I apologize to those of you who expect weekly updates. Sometimes life takes over and opportunities for free time are lost! Here is what I would have posted last weekend:

We finally decided to bite the bullet and buy Carter some shoes. His foot is too wide to buy any ordinary pair, so we figured we would have to give in and go to Striderite. The thought of buying shoes for my son that cost more than my shoes made me sick, but I remembered a $100 prepaid Visa Kevin won last year that had been put away for the just the right thing. (I tend to hold on to gift cards forever because I want to make sure I use them on the perfect purchase.) Anyway, we were fortunate to get him a pair of size 5 extra wide shoes on sale:The saleslady convinced me they fit, but his daycare teacher took them off of him because they are too big. We will have some for the future. Right now, he will continue to wear socks, so he can pull them off and chew on them.
If you would like to see more pictures of Carter chewing on his socks, check out flickr.

Well, I turned 30 this past week. It's not too exciting. I did receive a really cool gift from family friends:


I just love pretty things!

Not too exciting of a week. Carter's second top tooth has finally popped through.

He had his 2nd babysitter on Friday night for us to go out and celebrate my birthday. He was sleeping when she got here, so it was easy. I hired a former student. She is really sweet and was disappointed she didn't get to play with Carter.

Here are some pictures of Carter enjoying a blueberry muffin:

Who knew you could use muffin as hair gel?

Today, Carter did walk behind his push toy. Check out videos on my flickr account.

I don't think I have any pictures to add today. We have had a rough weekend! I got a call at work on Friday to tell me Carter had thrown up 3 times. I called Kevin to pick him up and take him to the doctor. I met them at the doctor after work. It was just a nasty stomach virus that is going around. I had a few students out last week due to it. After the appointment, Carter and I came home and cuddled on the couch. He was exhausted, but we had to wake him up every 15 minutes to give him pedialyte. He was better around 6:00. Everyone seemed to be fine yesterday until my stomach started hurting last night. Well, it got Kevin first and got me around midnight. I was ok after one round, but Kevin was sick all night. I felt much better today but not totally up to par. Kevin spent the majority of the day on the couch. He seems to be feeling much better now. I hope that was our last round of a stomach virus for a long time!

You know you are a grown up when you are taking care of the sick people instead of having someone take care of you. Today, I got to do all the work because I was feeling better than Kevin despite the fact neither of us got much sleep last night.

It seems like I should have blogged during my FIVE DAY WEEKEND. Friday, I had a swap day, Monday, we had MLK day, and yesterday was a snow day!
I actually didn't mind going back to work today. It may have something to do with staying home with a sick and cranky little boy. Carter has been having a runny nose, but I just chalked it up to the top tooth that is trying to come through. When I picked him up at daycare on Monday, his teacher told me she had just gotten him to sleep and had a really hard time convincing him to sleep. He was screaming but yawning at the same time. When I got home, I got him to go back to sleep. When he woke up, he only wanted to be held and was burning up. Sure enough, he had a temp of 102.2. I really didn't want to wait to get meds in him, so we went to the after hours pediatric clinic. I had no idea what it would be like, so I made sure we ate before going. We were in and out in 20 minutes. Carter has his third ear infection. We go to his regular doctor in a few weeks to follow up. I think I will go ahead and push for him to get tubes. He is feeling much better. He didn't want to nap or let me out of his sight yesterday, but other than that, he has been playing like he usually does.

Anyone want to play fetch?

Carter loves his rubber duck. Too bad it was made in China. He will probably have lead poisoning. He carries it in his mouth. He usually has the whole head in his mouth, including the beak. He has also been pulling up on everything. He has even showed me that the cabinet locks can easily be pulled off right over the door pulls!
There are more pictures on Flickr.

Last week, I took Carter to his nine month check up. Because he had received a combination vaccination at 6 months, he didn't get any shots. Carter only weighed 22 lbs 3 oz (90th percentile) and is 29 inches long. (85th percentile) His head is in the 50th percentile. The doctor thought he looked great, and we will go back around 1 year.

Here are pictures of him enjoying spaghetti at dinner, and I mean none of the jar stuff. He seemed to enjoy it. He turns down very little of what we place in front of him.


I have realized Carter is going to be "hell on wheels" as my mom likes to say. When I picked him up at daycare, he was sucking on another kid's pacifier. His teacher told me he will spit his out to use someone else's. I have also caught him trying to take another kid's bottle.

I did miss Carter tons while I was in Boston but was not thrilled when he woke up at 4:30 this morning and would not go back to sleep.

That's about all going on around here.

