Carter is 6 months old

My little man Carter just turned 6 months old on July 29th.

He got his first haircut a few days prior. When the wind blew or he put his hands on his head, which is often, his bangs or sideburns would get in his eyes. It was crazy...so I took him to KidSnips. He sat on my lap (Logan sat in the cool truck and watched Thomas the Train as he was getting his haircut next) and we both wore aprons. Carter sat very still and looked soooo clean-cut afterwards. I am very glad I did it.

A few days after his half-birthday, he had his 6 month well visit checkup with Dr. M. It went very well. He showed off his sitting skills as the nurse and doctor entered the room. He also passed all the developmental questions....handing an object from one hand to the other...puts pressure on his legs...sits supported, or un-supported in his case. He had to take an oral vaccination, which he did very well with. He also received 2 shots, which ticked him off just a bit. Here are his stats:

18 pounds 7 ounces (70th percentile)

28 inches (90th percentile)

head: 17.5 (60th percentile)

For those curious, he - at this point - is a half pound *less* than where Logan was...and an inch shorter.

Carter has already started rocking back and forth on his hands and knees in his crib and when placed on the floor. I think this is a couple weeks earlier than Logan. Carter constantly is moving - if sitting in the highchair, you will likely find him twirling his wrists and/or feet. It is just too funny! When he eats, after you spoon in the food, his left hand almost immediately goes into his mouth to suck on it. I think he does it to help him swallow. Carter currently has (breast)milk 3 times and eats baby food with dinner. I did buy some baby food and I made sweet potatoes myself...and avocado. Sometimes he has just sweet potatoes, sometimes a combo-platter. It is a lot thicker than the runny baby food and he LOVES it!

Carter currently sleeps about 12 hours at night (awesome!) and naps twice daily. He wakes up around 8am, is up for 2 hours, then goes down around 10am, sleeps for about 3-4 hours (woo-hoo!), up again for 2 hours, naps for 2 hours, up till 8 when he goes to bed. It is a pretty awesome schedule and I love that I have another great sleeper. At this point, I can tell when he is sleepy - he is fussy or he starts sucking his thumb or lays his head down for longer than 3 seconds. I go upstairs and put him in his bed. He starts sucking his thumb, turns to his side or rolls completely onto his tummy and goes to sleep. Sometimes he cries a bit, but it lasts up to 2 minutes tops! If it is longer than that he most likely just needs to burp, then goes right back down.

Carter smiles ALL the time. He has a great, big smile and it makes others smile when you look at him. His hair has filled in nicely around the sides and back...but is still thick upfront as he never lost any. The super funny thing about the front is his hair goes straight-forward then turns to the right (or left if you are looking at him) AND it is fluffy. He has been compared to (hair-wise ONLY) to Conan O'Brien or Donald Trump. Nice, I know...but it is true.

So I took Carter to get his 6month pictures taken and he did so well. He sat up straight and smiled at the right times and there was a picture that he did not smile, but he looks like a doll (so I got the picture). :) After the picture was printed I realized that his hair has reddish tones - like mine did when I was a kid...my hair was always brown, with natural blonde and red tones throughout. But I also noticed just how poofy Carter's hair is on top. {So for the Madorma-cousins photo shoot a week later, I put gel in Carter's hair to tame the top and it worked.}

Let's see...what else. Carter enjoys swings at the park. He likes to watch his big brother play. He sometimes likes to roll into his big brother or touch his face, to which Logan says 'Carter....'.

Unfortunately, Carter rolls WAY, WAY more than Logan ever probably even thought of...which has led to falling off some pieces of furniture. He is just soooo quick. So, Carter if you are reading this in the future....when people ask you if you were dropped on your head as a baby, you can unfortunately say yes. And now, I would like to apologize for letting that happen.

Carter is just such a cutie pie and when people see him then always compliment his big eyes and cheeks. They also typically say that he looks so big for being only 6 months. Well, yes, based on his stats, he is in the bigger range. However, especially after picking Logan up, when I get Carter from his crib or carry him around downstairs or see him in his carseat or high chair, he is just small to me and I love that.

My 2nd little man is growing up and I love every second of it!

Muddy Buddy

In an attempt to lose weight, get fit and do something fun for myself, my friend Kathy & I did the Muddy Buddy; my friend Sam and her hubby Mike also joined in the fun. It is a 6 mile bike/run race with obstacles. We alternate biking and running and perform an obstacle inbetween (climb a small rock wall, crawl under a cargo net, walk across balance beams, climb up a cargo net and slide down, crawl through a mudpit - the most fun!!!). We had a blast. We trained minimally, so perhaps next year we will train in plenty of time and improve our time. This picture is of us 'after' we cleaned up a bit. :)

Beginnings of a Crawler...

