Carter's First Surgery

After many ear infections it was determined by the ENT that Carter would need tubes in his ears. So today was the day! I had many nightmares last night about the hospital making me sign the organ donor release "just in case" and them feeding him milk during surgery. So I was ready to get this over with. He looked so cute in his printed gown and slipper socks.

I was a little nervous about how Carter would do fasting. It's no secret that Carter doesn't miss many meals. We were the first surgery of the day but Carter is usually ready to eat the second he wakes up in the morning. Luckily though we were able to keep him distracted and he never once cried for food. He did however check the diaper bag many times for the snacks I usually keep hidden there. I had actually thought he might do that and so I emptied it of all treats. The doctor was late getting there and according to the nurses he's always late. I was getting annoyed with him (we had a hungry baby and a nervous mommy, don't make a wait an extra second) but luckily he was only 10 minutes late and that is superb for him apparently. Carter loved crawling in and out of the room and it was hard to keep him contained in such a small room.
Cute boy before surgery.Neil kept him entertained by doing the "1, 2, 3 fall back" game. Then it was off to surgery. The ansethiologist had me walk him down the hall and then abruptly stopped and took him from me before I had a chance to even kiss him goodbye. I think they know what they're doing because I didn't even have time to worry and I didn't even cry. Surgery lasted less than 10 minutes. Then they brought him to the recovery room for about 5 minutes until he woke up. We could hear him fussing before we even saw him. As the nurse brought him to us, she whacked his head on the door as she entered. The only fussing baby went to a screaming and thrashing baby. I felt so bad for him. He didn't know what he wanted He didn't want to be held but didn't want put down either. So we spent about 30 minutes getting him calmed down. FINALLY he snuggled up on my shoulder and was calmed down when the male nurse came in to take his oxygen levels. He did NOT like this man touching him. He screamed and fought the nurse again. I got him calmed down again and same thing. Finally, after some Tylenol and back rubs he looked like this.....


During his screaming time he would reach towards the door and wave bye-bye. He wanted out! He also kept signing milk but they didn't really want him to have milk yet, just juice. Once we got home he was as happy as could be. He didn't want to sleep right away. He played happily on the floor and then slept for almost 3 hours without even moving. (Could I get some of that gas for everyday use!?!?) We're hoping these tubes make him feel so much better and take all the fluid out of his constantly hurting ears!

August

This past Saturday we took our 2nd annual trip to Lava Hot Springs. Ghetto town, great fun. We started out by floating the Portneuf River. This picture is of our friend Dave and I enjoying the leisurely float. We spent 2 hours floating the river over and over again. Who is in for our 3rd annual Lava trip?
Neil waving.
Not all of the river is so calm. I had a near death experience here last year and just couldn't shake that memory so I put my tube in slightly farther down the river. Here is Neil coming down the waterfall of terror. (So it doesn't look that terrifying here but where those "white caps" are, I almost got sucked under last year!)Tammy and Dave braving the waterfall. My first run this year proved to be almost deadly again...I was flipped off my tube right as I went over my first waterfall and my body was scraped along the ragged rocks. My whole left side is a mess of scrapes and bruises. Still fun and I'd recommend it to anyone over 12. We hit the pool after the river and unfortunately so did about 1.2 million other people. We only went down the slides 2 times but Carter still loved playing in the pool.
These next few pics are from earlier in Aug. We went to the good old County fair and Carter and his friend Duncan enjoyed all the animals.
We also got in a night camping. Here is Carter right before bed snuggling with his daddy.
And I hesitate putting this picture in but it's mostly for Kristen. This apparatus is called the "Freshette." It is every woman's dream. It allows you to stand while going to the bathroom. No more squatting and trying to hold your pants out of the way or peeing on your shoe. LOVE THIS PRESENT!

New Tricks

About a month ago Carter FINALLY realized what his legs were for and that they had some function. One morning I left the room and came back and this is how I found him....


He had pulled himself up to his knees and was "typing" away at my lap top. This was the first time he'd ever pulled himself up to even his knees so I was quite excited. He didn't stop there. That same day he discovered that he could pull himself up to a standing position. And that is when our lives changed..........for good and the bad.

We were at my mom's house when he discovered his new trick and the day we got home and he slept in his own crib was the day things got bad!

We had never needed to lower his mattress before but the second he got in there he pulled himself right up. We quickly got Daddy upstairs with his tools to lower the mattress so there would be no falling babies.

Since he discovered his new-found abilities he has been nothing but "helpful." I use that term very loosely. Here he is "helping" Neil lower the mattress.

