We thought it would be great to get portraits of the 3 cousins, so we made an appointment for 10:00 Saturday morning. We got there on time, and had to wait 45 minutes with half the kids from Lafayette. When we were finally called, the babies were exhausted and cranky. First, Zoe was only interested in the bear:

So, Zach got into place and posed:

We placed Carter in the picture, but the 2 babies were going every different direction. The adults were laughing so hard, we thought we were never going to get a good picgture. We decided Zach should hold the babies, so they would keep still:
That option wasn't any better, so the moms got in the picture. Zoe was only interested in a feather boa.

Carter wanted to tackle Zach:

We finally got a decent one at the very second Carter learned to pick his own nose:

Carter also experienced his first crawfish boil on Saturday.

First, he helped Poppa dump the sack of crawfish:

Second, he helped Zach clean the crawfish:

Third, he helped Poppa drain them:
Unfortunately, Carter was too sleepy to wait for them to be ready, and ate his dinner:

He sure doesn't know what he missed:

On Friday, Carter was excited to have Dad and his cousins there. He got to try his first Meche's donut. He and Zoe didn't exactly get along. Carter wanted whatever she was playing with and tried to scratch her face. They didn't have much to do with each other after that. Zach did enjoy playing with Carter and even offered to trade Zoe for him.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Carter was busy digging in Gammy's house. He also had to go shopping with Gammy and me. We took Carter to take his one year old pictures on Wednesday. It went very well, and we got some great ones.

We got up at 3:30 to be on a 6:05 flight. I was very nervous about traveling alone with Carter. Kevin was able to get a gate pass to help us get through security. Our flight from Columbia to Houston was long! Carter slept at the beginning and was ready to go after that. He grabbed a lady by her sweater when she walked by, so she stopped and talked to us. After, we walked up and down the aisle. A lady stopped us and asked how old Carter was. When I told her it was his birthday, she and her husband sang to Carter. In the Houston airport, Carter made friends with every woman he met. He even dug in a lady's purse. He passed out on the brief flight between Houston and Lafayette. In Lafayette, he played on the swing Poppa put up for him.

Spring break was fun and ended too quickly. Carter and I got up at 3:30 and flew to Lafayette on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we took Carter to have his pictures done for his first birthday. Kevin met us on Thursday. We had fun hanging out with Gammy and Poppa. Alana and her family got there on Friday night just in time for the crawfish boil. On Saturday, we attempted to get a portrait of all the cousins. Check out flickr to see those results. After waiting for 45 minutes, the kids had enough and did not want to cooperate. On Saturday afternoon, we went to an Easter Egg hunt at a family friend's house. I have added some pictures to flickr. I will write some more detailed posts later. I'm running on 4 hours of sleep.

It has been a busy week! After Carter was scratched on Monday, I saw him get kicked on Wednesday, and on Thursday, I got called to tell me he was bitten. I went to daycare during planning to talk to the director. She assured me these behaviors were normal. My sister told me I was nuts for worrying. I just wanted to make sure. Today, we had Carter's first birthday party. Kevin's aunt came and brought our niece. Kevin's parents brought our nephew, and two of our neighbors came. Carter enjoyed all the attention and was great. He ate almost all his "little" cake. After the party, Carter and I went jogging. He slept through most of the jog. I guess we wore him out today. Here are a few pictures. The rest are on flickr.

Wow, it's my 100th post. Am I supposed to celebrate?

Anyway.....
Today at 10:15, my phone rang in my classroom. I figured it was the front office, and held my breath when I heard, "Mrs. House, this is Vicki from Gateway. Carter...." I just knew that sentence would finish with "is vomiting" or "has fever." Instead, she told me about how Carter was in the 1 year old room. Both he and another little boy wanted to play in this plastic barn thing. The other little boy scratched Carter beneath the eye as they scuffled. Carter didn't even get upset, but the boy broke the skin. My response was, "Well, that won't be the last time." I thanked Miss Vicki, hung up and cracked up laughing.

