Happy Halloween!!

Carter & I went to a halloween party yesterday for my mothers group. It was very cute to see all the kids dressed up… the things we do to our kids! I wore my geisha costume from last year & Carter was a monkey. I posted a few photos from the party on flkr.

I have all the halloween lights up & now I am waiting for the kids. Did I mention that I love halloween. Chocolate & costumes, whats not to love. I even have Holden dressed up since he loves halloween too.  Holden likes answering the door, & is very good to let all the kids pet him, so yes he loves halloween too!

Superdog & his sidekick, the monkey

more photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77936547@N00/with/285095523/

Got Candy!?

New little buddy

Ok, here is the usual Carter update. He’s doing great with the rice cereal & carrots. I have learnt that carrots stain everything!! Poor guy, he’s stripped to his diaper, or is double bibbed & has a dish cloth over his lap when he eats to avoid carrot stains. He’s actually pretty clean in the picture below because he is distracted by learning how to bang the toy on the highchair. Usually his hand is in his mouth, so his hands & arms are food covered.

Carter has also managed to figure out how to roll back to front. He was stuck on his arm for a while but is now able to rock it free & pull it out from underneath him. He has not put it all together yet though, but I think he will soon figure out how to roll himself across the room.

Carter welcomed a new little buddy to the world this month. My cousin Lori, had Austin on October 12th. What a cutie!

 Baby Austin

I posted new photos on flkr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77936547@N00/

Food! Mmmm mushy rice…

We decided to feed Carter solid food today. We were going to wait another month but he’s been breastfeeding like a madman, including getting up 2-3 times a night again to eat (he was up only once or sleeping through). He did pretty good. He took a few good mouthfuls, had a few laughs, but then he got distracted by the fact that he was confined to his highchair. I thought it wasn’t too bad for a first attempt.

 1st (semi) solid meal

Grandma D loves video, so I’ve taped some more. The first video is “fun with daddy”… we have no shame in this video, so enjoy. The second video is Carter discovering a new sound, he did this for about 15minutes (long enough for us to have good laugh & think, he we should tape this).

Fun with Daddy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EiY5_B4cWo

Talk, Talk, Talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baVxj6J0jHw

Playdate

I hosted a playdate at my house this week for seven moms & seven babies. All the babies were boys, ranging in age from 2.5months to 6months. Shawn helped me move the furniture in the living room to make floor space, & then I moved  in all my baby equiptment (swing, jumperoo, bumbo, bouncer seats).  Babies spend alot of time in the baby equipment or on the floor. It was alot of fun & I think I will likely host a playdate a month. Plus, I am now an assistant organizer for the Cave Creek mom’s group (Shawn laughs at me), so I do some emailing & party planning.

Carter is doing good. Bedtime is going much better now that we have a routine & are putting him to bed earlier. We are working on the bottle & he is getting better (he was refusing to eat from the bottle). He now gets a bottle once a day. Little bugger is perfectly capable to eat from the bottle just stubborn, & tries to hold off in hopes of getting a little boobie. We are also trying to get him used to the high chair but he has no interest in sitting in anything that doesn’t allow him to kick his legs or grab his feet.

Carter has started to laugh lately. He likes to babble so it is hard to distinguish his laugh from general babble, but he’s got a very cute little chuckle. Tonight he laughed when Shawn was helping him ride Holden.

Anyway here is a little picture of Carter & one of his buddies Xander. I’ve posted a few new photos on flkr too.

4 Months

Carter had his 4 month appointment today. His appointment was right after his morning nap so he couldn’t have been in a better mood. He put on a good show for the pedicatrician & nurses; he doesn’t appear shy to flash anyone a big smile. Although his smiles turned to screams with the shots, but he did manage to pull himself together to smile & flirt with the check out lady.

Anyway he’s now 15lbs6oz (60th %tile), 25.5 inches long (60th %tile). So he’s doing great with the breastmilk. In fact he’s such a boob man that we are still stuggling to give him the bottle. He’s completely able, just stubborn so now he’s getting a bottle once a day till we break his habit. I’m going to wait another month or so before we start baby food; that should be interesting.

We’ve started a bedtime routine which seems to have eliminated his Dr Jekle routine in the evening, plus we’ve pushed bedtime up to 7pm. Last night he slept until 6:30am. We’ve also removed his musical toy from his crib. He has a mirror with a button that you can push for music. Carter has learned to kick the button, so no more musical toy at 4am.

The music toy even wakes Shawn up, which is surprising since Shawn can sleep very soundly through crying baby. What is interesting is when we were dog sitting, Shawn would wake up to let out the crying dog but sleep through the crying baby, and I would sleep though the crying dog but wake up for the baby. Go figure.

Anyway, this photo is dedicated to Grandpa Willett: (have a look at the larger version on flkr)

 

Feet

I have a request for more video (Apparently my mom watches the latest video every night before bed). So I have taped some more video for Grandma D. Carters latest obession is his feet. He loves his feet. Spends most of the day playing with them, so much that you have detach his hands from his feet to change his diaper. So this is a video of Carter grabbing hold of his feet (such concentration), only to be distracted every once and a while by the duvet cover. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYXFP6gZRrk

Carter is getting alot stonger lately & is very squirmy. We now have to keep him strapped into all his little chairs because he has proven he can wiggle himself right out of his bouncer seat, and even his car seat when not strapped in. We set up the jumperoo since he loves to kick his feet — he’s already getting the hang of jumping around in it.

Coyotes!

Not much new with us. Carter & I are busing going to playdates all the time now; usually two or three a week.  Pretty hot here still. I am looking forward to it being a little cooler so we can go for walks during the day without sweating.  I don’t think I’ll walk much at night anymore because we had a little run in with a coyote yesterday, and then today my friend told me her dog was bit by a rattler on an evening walk while he was on the leash! (Little Nash, but don’t worry he’s ok now)

I now know Holden can not tell the difference between a coyote & a dog. Last night I took Holden and Carter for a walk at sunset in the park, & just as we are rounding the corner to take the exit sidewalk a coyote appears & blocks the exit. It had to be 4 or 5 meters from us. Luckily Holden was on the leash, but he was pulling against the leash, trying to go up & check the coyote out. No growl, no bark from Holden. My overly friendly dog was anxious to go sniff his bum & make friends!! The coyote stood there looking at us & even took a few steps in our direction before he turned & ran off into the wash! Have to admit, I pushed the stroller through the dirt & rock to avoid getting too close to the wash he disappeared into. Shawn says one coyote usually comes out of the wash to intice the dogs in so the pack can pounce on it. He ran into one earlier this week, when it appeared chasing a dog out of the wash near the park. Anyway, no worries grandmas… (I am sure they are thinking we should give our heads a shake, letting their gandbaby live so close to coyotes & snakes!)… Carter is safe & sound in his bed tonight.