Christmas and other

Christmas morning was at my parents house in Burley. Carter's attention span was very short this morning-as it always is. When he woke up that morning we had his new slide sitting out and his "Little People's Farm" all set up. He squealed when he saw them, tried them both out and then promptly left the room in search of the kitties.

Side Story of the slide-while we were all opening presents Carter decided to push his new slide around on the wood floors. He was pushing it in front of the stairs and bumped the slide into the wall (can you tell where this is going?), lost his balance, and then proceeded to tumble all the way down the stairs. Almost in slow motion, head over feet, just rolling. I screamed and went running. He wasn't hurt at all but was quite shaken up and was scared to walk or even stand for about an hour. He just wanted to be held and sit in our laps. Luckily we were pretty much done with presents when this happened.

He enjoyed tearing the paper off the presents, piece by piece.

The happy, unshowered family on Christmas morning. This was shortly after the stairs incident so Carter refused to smile.

Now onto the life of an 18 month old. He started Nursery. He loves it and his parents love it even more. I'm not sure the nursery teachers love us though, with all our rules and scares with a little boy with severe allergies.
He loves to climb. The kitchen table is his favorite. We keep our laptop up there on occasion and he likes to climb up and "Check his email."

Carter still loves kitties and he chased Grandma's kitty all weekend.

Carter's talking is just getting better and better every day. He is up to 3 word sentences and repeats everything we say. He is quite attached to his daddy and if he should ever leave the room, or even his sight, Carter asks, without fail "Daddy go work?" If Neil is in the bathroom, Carter is right there at the door, pounding and yelling Daddy! He recently master opening doors and so sometimes, much to Neil's chagrin, he would join Daddy in the bathroom! Thank heavens for child proof handles and locks on doors!

Carter will now tell us when he is poopy and when he would like a fresh diaper. He uses the word poopy for real poop and for a really wet diaper. Every morning when we go and get him up he announces "I poopy." And yes he is. His newest thing is to hand us his stuffed monkey and tell us "monkey poopy." So we put monkey on the changing table for a turn. He gets quite a kick out of that. But man, that monkey sure poops a lot! I don't need anyone else to change and wipe though.

He is very active and very loud. I'm not sure why we bought him any Christmas presents when he still prefers the measuring cups out of the cupboard!

We love SOY!

I recently discovered that the local Smith's Marketplace has a great selection of Vegan products and other specialty items. Carter has been begging for "bites" of my yogurt every morning so when a friend told me of Smith's Soygurt, I went right there that day. They have been a big hit with Carter. I have been putting food coloring in the vanilla flavored stuff because he wasn't keen on that, until it became bright pink.

He also enjoys Neopolatin Soy Ice Cream as well. He is a little wary of the frigid cold as he has never had anything like it. I really hesitate to call this ice cream because ice cream is delicious and Soy Dream (the correct name) is awful. It is a little like eating dirt with different flavorings mixed in. But I guess if you don't know any differently..........or if you've never tasted dirt. I have actually tasted both ice cream and dirt and prefer the ice cream!

I just hope this gives Carter a little more normalcy in his life. Just a fair warning.....All those invited to later birthday parties will probably have to endure this awfulness!

18 months

Carter is 18 months old. He is such a sweet little boy.......until we enter the portrait studio. He refused to smile or sit still. He kept saying "done" over and over again. I am very sorry I taught him that word. And even sadder the he understands how to use it in context! We did manage to catch a few decent ones though.

He didn't cry during this photo shoot but he was super serious the whole time. I was in the background acting like a fool, just hoping to crack a smile!

He refused to put the ball down, once he saw it, but at least he is smiling right?

This is one of my favorites. The only reason he is smiling here is because he is squirming down from the bench. We didn't pose him this way.

Other happenings......
We all caught the nasty stomach flu this month. Carter just wanted to lay in my bed with the pillows propped up and the blankets covering him. It is the only time he has stopped moving since Dec. of LAST year! I was worried about my dry-clean only bedspread though so he didn't get to stay here long.

Walking has deepened Carter's love for the outdoors. He loves walking outside in his new boots although he hasn't figured out that he can still use his hands, even with gloves on.

I'm not sure why I bother putting his books on the bookshelf. Maybe if I kept them on the floor, he would want to put them away instead of ripping them down. Carter has mastered saying "clean up" but has not realized that it is a verb and requires action on his part!



This picture really needs no explanation. Our Santa visit was short but not very sweet. If Carter could have calmed down a bit, I'm sure he would asked for some cheese and ice cream!
PS-I swear this Santa was a woman.............

Look who's walking!

