1st Birthday Party

Carter's 1st birthday celebration was a blast. Thankfully he took two great naps that day so our birthday boy was all smiles. He had a great time!

(pic: Carter's b-day cake)

Last year when we brought Carter home from the hospital it was chilly and spitting rain/snow. Fast forward one year and the weather was awesome. Sunny and upper 60s. What more could you ask for in March! We took full advantage of the sunshine and played outside for most of the party.

(pic: Carter/cousin Morgan/cousin Aidan/cousin Mitch/Francy Parker)

Carter wasn't sure what to do with the cake. Dad had to break off a few pieces to get him started. He ate a a few handfuls of icing but overall not that messy.

(pic: Carter eating b-day cake)

Thank you to everyone for helping us celebrate Carter's birthday. It was so much fun to share a great day with such wonderful family and friends.

This year has been amazing and we appreciate all the love and support our family has received. Carter has been a real treat from the moment he was born and we look forward to celebrating many, many more birthdays as our little boy grows up. Something tells me the best is still yet to come!

St. Patty's Day

So how do you celebrate St. Patty's Day when you're too young for a pint of beer?

Well....

You wear green.

You play outside with your new sandbox/water activity table.

You visit a friend like my buddy, Nate.

And last but not least, you get your friend to bang on the sliding glass door with you!

Scooters and Headbutts

Nonna and Papa Big came back from Costa Rica this week. While on their 3 month vacation Nonna broke her foot and ankle. Crutches are too cumbersome for this lively grandma. She prefers to use a scooter. Of course Carter loves the scooter because it has wheels and we all know how much he loves things with wheels! Apparently he thought steering the handle bars was pretty cool too.



Carter has taken up the art of headbutting to show affection to his father. Hugs and kisses would be less painful, but I think this little "thing" they do is really cute.

Outside

I'm lovin' the warmer weather!

- Carter

Guess who took his first steps today?

I hope you guessed Carter. Yep that's right our little guy took his first steps this evening. Earlier today I saw Carter standing in front of his crib and he took one step to the side (not holding anything). So tonight while Kyle and I were sitting on the floor; we wanted to see if he would walk between us...and he DID! After a couple of passes he was taking 3, 4 or even 5 steps. No video yet. Stay tuned....

12 Random Things

I thought it was really cute when my friend, Jamie, posted “25 random things” about her son on her blog. In honor of Carter’s upcoming birthday (on March 20th) I thought I would do the “12 random things” about Carter.

1. Carter LOVES fruit. He loves it so much we have a really hard time getting him to eat anything else. He likes pears, peaches, blueberries, pineapple and bananas; but his ultimate favorite fruit are oranges. He can down a bowl full of mandarin oranges in a matter of seconds.
2. If you want to take a picture of Carter smiling all you have to say is “Carter say cheese”. He totally knows what that means and hams up for the camera every time.
3. Carter really enjoys bath time. We’ve been putting him in the big tub since he was 3 months old. Of course it wasn’t until he could sit up on his own and play with toys did he become our water baby. Carter knows how to blow bubbles, but often drinks the bath water instead. Oops.
4. If the house is quite that means Carter is up to something. He totally knows when he’s doing something he shouldn’t. If we catch him playing with something he shouldn’t be (like the toilet paper or mommy’s wallet) he’ll chuck the forbidden item in the air and crawl (fast!) in the opposite direction (laughing all the way of course).
5. Sad to say our TV is usually always on. The good news is that Carter could careless about TV. However, we’ve recently stumbled across a set of children’s videos that he is obsessed with. On Demand from Comcast has a baby section called Baby Genius. Carter fell in love with these nursery rhymes the moment we turned the first one on. I’ve never seen this boy sit so still in his life! He giggles at the characters and bops to the music but most of the time he is in some sort of Baby Genius trance. Probably not the best things for him, but hey, if you need to go to the bathroom or get him into his pjs these videos do the trick.
6. Carter loves any opportunity to spin wheels. (i.e. toy trucks, toy trains, other peoples’ baby strollers.) It doesn’t matter what it is, if it has wheels this baby is all over it!
7. Carter thinks drinking out of a straw is cool. We randomly offered him a cup with a straw when he was 9 months old and instantly he knew what to do. However, he sees it more as a fun game rather then a means to quench his thirst. Instead of having one or two sips from the straw, he feels it necessary to have 15-20 sips in a row.
8. Carter doesn’t like juice, but he loves to drink water.
9. Just in the last couple of weeks Carter started to act shy towards people he doesn’t know. It’s only happened 2-3 times. I assume like most moms I secretly like when he turns to me to hold him tight. Any chance to get more hugs, right?
10. Carter loves the cats. He's still working on petting gently and not pulling their tails.
11. Carter hates having his face wiped after meals, wearing bibs, being held down during diaper changes, keeping his socks on, having his nails clipped and being told “no” or “stop”.

12. Carter enjoys playing with his push-toys, looking out windows, reading books in his room, turning lights on and off, eating ice, going for drives in the car, playing peek-a-boo, playing with mom’s big exercise ball, being tossed in the air by dad and being picked up whenever mom or dad walk by.

What a fun year we’ve had so far!

11 Months Old