Happy New Year!

We had a good New Year's Eve this year. It was the first one we've spent at home in a couple of years. Maybe even since Carter was born, now that I think of it.

Doug and my first date was on New Year's Eve 22 years ago, and we went to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, so our tradition all these years has been to go to a teppanyaki place on New Year's Eve. We went to a place down the street from our house.

Carter has always been pretty good about being patient in restaurants, but lately we've found that we can take him to places where he has to wait a little longer than before. This has helped us expand our repertoire of eateries quite a bit!

Of course, the phone helps a lot.



Carter enjoyed watching the chef cook, though he didn't like the fire. He put his hands over his eyes at that part.



He likes noodles. Oddly enough, he doesn't like rice. We've never been able to get him to eat it.



Here is one of Carter and me.



We went home and had our own little New Year's Eve party. Doug had bought some champagne, and I had gotten some balloons and noisemakers. We put on some music, blew up the balloons, and danced and had fun. Carter's current favorite song is "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black-Eyed Peas, so we had to play it over and over and over...



Carter fell asleep in my arms at some point, and I put him to bed without even putting his PJs on. That is why he's still wearing the same shirt in the following New Year's day pictures! We got up the next morning and made waffles for breakfast. He really wanted to me me make the batter, and he was actually helpful!







And then we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Mmmm!



Here are a couple of cute videos from today of Carter riding his balance bike. He's getting very good!





He hasn't had a nap since before Christmas. He just suddenly dropped naps, and he goes to sleep early instead. It's weird, but we're getting used to it! It's seemed to be coming for a long time, but I'm starting to think this is really it now. He'll sleep 12-13 hours overnight, so he's definitely getting plenty of sleep, and he doesn't even get cranky in the afternoons.

I've been paying more attention to his reading lately, and he can definitely read a handful of words. He'll also sound out all of the letters in a word, but he won't necessarily put them all together. He's getting there, though, and he definitely seems to be a little interested right now, so I'm trying to take advantage of it.

I think that's it for now. Happy New Year, everyone!