Month Seven

Carter, Carter, Bo Barter, Banana-Fana-fo-Farter... What would I do without this kid? I often find myself holding him close and just trying to breathe him in. Literally, I'm kind of smelling the top of his head. Is that weird? I just want to drink in every moment with him, because I know it goes so fast. Anyway, here are some highlights about this cutest of all pies:

• He's wearing 12-month clothes and weighs about 24 pounds. The only kind of pants he can really fit in to are sweatpants. He's living the dream!
• He's super smiley and chatty in the morning. It's the greatest thing to wake up to!

• When he gets picked up, he gets really excited and kicks his feet and flails his arms really fast. And just in general, he's always bouncing. He's a bouncy baby boy!
• When I hold him on my lap facing me, I often shake my head back and forth to make him laugh. When I stop, he does it himself. So cute!

• He's started getting up on his hands and knees, but then he doesn't know what to do after that, so he just collapses. In the process, he's learned how to scooch backward. He can actually move pretty far doing that. The next step is real crawling!
• When Aubrey gets really upset and cries/screams, he looks really worried and starts to cry too. It's so sweet and sad! I mean, check out this serious pout face...

• In the middle of the night, when he cries (because he does now, what with his always being sick), he's usually on his stomach, pushing himself up with his hands. When I go in there, he looks up at me, his face crumbles into the saddest cry, and he kicks his feet really quickly. It breaks my heart and makes it so hard to not pick him up.
• He has this ridiculous full-body coat that I just have to share a picture of:

• When we went to Colorado for Christmas, Aubrey and Carter got sick. And, of course, with Carter's problems, he took forever to get over it. And while he was sick, he had a hard time sleeping on his own. As a result, he ended up in our bed every night for a couple of weeks, which is something I never thought I'd do. Cosleeping was never ever part of our parenting plan, but when you have a sick child... I guess you've gotta do what you've gotta do for everyone to get some sleep, right?

Anyway, he's gotten used to our super comfy bed, and he's had a hard time returing to his crib. We added some padding to make it better for him, and a plush mattress pad should be arriving by mail anytime! Fingers crossed.

• Sometimes, when he's just sitting there, he'll hold up his hand and look at it like, "Woah, check that out." He seriously seems like a stoned person when he does it.
• He recently went on the swings for the first time, and he loved it!