8 months and moving!

Outside in the leaves....he is a little dazed in this pictures. Wondering what his mom is doing setting him down in the cold leaves.

These are pictures I took while I was waiting for the photographer to get there to take his Halloween pictures. Now you can see why he was not smiling in his costume....he was not in the picture mood. Tired, sore teeth, and cold weather = not happy baby. But he is still cute!

These are pictures I have been taking over the past week to show what my 8 month old is up to. He is crawling, in fact yesterday he decided it was time to crawl, crawl. Meaning, hands and knees. Just woke up and decided this is the day. Then today he was back to his stomach again until I said hands and knees and I swear he obeyed and got on his hands and knees. It's amazing what they understand. But he is under everything and standing up on everything. Just exploring his world.

He also loves to pull out all his books and look at them. He loves being read to and sits still for as many stories as you will read to him. I usually read to him before nap and bed time to wind him down.

He has discovered how to stand in his crib. So proud of himself! He has gotten better at understanding that he can't let go and I don't have to worry as much about him hurting himself.

He can actually pull this drawer open, which isn't easy.

He is doing a pull up here. Not sure if you can tell but he is pulling himself up to the bar. Working out already! Love it!

And under the table is a favorite spot to hang out. He gets lots of bumps from crawling under the chairs.

This is when you hope the chairs are sturdy and not easy to tip over.

Halloween! I borrowed this princess/medieval costume from my friend Natalie and it was a hit. It was quite the costume and people loved it.

Jim wasn't quite so lucky.... we threw his costume together a few hours before so it was not as authentic. But he was a good sport and truly is my knight in shining armor. (insert gag)

Carter has rocked his dragon costume 4 or 5 times and is also a great sport. He gets it on and goes with the flow. I'm not sure what he thinks about Halloween....people in funny or scary costumes. What is going on?

It all came together for the Hickman Halloween Carnival. Poor Carter, his mean mom won't even collect candy for him. He doesn't get to eat that stuff yet and Jim and I certainly don't need it.

So I am happy to report that I think the sleeping and eating problems from the last few weeks are over. At least he has been better the past few days and it is so nice to sleep through the night again and not have a fight at nap times. I just need to go with the flow at these times, cause they have always worked themselves out, thankfully. Just give him what he needs, even if that means getting up a few times a night with my baby.

Here is a video of the piggy face....he did it a month ago for a few days all the time, then stopped. Then started it back up the past few days. Not sure what it is all about, but it cracks me up.

Here is Carter signing "more". What a smart boy!

Carter wasn't in the picture mood yesterday....but the show must go on. He didn't have a long enough nap and his teeth are bugging him, that is why he is sucking on his lip. But his Halloween pictures are still cute, just not smiley like he normally is. What can you do?

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Remember when.....

Remember when my baby would lay on the floor and drink his own bottles.....
remember when my baby would lay in the bath to get washed......
remember when he would lay down in his bed and go right to sleep without a fuss....
I remember those days...it was a few weeks ago and it was heaven. Not sure what this new phase is but it is killing me.
You have to let him sit up and you have to hold his bottle so he can drink it....and he isn't finishing any of his bottles.
He wants to only sit up in the bathtub which makes it hard to wash his hair.
Jim is on his 5th story before putting him to bed cause he starts to fuss when you go to lay him down, but he will sit quietly for stories. I'm glad he likes to read but there has to be a line.
This 8 month old stuff is crap.
He is now able to stuff bread and other finger foods in his own mouth after I have been practicing with him this week. We saw our neighbors kid on Sunday feeding himself and he is a few weeks younger than Carter. So I pushed it this week and am happy to say he can feed himself. We did go through a few days where we were fighting for the spoon when I tried to feed him, but luckily I won that fight and he keeps his hands out of the way for the most part.
He can crawl on all four but still chooses to army crawl mostly to get around.
He is fun, but also more challenging. But I guess that is part of parenthood. Give me strength. I know I am too old to have started this, but I had no choice.

Fall is Here!

I had to show the cute shirt Carter was wearing. It says hug magnet and he certainly is. So cute!

 The weather is cooling down, but thankfully it was perfect last week and we still went on walks and hung out outside on the grass. Grass doesn't bother Carter at all. He will crawl, sit, and even lie in it.

Love his smile. Although this last week he isn't smiling as much cause he is sucking his lip, so I think his teeth are bugging him more....honestly teeth, what a pain.

My sister and her family came to stay with us last weekend. Her kids were so good with Carter. They wanted to love him and he wanted to love them from a far. He loves it when they play soccer in front of him, he laughed and laughed. It's funny how a new toy is fun for kids at any age.

We dressed Carter up in his Halloween costume to show his cousins. Lucas is roaring and Jessica and Jacob are holding the wiggly dragon. We had a lot of fun. We played school and we wished it was nicer so we could have played soccer outside but the boys played it inside. We went to Jim's parents house and went swimming. Carter loved it. He loves the water and had fun playing with everyone in there. There were races and kids getting thrown in by Uncle Jim. Good times. We were glad Jim got off work earlier from work so he could be there, cause the kids love him.

