This week has brought lots of excitement and growing for Carter. He has been spending more and more time in the one year old room, and his personality is really coming out. Most evenings, we go outside and walk. Carter loves to go around the neighborhood in his car or push it up and down the driveway. We had great weather until Friday. Here are some cute stories from the week:

• Carter's teacher told me he puts the babies' pacifiers in their mouths for them.
• Carter holds on to the back of his teacher's legs and follows her around the room.
• He has been pushing a chair all around the room at daycare.
• In the one year old room, Carter was taking food off the plates of the kids on either side of him.
• While I was holding him watching TV, a baby came on the screen. Carter spit out his pacifier, made a noise, and waved to the baby.

Kevin did have to take Carter to the doctor on Thursday for a cough. The doctor thinks it's just drainage. Thursday was a big day. We noticed a 3rd bottom tooth coming through, and Carter took 3 steps. Friday, he trumped that with 6 steps, and Saturday, he took 7. Today, he wasn't in the mood for performing.

Here are two pictures from the week. There are more on flickr.

My little boy is growing up too quickly. He turned 11 months old yesterday!

Last week was exciting. Monday was a snow day, but we never had any snow. Carter and I took advantage of the time off. We exercised and went and bought him a push around buggy with a gift card Grandma and Grandpa gave him for Christmas:

We put the car together when we got home, and Carter had a blast being pushed around the house. We have turned it into an outside toy. We usually spend about 30 minutes going up and down the driveway when we get home in the afternoon. Carter would rather we run with him than walk.

Carter has been spending more and more time in the 1 year old room at day care. I really hate to leave his teachers. When I went to pick him up on Thursday, he was in his crib in time out for trying to take bottles from babies! His teacher also informed me he had taken a few steps during the week. Yesterday, he took two steps for us before he realized what he was doing.

Last night, Kevin and I decided we wanted our usual Chinese take-out, so I decided to order Carter his own meal. I got him Chicken and cashews. (Don't worry. I didn't give him any of the cashews) Kevin had ordered it one time, and it was mostly vegetables that Carter eats. He really enjoyed it.


Carter continues to be a good eater. The only thing I have found he won't eat is plain rice. Here he is enjoying more baked ziti last week:
Carter wants to dig in everything and open every drawer and cabinet. I try to direct him to my rubber maid:

He has a good time opening and closing the cabinet and pulling out as much as he can. After this picture, he went over to a stack of newspaper and tore it up. Our fun is just beginning.

I have put more pictures and videos on flickr. Check them out.

Faces only a mother could love

Carter's being well did not last long. When I picked him up at daycare on Friday, his teachers told me to have fun with him. He had been cranky all day. I figured he was starting with the ear infection his doctor told me he may get. I called the doctor's office hoping they would just call in antibiotics since he had been seen on Monday. Nope. We had to go to after hours care.....AGAIN. We made sure we were the first ones there. Sure enough, Dr. Mom was right.

We didn't do much at all this weekend. I had to do interviews for our magnet program yesterday. After, we went grocery shopping. Today, we didn't go anywhere. It's been raining all day and should turn to snow tonight. We have snow day tomorrow that we will have to make up on the day after Easter. :-( Kevin and I will be getting back late that night from Louisiana. Oh well....

I have finally uploaded pictures. Enjoy....

Carter loved the baked ziti we had for dinner tonight.

Playing with Dad

Do you ever have one of those moments when you want to know when you became the grown up? That totally explains how I have felt this week. I would have love to have added pictures on here, but I didn't think you would want any of vomit or poop. I'll spare you!

Carter got sick on Saturday and again on Sunday, and again on Monday. I stayed home on Monday and, Kevin stayed home on Tuesday. Thankfully, by Tuesday night, he was holding down Gatorade, so we braved formula. When that worked, I was very relieved! I was saved from the impending nervous break down.

I was watching Dr. Phil on Monday while at home, and he was lecturing a teenage girl about how much her parents love her. He told her they were the ones who cleaned up her vomit. I understood!

I think Carter was happy to go back to school yesterday. His teacher told me he hugged the other kids and would put his head down on them.

So, anyway, I will try to be a better momma and take and post pictures soon. (Don't have too high of expectations. I have to work on Saturday.)

It has been a rough week in at our house. When I got home from work on Tuesday (remember, I work late on Tuesdays), Carter was grumpy and burning up. I took his temperature. When I saw 103, I decided we needed to take his straight to the after hours care. Last time we went, I prepared for a very long wait, and we were only there for about 20 minutes, so I didn't worry this time. We got there, and the waiting room was packed. All the kids in there had nasty coughs, and I contemplated putting Carter in a bubble. When we were finally called about almost 2 hours later, Kevin and I scrubbed our hands in the exam room. The nurse did a flu and strep test, and both were negative. Carter's throat was red and his tonsils swollen. The pediatrician concluded it was some virus. I stayed home with Carter on Wednesday and Friday. Kevin did the honors on Thursday. He doesn't have fever anymore but has been extremely cranky for the past 2 days. He may be cutting more teeth, but when he screams at the top of his lungs, I wonder what happened to my happy baby. Carter had a followup from his last ear infection scheduled with his pediatrician for tomorrow, but I canceled it when the doctor from Tuesday told us his ears were all clear. I think I will need to call and reschedule because he has been pulling on his ears all evening. I have tomorrow off, and I would like to have the morning to myself. We will see......

Smiling although I feel bad.

Eating dinner and helping mom cook. Tiger wants to make sure no food falls on the floor.

Carter was very excited to receive a Valentine's Day card from Gammy. He held on to it for quite awhile.

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.