He loves to "help" unload the dishwater. I swear he can hear me open the dishwasher from miles away because he makes a beeline for it and starts always with the silverware. His favorite thing to do is unload the silverware and then take it to the stairs and throw it down. My favorite new game is loading the dishwasher again and again after Carter unloads it (not). I only wish that Neil and I shared his enthusiasm for unloading the dishwasher!

Here he is helping me to "unload" his suitcase. He still does his army crawl but he is starting to do a normal crawl more and more. He has realized that doing a normal crawl helps him to be able to stand more quickly. He still prefers the army crawl because he is as fast as race horse that way. Plus he can still carry multiple forks and spoons to the stairs that way. He's realized it's harder to carry things in your hands if you are doing the normal crawl. This next picture shows perfectly how Carter now prefers to sleep......
or actually, not sleep. Once he figured out how to stand, nap time has become a huge war. Sometimes Carter is victorious and sometimes Mommy wins. It is hit and miss. He would pull himself up and then not know how to get down. Sometimes he'd cry and sometimes he would just laugh and play. I would go in sometimes 6 or 7 times and lay him down but as soon as I left the room, he'd pull himself up again and we'd repeat the process. Even when he was absolutely exhausted he'd stand there. It was taking about 2 hours for him to finally be too tired to pull himself up anymore and fall asleep. Some afternoons he would spend the whole 2 hours standing until I gave up and just got him out. It made for one very cranky baby and an even crankier mommy. He has since learned how to sit himself back down and the novelty has finally started to wear off. So he doesn't pull himself up as much and if he does, I have just learned to leave him there until he gives up and lays back down. It was so hard going in there and laying him down because as soon as I'd walk into the room his face would light up and he'd say HI to me. I tried my hardest not to smile at him or make eye contact. He is just too cute!

Luckily my good sleeper is back and hopefully to stay. Here he is with his stuffed monkey whom he LOVES. The monkey was almost banned from the bedroom though because another of his new games was to throw the monkey over the side of the crib and sit there and grunt and point until I retrieved it. Now if monkey gets tossed overboard, he remains there until the next morning. Mean I know.

He's just starting to take steps but they are still pretty wild and awkward steps. Before he wouldn't even support his own weight but now he likes to walk with assitance and is starting to try and walk holding onto the furniture. I'm so ready for him to walk!

July Fun

The month of July was very busy for us. We first started out with a family trip to Yellowstone. We stopped the last day at a river "The Fire Hole" and did some impromptu swimming. It was fairly warm water and Carter loved it. Although he had a hard time keeping his shorts up!

Carter enjoyed the water more than I did....It took me awhile to fully get in.
Carter spent the majority of the trip in his backpack. Carrying 28 pounds of baby gets tiring after awhile and so everyone was happy to take a turn. Even though he's old, Grandpa took his turn!
Aunt Catherine was more than willing to pack him for awhile.
Although Neil did most of the packing. By the way, consider this your Christmas card for this year, just in case I don't get one out like most years.

When it was my turn to pack Carter I preferred to do it the old fashioned way. The backpack killed my back.....but hey, I carried him for 9 months, right on my sciatic nerve. I deserve a break.
After Yellowstone it was back to Grandma's for a week to hang out with Cousins. Here are Mitchell and Carter (8 months apart). My sister and I, without each others knowledge have a lot of the same clothes for our boys. So we decided to dress them a like a few days. Neil thought this was a little weird; I thought it was adorable!

There were lots of baths with 3 active kids. Mitchell loved pouring water on Carter and you can see how much Carter loved that......he kept trying to climb out of the tub!

We spent a lot of time at the kiddie pool in Burley. You've got to love FREE pools. Carter loved splashing and crawling around.

Carter's sign language has really taken off as of a few weeks ago. Here he is getting ready to sign "more" at breakfast. This is his favorite sign and he usually shoves one piece of food in his mouth and is already signing "more" before the bites been swallowed. He now can sign(without any prompting or help):
More, Please, Done, Thank You, drink, cracker and Shoes. He will occasionally combine two signs and ask for "more please!" I love watching him do this-all my hard work is finally paying off.
This last picture is one of my favorites. I was trying to blow dry my hair one day and Carter kept getting into things. So I plopped him in his rocking chair and turned on some random cartoon with hopes of it entertaining him. I love the zoned look on his face and the remote in his hand......Like Father Like Son! Sadly this only lasted about 2 minutes and then he wanted nothing to do with the TV. That is not taking after his parents there!