Wow, Carter's first Christmas is over! It has been fun. It's hard to believe I was pregnant a year ago, and now, he isn't even a little baby. For some reason, he has been developing at a rapid pace. It seems he just started crawling, and now, he wants to pull up on everything. We have had to lower his mattress to the lowest setting. He is all over the place and doesn't want to sleep. I may be able to get rid of my trainer and just chase Carter around the house. At the same time, he is SO much fun. He giggles all the time and is very affectionate.

He got some nice toys from everyone. I woke up to him playing with this little telephone and enjoying his gifts from Santa. This is just small amount. Gammy and Poppa really spoiled him rotten.

Maybe I'm a bad mom, but I didn't see a point in buying too much this year. I figured we would wait until he knows the difference. He was more interested in the wrapping paper than his gifts, but he seemed to have a blast. He wore himself out by 10:00 am.

Carter enjoyed lunch with us and ate much of my sweet potato, some of my roll, and two little bites of steak. This evening, he really enjoyed cranberry bread. He likes everything he tries. I am careful because I don't want him to choke on anything.

I think we may drive up to Clemson tomorrow for no reason at all. My parents haven't been in a long time, and I figure it's better than trying to go shopping.

I've added a bunch of pictures on flickr. You can check them out to the right.

Merry Christmas!!!

The holiday break has finally arrived! It is so nice to enjoy a Sunday night without the dread of having to go to work tomorrow. Kevin is off all week with me too!

I started taking thyroid medicine on Thursday. I am actually relieved to know something was wrong. I was just absolutely exhausted.

Carter has been doing well. He pulled up on our cedar chest today. He is getting to be a little cranky. I suspect he is teething again considering he has started drooling.

Here are some pictures of my award winning momma skills:

We were really getting a picture of his crazy hair, but we had one MAD baby.

What to do when Carter spits up all over his clothes......a diaper and a bib are great!

After falling over when he pulled up, he is going back for more. He did manage to get the lotion.

We have had a good weekend. Carter woke us up around 7:00 yesterday morning, and we went to Chik-fil-A for breakfast. I gave him a few pieces of my biscuit. He enjoyed it so much that Kevin bought Carter his own! After, we did some Christmas shopping, came home, finished decorating, and made all of our Christmas goodies. We are running late today. Carter did wake us up around 7:00 again, but we got sidetracked. He is now taking a nap. We haven't been to the grocery store yet. I totally forgot about Kevin's Christmas party this afternoon. I guess I don't have as much time to get stuff done as I thought. I wanted to go to work and work out. I don't think either will happen. Last was so busy that it is a total blur. I feel like I'm going 100 mph in 10 different directions. We did manage to get our Christmas cards mailed. I feel very impersonal. We had the greeting on them already, and we used labels for addresses and return addresses. I'm just happy I did them this year.

Carter seems to be feeling better. He finished his antibiotics on Friday. Hopefully, we will return to normal diapers! He is continuing to practice his crawling, so we have started putting locks on cabinets. Kevin really doesn't want to, but it is better than having problems. I think that's about it. 5 more days until the break!!!!!!!!!!

I have some new videos, so I will try to get them uploaded to flickr.

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, we are not taking free pictures with Santa Clause in the Lawn and Garden Center.

I can't believe Carter is 8 months old today!
We feel like we have been going 100 mph around here, but exciting things have been happening.

Last Saturday, Carter had his first babysitter. One of my former students came over, so Kevin and I could go to dinner and see Four Christmases. We really enjoyed it.

Our week was busy. It seems like my calendar was packed every afternoon this week. On top of it all, Tuesday afternoon, Carter came down with a high fever, so Kevin had to pick him up at daycare. It broke by Wednesday morning, but he couldn't go back to school for 24 hours. I took him to the doctor, and he had a double ear infection. He had been grumpy last weekend, so that explains it. He is on some very strong antibiotics, and we have started giving him Zyrtec. He does enjoy the yogurt he is getting due to the effects of his medicine.

On Wednesday, we noticed Carter crawling on his stomach for the first time. Friday night, he actually tried to really crawl to go after his dad's i-pod. He went for a little while and fell over.

