Walking Vs. Crawling

To walk or not to walk: that is the question


Carter gave up army crawling in July and does the normal crawl now. He is super fast and gets where he wants to go.........Soooooo he has decided that he will REFUSE to walk or even attempt something that resembles walking. Back in August he loved walking behind his dump truck and pushing it around the house. Then he figured out that he could sit on it and move it with little effort, so his prior walking ceased. He will still walk around the furniture but refuses to stand without holding onto something. He use to walk while holding our fingers. He now considers that too much work. If we ask him to stand and walk he curls his feet up underneath himself and cries. Walking is a form of torture for Carter. Carter NOT walking is a form of torture for his parents. Everyone always says that Carter doesn't walk because he's "big" for his age. Everyone is wrong. Carter doesn't walk because he doesn't want to, because it scares the crap out of him. On the rare occasions that Carter walks behind something or holding onto your hands his eyes are wide with terror and he is literally shaking and fussing. I am trying to remain calm and unbothered by his lack of interest in walking. The Dr. has assured me he will walk when he's ready. After all, he only started "real" crawling 2 months ago. He never wanted to crawl at first but finally he did, and now he can really cruise. My back can't take much more and I cringe everytime he crawls outside with new clothes on. Actually that's a lie. I cringe regardless of what he's wearing because he wears things out so quickly.

15 months old

Warning: Long Post

Carter is now 15 months old and no longer acts like a baby. He is now acting like a toddler (minus the walking) and some of it is cute and some I could do with out. He no longer holds his breath until he falls limp on the ground when he's upset. He now screams bloody murder. Just last night as we made him leave the park, his screams could be heard through out the neighborhood. Luckily he is easily distracted.

I thought tantrums weren't suppose to start this early........

On to the good stuff.....

Carter's first taste of Oreos. And no Oreos don't have milk in them; I've had about 10 people gasp when they learned he had an oreo. Oreos are actually quite cheaply made. Made with soy and there is no milk which means no real chocolate. Still worth the 100 calories per cookie? I think not.
First time enjoying the spoon from the batter. I am getting quite good(if I can pat my own back) on making "vegan" treats and meals. Here is Milk and Egg Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake. Delicious and Moist. Can you see the cooking show now? "Vegan Cooking with Mrs. E."



Carter LOVES bath time. He now can sign "bath" and you had better not mention the word unless the tub is already filled up. Or he will try and climb in fully clothed.

Or fully naked.......

(Doesn't he have such a cute bum?)

He is just starting to try and climb up on everything and anything. Luckily the beds and couches are still just a little high!



Carter loves to be rocked by Grandma. Nobody, not even mom, does it like grandma. He will crawl right up on her lap and lay his head down. Luckily, Grandma doesn't mind this either!


Carter is obsessed with being outside and obsessed with his dump truck. Combine the 2 and good luck ever getting him to come home. And he won't come home without a complete and total meltdown.


He loves to climb steps. He would go up and down all day if I let him. At first he wanted to go head first but has since figured out how to turn around and scoot backwards. About 6 seconds after this picture was taken he tried to sit down and fell down the last step. He had a nice shiner and scrape to show for all his hard work.


Carter also loves the lazy susan and all my tupperwares. Combine that again with his dump truck and it's hilarious. He has learned how to move himself on the dump truck and he takes it everywhere. He was even able to back himself into this corner so that he could get into the cupboards without having to get off. Drive, reverse, left, right, he's got them all down.


Carter will often go to the front door and point and beg me to take him outside. If I don't comply, he will stand up and look out the window and try to turn the door handle. I love how he has figured out that standing on his tippy toes will buy him a few more inches!


*Sigh* Now onto the eating issues. Mr. Independent has decided that he would like to feed himself with utensils. He has the coordination of a 1 year old though and most of it ends up on the floor. He will stab at the food or take a swipe at the food and then put it into his mouth EMPTY. He hasn't figured out how to use a spoon yet and baby forks are worthless. Those spikes don't hold any food. He can use a real fork but the coordination issue comes into play again and he comes close to poking his eyes out.


This little boy LOVES his daddy and his daddy has the same feelings. Neil can get him giggling and shrieking with delight like noone else can. Their favorite games to play are chase and to "wrestle." Neil lays on the ground and Carter climbs all over him.

Carter is obsessed with brushing his teeth. Every morning as I get ready he fusses if I don't give him his toothbrush as I brush my teeth. He even has the back and forth motion down. Tears often follow my taking his toothbrush away. So I make sure and give him a good few minutes with his toothbrush. Hopefully his love of good hygiene continues.


I recently taught Carter the sign for "help." I now regret doing that. He asks for "help" all the time now! He asks for help in going outside every minute, he asks for help in turning the noise maker on his dump truck on. The best is when he throws a ball across the room and asks me for help in getting it instead of him crawling over and getting it. He's too smart for his own good.

Labor Day Weekend

Neil planned a super-duper road trip for Labor Day and 4 of our friends were brave enough to join us. None of us had ever been these places so it was quite the adventure. The best part was that this trip was KID-FREE. Don't get me wrong, I missed Carter A LOT but I knew he was having fun at Grandma's and vice versa.

These pics are in no particular order, that would require too much thinking and planning. Our trip was to Southern Utah and included:
Bryce Canyon
Goblin Valley
Little Calf Creek
Panguich
Escalante
Torrey
and much more.
Neil and I at Goblin Valley. This was suppose to be an "action" shot but 90 degrees + hiking all day= Tired Amanda who would prefer not to have yet another picture taken.
Slot canyon in Escalante. This was our favorite hike.

Calf Creek Falls. Beautiful waterfall. On our 3 mile hike we experienced a flash flood that completely overtook the trail. We made it out but the 20+ people behind us were not so lucky. Search and Rescue was called in to make sure they made it out since they all had young kids.
This is at Little Wild Horse. All the rain the day before made this slot canyon a little wet!
More slot canyonsSpooky or Peek-A-Boo slot canyon(can't remember which one.) This was not the place for Claustrophobics!Some places got a little tight. All of us girls were for once glad that we were not well endowed. Top view of the slots.

This is a game Carter came up with himself. He does this over and over again......except when I want to get it on camera of course!

Carter Signing

Here is a video of Carter signing. Yes I am bribing him with fruit snacks! I forgot to have him do "milk" which is his favorite

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!