After 17 months, 20 days and lots of worrying from his mother, Carter decided to join the ranks of the walkers club! Last night he just decided to walk. He's been able to do it for quite a while now but hasn't wanted to. The break through came when he wanted to carry the ketchup bottle over to his hot dog but couldn't figure out how to hold it while crawling. I brilliantly suggested walking and POW-he was off! He still isn't the steadiest on his feet but I think he's doing quite well for just taking off last night. The therapist who evaluated him said he wouldn't take a couple of steps at first, he would just take off. It's so weird to hear him playing in his room and then look up and he's walking out around the corner instead of crawling. And just seeing him walk from one place to another! Occasionally he will crawl but I just have to remind him to stand up.

The only problem with his found freedom, is that he has discovered climbing........

Without further ado-I present Carter walking. (sorry for the horrible quality, I'm not very good behind a camera.)

Carter's Other Loves

Carter's true love is OUTSIDE. That is his favorite word to say and we hear it about a million times a day. He thinks every time I get him dressed, that automatically means we are going outside! He is constantly asking to go outside and when we agree and say let's go he gets so excited! He knows in order to go outside he has to go and get his shoes and his coat. So he goes and grabs his coat and shoes and brings them to us and squeals "outside" until we finally get out there.


He is finally progressing in his desire to walk. He loves to walk holding your hand and will actually ask to walk. His favorite of course, is to "walk outside."

He is happy to walk forever outside. Once he gets tired of walking he still wants to be outside so daddy is nice enough to give him a lift.
He loves the outside so much that he doesn't care about the weather. This day he was determined to be outside so I bundled us up and we braved the blowing snow for a few minutes before I dragged him in. (He refused to wear gloves so we couldn't stay long) I'm not sure he can feel cold.

Carter's second love is hot dogs. If he's not asking to go outside he is asking for a hot dog. All day long he begs for hot dogs. I try and limit him to one hot dog a day although he would eat one for every meal.



He cannot have a hot dog without his ketchup. He can even say ketchup now and doesn't start eating his hot dog until he has that ketchup to dip it in.
This picture is of Carter getting into the fridge while his hot dog is cooking. He knew right where the ketchup was and grabbed it out!

He can't have the normal kid foods such as chicken nuggets and Mac N Cheese so I am glad he can enjoy the American Classic: The Hot Dog!

First Chocolate Chip Cookie

Because of Carter's allergies he has never had a chocolate chip cookie before since all the chocolate chips contain milk. But thanks to Grandma E he enjoyed his very first chocolate chip cookie today! (She found an internet site that sells TONS of vegan things for people with alleriges) And it was a huge success-he ate that cookie faster than I've ever seen and kept saying "yum" over and over.



The only cookies he's ever had is the cereal "cookie crisp." So he knows how to say cookie and when I asked him if he wanted a cookie, he said "cookie please." We have a whole box of premade milk free cookies and a whole bag of milk free chocolate chips to make our own! We are so excited-Thanks grandma.

Yes he is still in his pajamas and ate this cookie at 8:30 a.m. I was planning on saving the cookie for after lunch but he found the box of them and I couldn't resist giving him his first cookie!

Seattle

I went to Seattle last month to help my sister with her new twin girls. Do you see the overwhelmed look on my face as I tried to hold 2 babies at once? My sister makes it look easy!

I took Carter with me and he had a blast playing with Chloe and Mitchell. There were the occasional fights and hitting and the inevitable time outs, but overall I would say it was a success.

I was really hoping that seeing Mitchell walking would motivate Carter to walk a bit......but instead Mitchell was super polite and got down and crawled with Carter! I took both of them to the mall.........................it was like trying to herd cats.




There was lots of time to play at the park and they all loved it.

Carter had no problem making himself right at home. Mitchell even encouraged his behavior!

The best part of the trip would have to be the plane right there and back. And when I say the best, I actually mean the WORST. The way there our plane was delayed for 1.5 hours. It was way past Carter's bedtime by the time we got in the air and he cried for over half the flight. Crying with bouts of screaming make for a great 2 hours. I thought it couldn't get worse than that. Boy was I wrong. Remember in February when Carter and I flew to Seattle in February and right as we were descending he had explosive diarrhea that got all over his little body and I had to change him on the floor between our seats!??!? well this time as we were descending he decided to try and top that. He had projectile vomit that just kept coming and coming and completely soaked him and his carseat. I called the flight attendant over and told that we HAD to get out of our seats so I could clean him up. She was very nice about it and even helped me change him. He didn't throw up again (thank heavens) but I am sure the young man sitting next to me will never have children later in life. The thing is, I didn't even feel embarrassed really. I guess that is what motherhood will do to you. I had no control over the situation so there was no point in wasting time being embarrassed. That being said, only me, the poor man sitting next to us, and the flight attendant knew what happened though! I will think long and hard about flying with Carter anytime soon.

Happy Halloween (late)

I'm just barely getting around to posting about Halloween, thanks largely to the Swine Flu. Carter was a Skunk for Halloween. Neil thought it to be a little feminine, I thought it was cute. Either way, it was warm and it served its purpose for someone who has no idea what Halloween even is.