We started our Christmas shopping yesterday. I sure hope I can get it all done. I usually don't really stress out over it. There are a few things I know I want to get some people, and I can't find exactly what I have in mind.

This morning, we went to take Christmas portraits. I was rather disappointed. The place was packed, and they were running behind schedule. To make it worse, a woman in front of us kept bending over with her butt hanging out of her tight pants. I had to look at her while waiting on our session to start and while waiting on the "next scene." They have a Christmas room set up and a regular room set up. I only wanted Christmas pictures. I couldn't make the girl understand I only wanted the Christmas background. We were rushed through those and were told we had to wait for the other room. I tried to convince them I was ready to pick out our pictures and go. After waiting a very long time, I convinced them I was the one paying for the pictures, was ready to go, and I didn't care if I didn't take all of the pictures for the session package. I think I embarassed Kevin. He woouldn't let me go back to pick up the prints. We were rushed in the Christmas scene, so we didn't get too many shots. I did speak to the manager on the way out and got a slight refund.

This afternoon, I went with a friend to the Holiday tour of homes here. I loved it! It's in a nicer part of town, and you get to go look around in the homes. There were 7 on the tour. I just love looking at other people's houses (especially ones I could never afford).

That's about it around here. I'm hoping to have the Christmas cards ready to go out by Wednesday and am looking forward to a less hectic week.

Today has been wonderful! I had so many things I wanted to do during my break, and I got to do a lot today. We started off by braving the mall. It really wasn't bad. I bought a coat (will probably return it), some shirts and socks for Carter, and wall flowers and soap from Bath and Body Works. While Carter napped this afternoon, I actually pulled out the sewing machine and decorated a few of his burp cloths. Just don't look too closely at the sewing. I went to Hobby Lobby on Wednesday to get a thing to put snaps on and happened to wander through the fabric. I am not a good sewer, but I love fabric for some reason. I have had the green and blue fabric for a very long time, but bought the other two this week. I figured it would sit in a closet and never get used, but it only took me 2 days to get to it!


After Carter went to bed, I completed two pages of his scrapbook. Kevin always gets really nervous when I get in a "creative mood." I love to do crafty things, but I am not good at them. Amazingly, I didn't curse once!

Oh, I totally forgot to post about my fun experience from last week. Student Council was planning a dance, and decided it would be fun to have a teacher dance-off. The way this worked was the teacher of the 3 homerooms who donated the most money had to particpate in a dance contest at the school dance. My students said, "Oh, Mrs. House!" as soon as it was announced. I started with the bribery.....brownies, chik-fil-A for for breakfast, whatever I could think of, and they agreed not to give money for me. Well, at their lockers, I overheard a student say, "Let her bring the chick-fil-a, and then, we'll give the money." My deal was off.

When any student would come to my room to collect money, I would kick them out immediately. My kids found some way to donate the money, so I had to participate. I could have donated enough money to another teacher, but I decided to have fun with it. I told my students if they donated money, their homework was to bring in a song and a dance for me.

After much discussion, I decided to dance to Get Silly. I studied the youtube video for quite some time and decided I needed to go all out. I planned to borrow a pair of Kevin's jeans and his belt to wear sagging over a pair of boxers. I knew one of my students had a big puffy coat with fur around the hood I could wear. I also decided to make my own bling. A few of my girls were very worried about me, so they skipped part of lunch to make sure I knew what I was doing and to time when I should throw my coat off. So, we get to the dance, and the DJ didn't have my song. I convinced him to download it because I didn't want my preparation to go to waste. My competition was a young guy who did the Soulja Boy and a good friend who decided to shag. The students did scream the loudest when I started. I was even introduced as Mrs. Hizzle. I looked out into the crowd of students and realized most of them were holding a cell phone to video and/or take pictures of me. I had my two girls be back up dancers, but they quit on me part of the way through. It was my understanding we would have to dance for a very short period. After an agonizing 20 minutes (ok, it felt like it), I turned around and pleaded with anyone I could find to stop the music. My students said, "Just freestyle." Huh??? In the end, the young guy won. I was rather disappointed, but I did have a blast. The next day, my students were more than willing to show me their new wallpaper on their cell phones.......me dancing! I know one of the teachers got a video of the whole thing. I haven't been brave enough to locate it.



