Wrapping up the summer

This past Wednesday I went to "new mother's brunch" for Carter's Mother's Day Out that he starts in less than 2 weeks. We signed him up for MDO when he was a wee 2 months old (shout out to Al Brown for getting me on the ball!) and now I cannot wait to see him thrive. Blogfriends, you may wonder what in the world is in it for him at 9 months old and think it's just for me, but no sir-ee, the boy is definitely going to get a lot of benefit from this. I think my biggest confirmation was picking him up from childcare after the brunch and the worker was feeding him puffs (always makes him happy but I knew he was fed and rested so he should have been happy sans puffs) and I say "was he fussy?" and she replied "as long as he was being held, he was fine, but as soon as I put him down he screamed". And that, my friends, is my lovely child right now. He wants FULL attention, ALL the time. You walk just to coffee table when he's sitting right there on the floor-screams, you're walking away. You better not even think to go to the bathroom without atleast a 5 minute melt down. I did some googling on separation anxiety and you better believe I will be asking Dr. Dreiling his thoughts on Carter's 9 month check up, but it is getting old. fast. I mean, I do love that he loves me so much (but it's not me--it's anyone, he just doesn't like to be alone, just like his Daddy :))  and he is at such a FUN age, but he is definitely going to benefit, if nothing else, by a 2:6 ratio in MDO (not to mention he has gross motor day, music class, "art" :))...so excited!

Okay, that was a sidenote from what this post is about. Hence, we're starting MDO so the summer is wrapping up and we've had OH so much fun! Here are some pics...

For our 7th anniversary we had a little staycation at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas, Carter stayed with MiMi and Aunt Connie. It was fabulous and went something like this: hang out by the pool (they "make" your lounge chair with big fluffy towels and a towel pillow), read, chillax, long uninterrupted shower and getting ready, nice dinner out, shuffleboard in hotel bar, peruse the hotel grounds, wake up late (7:30 am! what what?),  sit in our robes and have coffee in bed until 10 (!), breakfast by the pool, lounge, lunch by the pool, Julie goes to spa while Caleb goes and works out (such a fit!), ahh....a blissful 24 hours and perfect way to spend our anniversary. Above is the little anniversary treats they had for us in our room! Unfortunately, we did not get any pics of us together and all the pool pics are on the iphone :)...to come later!

Carter has been getting lots of MiMi time in. He is now our little "stander baby" and loves to stand up all the time. Despite Caleb's efforts and crawling bootcamp on a regular basis, I personally think Carter will skip the crawling and go straight to walking :).

Love this pic of MiMi loving on Carter. Speaking of MiMi (my Mom), I'm not sure if I'll break down and do a full out post on this yet (may wait until it's all over to hash out all my emotions, etc) but please keep her in your prayers. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and is having surgery to remove the tumor this Wednesday, 8/31. Good news is the tumor is very small, so we're praying that the lymph nodes are NOT affected and it will be surgery +radiation with no chemo, but won't know until after surgery. She's doing great and has a great attitude-- she's just sad she won't be able to hold Carter for over 2 weeks!

Went to Austin 2 weekends ago for Papa's birthday and got LOTS of lovin...and these new toys!

Sofia fed Carter some dinner. I loved this because she was so careful to "do it right" and he was just grunting at her because she wasn't fast enough :). It was so cute.

It didn't get on photo, but Carter reached his milestone of "pulling up" while we were in Austin--on Papa's bday (8/12). Here he is in position.

Sofia was such a great helper, she helped give him a bath then helped with his nighttime bottle.

Playing at Nana and Papa's house!

**sidenote: My Dad takes so many photos I forgot to get my camera out. We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa at work and Carter loved getting all the attention from coworkers! I think these are on my iphone...will have to do an iphone photo post soon!

We came back and had so much fun hanging out with the Kemp's! They moved back in January and we miss them terribly! It was fun to have the old community group over for gaming and it surprisingly didn't get *too* competitive!

