Best Brothers

When I was pregnant with Carter, I was pretty convinced that he was a girl.  I tried to keep an open mind not knowing the gender, but deep down I was sure it was a girl.  Perhaps it was just wishful thinking?  I mean, that's the perfect American family, right?  One boy, one girl.  So, as you can imagine, we were quite surprised when Carter James was born.  Not disappointed by any means, just a little surprised.  It took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that we now had two boys.  Boys.  Two boys.  Not a boy and a girl.  Two boys.  

But let me just say .... I LOVE having two boys.  Already, at the ages of 8 months and almost 3 years, my boys are becoming best friends.  I didn't think it was possible this soon, but that's the way it is in our house.  Just the other morning, Carter was being silly at the breakfast table which totally made Brooks laugh.  Then because Brooks was laughing, Carter started laughing.  Then because Carter was laughing, Brooks laughed even harder.  Oh the joy of hearing my dining room filled with little boy laughter!

Brooks tries to make Carter laugh all.the.time.  He makes silly faces, silly noises and "accidentally" drops things on the floor.  All in hopes of hearing a giggle out of his little brother.  And when we play, Carter will "chase" Brooks, tackle him and give him slobbery wet baby kisses.  And Brooks doesn't mind.  Brooks is always looking out for Carter, making sure he's not putting things in his mouth or asking me to pick him up if he's crying.  And Carter has discovered the bounty of food crumbs left underneath Brooks' chair at the table, making him appreciate his big brother even more.  (See?  Who needs a dog.  We have a baby Roomba to clean up :)  For at least a half an hour this afternoon, I was busy in the kitchen and my two boys just played .... together.

Now, I know there will be times of arguing and fighting.  I'm not that naive to think it will always be smiles and sharing.  I've already heard plenty of "Caaaaaarter, noooooo!  That's myyyyyyyy tooooooooooy".  But as Brooks is learning that the things in our house now belong to both of them, he's getting better about sharing toys (at least the ones he doesn't want to play with).  He's a super big brother.  And Carter's a pretty great little brother.

I love my boys.  And I love being their mom.

The amazing, incredible Carter!

Here's to document our 8 month old pulling himself up to standing.  I know other kids have done this, but considering Brooks didn't even crawl until 13 months, this is kind of amazing to us!

And this is just silly! :)

Watch Me Grow: 8 Months

Our Mr. C sure is growing up fast.  I'm so glad that I get to be with him every day to see him grow and learn and change.  I'm so proud of him!

Oh, those dimples!

Here's the latest update:

Eating:

• At first Carter wasn't really a big fan of solid foods.  I had just been mashing up cooked foods with fork and feeding it to him with a spoon or my fingers.  But I thought I'd try pureeing them in the blender.  Maybe the texture was throwing him off.  So I blended up some squash and added breast milk, and baby sure loved that.  Don't know if it was the texture or the breast milk that he loved, but he ate the whole bowl.  (And by whole bowl, I mean about an ounce or so)
• New foods he's tried include squash and green beans.  The squash he loves.  The green beans, not so much.
• Carter's main food source is still, well .... me.  And I love it!  Someday I won't be so needed in his life, so I'm enjoying this stage as long as it will last.  He's nursing about every 3-4 hours.  Lately he's been teething, so it's been more often though.

Sleeping:

• Carter is still sleeping like a champ!  My life has been so much less stressful and I think everyone can feel it.  He still takes a morning nap around 9 or 10 (depending on when he woke up) and in the afternoon around 1 or 2pm.  If we're out and about, he's content to sleep in my moby wrap too.  And he still sleeps awesome in the van.  But now he's getting too big to carry in the car seat, so when I have to take him out when we arrive somewhere, he usually wakes up.  Sometimes I can transfer him to his bed and he'll go back to sleep.  Other times not.  Oh well.
• Night time sleeping is kinda hit and miss.  He's in bed every night between 7:30 and 8:00pm and on a good night he'll sleep until 4am, eat, and go back to sleep until 7am.  That's a really, really good night.  Other nights he's up at 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am.  The good thing is that he'll nurse and go right back to sleep.  The bad thing is I still have to get up to nurse him.
• We don't bed-share at all anymore.  He's so big and wiggly and rolls all over the place, it's just not feasible.  I know some people make it work, but we've found that everyone sleeps better in their own beds.  He'll nurse in bed with me, but then I put him back in his crib, which is still right next to my side of the bed.
• Carter always sleeps with his new blanket he received for Easter.  It's so cute! 

