When I put pants on him after a diaper change, I put them on over his feet as he's sitting on his dresser/changing table and then stand him up to pull them all the way up. When I stand him up, he leans over and hugs me while I pull his pants on. Sweetest!
Similarly, when I get him out of his crib in the morning, he gives me a big, long hug. I can't even handle the cuteness.
When we give him food, he often blows on it first. He's seen us do it for him, and he copied us!
He loves climbing onto tables. He gets very proud of himself.
One of his favorite things to do is get up on my bed, stand up, and fling himself down on his tummy. It's so funny, but I have to be very vigilant to make sure he doesn't fling himself right off the bed!
He loves sticking his tongue out and going "Ahhh!" When I do it back, he laughs and tries to touch my tongue.
When we need him to go away because he's trying to touch something gross (like dirty dishes) or dangerous (like the hot, open oven), if we say, "Carter, where's [insert family member's name here], he'll turn around and go find that person. It's both cute AND helpful.
He likes to tuck things under his chin and walk around with them there. It's such a perfect combination of weird and cute. I haven't gotten a great photo of it, but I did get this:
Whenever I wipe down the table, he comes over and starts wiping his hand across it too, as if he's helping. It's so sweet. I use a homemade vinegar spray, and as soon as he sees me spray it on the table, he comes over and starts wiping it around with his hand. He also "helped" me wipe down the sliding glass door once. We had to wash his hands after that one...
When he gets really upset, he runs full-speed at the wall. It's his way of throwing a tantrum, and it leads to a lot of bruises on his head. Sad. :(
Sometimes, when he's eating, he'll start doing this fake chew in which he just opens his mouth wide and closes it over and over. Then he laughs.
Sometimes he does this weird quick eye batting thing when other people pay attention to him and talk to him. One time at church, there was a woman with a chocolate chip cookie. He saw it, did the eye batting thing, and the cookie was his! It was like he flirted with her for it. Smart little man!
The other day, he helped me empty the dishwasher by pulling things out and handing them to me.
He can use a fork! And while he used to let us help him stab things, now he'll get really mad and throw everything if we help. Unfortunately, there's just a lot of food throwing in general at meal times. My good eater has become very picky already. *sigh*
Whenever he sees a picture of a cow, he starts saying, "Moooo!" He says it a little weird, which makes it even cuter.
He loves to watch the trash truck.
One of his favorite books is Five Little Penguins, which counts down from five penguins to one. On the last page, there's a daddy penguin that comes to take the last penguin home. So Carter always says, "Daddy!" when we get to that page. Then I started pointing at the last penguin and calling it the "baby penguin" (because I love hearing him repeat "baby!"). So then, when we went to the zoo earlier this week and saw penguins, the first thing Carter did was point and say, "Baby!" It was the cutest thing EVER.
If he's sitting at the table and sees a plate or other object within his grasp, he'll slowly reach over and slide the thing towards him in a very sneaky way. He watches my face as he does it, and his expression seems to say, "You're not seeing this, right?"
One of his favorite things to do is play with pot lids. Hey, whatever keeps him busy happy, right?
When he wants to sit on my lap, he comes toddling over to me and then turns around so that his back is to me. Then, if I'm sitting on the ground, he'll just plop down. But if I'm on a chair or couch, he just stands there and waits for me to pick him up. It's my favorite.
He loves books right now and brings them to me all the time. It's nearly impossible to say no! He also likes to read the same book over and over, so when we finish one, he'll often grab it from me, turn around to face me, and shove it back into my face.
He's starting to pick up a few more words. He has really cute pronunciations for them. He says:
