Traveling our summer away...

Well, it's fitting that this post comes almost 3 months after the last one, posted right after his first steps. Carter is on the move...we officially have a toddler, and it's awesome. He is so much fun! He went from walking one day to running the next! He falls a lot, but gets back up laughing, most of the time...and those other times, when he gets mad that his legs won't move as quickly as he would like, we just try to distract the cries away. We went to visit his aunt and 4 cousins in Dallas, his grandma and grandpa in Indianapolis, and his GG and grandpa in Seattle right after he started walking, and he spent every possible moment outside, watching for airplanes, throwing rocks, and just enjoying the cool Northwest air!  He did really well on all the flights until the flight to Seattle....he gave his mom and dad quite a time on that plane ride, and we now know what those parents with the inconsolable child feel like, hiding in the gally of the plane, pulling out every possible trick to get their smiling happy baby back! As soon as the plane landed, our little flirt started waving and smiling at the other passengers, and didn't even notice that they wanted absolutely nothing to do with the toddler that had ruined their flight! Ha. Oh well, we still love him to pieces, and life goes on! We had an amazing trip, soaking up all the love...and babysitting... of his sweet grandparents that are currently located way too far away from us! And he had quite an adjustment to life with just mom for entertainment when we returned! Although we considered taking a bus home... we survived the flight back without any issues. So we will just blame his molars coming in for the horrific flight out there!

He is growing so quickly and learning so much every day...and he has started intentionally hugging us... which is the absolute sweetest thing in the world! He is a bit attached to his mama these days (and after all the time we've spent together these past 15 months, I have to admit I'm a bit attached to him too!), but we're working on getting him comfortable with other caretakers, and as long as he doesn't see me leave, he's fine with anyone.  He is talking ALL the time, and I am in a constant struggle to decode the "words" he creates. "ba" (ball) and "da" (dog) and "peeza" (pizza) are his favorites...but here are just a few others:
 "Minnana" = Banana
"ooo-ba" - Football
 "ama ama"= his Llama, Llama, Red Pajama book
"weeee"= swing
"da!" accompanied with two arms in the air= touchdown
"mo"= more
"nanana" while pointing emphatically= do what I am pointing at right now, or I will continue to point and raise the volume of my voice until you do.
And of course... "NO"... he figured that one out right away ;)

But he has a number of other sounds that are clearly words to him... I just haven't figured them all out yet! Thank goodness he has become such a good sleeper at night (and he naps 2-3 hours in the afternoon! at least he has for the past few weeks....) because we need the rest to keep up with him!

Here are some pics from our travels.


DALLAS:

INDIANAPOLIS:

Bedtime in the hotel in Indy

Romantic dinner in the hallway of the hotel so as not to wake our super-light sleeper 

When flying was still enjoyable- or at least , manageable

SEATTLE:

Our 8th Anniversary dinner at Pike's Place Market

Grandpa and Carter's matching shoes

Walking and Talking!

Within the past two weeks, one year old Carter has started growing up and changing so fast! He is now saying new words all the time... Tree, gate, ball, egg, dog, pizza (that's an adorably tough one that comes out really fast sounding like peee-sa), and our personal favorite "out!" accompanied by bouncing and dancing as he tries to escape from his crib. :)

And today... he officially started walking (or taking more than a few accidental steps while falling toward the ground!). He has shown little interest in walking, besides pushing toys around, but at the park yesterday he watched as a bunch of boys ran by and got so excited that he took 3 wobbly, wild steps without even meaning to! He fell, looked at me excitedly and turned around to start trying again. By this morning, he had figured it out! And our morning has been all about walking, crashing, and lots of clapping and cheering...and now a nice long nap. This kid is awesome.

June 2012- Birthday Boy!

My first year as a mom is a blur...yes, it sped by quickly, and I somehow became one of those moms who wakes up tearful on their child's birthday...longing for some way to freeze time.  I already miss those quiet newborn grunts and stretches, and the memory of that first gummy grin still melts my heart.  Then again, I remember so vividly those days of impatiently watching the seconds tick by as my newborn baby boy slept away the day, watching him and wondering what he would look like as a toddler and who he would grow up to be.  And here we are... the parents of a toddler, who is always on the move and quickly becoming a very independent little boy!