New Discoveries:

• Everything!  Carter is now mobile and he has explored almost every corner of this house.  And he taste tests everything he finds: cords, toilet paper, shoes, rugs, the toilet bowl brush (::shudder::).  We now keep the bathroom door closed for obvious reasons.

chasing down a balloon - and getting stuck

• Bubbles.  Last night Brooks and I were blowing bubbles and Carter thought they were pretty awesome. 
• Cords.  Carter really is getting into everything but power cords seem to be his favorite to chew on.  Awesome.
• Garbage cans.  Again, a super great toy for babies.  Garbage, plastic bags .... perfect combination (::eye roll::) Those too are usually kept up high now.
•  I know I've mentioned this before, but Carter LOVES to be outside.  He loves to sit in (and eat) the grass, he loves the dirt and the fresh air.  I think I see lots of camping in our future.  For now, we'll stick to the park.

What is that mom?  A camera?  Can I eat it??

Seriously, mom.  Enough pictures.

• The shower.  One weekend we didn't have time to give the boys a bath so Chris took a quick shower with Brooks and then I showered with Carter.  He loved it.  (And I have to admit, I loved it too.  I love holding my naked baby skin to skin!)  He was amazed at this constant stream of falling water. He kept trying to grab it, and then eat it (of course!)

New Abilities:

• Like I mentioned above, Carter is now mobile.  Very very mobile.  He's still army crawling, but we've seen him take a few "steps" on his hands and knees.  He's just not as quick at doing that, so he flops on his belly and goes on his way.  He's always on a mission!
• So the kid can't crawl on his hands and knees, but he can do this .....

yoga, anyone?

And as of just a few days ago, he's also doing this ...

so proud of himself!

• Umm, who gave him permission to start pulling himself up on things???  When he first started doing this, he didn't know how to get himself back down to the ground, so he'd just let go, thereby smashing his face into whatever he was propping himself up on.  There was crying.  Lots and lots of crying.  He's now learned to put one hand on the ground before letting go.  Smart baby.  First he was just getting up on small things: Brooks' bed, a small basket.  But on Tuesday before bath, he crawled over to the tub and pulled himself all the way to standing!  Oh dear.  Nothing in this house is safe.

good thing we lowered that crib mattress!

•  Wrestling with Daddy.  Chris and Brooks wrestle on the floor all the time and Carter decided he needed to be a part of it.

I'm going to eat you, Brooks!

• Sticking out his tongue.  Not sure if this is an ability or not, but it sure is cute.  This is definitely a Rady trait and from what I hear, it comes from the Anderson side too.

• Babbling.  Carter started finding his voice last month, but he's continued to jabber up a storm.  We often call him our "little sheep" because he favorite sound is "bah bah bah bah".  He's also said "dadadada" several times but we're not sure if he's actually associated that with his Dad.

 Odds n' Ends:

• Carter's personality has really started to shine through and it's really fun to see.  He LOVES his big brother and laughs every time Brooks laughs.  Every time.  Carter has a wonderful laugh!
• He's starting to realize when we leave the room.  And he's not a fan.  He cries until we come back and pick him up.
• When Carter is tired, he becomes abusive.  He slams his head into our shoulder and chews on our arm.  Not the most polite way to say "I'm tired", but I guess he gets his point across.
• Carter is a morning baby.  He always wakes up happy and catting up a storm in his crib.  And because he's awake earlier than Brooks, Chris usually brings him downstairs with him when he goes to shower, so I can sleep a little longer.  What a guy!
• Carter now has 6 teeth, two on the bottom and four on top!  He's been a little extra fussy and drooly, but for the most part has handled the new teeth pretty well.
• Carter's current nicknames: Scooter-bug, little sheep or little bah bah, Mr. C, Es-Carter-Go (story below), Go Cart, and Brooks calls him Little Peanut.  That's cute.
• One day Carter was chewing on a teether shaped like a snail.  Chris told Brooks that Carter was eating escargot.  "Can you say 'escargot'?" Chris asked.  Brooks said "Es-Carter-go."  It was funny and very fitting!

I think all 2 year olds are ADD

(at least mine is)

This morning I was playing on the floor with Carter and noticed he had a seriously snotty nose (poor teething kiddo).  So I asked Brooks,

"Could you grab a tissue for Carter, please?"

Brooks walks over to the counter where the tissues are and he comes back with my glasses.  "Here you go mama."

"No sweetheart.  I asked for a tissue.  Could you please bring me a tissue?"

He walks back over by the tissues and brings back my hair mousse.  (Seriously, kid??)

"No, a tissue.  Carter needs a tissue."

This time he brings me the digital camera.  So now I have received three non-tissue items and Carter has proceeded to wipe his snot all over my pants.

"Brooks!  I need a tissue.  Ti-ssue.  Please bring Mama a tissue.  Yep, over there.  That's the tissue box.  Puuuuuulll out a tissue.  Good job.  Now bring. it. to. me."

He finally brought me a tissue.  And I used it to wipe up my pants.