(the green on my bling is a money sign....that was one of my student's assignments for the day)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am enjoying my break from school. Yesterday, I started the day by going to the gym and showering there. After, I ran a bunch of errands and met Kevin for lunch. I picked up Carter after that, and he ended up taking a long nap when we got home. We are still doing the breathing treatments, but Carter does not enjoy them at all. Most times, he pulls off the mask.


It was cold this week, and I finally bought Carter a coat. Kevin thinks I am ridiculous for putting Carter in heavy coat when it is 30 degrees out. Of course, Kevin rarely wears more than a sweatshirt.

We have had a nice and quiet day. I started preparing food yesterday along with cooking a huge pot of gumbo. Today we had a turkey breast, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a cookies and cream cake. Yep, it was just Kevin and me eating. Now, we will have left overs for a very long time. I told Kevin I was just preparing for us to have lots and lots of kids. If it were up to me, I would have a bunch more. (Kevin thinks we're done.) I even got jealous when I saw pictures of a my coworker with his new baby. I guess I am just lucky Carter is so good.



Carter played in his exersaucer this morning while we ate breakfast, so Tiger decided he would take advantage of the opportunity and steal Carter's seat:
I've added pictures and videos on my flickr page if these weren't enough.

We have had big things going on around here! On Sunday, I started feeding Carter baby food with the meat. He isn't so sure he likes it, and I can't blame him. Yesterday, Carter started saying Momma. We were on our way home from daycare and he was making his grunting noises he makes when he is trying to stay awake. After, he started saying it. Of course, I have no idea if he knows what he is saying, but it does make me feel very special.

Then, last night, I was video taping him because he is trying to crawl, and he just sat up!!!! I couldn't believe it. It was also awesome because I just happened to be recording.

I tried to put the video on my blog, but it just wasn't working. You can see it at my flickr page.


He is growing too quickly!

Ok, no pictures......

I took some today but have not had a chance to upload them.

Carter seems to be doing better. He isn't hoarse anymore, just a little coughing. I think I got his crud with a sore throat and the hoarseness.

Carter and I went to Charleston yesterday to see my friend Nina. We had fun shopping at the outlets and going to a Christmas craft show. It was the longest trip I've ever taken with Carter in the car. He was good and slept while I was driving.

Today we ran errands. Nothing exciting. I finally bought him a winter coat. We had bought a cute hat and gloves Friday night at Babies R Us. I was hoping to find a coat in Charleston but could find none in his size. I was tired of being the bad mom at daycare whose child wasn't wrapped up enough.

That's about all going on around here. I'm looking forward to the short week. I will also try to get some pictures posted.

We have a sick little boy! Carter's cough, hoarseness, and runny nose have not gone away. As long as he didn't have fever, I wasn't worried. When I dropped him off at daycare today, I thought I heard buggers rattling, but I didn't worry. After school today, I changed to go to the gym, and for some reason, I decided to check my cell phone. There was a message from daycare from 6:47 this morning to let me know Carter was wheezing and to call back to verify I had received the message. Ok, 8 hours later, Kevin wasn't notified and no one tried to call me again. I was quite angry at this point. For one, it made me feel like a horrible mom who doesn't care about her child. When I got to daycare I immediately started looking for the director who left the message. She wasn't there, so I discussed it with another. I was told they tried to call "both numbers." Usually, they call on my work phone. I knew that if I hadn't answered my cell phone, I had been in my classroom. When I got home, there was a message here. I have a nice list to give them tomorrow with a list of phone numbers and the order they should be used. I hate to be the rude parent (we all know I deal with enough of those), but if it was so important that I verify I received the message, why did they let it go over 8 hours without trying to notify me again.

Anyway, the doctor worked us in immediately. Carter is using a nebulizer and will be taking antibiotics for an ear infection. Carter weighs 21 lb 10 oz. He officially weighs more than his cousin who is over a year old. At least we don't need to worry about the reflux! He had a rough evening, and wanted to be held. Kevin ended up working until about 9:00 tonight. I don't want to be a single mom. It's not easy!

All ready for the game (If you enlarge this picture, you can see his teeth)

Holding my bottle like a big boy

We were really looking forward to the weekend just so we could rest.