I'm a day late posting. Alana and I went to Boston for the weekend. She flew from Houston to Charlotte where I met her, and we flew together to Boston. Obviously, January is not the peak of the travel season, and we were able to get an amazing deal at The Taj.
We couldn't have picked a better location. We could walk almost anywhere we wanted. (and freeze while we were walking). We got there around 4:30, and it was already dark. We took a cab to the hotel. We are not 5-star hotel regulars, so we weren't quite expecting all the tips involved, but the service was amazing! The bellman brought our bags to our room, turned on the lamps, put our suitcases on racks, hung up our coats, and offered to go get us ice.

After we got settled, we decided to meet Beth at Copley Place. The doorman offered to walk us there. I had convinced Alana to not wear her hat because I didn't have one. We really regretted that. I was SO tempted to just grab a hat off someone's head and run. I bought us each a little hat at J-Crew when we reached Copley place. We shopped for a little while, and walked to meet Beth's husband and a few other people. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at CVS. Ok, us country bumpkins were quite impressed by the 2-story pharmacy.

We were rather tired, so we walked to Maggiano's for dinner and, after walking a circle around the block to realize were only across the street, enjoyed dessert and wine at Finale. We were good girls and split all our food.

The next morning, I sprang out of bed and woke Alana up to start our day. We started at the Public Garden

Stopped for breakfast and shopping and walked all the way to the North End
via the Freedom Trail. (Several times during our jaunt, we questioned whose brilliant idea it was to visit Boston in the middle of the winter) We had lunch (The Nantucket) there and took the T to Harvard.

That evening, we went to Beth's to enjoy pizza with her parents and friends. After, we left for her party. It started snowing on the way there. We had a great time and actually stayed out until 1:00am!!! (I'm sure everyone else stayed out much later than us.)

The next morning, we rushed downstairs before check out to play in the snow for a few minutes
before heading off to the airport.

Us southern girls decided we were not made to live up north and enjoy the winter, but we did have an awesome time. Hopefully, Alana will upload her pictures soon. (hint, hint!)

Ok, so I am 4 days late posting this!

Carter is growing and developing too quickly. He has a top tooth that is coming in and really showing today. He wants to stand up all the time and is crawling everywhere. He is also trying new foods. We have been giving him little tastes of a few things we eat, but I am so afraid he will choke. Today at daycare, we told them they could feed whatever they give the babies, so he had some vegetables and fruit. We have also moved him up the step 3 foods. Tonight, he had spaghetti. He loved it and would fuss for more.

His personality is really coming out. He loves to play and the rougher, the better. He also has no problem expressing his displeasure by crying or kicking his legs.

He loves to play with Tiger's mouse hanging on the door. He pulls the elastic as far as he can and can't figure out why it can't go with him.


Well, I'm tired and blogged out. I can't think of everything I wanted to write. It was first day back at work in two weeks, but it really wasn't too bad. It was my first day working since my thyroid medicine kicked in. For once, I wasn't exhausted and I didn't drop markers all day long.

If you didn't get enough pictures, there are more on flickr.

After Carter enjoyed a breakfast of a biscuit, dry cheerios, 3 bites of cinnamon apples, and a rejected bite of peach, we went to visit Aunt Maranda and Uncle Will. Carter was tired when we arrived, and would cry when the dogs would lick him. Eventually, he gave in and slept while we looked at old family photographs.

When he woke up, he was ready to go. He pulled the bows off the gifts:


Played with Zeke who was hesitant:

Played with Odie who was curious:

And let Aunt Maranda put him in a baby chair.

After we left Aunt Maranda's we headed back to Grandma's where Carter got to meet his cousin Kaleb, Uncle Jonathan, and Aunt Sarah.

Carter was good in the car until we were about 40 miles from Columbia. I sat in the back and sang the longest version of Old MacDonald ever. Once, I was exhausted all animals I could think of that make noise, i fed his cheerios until we got home.

We went to Raleigh on Friday to visit Kevin's family. Carter was great in the car. We stopped at Quiznos for lunch, and Carter really enjoyed some flat bread. We got there Friday afternoon. Carter got to meet his cousin Sierra and had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa.

That night, Carter got to stay in a hotel for the first time. He had fun crawling around and exploring. His favorite part was the coffee table he could pull up on.

He slept in his pack and play for about 2 hours before he ended up in bed between us. He was screaming very loudly, and we didn't want to wake up everyone around us. Here are pictures of a refreshed Carter after a great night's sleep with Mom and Dad.

We had a quiet new year. The party animals in us stayed up until 10:30!!!! I scrapbooked while Kevin watched sports. I know, you are dying to have us over next year for New Year's Eve to liven up your party.

Carter and Kevin watched bowl games for New Year's Day. Carter was dressed and ready to cheer on Clemson. Too bad they lost! Carter did help us fold laundry before he was confined to his pack and play.


I had a fitness test. My trainer wanted to see my progress. I did much better on squats and sit ups, but I did worse on push-ups! It was rather embarrassing.

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!