Christmas and other

Christmas morning was at my parents house in Burley. Carter's attention span was very short this morning-as it always is. When he woke up that morning we had his new slide sitting out and his "Little People's Farm" all set up. He squealed when he saw them, tried them both out and then promptly left the room in search of the kitties.

Side Story of the slide-while we were all opening presents Carter decided to push his new slide around on the wood floors. He was pushing it in front of the stairs and bumped the slide into the wall (can you tell where this is going?), lost his balance, and then proceeded to tumble all the way down the stairs. Almost in slow motion, head over feet, just rolling. I screamed and went running. He wasn't hurt at all but was quite shaken up and was scared to walk or even stand for about an hour. He just wanted to be held and sit in our laps. Luckily we were pretty much done with presents when this happened.

He enjoyed tearing the paper off the presents, piece by piece.

The happy, unshowered family on Christmas morning. This was shortly after the stairs incident so Carter refused to smile.

Now onto the life of an 18 month old. He started Nursery. He loves it and his parents love it even more. I'm not sure the nursery teachers love us though, with all our rules and scares with a little boy with severe allergies.
He loves to climb. The kitchen table is his favorite. We keep our laptop up there on occasion and he likes to climb up and "Check his email."

Carter still loves kitties and he chased Grandma's kitty all weekend.

Carter's talking is just getting better and better every day. He is up to 3 word sentences and repeats everything we say. He is quite attached to his daddy and if he should ever leave the room, or even his sight, Carter asks, without fail "Daddy go work?" If Neil is in the bathroom, Carter is right there at the door, pounding and yelling Daddy! He recently master opening doors and so sometimes, much to Neil's chagrin, he would join Daddy in the bathroom! Thank heavens for child proof handles and locks on doors!

Carter will now tell us when he is poopy and when he would like a fresh diaper. He uses the word poopy for real poop and for a really wet diaper. Every morning when we go and get him up he announces "I poopy." And yes he is. His newest thing is to hand us his stuffed monkey and tell us "monkey poopy." So we put monkey on the changing table for a turn. He gets quite a kick out of that. But man, that monkey sure poops a lot! I don't need anyone else to change and wipe though.

He is very active and very loud. I'm not sure why we bought him any Christmas presents when he still prefers the measuring cups out of the cupboard!

We love SOY!

I recently discovered that the local Smith's Marketplace has a great selection of Vegan products and other specialty items. Carter has been begging for "bites" of my yogurt every morning so when a friend told me of Smith's Soygurt, I went right there that day. They have been a big hit with Carter. I have been putting food coloring in the vanilla flavored stuff because he wasn't keen on that, until it became bright pink.

He also enjoys Neopolatin Soy Ice Cream as well. He is a little wary of the frigid cold as he has never had anything like it. I really hesitate to call this ice cream because ice cream is delicious and Soy Dream (the correct name) is awful. It is a little like eating dirt with different flavorings mixed in. But I guess if you don't know any differently..........or if you've never tasted dirt. I have actually tasted both ice cream and dirt and prefer the ice cream!

I just hope this gives Carter a little more normalcy in his life. Just a fair warning.....All those invited to later birthday parties will probably have to endure this awfulness!

18 months

Carter is 18 months old. He is such a sweet little boy.......until we enter the portrait studio. He refused to smile or sit still. He kept saying "done" over and over again. I am very sorry I taught him that word. And even sadder the he understands how to use it in context! We did manage to catch a few decent ones though.

He didn't cry during this photo shoot but he was super serious the whole time. I was in the background acting like a fool, just hoping to crack a smile!

He refused to put the ball down, once he saw it, but at least he is smiling right?

This is one of my favorites. The only reason he is smiling here is because he is squirming down from the bench. We didn't pose him this way.

Other happenings......
We all caught the nasty stomach flu this month. Carter just wanted to lay in my bed with the pillows propped up and the blankets covering him. It is the only time he has stopped moving since Dec. of LAST year! I was worried about my dry-clean only bedspread though so he didn't get to stay here long.

Walking has deepened Carter's love for the outdoors. He loves walking outside in his new boots although he hasn't figured out that he can still use his hands, even with gloves on.

I'm not sure why I bother putting his books on the bookshelf. Maybe if I kept them on the floor, he would want to put them away instead of ripping them down. Carter has mastered saying "clean up" but has not realized that it is a verb and requires action on his part!



This picture really needs no explanation. Our Santa visit was short but not very sweet. If Carter could have calmed down a bit, I'm sure he would asked for some cheese and ice cream!
PS-I swear this Santa was a woman.............

Look who's walking!

After 17 months, 20 days and lots of worrying from his mother, Carter decided to join the ranks of the walkers club! Last night he just decided to walk. He's been able to do it for quite a while now but hasn't wanted to. The break through came when he wanted to carry the ketchup bottle over to his hot dog but couldn't figure out how to hold it while crawling. I brilliantly suggested walking and POW-he was off! He still isn't the steadiest on his feet but I think he's doing quite well for just taking off last night. The therapist who evaluated him said he wouldn't take a couple of steps at first, he would just take off. It's so weird to hear him playing in his room and then look up and he's walking out around the corner instead of crawling. And just seeing him walk from one place to another! Occasionally he will crawl but I just have to remind him to stand up.

The only problem with his found freedom, is that he has discovered climbing........

Without further ado-I present Carter walking. (sorry for the horrible quality, I'm not very good behind a camera.)

Carter's Other Loves

Carter's true love is OUTSIDE. That is his favorite word to say and we hear it about a million times a day. He thinks every time I get him dressed, that automatically means we are going outside! He is constantly asking to go outside and when we agree and say let's go he gets so excited! He knows in order to go outside he has to go and get his shoes and his coat. So he goes and grabs his coat and shoes and brings them to us and squeals "outside" until we finally get out there.


He is finally progressing in his desire to walk. He loves to walk holding your hand and will actually ask to walk. His favorite of course, is to "walk outside."

He is happy to walk forever outside. Once he gets tired of walking he still wants to be outside so daddy is nice enough to give him a lift.
He loves the outside so much that he doesn't care about the weather. This day he was determined to be outside so I bundled us up and we braved the blowing snow for a few minutes before I dragged him in. (He refused to wear gloves so we couldn't stay long) I'm not sure he can feel cold.

Carter's second love is hot dogs. If he's not asking to go outside he is asking for a hot dog. All day long he begs for hot dogs. I try and limit him to one hot dog a day although he would eat one for every meal.



He cannot have a hot dog without his ketchup. He can even say ketchup now and doesn't start eating his hot dog until he has that ketchup to dip it in.
This picture is of Carter getting into the fridge while his hot dog is cooking. He knew right where the ketchup was and grabbed it out!

He can't have the normal kid foods such as chicken nuggets and Mac N Cheese so I am glad he can enjoy the American Classic: The Hot Dog!

First Chocolate Chip Cookie

Because of Carter's allergies he has never had a chocolate chip cookie before since all the chocolate chips contain milk. But thanks to Grandma E he enjoyed his very first chocolate chip cookie today! (She found an internet site that sells TONS of vegan things for people with alleriges) And it was a huge success-he ate that cookie faster than I've ever seen and kept saying "yum" over and over.



The only cookies he's ever had is the cereal "cookie crisp." So he knows how to say cookie and when I asked him if he wanted a cookie, he said "cookie please." We have a whole box of premade milk free cookies and a whole bag of milk free chocolate chips to make our own! We are so excited-Thanks grandma.

Yes he is still in his pajamas and ate this cookie at 8:30 a.m. I was planning on saving the cookie for after lunch but he found the box of them and I couldn't resist giving him his first cookie!