Baby gates!

Carter was starting to venture out of the living room more and more, so we decided it was time to put up the baby gates. There are three in all, and they keep Carter confined in the baby-proofed area of the family room and kitchen.





He seems to find them interesting, something new to pull up on. Once I went to the bathroom and came back to see him standing at the gate, peering over the top at me. The cats were really freaked out at first. Their food is out in the foyer now (after Michelle had to fish some cat food out of his mouth), and whenever you move their food, they get a little worried. They haven't yet figured out how to jump over the gates. I'm sure they will eventually, but in the meantime I created a little stile for them out of stepstools, as you can see in the pictures above.

We switched out all the outlet plates in the living area and kitchen for the sliding baby-proof kind, and everything dangerous is out of Carter's reach, at least for now. The only thing we still have to do is install latches on the undersink cabinet, where all the cleaning supplies are. The rest of the cabinets should be fine for a while.

I'm enjoying watching him discover his new mobility. He will see something he wants (typically a cat) and tear after it at a surprisingly fast crawl, grinning and laughing. He got his first cat scratch in that manner a couple of days ago. I was in the bathroom and heard him giggle, then the cat make a very angry sound, and then silence. When I got around the corner, I saw Carter lying on his back on the verge of crying, and Lucy sitting about 6 feet away glaring at him. She had finally had enough of his tail-squeezing and scratched his cheek. Frankly, I'm surprised she put up with it for so long! After a hug and some reassurance from me, Carter went after her again, though, so the scratch was apparently not much of a deterrent. Though this morning he was squeezing her tail and she made the angry cat sound, and he let go and whimpered a little, like he was remembering what happened last time. Then he grabbed her tail again. Heh.

He is pulling up on many more things now, including me:



He's getting quite good at pulling up on the furniture, and is even cruising a bit:



He is a really happy baby, overall. He seems to know that he is supposed to smile for the camera, and he does it more and more. I'm not sure why, but it's very convenient! He's practically posing here. He got very still and waited for the flash to go off before he moved again.



In other news, my toe is doing a lot better. You can see in the above picture that I'm wearing a special boot thing, and that makes a huge difference. With that, I can hobble around without crutches, and even go up and down stairs. I have yet to venture out of the house, but I'm getting more confident that I could.

Finally, tomorrow is Carter's first birthday. I'm in a state of disbelief about that, mostly because I think of him as his adjusted age, but still, tomorrow marks a year since his fairly traumatic birth. We have a special dinner planned for him, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.