Curly hair and lots of cuteness

I'm sitting here watching Carter play and listening to Cat Stevens, and god does that take me back. Doug gave me this very CD before he moved to Arizona and I would lie in my college dorm room and listen to it, missing him. And now I'm sitting here in Austin Texas, 20 years later, watching our son play. Where did all that time go? There's something really amazing about the time warp music can take you on.

Anyway, while Carter is playing, I thought I'd try to update. He's been really content in the evenings this week, which is a change from the week before. When Doug is gone, he really seems to notice and is extra fussy at night. When Doug comes back, he is suddenly the happiest baby ever, every night. He crawls around, plays and explores, occasionally crawls into one of our laps for some cuddling, and then is on his way again. It's so sweet!

Here is a video of him playing in the tent in his room. He didn't like it until recently, but now all the balls are fun.



Lucy likes to sleep in any places that are designated as belonging to or related to Carter, like cribs, rocking chairs, high chairs, and so on. We have a travel crib that I occasionally use as a play pen in non-babyproofed parts of the house, and Lucy like to sleep in it. Carter thinks that's funny.



We've moved him into 18 month clothes, for the most part. Is that not insane??? His 12 month footed PJs were finally too small, and so I packed them away and bought some new PJs. I've decided we're done with the footed ones. It's too much of a hassle to get him into them these days, and with the weather getting warmer here, he'll be more comfortable in things without feet. So now he's in two-piece PJs,and it makes him look like a toddler! I can't believe he's getting so big.

In fact, he's now big enough to wear this cute outfit that a friend from Japan sent us last year. It was a size 90 (I assume that's the same as the European size 90), and it now fits him. If he wasn't wearing a cloth diaper, I think the shorts would be a little big. The top is a little wrap-around kimono, and has his initials embroidered on it. So cute!





Here is a picture of him from this afternoon playing with his books. He likes to pull them off the shelf one at a time and "read" them.



I'm a little concerned that he's lagging in his fine motor skills. There are things he should have been doing for months that he's not doing at all, like pointing and picking up small things with a thumb and forefinger. We've been working on putting small balls into a container, and I realized today that he struggles to get the ball all the way to the container without dropping it. He should be able to drop objects deliberately most of the time now, but instead he usually just loses his hold on them. I hadn't really noticed until recently, and it's at the point that it's out of the range of normal development and in the range of "developmental delay". I have a phone meeting next week with the Early Childhood Intervention program, and I'll mention it to them. If there really is a delay, I want to try to help him as soon as possible. They will be able to recommend activities we can do to help him, and if it's serious enough, he may qualify for physical therapy. I'll keep everyone posted on that.

He is still cruising like crazy and climbing on everything, so his gross motor skills are definitely doing just fine. Last night we thought he might be about to take a step, but he didn't. I think it will happen soon! We go on our cruise in two weeks, and I had thought he'd be walking by then. I don't think he will be, but I think the odds are good he'll be walking by the time we get home.

Finally, here is a picture of his hair. It's getting so curly, and I love it!



And don't even think about telling me it needs to get cut soon. I love long shaggy hair on little boys, and I'm letting it grow! ;-)