Candle Practice

Okay, so this is an older video, but I thought it was worth sharing. This was the week or so before his birthday. We were practicing blowing out a candle for his birthday.

He's One! (ok, 13 months now, but read it and you'll see why it's a month late.)

So it’s been a crazy month. The week before Carter’s birthday we made a trip up to Washington DC. Ryan had a conference there, but we went up early and spent the weekend with our good friends NJ and Sebrena and their little girl Kaitlyn (Carter’s future wife). We had a great time and really wish we could see them more often.

There was a big mix up with our hotel and had to end up staying at a different hotel the first night because they overbooked (Carter therefore was up until 1am- we were VERY unhappy). The next day they continued to have problems and long story short, we got a luxury suite, free tickets to the breakfast buffet for the duration of our stay, and $100 for the inconvenience of being re-routed the first night. So it all turned out pretty good and Carter got his own room. :) We also made a trip to the national zoo, which was walking distance from the hotel. Lots of fun.We made it back just before Carter’s birthday and had a party at our house with 27 people in attendance (it would have been 31, but one family was sick). Still, a big party for a little guy. Carter loves rubber duckies, so that was the theme of the party. I found a 3-D cake pan of a ducky and made and decorated it and a smaller version (the one Carter got to dig into). I also made a ducky piñata and filled it with candy and small rubber duckies. It was a great party and I think the kids had a good time.A week later we were on the road again heading for yet another conference (tis the season I guess). This time it was in Memphis, where fortunately, we have more friends. We got to spend a couple evenings hanging out with Cort and Anca and had a great time (again, we really wish we could see more of our friends more often- they keep moving away :( ). For my part, I spent the days shopping (even though every other mall I tried to locate on TomTom was either an empty lot or a big empty building :P ). We took one night to go see an NBA game with the other counselors from Southern that had come along as well. Memphis lost to Atlanta (Such great teams that I knew neither city had a team until that night).Shortly after arriving back home illnesses set in.

There were a couple days I didn’t feel so great and then Carter developed a cold/flu complete with runny nose, cough, and fever of 102-103. The fever broke in the middle of this past week and then Thursday night, after spending the morning at mommies group with a bunch of other kids, I notice a bunch of spots on Carter’s belly and thighs. If you haven’t heard yet, it’s the chicken pox. He received his vaccinations 2 weeks ago, including one for chicken pox, and developed it as a result. The plus side is that it is a very mild case since it was the result of the shot. The down side is that it’s still contagious that way, and we were around a few unvaccinated kids at mommies group. I guess that’s life.

Now that you’re all caught up, the fun developmental things about Carter. At his Dr’s appt a couple weeks ago he weighed in at 23lbs 6oz and was 34in long (that’s 50% for weight and 95% for height). He’s also picking up a lot of new words and using small sentences more regularly.

Example:
This evening I took him to the bathroom and while sitting there he said “done”. He says this both when he is done and when’s he’s bored from sitting there too long. I asked him a couple times to make sure and finally he said “done mom.” I asked “no more?” His reply was “no more. Done” After getting him down I said we need to go put a diaper back on and he took off for his room (where the changing table is). I noticed he had yogurt in his hair (he insists on feeding himself everything now) so I said he needs a bath tonight. He said “yes” and took off running back to the bathroom. He’s a boy who knows what he wants. :)

New words that have entered his vocabulary since the last update are: cheese, nana (referring to Ryan’s mom, he’s used if for banana for quite a while), Carter (he can annunciate it perfectly when he wants to), yea, yum, vroom (when playing with his trucks or boats), teddy, kitty, tiger, tigger, doll, please, thank you, and (you’re) welcome. Once again, there may be more, but those are the ones I can think of at that moment.

He is also getting good at imitating movement. He likes to go up and down, back and forth (he has a book with these motions), stand up and sit down, blow kisses, cover his eyes with his hands for peek-a-boo, and he really likes to dance whenever he hears music. He also sings along to some songs (the ABCs is his favorite), though he of course doesn’t say any of the words.

Almost 1!!

With less than 3 weeks until my baby turns 1 (Eek! Is it really true?!), I figured an update was well overdue; though I will try to get another up to let everyone know how his big day goes.

Ryan wrote the last update, but left out all the big developmental milestones, so here is the update. He started taking steps 2-3 at a time right when he hit 7 months and 1 month later, right at 8 months, started walking across the room. Needless to say, he's a pro now. We're now onto climbing- yippee!

He has quite the vocabulary so far, which includes: mama, dada, hi, hey, bye, ducky, doggie, eyes, yeah, yes, no, down, more, done, and all done. There might be more, but those are the ones that come to mind right off, because he uses them most frequently. He'll also put together short sentences, his favorite being Hi daddy, when he sees Ryan in the morning or when he comes home from work.

