St. Louis Fun

Several weeks ago we traveled back to St. Louis.  Carter and I flew out solo on a Tuesday morning.  Kurt joined us the following evening.  The flight out alone went quite well.  We sat next to a very nice woman in the terminal, who then chose to sit next to us on the flight.  Ironically she lives only a few minutes from my parent's home.  She was quite helpful to Carter and me and I am thankful how it all worked out!   Below are some pictures waiting to board the airplane.

Mom and cousin Allie picked us up from the airport.  Even though we Skype frequently, my mom couldn't get over how much Carter had changed since she last saw him.  After I gathered up our luggage we headed back to their house.  I couldn't believe how wonderful the weather/temperature was in St. Louis!  In fact our whole trip there the weather was perfect, which was a nice break from the high heat and humidity here in Houston.

While in St. Louis we were busy every day visiting with others and being visited by family and friends.   We hung out at my parent's house a lot.  Carter loved all the extra attention.  There was never a dull moment.  Even breakfast was fun.  My parents would just watch him eat and Carter thought that was funny so he would laugh.  Well that made my parents laugh, which then made Carter laugh, and so on.  He was such a show-off!

Eating blueberries

Excuse me, do I have something on my face?

On Wednesday I picked up Great Grandma so she could enjoy Carter.  It was great to see grandma and catch up with her.  She had a great time watching Carter perform his tricks.

Since Kurt was only in town for a long weekend, we spent the following days with the Hoeman family. On Thursday, Kurt, his sister Maureen, and I took Shea and Carter to the magic house. The current exhibit is fairy tales.  We loved it and especially loved posing the kids with the various backgrounds.  We also spent some time in the infant/toddler section where Carter played in the ball pin.  Then we made our way to the market to visit the library, nursery, and veterinary.  After the Magic House we ate some lunch with Grandpa.  Can't go back to St. Louis without a trip to Imos, right?

Maureen and Shea

Carter and Shea posing in a scene from Cinderella

Carter and Shea on a carriage ride

Playing in the ball pen

in the doghouse

"What I do?"

Eating lunch with Grandpa at Imo's

Thursday evening a bunch of my good friends from high school came over.  It was wonderful to see each of them (minus J.E. :(  ).  My friend Jenny brought her little girl Lucy along and she entertained all of us that evening.  We of course tried to force Lucy and Carter into interacting which they did very little of.  At one point, though, Lucy did give our little Carter a kiss.  I see a future love connection.  Miss these ladies!

Carter with Angela

Lucy with Daddy

Lucy and Carter playing together

Lucy giving Carter a kiss

Jenny and Carter

The girls + kids

On Friday we spent the day with Grandma.  We had a fun time visiting and relaxing.  We also celebrated Dave's birthday and learned how to make a German Chocolate cake from scratch. Delish!

Carter with Grandma and Dave

Saturday we spent with Grandpa and Grammie.  Again a lot of visiting and relaxing.  We also were able to visit Leah and Rashad's new home.  That evening Leah, Rashad, Maureen, and Shea came over to the house for dinner.   We spent the evening hanging out and watching the two cousins "play".

Aunt Maureen, Shea, and Carter

Aunt Leah with the kids

Unfortunately Kurt had to head back to home on Sunday.  However Carter and I stayed busy with visitors.  We had many aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends drop in to see us.  Carter loved it and knew everyone was there to see him.  One afternoon Grandpa brought Shea over.  Carter and Shea were cracking me up.  They of course had to have the same toy, and Shea did not want Carter touching her.  They were too funny.

In every picture with Shea, Carter looks like he is catching flies.

Below are just a few more pictures from our trip.

Carter trying to steal Papa's medicine

Carter petting Clemmie

Stare Down

Carter with Cousin Allie

Our week in St. Louis went way too quickly!  So glad we made it back and were able to see so many people.

9 Months

Not wanting to cooperate.

Really not wanting to cooperate.

Here is Carter's 9 month update (and late as usual).  I can't believe how quickly this little boy changes.  I love his personality he is developing.  Carter makes us laugh and keeps us on our toes on a daily basis.  He is constantly changing.  In fact,  he has changed so much between now and when went in for his 9 month check up.

9 month Stats:
weight: 17 lb 4 oz
height: 27 3/4 in
head: 46 1/2 cm

As always I had a million questions for his pediatrician, but overall Carter is growing and developing into a healthy little boy.  He also had a finger prick blood test to check iron levels, which was slightly low and got one shot.  He was a champ!  Always a few tears right afterwards but he calms down quickly.

Here is what Carter is up to at 9 months:

Food:  Carter enjoys his food.  He is now eating 3 meals a day.  We're pretty proud of the kid because he seems to really enjoy his fruits AND veggies.  He is not very good at feeding himself.  In fact he will only feed himself puffs or crackers.  We will place chucks of food on his tray but he doesn't seem to care to eat those pieces by himself.  Not sure if it's too difficult for him to pick up or that he doesn't like getting his hands dirty, but we will keep trying.  As mentioned, he loves munching on puffs and would eat them all day if we allowed him to.  He also enjoys peaches, bananas, applesauce, prunes, pears, blueberries, oranges, apricot, peas, green beans, various kinds of squash, sweet potato, and broccoli.  He has recently had yogurt and seems to enjoy that as well.  We have had a couple of small scares that goes along with eating solids.  Carter tends to swallow his small bite size pieces instead of gumming and chewing them.  Needless to say he makes this mama a tad nervous because he has had some "choking" incidents.

Sleeping:  Well sleeping was getting ugly for awhile but I'm hoping and praying that we are onto something.   This past week Carter started to consistently sleep through the night and take naps.  His morning nap continues to be the longer one.  As I type this update I pray that I did not just jinx myself.  I really don't mind waking up at 5:30/6:00 in the morning when I get to sleep through the night too.

Activities:  The fun part of the update!  Well we have a crawler!  An army crawler that is.  In the last couple of weeks  Carter has finally figured out how to pull his body along the ground.  Hoping that he learns to crawl on all fours because he gave himself some good rug burns tonight.  I really didn't think he would even get to this point because he loves standing.  Everyone thought he would go straight to walking.  By the way he crawls to all the stuff he has no business touching.  He favorite new "toy" is daddy's stereo equipment.  In addition to crawling he is also pulling himself up onto things.  He can pull himself up in his crib so we have now lowered it down.  Also, he can pull himself up onto his music table from a laying down position.  He is starting to go from lying on his belly to a sitting position.  As mentioned, Carter loves standing.  He will walk with us when we hold his hands.  His other new trick is that he will walk around his music table.  One time is not good enough.  No Carter will walk and walk around it until we decide it's enough.

Talking:  Carter continues to babble and make sounds like "ba", "ga", "da", and "ma".  When he eats he will make the "mmmmm" sound to let us know how yummy his food tastes.  He will now wave "bye bye" or "hi".  If you ask for a kiss he will plant an open mouth one on your cheek.  Carter is starting the mimicking stage.  If we blow raspberries or stick our tongue out at him he will repeat his back.  Carter loves songs and music.  His favorite songs are "3 little monkeys jumping on the bed" (and he will bounce and jump), "the noble duke of york", "the wheels on the bus", "twinkle twinkle", and the "the itsy bitsy spider".

We are loving our little boy and this stage!