Dads :)

My little foodie

This past weekend we went to Austin (pics to come!) and Carter as always got spoiled rotten by grandparents. LOTS of attention and came home with a suitcase full of new toys (thanks Nana and Papa!). On Friday night we had a yummy meal to celebrate Papa's birthday and had steak, baked potatoes, and squash/zucchini. After Carter's baby food (we took jars which were much easier than toting around the homemade purees) he still acted hungry so I just mashed some potato and squash/zucchini and he did GREAT! So, I've kinda decided to be "done" with making baby food weekly and we will go through our freezer stash of purees, but also add some table foods to the mix. Monday night I made Caleb and I pan seared chicken, sweet potato fries, and green beans. I diced and shredded it up and that's what Carter ate too--SO nice to have him sit with us and eat what we eat. Although half of it ended up in his lap, he loved it! So, last night I decided to feed him with a spoon first and then put some on his tray just to make sure he got enough. MY. GOODNESS. The boy ate 1/2 of a sweet potato (mashed) and 2 chicken tenders (pan seared from the night before--no fried food yet!) shredded up, PLUS ~3 ounces rice cereal with breastmilk. He's loving real food and believe me, mama's loving not using precious naptime to steam + puree food :). Pics to come!

8 months!

This post is a little late, it's been crazy around here the last week or so. I do not have enough hands to count the number of "workers" that have been at our house dealing with everything from refrigerator breaking (I think that alone was 8 total visits from the tech and countless bags of ice and spoiled food later to get it working!)  to "critters" in our attic that had chewed through the brick, to a hole in the ceiling from plumbing issues, etc. Anyway, through all this Carter has been a champ and he actually finds it quite entertaining to watch people working on our house.

This post will not be as extensive as previous monthly posts, but here we go...

Stats: 18 lbs, 1 oz as of 8/1, size 3 diapers, 9-12 mos clothes

EAT:
He's dropped a bottle so we're down to 4 bottles/day and 2 meals/day. His distraction has hit a new level with both nursing and bottle feeding so he now pretty much will only nurse in his room, in the glider, holding his blanket--and he will use his little fist to hold his blanket and bang his head. Funny boy. Nobody can be around---or even upstairs for that matter. Bottle is definitely hit or miss. This morning Caleb was giving him the bottle and all he wanted to do was watch me make breakfast in the kitchen, so after 20 mins or so Caleb said he was done and went back to finish the bottle 20 mins later. He's pretty much gone through all the fruits and veggies and last week we started adding chicken with dinner and baby yogurt with breakfast. Typical breakfast is 2 oz fruit + oatmeal and ~3 ounces baby yogurt. Typical dinner is 3 oz chicken + 2 oz veggie + baby rice. The only foods so far he does not like are peas and avocado (the 2 things I've given him that I don't eat :)). He's loving mum mums and gerber puffs--definitely a new distraction and form of entertainment when at the dr office, sitting and waiting for the car, etc.

PLAY:
LOVES to stand up. Will just reach for your hands and pull himself right up. To get to his toys will just roll and roll. We'll put him on all fours and he'll just put his belly down on the ground--not at all interested in crawling and doc said that's just fine. He's reached a stage where his favorite "toys" are non-toys. Yesterday Caleb had the foam roller out and that entertained Carter for 45 minutes. This morning it was the laundry basket. Silly silly boy. He's really started reduplicated babbling with /dadadada/--I tell Caleb it's not his first word, as it has no meaning :). We're working on /mama/. Has his happy scream that's getting louder and louder. Yesterday when I picked him up from the church nursery, the lady said "he has so much personality, he just grunts and squeals". That's my boy. He doesn't like something, gets bored, wants something--grunts and grunts till he gets what he wants. Loves the "tot rider 2" as Caleb calls it, otherwise known as the walker. He will wheel around in that thing in the kitchen and loves his newfound independence of going where he wants (unless he's in the laundry room--always gets stuck in the laundry room). Loves watching people, so one of our new "outings" is to the mall just to people watch--and it's cool which is a must in this 110 degree heat!

SLEEP:
His asthma had some flaring up this month which did affect him a bit, giving him nighttime breathing treatments 2x. Otherwise, he's sleeping 7:30-7 at night and 2 solid naps (morning and afternoon) with sometimes an evening power nap. Still just talks and plays in his crib! He has figured out how to kick his mobile on in the crib, so that will keep him entertained for a while before falling asleep :). Still gives us the biggest grin when we come to get him out of the crib--one of my favorite parts of the day!


HEALTH:
He did get his first 2 teeth this month and thankfully teething has not affected sleep or personality yet! Fingers crossed it stays this way :). We've also been dealing with his asthma flare ups. He got on a 5 day oral steroid on top of 2x/day breathing treatments (pulmicort and albuterol) and it's much more under control. We're going to see a pulmonologist probably this week just to take a look at him.

The many faces of Carter at 8 months...