He recognizes many of his body parts now and will point to and play with them when you ask him where they are. He knows his mouth, eyes, nose, ears, belly button (he loves sticking his finger in it), fingers, toes, and tongue, which he'll also stick out if you ask him what a lizard or giraffe does (we had to come up with something for them since they don't make a noise). He'll also give you five if you tell him to.

He also likes to imitate sounds now. He loves to bark when he sees or hears a dog and he makes a train noise, complete with his version of the whistle, every time a train goes by our house or he's playing with a toy train. Speaking of whistling, he went through a phase where he liked to whistle (I didn't know it was possible for a baby to whistle), but he seems to be past that for now. He also REALLY loves to read books, which is something he and his daddy do every night before bed. He also likes to dance and sing along when he hears music. He has a little toy piano that he'll turn on with a back beat and then play, stop to dance, play some more, stop to dance, and so on.

He still has a great love of food and insists on being able to feed himself now. He's pretty much had everything now, including nut products, with no signs of any allergies- yea! He also likes to drink out of a big boy cup (no lid or straw) at meal times. We of course still use the sippy cup for just around the house. Also helping feed his big appetite are his 9 teeth. His first molar broke through not too long ago, with another one and a canine looking to be close behind. (I must say, it was a nice break from teething while it lasted- molar teething = fussy baby).

For play time he likes to play on his Tonka truck, which he can climb on and off of by himself and push himself around. He also likes to dribble (kick) his ball around the room. He'll literally do laps around the room doing a very controlled kick. We'll start with soccer, maybe it will develop into football :). His most recent accomplishment is blowing out a candle. We've been trying to get him ready for his birthday, and he seems to have it down pretty well. Hopefully he'll be able to perform with a bunch of people standing around.

As of his last check up (back at 9 months) he was almost 31 inches long and nearly 22lbs. That's just over 50% for weight, but over 95% for height. Gee, I wonder who he got his height from?! :P. Needless to say, he's already in 18 month clothes, looking to be in 24 month by summer. He's also pretty close to outgrowing the size 5 shoes he started wearing at Christmas. Two months! 3 pairs of shoes for only 2 months!! He needs to slow down! On the up side for him, we broke the law and turned his car seat around to face forward when he hit 10 months, which he has the size for, but not the age (1yr). We figure he's bigger than your average 15 month old and on par with them developmentally too, so we're pretty sure he's ok. I really doubt a cop would question his age if they saw him, considering his size.

The final thing I can think of is that it looks like we're going to have a little lefty. I've read that as early as 6-7 months or usually by 8-10 months you can notice a preference, and he definitely tends to favor his left. Oh yeah, and he loves to give hugs and kisses. (although at the moment he's going through the mommy phase, but usually he'll hug and kiss anyone).

So that's 5 months of Carter updates. I will REALLY try to get another up shortly after his birthday. In the mean time- God Bless!

Carter's 1st Christmas

Boy time does fly by. Carter is already 10 months old, meaning only two months left until his 1st birthday, yikes. We added 7, 8, & 9 month pictures to our gallery, and should be adding 10 month's pics soon.

Found this pretty cool website called Animoto that auto creates a video by uploading pictures and a song. The website does the rest. They offer free 30 sec videos and seem to be fairly inexpensive full videos. They say hi-res videos will be coming soon but we'll see. I think it's fun but don't know if we will actually purchase full video. Might give it a try since it is only $3. For some reason the embed code isn't working with WordPress right now but here's the link to the video on Animoto's site, http://animoto.com/play/2ec937f9855851fabc49b402c0faab88

Enjoy.

The almost 6 month update.

So yeah, we're really bad about getting regular updates posted, but for those who have waited patiently- here's another one. Carter will be 6 months old 1 week from today. It's amazing how quickly the time has flown by. It just doesn't seem like he should be half way to a year yet. Of course sometimes I feel like I already have a 1 yr old on my hands.

He has started to do some crawling- although he's by no means an expert yet. But he can get where he's going given enough time. He'll also walk across the room if you hold him by the hands. I don't think he'll take off on that by himself for a little while though. He can't keep his balance very well, because when he wants something, he just lunges for it- he's not big on staying in one place.

The biggest development is that I have started doing elimination communication with him. What that means is that after naps and feedings and periodically throughout the day, I take him to the potty. He picked up on it right away and after just a couple days we cut our diaper usage in half! It hasn't quite been 2 weeks yet, but he knows what to do now when I take him in to the bathroom and he doesn't really care for having a wet diaper anymore. I have some training pants coming in next week, so at that point we'll only use diapers at night and when we're traveling, or if we leave him with a babysitter (which includes Ryan- he's still learning :P ).

