Big Boy Bath

Bathing Carter at the kitchen sink has been a challenge.

Since he learned how to splash he's kept it pretty interesting.

Now that he's ten months old and constantly climbing out of the tub,

it's darn near impossible.

So we finally made the move upstairs to the "Big Boy" bathtub.

He was so excited he could barely hold still on the changing table. 

 

In the tub, he started out looking pretty innocent.

But once he saw Mommy's camera

it didn't take long for him to start hamming it up.

That's our Carter.

His expressions were cracking me up.

 

Michael noticed about halfway through the bath that my pictures 

were looking like a Johnson's ad, so he moved that bottle.

Carter was LOVING sticking out his tongue.

This kid can make silly faces like no other.

He absolutely kills me, and he knows it.

We were reading our first year baby book this week 

and it talked about how at ten months old we should 

be starting to discipline our baby.  Specifically, it said

that we should never smile or laugh when he misbehaves,

no matter how cute his faces may be. 

Heaven help us!

 

Carter's First Easter

Just wanted to share some images from today.

A little sleepy and off to a slow start.

 Checking out his new jumbo stacker from the Easter Bunny.

  

 

  Looking pretty dapper in his Easter duds.

 All dressed up for church.

I swear he looks older than barely ten months.

The boys all happened to wear these hats  to brunch today,

so of course we had to take some pictures!

 

Carter literally and figuratively looks up to his cousin.

These two are going to be trouble someday! 

Carter's first Easter egg hunt.

Carter was not a fan of the grass.  At. All.

He performed some amazing feats of balance

just to avoid touching it with any part of his exposed skin! 

Luckily Daddy was pretty quick to rescue him!

He was much more comfortable on his feet.

So blessed to be able to spend Easter with this wonderful guy!

Our Little Cottontail

Poor Carter.

Forced to endure these indignities holiday after holiday. 

 

Don't worry, Buddy.  

This will probably be the last time!

(and his mom and dad, too!)

10 months old

He's in the DOUBLE DIGITS!!!!

This birthday really started Mike and me thinking about

how unbelievably close Carter is to a whole year old.

Size-wise he's still a little peanut (except for his head!),

but he is acting incredibly grown up lately. 

He feeds himself and rarely agrees to be spoon-fed.

He eats all kinds of big boy foods and has to try

just about everything we are eating.

 He crawls so fast we can barely keep up with him.

He can stand independently for ten or fifteen seconds.

He furniture walks all the time and sometimes even takes 

a step or two between pieces of furniture.

Carter can do a whole lot of stuff on his own now, 

without any help from us.

But he still smiles at us like we are his whole world.

When he wakes up, he still wants to cuddle a bit

before he's ready to get down and play.

He still likes to nurse 6-8 times a day.

And though he's willing to play by himself, 

he'd always rather play with Mommy or Daddy.

So as we struggle with the fact that he is growing up fast,

we are thankful for the sweet moments we still have left

with our baby when he's still acting like a baby. 

It's funny how those moments that seemed like they would last forever, 

when Carter wouldn't let us put him down for anything 

(when all he wanted was to be held and all we wanted was 

a moment to ourselves), are now the moments we treasure 

because we know they will soon be gone.

  

 Several times a day, Carter climbs into my lap,

reaches up and gives me a real hug!

We hold each other tight and I sway

back and forth and say "Hug, hug, hug."
Carter buries his head against me and giggles

and I thank God for this gift more precious than

anything I could have ever imagined.

We love you, Carter Maxwell.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy.  

Sorry for the sappy post.

It's been an emotional week... 

Spring on the Farm

About a week ago we awoke to this.

So when yesterday was sixty degrees and sunny,

we couldn't wait to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

With Easter fast approaching, we thought it was a perfect time

to head to the farm and visit some of the new spring babies.

First we visited with some sheep. 

This guy cracked me up with his antics.

Carter was not impressed.

Next we saw some hens, roosters and even a turkey.

Carter was not impressed.

We stopped in the Dairy Barn and saw some cows.

He seemed a little bit interested

(the smell alone was enough to get his attention!).

  

But ultimately Carter was not impressed.

Back outside, we visited some goats.

I thought they were sweet,

but Carter was not impressed.

This enormous sow was enjoying the sun as much as we were.

She was sleeping at first, but then woke up

and gave us a nice big yawn.

Then we headed inside the barn to see my favorites.

The BABIES!!!

Even Carter wanted to pet these little guys.

Until their mom came over to say no more.

And no more pictures, either!

Carter was also interested in this bunny.

And this guy.

And these one-month-old piglets.

The greatest treat of the day for me, though, was seeing THESE guys.

Absolutely adorable three-day-old piglets!!!

They were so precious and tiny.

Even Carter wanted to see them.

But the rest of the animals in there?

Not so much.

Mike and I enjoyed ourselves, though.

We got to see lots of baby goats and lambs.

This one was using his mom to get a better view.

And this one thought his mom made a comfy bed.

Carter got to pet this sweet little goat.

Until she started trying to nibble on him. 

The first real smiles we got were when he saw the horses.

The animals all seemed more animated than usual.

Carter didn't know what to think of that silly horse.

It was nice to get out of the house and

spend some time outside for a change!

After being totally subdued the whole time we were there,

just when we were about to leave, Carter finally started acting like himself.

Oh, well.  I get plenty of smiley pictures of him at home,

so I wasn't too disappointed.

At least I got some cute pictures of the animals on the farm!

Overall, it turned out to be a fun family outing

and a great way to start the SPRING!