Carter Lately

If you are sick of hearing about Carter and all of his milestones....this blog is not for you :)

My Carter is starting to get sick again!!  Ugh!!  He is starting to cough, he is snorting like a pig when he breathes out of his nose, and I can feel a rattle when I touch his back.  No fever or runny nose yet thank goodness!  This has been the story of his life since he has been born and I hate it for him.  Thank goodness we have a doctor appointment at the ear, nose, and throat doctor at Children's next Thursday.  Maybe we will get some answers.  I just hope he does not get too bad so we don't have to make a doctor's appointment with his doctor before then.  Nick and I are a nervous wreck because, supposedly, RSV and Pneumonia are going around pretty bad for the little ones right now.  My sister-in-law, Abbie, has informed me that it is ZERO fun.  My poor nephew, Nolan, had to go through it and he handled it like the champ that he is.  Thank goodness he is so tough!

Carter is doing well eating whole fruits and veggies!  At one point I thought he would be on pureed food forever.  The things that he refused to eat last week he is eating like crazy this week.  His favorite veggie is sweet potato and there is a tie between kiwi, watermelon, and apple being his favorite fruit.  He loves organic brown rice with any fruit or veggie and next week I am going to try some whole grain pasta mixed with carrots and tomato with some strawberries for dessert.  I see a huge mess in his near future!  Breakfast is his most favorite meal of the day.  This week he is getting bananas, peaches, blueberries and banana flavored yogurt mixed in with his oatmeal.  He eats that like he is a wild animal.  I can't get the food on his spoon and to his mouth fast enough.  He spends the majority of his time yelling at me trying to get me to hurry for his next bite.  His least favorite veggie is asparagus and I have not found a fruit that he does not like.  I have decided to keep making his food all through his toddler years.  It is so fun and gives me such a good feeling knowing exactly what he is consuming.  I know that he is eating so healthy.  If I got in the habbit and ate what he ate with more added meat then I would be in good shape!! He is 9 1/2 months old and has never had anything with preservatives in it. 

He is still obessed with his books and flash cards.  He will throw the biggest fit you ever saw if you put them up before he is ready to.  I have learned that if you do not have about 30 minutes to sit with him and go through them then don't even let him see them.  If he is acting up in a restaurant or somehere in public all I have to do is get a book out and he is good to go!  I can put two flash cards down in front of him with a cat on one and a cow on the other.  I will ask him which one the cat is and he will pick the right one every time.  I will switch them up 100 times and he will always pick the right one.  If I ask which one is the cow he will always pick up the cow.  He will get it wrong every now and then but it just tells me that the flash cards and books are really helping and I am so glad that he LOVES them.  I am going to start putting down three at a time and see how he does with that.  We are still learning body parts and for some reason he has forgotten where his nose is.  He was getting it right every time last week and now he is not doing it anymore.  Little stinker!

Still no words.  Every now and then dada will sneak out and that is it.  For the most part he is really quiet and keeps to himself.  Even when we look at our books and flash cards he sits there in silence just looking and soaking it all up.  Every now and then he will get in a talky/screamy mood but not too often.  He mostly expresses himself through facial expressions.  Nick's mom said Nick was the exact same way when he was a baby.  He will crawl from toy to toy, walk with his walking toys, turn pages in his book, and watch cartoons for hours without making a sound.  He does get really really vocal when he laughs.  He laughs with all of his might.  Sometimes he laughs so hard he will throw back his head and fall backwards....lol.

He can now walk beside us just holding on with one hand.  That took a while before he got brave enough to let go with the other hand but he is doing really well.  I honestly think he will be walking within the next month or so....for sure before his 1st birthday.  His balance still has a lot of improving to do.  All of our house is hardwood and tile so we were having to walk behind him when he walked with his walking toy because he would fall every now and then.  Now he is good enough that we just let him roam the house with it.  He will crash every now and then and it is VERY dramatic but that hardly happens anymore.  Now I just wish he could figure out how to turn the toy around instead of expecting the wall to move out of his way.

He knows what the word no means and listens so well.....as of right now.  I can always tell when he is going for the dvd case or a picture frame that is on a lower shelf that he loves to knock over.  Right when I say, "Carter no."  He turns and looks at me, smiles, and goes a different direction.  Nick says no more firm that I do so he listens to him more.

Anything and everything goes straight to his mouth if it is on the floor or in his reach.  If there is a dead fly in the floor he will pick it up and put it in his mouth.  He has done that and I almost broke my neck trying to stop him then I made him cry because I was digging in his mouth with my fingers.  I did manage to get it out before he swollowed it.  Yes, I was gagging the whole time.

I am still his favorite person and he is most definitely mine.  Being a mommy is so much fun and so rewarding!