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 :)