Carter was invited to his first (and probably last-he was quite grouchy) Halloween Party. These are his 3 friends who are all close in age to him. We have the firefighter, the ladybug, the Stinker, and the Penn State Lion.


Carter did venture out and go trick or treating. To 3 houses to be exact.....what fun is trick or treating when you can't eat 99% of the candy? Blasted Allergies. Plus it gets very tiring to carry around a 28 pound skunk. Just ask Neil-I made him carry Carter around!

He did however, receive one treat that he could eat....a sucker. Carter is all about the suckers.

Earlier in the day we met up with Carter's cousins for a quick photo shoot. Tyler(the bee) thought he was a cow!

Quick photo shoot with Grandma E. Had to do this quickly before the nose paint was rubbed off.

Here is my crying Yoda at the pumpkin walk who for some reason didn't want his face shoved into a small hole time after time! (Am I right-is this Yoda? I've never seen the show)

And the happy family. Neil and I were way too lazy to dress up. I'm sure we won't be able to get away with it for long so we had to enjoy it while we could.

And so it begins.......

(I was going to keep this post short but let's be honest, that never happens. I guess if I would post more often then they could be shorter and more focused.)

It got a little quiet today and this is what I found. Cake mix all over the floor. He tried to fix it by saying "uh-oh" over and over again. It was pretty cute-I couldn't be too mad. Plus it's my fault for not child proofing the pantry.

Carter is obsessed with shoes.....especially my yellow shoes. He will go straight to my closet and get these exact shoes every time. He HATES to keep his own shoes on for any length of time but my shoes he will put on himself! I can't blame him though- those are my favorite shoes too!

He has discovered the joys of the piano and will "play" forever if I let him.


Trying to dress and diaper Carter has become harder than ever. It reminds me of the saying Neil uses "it's like trying to catch a fart in the wind." So often times I give up and give him a little play time in the nude. There have been no accidents yet-keep your fingers crossed.

Nap time is becoming a wrestling match as well. His new thing is to sleep holding a little basketball. Whatever makes him happy and gets him to lay down.


He is still obsessed with his monkey and this is him giving the monkey a big kiss! He can now say Monkey and asks for him by name at bedtime.

His vocabulary has really taken off this past week or so. (I wish I could say the same for his walking!!!) He will now repeat lots of words that we say. Time to be extra careful-right? He is even putting words to the signs he uses. Some of my favorite words/phrases that he says are: ball, milk, stinky, monkey, outside, all done, where's daddy, where's milk, kitty outside, and eat.

This little boy LOVES LOVES LOVES his daddy and vice versa. They are best buddies and have the best time together. They love to play "horsie" and will play for long amounts of time. This game never gets old for Carter. He will sign horsie and then go and push daddy's head down so he can crawl on. For some reason Horsie is not as much fun with mommy as it is with daddy.

Another of their favorite games is to play chase around the couches and Carter shrieks with delight when daddy catches him. Carter invented another game we call Marco-Polo. Carter yells Da-Da and Neil replies with Carter and it goes on and on. They were doing it through the walls last night and Carter could not figure out where daddy's voice was coming from.

(His hair is just like his daddy's after he wakes up from a nap!)

He is becoming so observant lately and has started to copy what we do. He will grab the remote control and point it at the TV and push buttons. He grabs the Mario Kart wheel for the Wii and turns it like he is driving. My favorite was when he got my foot file and began to file his feet just like he'd seen me do earlier! We love this little boy and cannot get enough of him.

This is how our week went, in order, with not many details.

1-Carter was VERY sick. This is how he spent 3 days straight. Laying with either Neil or I. Carter is NOT a cuddler so we knew he felt crappy if he was willing to lay like this for HOURS. Plus he ran a fever of almost 104 for 3 days straight. Poor guy.


2-I knew he was feeling better when he starting begging to go outside. Begging/screaming was more like it. And since he was sick, I basically gave him anything he wanted. He didn't care how cold it was outside. He just wanted to be out there.



3-Spent the Best 40 dollars. EVER. Carter loves his new "Flintstone" car. We just put it together last night and it was love at first sight. He played in this thing for an hour straight until he finally got out. He even refused dinner (which is NOT normal). He would scream if we came over to him and held our arms out like we were going to take him out of it. We couldn't take it outside due to the rain but he doesn't care. He loves opening and closing the door, beeping the horn, and turning the wheel while squealing "Whee!!!"


I love how his little arm is so perfectly perched on the door. It's like he's been driving for years!


Carter now has his own drive up service. He signs for things while in his car and I bring them too him. Luckily there is no window so we don't have to waste any time rolling it up and down. One Vanilla Soy Milk to go!

There was one rollover and partial ejection this afternoon though......there were tears. Lots of tears but after some hugs he was back into the car and ready to go again. This car is perfect for him. The only problem is: What will I get him for Christmas now??