I can't believe how grown up these kids are getting. Jessica is so good and loves to read. Jacob has really matured and I was proud of the young man he is becoming. Lucas is so fun and was fascinated with Carter. They are such good kids and I'm glad they moved closer so we can see them more often. The are BIG BYU fans so I think there was some smack talk from the Aggie fan and the BYU family of fans.

Lucas ..... think he is winking at the camera. Not sure!

We went to an Aggie football game Saturday and we had to dress for the cooler weather. Here is Carter rocking his cool look. He keeps me toasty warm sitting on my lap and he loves looking around at the people around us. He is a good baby, he sat for the whole game...well we left at the 4th quarter cause it was bed time and the Aggies were killing it.

He has discovered the fun of making noise, throwing things, banging things, and the sound of the door stops. He always looks in our closet to see if we are in there. He also loves crawling for the bathroom, he gets a kick out of it when we are in the bathroom. Funny kid.

He has been doing this for weeks and has faint bruises all across his forehead to show for it. He pulls down the bumper pad and peeks out when he wants to get out of his crib. What a boy!

We put up a few Halloween decorations and Carter seems to like them. We hope the nice fall weather stays for at least a month longer. I am not ready to be shut up in the house. And already everyone's kids are getting sick. Not ready for winter!

Just the last few days he has started clapping by himself and signing more to me when he is eating. The other day we were chatting with some neighbors and I put Carter down on the grass so he could crawl around. He started crawling towards me then he saw Mason with a cookie in his hand and changed direction towards him. That is not like him to go towards anyone else, so he must have really wanted that cookie and thought maybe he could get someone else to share with him what his parents won't. Sorry little guy, soon you will get more food, but not yet.

People Always Ask

It's a commonly asked question, "Who does Carter look like?" So here is a picture of Jim and me at around 6 1/2 months old. And then there is a picture of Carter at the same age. I will leave it up to you to decide. 

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Here Comes Trouble!

Army crawl or not...this kid is getting around. I put long pants on instead of shorts and off he went on the hard floor. Trouble is coming! He loves the top of his toy, that is what motivated him to go the distance.

He also loves to stand and he is getting better about holding on.

September fun!

For my birthday Carter and I flew to Vegas to meet up with Jim who was at a Conference. We luckily got upgraded to first class, so Carter was spoiled for his first flight. We did not get excited looks when we sat in our seats, and I don't blame people. It is not fun to be sitting next to a crying baby on a flight. But thankfully Carter was an angel. He didn't fuss at all and did amazingly well all flight. In part thanks to Heather, Jim's sister who was sitting next to us and helped distract Carter. She was awesome, and Carter loved playing with his Aunt Heather. Vegas was a great time as always. Carter traveled well and did well at the hotel. He was overwhelmed by all the lights in Vegas. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant inside a casino and Carter was so noisy talking and probably trying to hear himself over the Vegas noise. As we left the restaurant some lady scoffed at us having a baby in a casino. "why don't they get a babysitter?" It's not like it was late or that we were playing the slots, we had to walk close to the casino to get to a restaurant. Anyway....we did get a babysitter later that night. My wonderful cousin Krystal watched Carter while we went to a Garth Brooks concert. He was amazing! No back up, it was him and his guitar and it was one of the best concerts we have every been to. Such a great birthday!

We drove back with Jim, Don, and Heather. Carter has started making this funny face and breathing funny too. He scrunches up his nose and starts blowing air out his nose. We call it his piggy face. He looks a little evil and thinks it is funny to do. We videoed it as well, but not sure I will figure out how to post it from my phone. It cracks me up.

Jim left for a 4-wheeler trip, conveniently the weekend my parents were coming, haha. I love having extra hands in my house to help entertain Carter, babysit, and help with meals. I see some benefit of being a sister wife...jk. Carter had a great time with Grandma and grandpa. I think he was missing his dad though cause he had a rough couple of days while Jim was gone. And he was so happy to see Jim when he got home yesterday. Carter decided not to nap Saturday and instead joined us in watching conference. He actually sat for most of the session on our laps and just watched conference. When I took the picture he looked over, but it was amazing that he would sit and watch with us. He loves the music. For the other sessions we didn't get as much out of conference because we were playing with my cute baby. Grandpa would hide behind the couch and play peek-a-boo with Carter and he loved it. Grandma would sing to him at night. We will miss our company, it nice to have my parents visit.

His shirt says Here Comes Trouble. And before long this will be true. He is really starting to figure out how to get around and crawl. He had 2 or 3 bumps on his head this weekend to prove it. Honestly, I need to bubble wrap my entire house. I really do wonder how much Jim's absence affected him, cause for a couple days he cried when I tried to put him down for a nap and he was grouchier. Maybe he was growing, or his teeth were bugging him, or he wasn't feeling well....who knows, but it was when Jim was gone. And he is back to my regular perfect baby today, thankfully, but I think he missed his daddy. It is a really fun age and he is curious about everything. We look forward to next weekend when my sister and her 3 kids are coming to visit. Carter loves to watch other kids play around him so he will be in Heaven.