Come here you little puppy dog...hmpf, he can touch it, but can't quite grab it.

He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back & forth, then collapses.

He has now moved at least an inch closer and can fully grab the puppy. Which he then proceeded to roll all over the carpet while chewing on the puppy.


GO CARTER GO!!!

Randomness

The other night Logan fell out of his bed (I think this is the 3rd time ever). I had just checked the baby monitor about one minute beforehand and all was well. Then thump. He kept yelping 'Fall Down, Fall Down, Fall Down' until I got up there. He was in a squatting position (kind of on all fours, like a cat), with his pacifier in his mouth and still yelping. I picked him up as he stayed in the squatting position, put him back in bed and he fell asleep with no problem. His little voice yelping fall down was just so cute...

Speaking of beds...typically when we put Logan to bed, he stays in his bed and falls asleep - I am truly amazed at this. Every so often though, he'll get up and come out to the hallway. (For the most part, we have stopped locking his door since he isn't abusing the freedom as much as he once was.) What is cool though is that as soon as I say "Back to Bed"...he hussles his little legs right back in his bed and falls asleep! It is great. Sometimes I'll see him starting to get out of bed via the video monitor and I will tell him to get back to bed and he crawls right back in. I appreciate his listening skills....right now. I fear that we will go through a series of tests soon...and for the rest of his life where these skills may diminish.

Speaking of diminishing skills...when we go for a walk back to our park, I sometimes let Logan walk next to the stroller on the extra-wide sidewalk....to burn some energy. He goes longer than I imagine and we inevitably have to cross a street, to which point I tell him he has to hold my hand. On these walks, he mostly flat out refuses (although other times in parking lots, seems to do okay). I will grab his hand and we'll start crossing and then 9 times out of 10 he will melt and turn into jelly-boy in the middle of the street. Fantastic. So since I cannot stop in the middle of the street to disuss with him how he needs to hold my hand while crossing because of dangerous cars, I end up carrying him - either a normal way or by his hand. Ugh. While pushing the double stroller. And sometimes holding Buddy's leash (if I was crazy enough to think that taking the dog to the park was a good idea....while I watch Logan on the playground, make sure Carter is content in the stroller and make sure Buddy behaves while little kids are either super excited or scared to see him there). So we discuss it when we arrive on the sidewalk and again before we start out on the next one. Inevitably, these discussions don't work as he wants to be so independent...and he ends up in the stroller because at this point, Carter has gotten mad from starting and stopping so much and he is tired or hungry and who wants to push a screaming baby in the stroller when you are still a half mile from home?

Speaking of being away from home....It is not often that I leave the house without the kids. This morning I had the pleasure of going to the grocery store by myself. Ah... My kids are not bad while shopping, but with a toddler and baby, it is just not logisticly possible for me to get more than a couple items...Logan is in the seat and Carter is in his carseat in the main basket.....where oh where would the groceries go? If I got desperate, I could just put Carter in the Bjorn...but so far I haven't had to do so. Anyway I digress (I never do that...haha). Before I left Logan had been awake...since 6am (oy!). I got him milk and a little breakfast and we came upstairs. He had a meltdown about something, so I offered him his pacifiers if he took a nap...at 8:30. Much to my surprise, he did just that. So I fed Carter, got ready and then went on my trip. While I was loading my groceries into the car, John called me. He said Logan just wanted to hear my voice. Apparently he had just woken from his nap and was going around the house yelling 'MAMA, MAMA'. How cute!!! I love it! He said 'Hi Mama' into the phone...oh so adorable. Had I not been 5 minutes away, I may have just cried knowing that he knew I was gone and he missed me. I love that guy.

Speaking of mom-attachments...Carter can play just great by himself and also enjoys watching Logan play. If I leave the room and he doesn't see me, all is well...however if I leave and he does see me leave he gets all bent out of shape. As I was leaving the living room today, he actually bent all the way backwards/upside-down in his in his Bumbo just to see me, while crying. I know it is a phase...I don't want it to last long, but it is nice to feel loved when screaming and crying occur as I walk away... :)

Speaking of walking....Logan has lately found a new hobby of sucking on his toe...sometimes his whole foot. Random!

Speaking of....hm. Not sure if I can find a segway for this one. Ooh, speaking of one.....Logan can count to ten (although 4 and 8 prove to be tricky sometimes, although seven is just fine) when repeating after me. He also recently put together a couple wooden puzzles (matching the picture) with his cousins Ashley and Alex. I had put the puzzles in a bin a while back and they hadn't come out until recently. I was so proud to see that he knew where to put the pieces. What a smart cookie!

This is all I can recall at the moment...