Other than that he's just growing like a weed. We've managed to keep him in 9 month clothes for the last few months and he fills them out pretty well, but we're starting to use some 12 month clothes too. Still hasn't dropped off the 90% curve for his height and it shows. He's tall just like his daddy. That's also his favorite word- daddy. He's been saying it now for almost a month and still no signs of him saying mommy or mama. :(

He still eats like a Herman- not really anything so far that he won't eat. He's just getting used to textures though, which he didn't much care for at first, but he likes putting little dissolving finger foods in his mouth now and chewing them.

Clearly our lives revolve around the baby, but I guess I could mention the adults of the family too. Ryan's been doing really well with his second job. For those who don't know about it, he's a financial advisor in a company called Primerica. It's a part time thing right now, but he'd love to be able to go full time. He helps family's through life insurance, investments, and debt management. The company doesn't advertise, it's all done through referals, so if you know someone who could use his help just let him know (although right now he's only licensed in TN).

As for me, life as a stay-at-home mom is going pretty well. For the many who keep asking, no, I haven't done any painting recently. Aside from just being busy with a child that refuses to stay in one spot, I in general don't think it's a good idea to use my lead based oil paints while taking care of said child. So the only chance I get to do stuff like that is when Ryan's around, but he's out most evenings. And now with football season kicking off, Sundays are taken too. :P But I have been able to get some drawing done, purely for fun though. I've had a few free-lance jobs come my way over the past several months which helps bring in some funds and keeps me from going completely insane by having some interaction with the outside world. I guess the biggest news for me is that I just cut off all my hair and am now sporting a short pixie cut. I love not having to worry about doing my hair now and Carter now has a much harder time pulling it, so it was an all around great change. Plus it looks cute :)

Anyway, that's the life of the Hermans as of late. Just enjoying life. Oh and one more big exciting announcement- Carter's going to have a new cousin! A big congratulations goes out Amy who just found out she's pregnant again! We can't wait- we're very excited about having another niece or nephew.

Love to everyone and we'll try to have another posting up sometime in the next couple months- it could be sooner, but I'm not gonna set the bar too high. ;)

Carter update

Well, Carter is now 4 1/2 months old and is doing unbelievable things. We went for his 4 month check-up this past week and he is almost 27" and just a few ounces shy of 17lbs. So he's still in the 95% for height and 75% for weight. He can already sit up unsupported and stand up if he has something to hold or lean on. He's also getting really close to crawling- he can get up on his knees and toes, but he hasn't quite figured out how to go forward yet. Although he can get where he wants to go by rolling, pivoting, and scooting. (let me re-state that he's only 4 1/2 months old!- he's gonna be a handful!) His Dr. got to witness all this and said those are the things she would have told me to look for him to start doing closer to 6mo or later!

He is also drinking out of a sippy cup now all by himself- he knew what to do as soon as I handed it to him. He can't really hold up a bottle well, cause we don't usually give him one, but since the cup has handles he can hold onto it easily. This past week he started holding his arms out when he wants to be picked up- it made my heart skip a beat the first time he did it. It's a wonderful feeling seeing him able to express what he wants.

The most recent development is that he got his first teeth in today- and yes I said teeth. The first one broke through this morning and to our surprise, the second one poked through this evening (the two front bottom ones). Nursing could possibly get really interesting now, but so far he's behaving.

So my boy is growing up fast, but he's so much fun. He's still the happiest baby. He loves to laugh, and he smiles at everyone. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Carter's growing!

Where to start? Carter is now 3 1/2 months old and is doing great. He's now 26.5" and around 15lbs. (We don't have a scale that measures oz. so we just guestimate). That puts him in the 95% for height and 75% for weight, which is what he was last visit to the doctor, so that's good. Needless to say, he's a big boy (he's wearing 9mo clothing already!). We've met a couple other babies at church that look noticably smaller than him, only to find out they're a month older.

Carter's getting really mobile. He rolled over belly to back at 2 months and back to belly at 3 months. He now goes over and over to get where he's going. He also started to try scooting as soon as he got from back to belly. He doesn't go far, but he definitely has the right motions to go forward.

We also started him on solid food this past week. We swore we were gonna wait until he was at least 4mos, because that's what's recommended, but age aside, he displayed every sign that he was ready. We started with bananas, because they say breastfed babies take to that easier than rice cereal, because of the sweetness. He took to it like he'd been doing it all along. No weird 'what did you just put in my mouth?' faces or anything. He just loves food- there's no doubt he's a Herman!

All in all, he's a very happy baby. He doesn't cry unless he's hungry or tired, and he loves to just laugh and 'talk'. What's more, he started sleeping through the night when he was 7 wks old (8hr stretches!). We are so blessed to have such a good baby. Be sure to keep checking the gallery. We have been posting more pictures, even when we don't post new blogs. Love to all!