Carter's favorite word right now is "cookie". He asks me for one all day long! Funny thing is that he has never even had a cookie...but for now Goldfish, Teddy Grahams and crackers are all cookies in his mind and he LOVES them!!

Dancing with Dad II

Three things that Tim loves: Carter, 80s music and dancing...all of them captured in one moment here:)

Go Hawkeyes!

The Iowa Hawkeyes won the Orange Bowl this year! On the big game night Tim was trying to teach Carter a very important word:) We aren't sure why he growls while saying "Hawkeyes". Carter even got to watch a couple plays. His favorite part of the night though was the pregame marching band! Go Hawks!!

More Words...

One of Carter's new favorite things to do is make animal noises. So many of his books have animals in them and he'll point to a cow and go, "Moooooooooooooo".
Or when we ask him what a horse says he'll say, "Neighhhhhhhhhhhhhh". He's pretty consistent with getting the "Meowww" of a cat or "Woof woof" of a dog. Once in a while he'll even get the "Quack" of a duck right but every other animal says "moooo" or "neigh" in his mind!!

Christmas 2009

I'm a bit behind AGAIN...but I guess that is just the kind of blogger that I am:)

We had a whirlwind of a Christmas with a couple days with each of our families in the Cities and then downtown on the 26th for TCX. Carter seemed to enjoy opening gifts and really loves his new toys. Everyday he wants to play with his mega bloks, wooden puzzles, bristle blocks and balls. Here are a couple of pics:

Out in the cold with Grampy and Mimi

Enjoying the pool and Nana and Papa's new apartment


Opening gifts...

And playing with his new toys in his new outfit (thanks Shan and Bud)!!

Dancing with Dad

One of Carter's new favorite things to do is clap and "dance" to music. Tim was encouraging him the other day by clapping and dancing himself. It got Carter all excited and as he ran around clapping he had a slight encounter with the couch:) It didn't seem to slow him down much though!

East Asia Hat

Tim brought home lots of gifts for Carter from East Asia! A police car that lights up, a stuffed camel, a panda bear, and a cute little outfit. Carter also got this hat from our dear friends Britta and Steven that live in EA. Perfect for our little boy that loves to play the "hat game".

Here He Comes!!

Wow does Carter keep us on our toes! He is so active and energetic that most days I'm chasing him around so much I forget that I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant!!

He has learning some news words in the past couple of weeks as well:

Hot and cold-if his eggs are too hot he lets us know. When we go outside he normally says, "Cold...brrrrrrrrrrrr". It's pretty cute!

Blanket-it sounds like he is saying "beta" but we know what he means

Applesauce

Diaper

Aflac-really random but some of our friends have a toy duck and when you squeeze it, it says "Aaaaaflac". Carter got a kick out of it and has been repeating it for days:)

And one more cute picture of my blue-eyed boys!!

Bedtime Fun

Some nights are more difficult than others but normally Carter goes to bed very easily. This video kind of sums it up. He goes from spazzing out to saying "nigh nigh" to laying down in about 2 minutes:)

Bonding with Grandpa Steve

Grandpa Steve came to town last weekend to deliver the entertainment center that he built for us (see below). It was such a blessing to have him with us for a couple of days. He came up with all sorts of games to play with Carter and had him laughing all weekend. I posted a little video of some of their bonding moments. I am bummed that I didn't get it on video but at one point Grandpa had Carter on his back and was crawling around the living room....I think that was the highlight of Carter's life thus far!! Good times:)

Mo

Tim picked Carter up at the nursery the other day and said, "Are you ready Carter?".

One of the young girls working in the nursery said to Tim, "His name is Carter? I thought it was Mo".

Apparently Carter was really thirsty and kept saying "Mo" all morning (which to him means milk please) even when they would ask, "What is your name?"!!!!

Catching Up

Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks...


It took 30 minutes to get him bundled up to play in the snow and he lasted 5 minutes once we got out into the cold!!

He loves to wrestle and play rough but it is so sweet when he snuggles!

Carter still loves to read and will pull his books down daily but more often than not he says "buh, buh" which means "read me a book please"!

Unfortunately one of his other favorite things is to watch his Einstein or Baby Praise DVDs...it's so hard to resisit when he says "please" and looks at me with those adorable eyes! It does settle him right down though which is nice once a day:)

Fun with Friends over Thanksgiving

When Tim was in East Asia over Thanksgiving break, Carter and I were able to see some great friends. First we spent a morning with Noelle and Stacy, two of my dear friends from college. They each have two kids and Carter LOVED playing with all of them.



A couple of days later we headed south to Blooming Prairie, MN to see another dear college friend of mine, Mandy (and her sweet baby Zoe). Carter kept trying to pat Zoe's head and was a bit aggressive but Zoe didn't seem to mind:)

Boom and some new words

I'm am so far behind on posts! Carter has been changing quite a bit in the past couple of weeks. His vocabulary continues to grow and he likes to say "boom" when he pounds it...I think his dad taught him that one:)



Here are a couple of his other new words:
Bath
Poop-sometimes he will let me know right when he gets done...it's pretty funny!
Camel-Tim brought him home a camel from East Asia that he loves...pretty random word to learn otherwise:)
Block and Cup-Two of his favorite toys
And my two favorites-Help and Please!

Musical Family

When we were in Edina over Thanksgiving week Carter got some good time around my musical family. He LOVED playing on Nana's piano (alone or with one of us to help). Papa also helped him strum a bit on the guitar. He has a signature dance move (as seen in the video) that he busts out more and more these days!! Here are a couple pics and a fun video:)