During the same class on Friday, we were discussing fighting because one of my students had gotten in trouble. I just thought it was funny and our grand entrance to the world of toddler boys. (You may need to click on the pictures to see his eye)

I can't believe how quickly time is passing. Carter is nearly walking. On Friday, I kept backing up as he walked toward me. Tonight, he walked from the living room and into the kitchen to find me. I have videos of him walking on flickr. This week, he said "bye-bye," but I cannot get him to say it again. He also is starting to clap. We ordered his birthday cake today too. In some ways I am sad to see him growing up, but it is exciting at the same time. Here are some pictures of Carter helping me unload the dishwasher:

Yesterday, I went to see this show with some friends in Greenville. I was a faithful watcher of MTV's The Search for Elle Woods. In October, I saw it was coming to South Carolina. I started recruiting friends to attend with me. I was not disappointed! It was just a lot of fun. I would definitely see it again, and I want the sound track. We had a fun girls' day. Too bad it was raining in Greenville because the downtown is really cool. I want to go back.

I am SOOO excited. Look what I found for an awesome deal: I have been wanting a jogging stroller for a while. This one was on sale. I didn't do any research, but by the original price, it should be good!

We only took one picture this past week. Carter has been keeping us very busy. This is him in his new pajamas. He's outgrowing all his winter clothes, but it isn't warm enough to wear his summer stuff. I really don't want to spend tons of money on clothes he won't wear much. We found these PJs at Wal-mart for about $4.
I think they are hideous, but they will keep him warm when his room is cold. We also got him 2 long sleeved shirts at Wal-Mart for $2 each! Most of his older shirts are not covering his stomach.

Yesterday was a fun day. I have been wanting ice cream very badly, so we went to Brewster's. Carter likes birthday cake ice cream as much as I do. I shared mine with him, and when I didn't feed him fast enough, he would jump in his stroller and fuss. Last night, our next door neighbors babysat Carter for us to go to a friend's birthday party. They are wonderful and just love Carter to death. Carter is lucky to have "South Carolina grandparents." They asked us if they could keep Carter up later than usual, so they could play with him, and they even taught Carter to say "yeah yeah." I was very nervous all night that Carter would have been fussy, but they said he was great and want to babysit again. I thanked them by taking them dinner tonight.

I am running as much as I can. I have been signed up for a 5K for the first weekend of May, and I want to run a 5 miler the next weekend. I can run 5 miles on the treadmill, but it is much more difficult outside. I am going to have to start running around the neighborhood as much as I can.

That's about all that's going on around here. (at least that I can think of.) Kevin has felt bad all day, so I've been busy trying to get everything done. He was feeling a little better this evening, so he finished the laundry and helped clean the kitchen.

This is the story of Craig......

Craig started out as a good little boy who lived down the street from my sister. When Zach was bad, they threatened to trade him for Craig. Well, when Carter is cranky, we think back to Craig.

We have changed the story somewhat. Craig is the Cranky Craig who we accidentally get at daycare instead of Carter. Well, Craig came home this weekend! Carter has been SOO cranky. Today was one of those days. He wanted to be in everything. When we fussed at him or took something away, he screamed a piercing high pitched scream as loud as he could. While running errands, he continuously tried to climb out of the shopping carts. When I tried to hold him in, he licked and bit my hand (not hard enough to hurt, thank goodness).

He is just getting to be very busy. If we put him in his high chair, he drops food on the floor for Tiger. Then, he screams when he runs out of food. Tonight, he wanted to play with the swiffer but would scream whenever he got frustrated with it. He screamed when he couldn't get in the cabinet. He screamed when his push car hit something and he could not go anymore, he screamed when I had to take the baby bath from him to clean him........He screamed so much mom and dad had to have a drink.....or 2. Each.

Well, I think it is time to go read my 2 new books:
This one
and this one:

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