

I have pictures from his party that I will be posting soon!



Today Carter is 1 year, 1 week and 2 days old.

Carter's first birthday party

This is just a quick post to say that Carter's first birthday party far exceeded my expectations. It turned out perfect. I had so much fun planning it. I'll be posting more about it including lots of pictures as soon as I have a free moment, but in the mean time I'll leave you with a teaser picture.



Here's the cake. It turned out so much better than I expected. It was a hard cake to make (yes I made it).





Today Carter is 3 days away from turning 1 year old!!! :)


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Father's day!

Father's day was great. I wanted to make this father day, Grant's first father's day, a very special one...so I bought him a motorcycle. You have no idea how much he wanted one. I don't like the idea of him riding it but he was going to get one no matter what so I thought I should just be the one to get it for him. He was so surprised/excited/shocked, he had NO idea he was getting it. 

He loves it!

11 month photos...finally!

I know you've all been sitting in front of your computer waiting for this moment, Carter's 11 month photos. I won't keep you waiting any longer, so here you go;

Here you can see his teeth. He has 5 in so far and the 6th one should be here soon.






Today Carter is 11 months and 3 weeks old

Wow, I should be fired from my own blog...

Seriously...it's okay to fire me. I haven't posted for almost a month. You wanna hear something even worse than that? I haven't even taken Carter's 11 month pictures. Yep, that's right it's more than 2 weeks past the day he turned 11 months. Oops.


Updates;

*Carter is doing great. A few ear infections here and there but he's such a trooper. He had an ear infection in May, then took him in again June 5th because he had another one in his other ear, then during his follow up appointment a week later BOTH ears were infected, then today, at his second follow up appointment, only one ear has cleared up. Honestly though, you'd never even know he was sick. He's such a great baby.

*He's trying to walk unassisted. He cruises along ALL of the furniture and pulls up on anything and everything near him but won't let go yet. He's so funny, he pulls himself up on the TV stand, cruises along it to the bookshelf, then around the corner to the hallway and will walk all the way down the hallway scaling the wall.

*Carter's birthday is just around the corner. I'm so excited for his party. It's going to be so cute and fun. I've been having so much fun planning it.

Oh and I mentioned all those doctor appointments before? Well he gets weighed at all of them so here's his stats;
June 5th; 17 pounds 4 oz
June 11th; 18 pounds
June 17th; 18 pounds 9 oz


Yes, that's right in just 12 days he gained almost 1 and a half pounds. This is great because he needs to gain weight. He's now in the 4th percentile, go Carter. You wouldn't believe how much this kid eats though, it's ridiculous.

I can't even explain how cute he is...so I'll show you! =)

Today Carter is 11 months 2 weeks and 3 days old

Updates

I see it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything. Well, everyone is doing great. Carter is growing too fast. He's not crawling on his hands and knees yet, and I don't think he will, but he sure does get around by scooting. He's showing a lot more interest in walking now too. He pulls himself up on anything and everything he can get his hands on and he loves to stand. Lately his new favorite thing is to stand in the crib and jump. It's really cute. The crib mattress is lowered all the way and the drop side is up so there's no way he could get out.

Carter LOVES daycare. He even has a little "girlfriend" there and they like to share toys and get in trouble together. I think Carter's best friend of all is Coco though. It's so cute, if Carter is upset or crying all we have to do is call Coco over and he's all better. It works wonders, lol.

There's not much else going on. His 1st birthday party is just a little over 5 weeks away, I can't wait.

Today Carter is 10 months, 2 weeks and 6 days old.

10 month pictures

Yep it's that time again. Time for Carter's monthly pictures. Every month I say it but I can't believe it's been another month. His 1 year birthday is NEXT MONTH!!! I'm starting to do a little planning for his party and while I'm so shocked that my baby is going to be a year old I'm so exciting to be throwing him a birthday party. 

Here are some pictures that were taken over the last couple of weeks. 

Carter doesn't have another appointment until July 1st, his 1 year check up, so I won't have his official weight or length until then. But in the mean time I may get it myself.

Carter has been doing so good! I swear his is the BEST baby that I've ever met.  He's learning so much, you can just see him take everything in that his little (well big, really) eyes are capable of. Here are some things that he's up to now a days;

* Clapping (if I say "yay" or "good job" he will clap)
* Pulling himself up to stand
* Plays Peek-a-boo
* Feeds himself finger foods
* Tries to walk while holding our hands
* Still not crawling on hands and knees but he can scoot really fast =)
* Recognizes words like; mama, dada, coco, grandpa, fan, no, Carter
* He knows the work"No!" really well. When I say no he immediately drops whatever he's doing/holding/trying to eat

I'm sure there's more but it's late and that's all I can think of.

A couple of weekends ago Grant and I took Carter up to his his great grandparents in Oregon. They live in a beautiful house just 2 blocks from the beach. We had a great time. Carter did so well on the 6 hour drive on the way there and back. Here are some pictures from that trip;

Well this post is already long enough and I'm pretty sure there's some kind of cap on how many pictures can be posted so I'll save my post about my newly-almost-completely-painted kitchen. It turned out really good!











Today Carter is 10 months and 4 days old