Friday night, Kevin got Carter up to eat before we went to bed, and he was hoarse and coughing. We decided to put him in his bassinet in our room, so we could keep an eye on him. He can pretty much touch all four sides of the bassinet at one time.

He seemed a little better in the morning, but I canceled the babysitting reservations at the gym knowing he needed to stay home. We didn't do much at all yesterday.

Today was another quiet day. Carter is still rather hoarse. He tries to scream and can't. Sometimes, we can't even hear him cry. Poor little boy!!! I did escape to go shopping with a friend. It was nice to be able to aimlessly wander through stores and not justify to anyone why I was going in each one. I amazingly didn't buy too much....some fleur-de-lis wall hangings and a cross ornament at Kirklands and some makeup at Ulta. That's about all the excitement around here. I just hope Carter feels better soon.

This post has no pictures.....Sorry to disappoint you!

Yesterday, when I picked Carter up from daycare, it was almost time for him to eat. Because we were going to the doctor, I decided to feed him. Well, his teacher told me he could hold his own bottle. Low and behold, he could!!! He has been doing this for about 2 weeks. I asked if there were any other tricks I didn't know about, but that was it.

Another big milestone...I started brushing his teeth tonight with a finger brush. I am getting worried that he is going to be a biter. He tried to bite my chin this evening. I'm hoping he is just exploring something new and will become bored with it VERY soon. I sure don't need my child expelled from daycare. Thankfully, he has not bitten me while nursing. I have been very afraid of that.

We went on a field trip today to the Discovery Place in Charlotte. It was great. We started the day with an IMAX about dinosaurs. After, we went to a really cool exhibit about Pompeii. After, we let the kids play with all of the science and math stations they have. I can't wait until Carter is old enough to take there. Our kids were also very well behaved (for the most part). I was proud of them.

It has been a wild week! Although we had Tuesday off to vote, it just seemed to be crazy. I can't even put my finger on why.

We have a had a good weekend. Nothing spectacular. Friday, we went and finalized our wills. I know. It seems totally morbid. After, we went to the mall on the other side of town. I received a Baby Gap gift card when Carter was born, and we have not been to the mall where I thought there was one since then. Surprisingly, the closest Baby Gap is in Charlotte. It looks like I may have to do some online shopping.

Yesterday, I went to USC for ADEPT training. This will qualify me to have a student teacher, but it doesn't guarantee it. After, I met Kevin and Carter for lunch. Then, we came home and had a great nap together on the couch.

Today, it was Kevin and Carter's turn to nap together.
I signed up to make dinner for a coworker who had surgery on Friday, so I spent my afternoon working on that.

See, it wasn't very exciting. I'm hoping this week is less stressful. Hopefully, I won't have any parents accusing me of not sending them information that all the other parents received via email by replying to the email in question. The fun never ends....... Enjoy the pictures. There are more on Flickr.

Bed Head

I won't let the Clemson loss put me in a bad mood!

I'm such a ham:

We are having a great weekend. My parents flew in on Thursday night. They kept Carter home on Friday and took him to have his portraits done. I have a few on here, but all are on flickr.

My dad and I took him to a few neighbors' houses last night. One had even bought him a gift! After, we went out to one of our favorite pizza places and found out it was their last night in business. :-(

We started today by going to Pig on the Ridge, a local barbecue festival. We definitely ate WAY too much, but it was great. After, we went to the parade of homes. We dropped the boys off at home, and mom and I went shopping. It has been a long time since I have been shopping without a baby in tow.

When we got home, we fed Carter. He decided it would be fun to make razz noises. When my mom would jump back, he would crack up laughing. He is SO fun. His bottom right tooth has been coming through for about a week now, and the left tooth started popping through today.

That's about it around here.

For those of you who expect my Sunday night posts, I apologize. I don't know what happened. I'm guessing last week was rather uneventful because not too much sticks out in my mind. Carter did cut a tooth. Just a little piece has come through his gums. It isn't easy to look because he sticks out his tongue when I try. We continue to enjoy Carter every day. He is so much fun. He likes to play peek-a-boo and laughs whenever I make lamb noises. I was reading a book to him and he cracked up laughing when I made the lamb noise, so now I know I can do that just to get him excited.

