Carter is still just the happiest, sweetest dude! I can't imagine my life without him and his wonderful snuggles! Here are some facts:
- When he has a bare tummy, he delightedly smacks it with both hands over and over again, grinning from ear to ear. It's insanely cute.
- It is completely impossible to change his diaper. He rolls over and tries to crawl away--off of the changing table--the second you lay him down. He will twist and writhe and freak out, making it necessary to pin him down. When Daniel's not around to help, I actually lay Carter on the ground and put my leg loosely over his chest to keep him there. It's exhuasting.
- He likes to sleep with his head in the corner of his crib. And he's a champion sleeper! He sometimes sleeps super late in the morning (which I can't enjoy as much because of Aubrey, who doesn't sleep in), and he often takes 3-hour naps. If he were an only child, I'd be so well rested.
- Speaking of sleeping, tonight at bedtime Daniel started to leave Carter's room without turning on his sound machine (which is set at "rain," if you're interested). Carter apparently pulled himself up into a stand, leaned over the railing, pointed at the machine on the ground, and make a little "Uh! Uh!" sound. I hope we're not making him too dependent on that thing, but that is pretty cute!
- He likes to put everything in his mouth, which in addition to being scary is also really gross. He scavenges for dropped food under the kitchen table after meals. And if he tries to pick something up off the ground that can't be picked up (like a sticker or a mark on the floor), he leans over and licks it. During Aubrey's gymnastics class last week, he bent over and licked the torn up part of the tumbling mat. It was disgusting.
- He LOVES bubbles. He gets such an adorable look of wonder on his face when he's surrounded by bubbles. And they can always cheer him up!
- Like Aubrey did when she was a baby, he loves the Sandra Boynton book Horns to Toes and in Between. I touch his head, ears, legs, tummy, etc. when each body part is mentioned in the book. I tickle him when it talks about tickling and shake him around when it says, "shake and shimmy," and he just laughs so sweetly. It's seriously my favorite book just because of how much my kids love it.
- Speaking of reading, he has started turning pages as we read to him. If I pop the page up for him and tell him to turn the page, he'll do it.
- He gets really excited to go outside, and he cries if you open the front door but then shut it without taking him out.
- He often crawls up to me and tries to climb up my legs, which makes it pretty hard to say no to picking him up.
- One day he started darting his tongue out and bringing it back in really quickly, like a lizard. I did it back to him, and he thought it was so funny. Now we do it back and forth to each other, and he laughs.
- At a church playgroup the other day, we were all sitting on the floor eating a picnic lunch. I had food for Carter, but he kept crawling around and climbing up on the other moms trying to get their food. Boy loves to eat. He'll seriously eat (and like) anything--except for scrambled eggs. For some reason, he makes a disgusted face when we feed him eggs.
- Speaking of eating, he feeds himself a lot of things and eats pretty much whatever we eat. But for anything requiring a spoon (yogurt, oatmeal, etc.), we feed him with a spoon. When we put something in his mouth and some part of it gets on the corner of his mouth, he automatically reaches up and uses the back of his little hand to push it into his mouth. Gotta get it all, right?
- He LOVES spinning wheels. I can almost always distract him with a toy that has a wheel on it. He particularly likes spinning the wheels on Aubrey's plastic bike. They're big and spin pretty fast, so he'll play with them as long as you let him.
- He also loves opening the drawers in the bathroom and pulling himself up to a standing position at the bathtub. He makes a beeline for the bathroom any time the door is left open.
- We haven't tried to teach him any sign language or anything, but we realized that he claps to indicate that he wants more food, wants you to do whatever you just did again, or wants you to pick him up. It's so funny to see him sitting in his highchair and clapping as he cries pitifully.
- He (kind of) says "Mama" and "Dada," which is just too cute!
- He can climb up one stair. He hasn't gotten farther than that yet, but I think it will happen soon.
