Walking, talking, and swimming!

It is SO HOT here now, which makes it really hard to go outside and play, except in the pool. Luckily, Carter loves the pool and has really taken to his swimming lessons. I'll try to get a video of him swimming this weekend, but this afternoon he was swimming (wearing water wings) a couple of feet from the steps to Michelle. Amazing!

He's really on the move these days, walking and almost running all over the house. He can stand up by himself now and can bend over and pick things up off the floor. Here is a little video that shows that:



He's babbling a lot now too, which you might be able to hear in that video. His babbling is starting to take on inflection, which is really cute. He's learning new words and trying to apply them to everything. Here he is telling me he wants to wear his shoes.



See how he is holding up his foot there? He will also occasionally bring us clothes he wants to wear, and when we take them, will stand and hold one foot up, like he's ready to step into pants. Sometimes he ends up wearing crazy combinations that he has picked out, and it's so cute! I need to remember to give him a choice in what to wear more often, since he seems to be taking an interest now.

This has been an interesting week. Our schedule changed, first of all. The summer class I'm teaching is in the afternoons, so I am with Carter in the mornings and Michelle comes 11:30-5:30. That's a long time for me to be away from him, and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Michelle says he signs to nurse when he wakes up from his nap, and he's used to me being around so that she can bring him to me. :-( :-( :-( I feel like I should pump while I'm away, but I doubt he'll drink milk out of a sippy cup. At this point, nursing is more about comfort than about nutrition. He nurses when he needs connection, or reassurance, or when he gets hurt, or when he's frustrated and needs to settle down. A sippy cup of milk isn't going to do any of that. And besides, carrying all the supplies around is a pain in the butt. We'll see how it goes in the next couple of days when I'm really gone all that time (classes start tomorrow). I guess I could always donate if I end up pumping...

This working five days a week thing sucks, heh. I'm already looking forward to fall when I'll only teach two days a week. I love working part-time, but being away from Carter 30 hours a week and most of every day doesn't feel very part-time. (He wakes up at 8:00, so we really only get a few hours in the morning.)

Carter's also about to get some molars cutting through, which definitely makes him cranky. I feel like I've been saying that for months now, but I could actually see them right under the surface today. Some nights it really disrupts his sleep, and other nights it's fine. Poor baby. It must be miserable.

To wrap up this post, here is a long-ish video of him going up and down the stairs. He really wants to walk up by holding onto the rail, but that's not yet the most efficient way. Oh, and he signs "bird" in this one, and it takes me a second to figure out what he's saying. I love sign language! It's so cool.