I've been trying to get him to use a sippy cup or at least hold his own bottle. He can't seem to understand he needs to hold the bottle up. When I try to show him, he just lets me hold it. Instead, he holds it down and sucks on it. Last night, I found a cup with a straw but a nipple-like top. He was able to drink juice out of it tonight!

This picture:
shows why we had to go to Target. My dear cat knocked the sterilizer off the counter and ate the tops of the nipples while we left for 10 minutes to drop my car off for routine maintenance. I'll spare you the picture of when he decided to give the nipple tops back.

A crazy hairdo from this week:

On his way to daycare this morning after dad wrangled him into the car seat:

We have had a crazy week. Tuesday afternoon, I got a call around 1:20 saying Carter had a temperature of 102.7! I tried calling Kevin, but he was not answering his phone. I quickly got my class to join the other 6th grade science class (we were planning to combine classes anyway.) Robin, the teacher, is a saint. She took my kids without flinching. I headed to daycare, got Carter, called the doctor to make an appointment for later that afternoon, dropped Carter off at Kevin's office, called a substitute, and made it back to school before it ended. It was Extended Tuesday, so I really couldn't miss that. He just had a cold. With daycare, Carter couldn't go back until his fever was down for 24 hours. I stayed home with him on Wednesday and Thursday. I was excited Thursday morning when his fever broke, and his temperature was 97.7. It was back over 101 by that evening. Kevin stayed home with him on Friday morning, and brought him to work on Friday afternoon. Carter stayed in a good mood through all of it.

We had a nice quiet weekend. We went to the gym yesterday morning, and I took a nap with Carter yesterday afternoon. I decided Carter needed to nap in his crib today. He cried himself to sleep, but slept for over 2 hours. He doesn't usually nap that long at home and has to be held. I got SO much done during that time. When he woke up, we went to the pumpkin patch. You can check out more pictures on Flickr. One of my students was working there, so he was eager to help us and take pictures of us.

I love this time of year! The weather is gorgeous, and it's cooling off! Hopefully it stays this way.

I only have to teach for 4 days this week. We have an inservice on Friday. Of course we have not been told where or what we will be doing. Friday was a swap day, but someone changed their mind about a month ago, just as I was considering buying tickets to go to Houston. Par for the course! Hopefully, I will get time to write about all of the craziness at work. After Friday, I truly beleived working in a mental ward would be easier.

Guess who lost the green bean battle?


He was hilarious. He wanted to chew on his plastic links while I fed him and became furious when I took them away. I gave him a spoon to hold on to. Then, he ripped off his bib and started swinging it around like a lasso. When we took out the video camera to record this, he would stop. As soon as I put the camera on the counter, he would start again until I pressed record. Little stinker!

Sadly, the weekend is almost over. We are on our way to get flu shots at the pediatrician's office. Well, most of us are. Kevin has elected to get the flu mist. WIMP!

We dressed Carter in his Halloween onesie today hoping to take him to the pumpkin patch. Within an hour of being dressed, he managed to spit up peaches all over himself. We'll go next weekend.

We have had a nice relaxing weekend. Not much going on here at all. Carter has been sleeping in his bed for a week now! He does usually wake up once during the night. Most of the time, he will go back to sleep until time to get up.

I'm dreading this work week. I have a student who has been on a downward spiral, and I think the parents are starting to blame me. The student got in trouble in my class, so being responsible, I informed them. Later that day, the student walked up to me, looked me in the eyes, and called me the devil. Since then, there has been one more extreme incident (not involving me....thank goodness!) Anyway, the parents sent an email to my lead teacher saying they had a major issue with one of the teachers. Considering, I am the only one who has been in contact with them, it would be me. I love my students, but parents can be tough to deal with! For the most part, parents have been very supportive this year. I hope the trend continues.

Time to head to the doctor. Wish us luck.

Oh yeah, check out flickr. I added a bunch of pictures of the cutest little boy in the world.

Carter had his 6 month doctor's appointment today. He weighed in at 20 lbs 1 oz and is 27 inches long. The doctor told me he could start eating foods that would dissolve in his mouth, so he had graham crackers: