Carter is 7 Months!

Carter is another month older! He is 7 months old today! He’s been busy with his first trip to Maryland, his first class at Gymboree and his first swim class! I can really see his little personality now. I used to think he was going to be my laid back child. I thought he could not possibly have more energy than Abbie. I think I am wrong, however! He is curious about everything, especially anything that he sees Abbie with; her toys, her cups, etc. He tries to get his little hands on anything of hers as soon as it comes within his grasp. I think we are all going to be in big trouble when he starts crawling! Here are some of the latest things he is up to!

• Carter rolls everywhere! He doesn’t really like being in the Exersaucer or Jumperoo anymore. He wants to be free to roll around on the ground! He manages to get himself in some pretty tight spots. The other day as I was changing Abbie in his room I turned around to see his little bottom and legs sticking out from underneath his crib. His head was completely under it! He is fast! He spends most of the day rolling around the playroom playing with all the toys Abbie leaves laying around. Abbie usually wants anything that he is playing with. Most of the time she comes up and just takes it from him. However, she always gives him something she doesn’t want to play with in return. Isn’t that so sweet of her!?! (Oh Abbie) One time she tried to take something from him and he would not let go for anything. She ended up pulling him across the floor as he held on. They both thought it was hilarious!
• Carter loves being with Abbie. All of a sudden he will just start laughing at something she is doing. Abbie, of course, loves the attention and then keeps trying to make him laugh. A few days ago he was laughing at her as she jumped around in circles. I could tell he wanted to be doing it too!
• Carter is sleeping through the night! It is so wonderful! He usually wakes up once a night but will go right back to sleep. He has his last bottle around 7:00 at night and goes to bed around 7:45. He wakes up around 7:00 in the morning, but is happy to stay in his crib and talk to himself. He always greets us with a huge smile when we go in to get him!
• He is still napping twice a day. His morning naps are usually 2 hours long if we are at home. Then he will take about an hour to an hour and a half nap in the afternoon. I wish his afternoon nap was longer! We are going to have to work on shortening the morning nap.
• He still is not fond of his bottles. I have finally started giving him about a 20-30 minute limit. He eats whatever he eats during that time and then we move on to his baby food. I felt like I was feeding him all day long! He loves his baby food, however! He can eat two big jars at one meal! His favorite food right now is sweet potatoes. He also eats peas, green beans, apples, pears, vegetable and turkey dinner, apple with sweet potatoes and squash. I am excited to try finger foods in another month or so!
• Carter is still growing! We went to the doctor about a week ago and he was up to 17 1/2 half pounds! He is still in size 3 diapers. I think we are close to moving him to his big carseat! Well, it is actually Abbie’s carseat. Yes, the purple one with flowers on it! Maybe for Christmas Carter can get a more “boy” cover for the carseat! Until then, look for pictures of him in his purple carseat coming soon! First we have to go buy Abbie’s big girl booster seat.
• With Abbie starting school next week, Carter and I are going to have Tuesdays and Thursdays to do fun things together! He has already started Gymboree and swimming. Swimming is Tuesday morning and Gymboree is Tuesday around lunch. It makes for a busy day for him (and me)! That will give us Thursdays to take it easy. He really seems to enjoy our time together, just the two of us. He is a very independent baby. He has never really shown any separation anxiety and will let anyone hold him. That is why I was so surprised the other day at Gymboree. I had him sitting in front of me on the mat. He was looking around at all the other babies and just having a great time. Then all of a sudden he reached his arm back and turned around searching for me, just to make sure I was still there. When he saw me he gave me a big smile! I thought it was so sweet! I just love my little boy!

I am excited to see what the next month holds for Carter. Maybe he will finally get those pesky bottom teeth! He might also be crawling! Maybe even say his first word. (Hopefully it will be Mama and not Baba (Bailey) like Abbie’s first word!) We love you Carter!