A grab bag of updates

I have meant to update every day for a week, and just never got there. It's been a busy week! We're going to New York for the weekend, and we're so excited! We're taking Michelle, Carter's nanny with us, and Doug and I will be going to see several Broadway shows. Before Carter was born, we just to do this all the time, go to NYC for the weekend and see as much theatre as possible. With Michelle there, we'll know Carter is in good hands all those evenings. We will also get a chance to explore the city from a baby perspective, something that's going to be really interesting!

Carter still hasn't taken any independent steps, but he's so mobile that it almost doesn't matter. A few nights ago, Doug and I were talking in the living room, and all of the sudden Doug said, "Where's Carter?" He was nowhere in sight! We searched the house and found him down the hall. He had somehow opened the baby gate and crawled through without us noticing! That was an eye-opener. :-P Now we keep it locked.

He's so active these days that his weight is stable, and he might even have lost weight. He's like a little tornado, always moving, and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Okay, not really, but sometimes it seems that way!

We went to a La Leche League meeting the other day, and almost all of the other babies were teensy, less than 2 months old. It was so strange to see how tiny they were. I know Carter was so much smaller than that, but I look at him now and can't really remember it. Isn't that weird? He had fun playing with another crawling baby and a 3 year old who was there with his mom and baby brother. He was a sweet kid, and crawled around so Carter could follow him. Carter is really interested in older kids lately, especially boys. It's like he knows he's a boy and he should watch them to see what boys do. Weird, but I'm not sure what else it could be, yanno? He also was very gentle and petted a couple of the smaller babies, and smiled at them.

There was something on the Today show a week or so ago about shyness, and the researchers found that they could predict shyness by looking at how babies reacted to being in a room they'd never seen before. If the babies started exploring immediately, they seemed not to be shy later on, but if they were fearful and clung to their mothers, they would later be shy children. By that standard, Carter is not going to be shy at all!

Okay, some pictures. Look how long his hair is getting! I LOVE it! I have always thought little boys with long shaggy hair were so cute!



I recently took a lot of the baby gear (bouncy seats, etc.) to Once Upon a Child to sell. I thought about keeping it, but it will be at least a year and a half before we might possibly have another baby, and that stuff takes up a lot of space. But on top of that, what if we can't have another? It's a lot easier to get rid of that stuff now than it would be then. Besides, I have a better idea now of what equipment I actually need, and it will be fun to buy it again. So I sold a bunch of stuff. And LOL, found some cool new toys for Carter!



We're going on a cruise in April, and I decided to get Carter some formal wear for the dinners. I couldn't resist! I found these online, so cute! Here's Carter modeling his tux:



And here is a 5 piece navy blue suit that I haven't forced him to try on just yet:



Signing update: He's signing more and more, but he seems to be making up his own signs rather than using the standard ones, which means we have to figure out what they mean. For example, he seems to make a waving motion with his hand for "more" and "finished" (you have to figure out which one from context). He also seems to be using his head shaking to actually say "no" now! Michelle says that he has signed "poop" to her a few times when he was pooping his diaper, but I haven't seen that one yet

Teeth: His two bottom lateral incisors have cut through, so he's on his way to having 8 teeth!

I have more to say, but it's dinnertime and I have to wrap this up! I'll end with a video I took today of him outside.



I'll post pictures and an update from New York this weekend!