Month 9

This has been a big month for Carter! He's officially crawling, which means we can't leave him alone on the floor anymore. He'll crawl across the room if you turn around for a second, or try to crawl up the stairs. He can pull himself up standing, but he doesn't know how to safely fall down. He's had a couple of good falls!

Carter now can also stand up in his crib when he's sleeping. It's led to some interesting nap time experiences. The minute he goes into this crib, he flips himself over on his stomach, pushes himself into a crawl position, and then pulls himself up standing. In less than a minute, he's shaking the side of his crib wanting to be let out. Yola (from day care) says all kids go through this phase and it's just a matter of time before they settle down again and realize that standing up is not so novel. Also, once he figures out how to lower himself safely, he'll be back to his normal napping self again. On the flip side, Carter has been sleeping through the night (3 nights in a row!). We had braced ourselves for some serious crying at night in order to get him to sleep through the night, but so far it's been relatively painless. A little crying here and there, but nothing serious. We hope this is the start of something really great!

Carter had his first hut trip at Red Mountain Pass a couple of weeks ago. His ears didn't feel so great because he was getting over an ear infection and we were sleeping at 11,000ft. But, he had fun and he and Luna got to share a nice bath together.

Month 8

The past couple of months have been hard on Carter. Since January 14, he's had three colds, two ear infections and one throat infection. Just as he gets better from one illness, he catches another. He's getting exposed to so many germs at day care! He's been surprisingly upbeat despite being sick so much. He is still very happy.

Carter now has four teeth -- two on top and two on bottom. His new teeth help him bite on food, which can be somewhat dangerous because he can now chew off big bites of food (like toast). He's been eating a lot of solids now. He loves his veggies, but what he really loves is dairy. He can't seem to get enough of yogurt and cheese. If he's unhappy for some reason, all we have to do is give him a piece of cheese and he'll calm down.

Carter is also very close to crawling. He can get on all fours and move his arms, but he won't move his legs. It's been hard for him to practice on the hard wood floors because they are so slippery, but he's had much better luck in his bedroom where he has floor mat tiles. He's definitely mobile though. He can scoot himself around and he's able to get to whatever he wants. Most recently he's been holding himself up standing...although he's not very stable. We are going to have to childproof the house soon!

For a while we thought that Carter said his first word - "ga," (which we thought he was trying to say dog). Every time he saw Charlie or another dog he would say "ga." It now turns out that everything is "ga." Ga ga ga ga ga!

Month 7

Carter has become a really fun kid to be around. He likes to play with his toys and he even likes to dance to music. As you can see, he's sitting up on his own really well now. While sitting, he will lunge forward to grab something, and often times he'll fall on his stomach/face. Sometimes he's OK with that and just hangs out on his stomach, but other times he'll cry because he's stuck. I think it's that lunging movement is the start to him learning how to crawl. He just needs to learn to put his arms out to break the fall!

He also has two teeth on the bottom now and his top teeth are coming in. Teething hasn't been that bad of an issue and I probably stressed reading about more than I stressed about it when it was actually happening. This just goes to show that you can "over read" parenting books!

Carter has also been going out on some hikes in his new Kelty carrier. The front carrier is OK for short walks, but he's getting too heavy. He loves the back carrier because he can see really high and it's ultra comfortable. The carrier is like his Cadillac.

During January Carter got his first cold. It's been lingering still, but it's probably also because he started day care. Every kid in day care is sick, so it's probably a shock to his immune system. It's so hard to hear him cough, but he seems to somehow sleep right through it. Amazing! Carter really enjoys day care. There are usually five other infants at day care, which means many other babies to play with. We thought he might cry when we left him, but he barely even noticed that we left. It's only when we pick him up that he wants to be picked up right away. If we linger and talk to the teachers a little too long, he'll give a good shout out to us. He's also learning how to reach for us, so it feels so good to pick him up and have him hold his arms out for us!

Carter's personality is really coming out these days. He's a real chill baby. If we go somewhere new, he'll sit down and take a while to observe things. It's like he's just taking everything in and you can almost see the wheels in his head turning. He's also talking a ton these days. His favorite sounds these days to make are "ga ga ga" and sometimes we'll hear a mama and dada. Such typical baby babble!