 He isn't walking yet but is happy to push his toys around at a good clip and can almost outrun the dogs with his crawling speed (at least he thinks he can). He crashes into walls, toys, fireplaces, piano stools (he's a bit of a dare devil- awesome for his anxious mom ;)), and for the most part, he's pretty tough and laughs and claps with me as we dust ourselves off and move onto the next adventure.  That is, unless some unsuspecting visitor happens to move in to make too big of a deal over a non-injury and overly comforts our little thespian... then he pulls out his pretty impressive drama skills and starts reaching and crying (while strategically avoiding his mom, as she rolls her eyes- haha).  He is so full of personality and so fun to hang out with each day. He's mastered going up and down the stairs, he eats all the time and we cannot keep enough fruit in the house for this little giant (I am at the grocery store at least 3-4 times a week for bananas, pears, and cantaloupe). He loves attention, especially from women, and can create quite a buzz at the Green Hills Kroger as I push a cart up and down the aisles with my total flirt of a child waving, smiling, and doing all that he can to get a smile in return.  He has started dancing to music (or more bouncing and rocking back and forth on his knees), and when he hears a song he recognizes, he starts bouncing and laughing...(I'm seriously addicted to this kid's laugh, and as with any addiction, there isn't anything I won't do to get it...and if that means jumping around and singing along to "Call Me Maybe" in our kitchen, then so be it :)).

The dogs are getting used to the 7th member of of our family, and each morning, when the monitor lights up, I say "Let's go get the baby!" and four dogs thunder up the stairs and wait, tails wagging enthusiastically, for me to open the door. And sweet Nemo grabs his chew toy and runs downstairs when I say "nap time", since he is the one dog who can't control his (abnormally high volume) barking.  Much to Gamer's displeasure, Carter has started to take a new level of interest in his furry family members... and he stops and looks at me before petting each one and waits as I say "gentle," and then he lightly pats the air, hardly touching them. But Gamer, being the high maintenance little diva she is, will leap up, totally offended by his touch...yet, she won't leave the room and instead jumps back and forth between the couch and the ottoman. She secretly loves the attention.

 Most importantly, we celebrated our baby boy's first birthday on June 27th! On the actual day, he gorged himself on spaghetti and vanilla cupcakes with mom and dad, and the following weekend we celebrated again with some friends, family, and homemade confetti cake with chocolate icing! He was a bit overwhelmed with all the attention at his party, but that didn't keep him from taking a break from his meltdowns to dive into the cake!

Birthday #1 with Mom and Dad

 Birthday #2

 His aunt Anne came to visit and brought lots of gifts to spoil her favorite nephew! 

And he was spoiled with more gifts! A chair from his godmother Becca, trucks and cars from his cousins, clothes from the grandmas, and lots more toys from his growing fan club :)

Mom and dad snuck out on a date night-- horibble movie choice, but the wine beforehand made it enjoyable anyway :)

Our independent, inquisitive, attention-seeking, fun-loving, wild, little man!

I love having a toddler.. LOVE it. Toddlers always intimidated me in the past...but now that I know one so well, I am fascinated by these itty bitty humans! We have yet to experience a tantrum or public meltdown though...so we'll see how I feel in a few months! At this point, I am still hanging out on cloud 9, spending my days with the coolest little guy in the world (or at least in our world :))!

Sick baby :(

Carter was sick last week, and it was just awful! I used to worry about how I would know if a baby had some illness... And then my happy, active, constantly-babbling baby woke up screaming... proceeded to scream all through breakfast (even bananas!) and didn't stop until he was passed out on his dad's chest with cartoons on in the background. So, when Tylenol didn't help, we called the doctor, and they said to bring him in.

Our little guy had a fever of 103 and was diagnosed with some brutal (because any virus that targets this boy must be especially awful ;)) virus that is apparently most commonly spread through pools (and we have a pool-obsessed baby who wants to dunk his head under every chance he gets!)
So... we put ourselves on "house arrest" for the weekend and took turns snuggling this sweet pitiful baby for 3 days. :(

He's better now so I can say this... while it was absolutely heart-wrenching to see my sweet baby sick and suffering, the only silver lining was that he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around us for 3 days straight. And there is just something so absolutely precious about a baby finding comfort in us, that the napless days and long nights were so totally worth it. God sure knew what he was doing when he created us moms and dads! Being a parent has to be THE hardest but BEST gift in the world...sick whining baby or not :)