Carter is 10 Months!

It is hard to believe our baby is almost one year old. This has been the fastest year of my life! It has been so much fun for Carter to experience all of his first “big” holidays at this age. It is so fun to see his little personality really coming out. He is adventurous, fearless, curious, funny and very loving. We love our little boy more than words can say! Here are the latest things he is up to.

• Carter is still crawling and standing at everything. He is learning how to walk while pushing something in front of him; a push toy, kitchen chair, shopping cart, etc. He tries to walk with everything! He can stand on his own for a few seconds now.
• Carter only has three bottles a day now; one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night. I don’t really think he cares whether he has them or not. Hopefully it will be easy to stop the bottles when he turns one. He will eat just about any baby food we give him. The only thing he has ever indicated he doesn’t like is peas, but he will still eat them if he is hungry. In that respect, he is much easier than Abbie was, who would refuse to open her mouth and shake her head at the site of green beans! He is eating more and more table food. He gobbled down baked chicken last night. He started eating yogurt a few weeks ago and took to it right away. He is constantly trying to get his hands on Abbie’s snacks and milk. I think he has even managed to eat some goldfish and fruit loops. His favorite food seems to be Gerber’s cheese puffs. As soon as he sees me get the can out of the pantry he starts bouncing up and down in his high chair and smiling!
• He is still sleeping through the night. He goes to bed around 7:00 and wakes up around 7:00 the next morning. He plays in his crib until we go get him in the morning. He is still taking two naps a day, but appears to need less sleep. Both naps usually average around an hour each. If he takes a long morning nap, he doesn’t want to sleep long in the afternoon. He is in the awkward phase of just barely needing two naps a day. It will be easier for everyone when he only naps once a day. Unfortunately, at that point they will probably not nap at the same time. I will probably lose my mind!
• Carter has four teeth, his bottom two and top two. Two more top teeth are just now poking through his gums with another one on the bottom coming close. He seems to be getting a lot of teeth at once!
• Carter is “talking” more and more every day! He now says “ba-ba” and “da-da”, and I think just today he might have said “ma-ma”. I think he does say “ba-ba” for Bailey, as he starts saying it whenever he sees her. I am going to go ahead and say Baba is his first word, just like Abbie’s. I think he is definitely trying to say mama, because I thought I heard him say it as he was crawling toward me, desperate for me to pick him up!
• He is currently in a clingy phase. He follows me all around the house as I am doing laundry or cleaning up the kitchen. The moment I stop he is standing at my leg and pulling on my pants, wanting me to pick him up. I have to say I love that he wants me to hold him and cuddle him now! For so long, he wasn’t very into being held. I am really trying to stop and enjoy those times with him. They aren’t as frequent as they were with Abbie, of course. Before I know it, he won’t want me to pick him up and hold him!
• As clingy as he can be at times, at other times he is very independent and stubborn! It is almost impossible to change his diaper or get him dressed, as he is always rolling over and sitting up on the changing table. I grab whatever is within reach for him to play with, in the hopes of distracting him long enough for me to get him ready. He is horrible in the bath tub! He stands up, crawls around, reaches for the little plastic frog covering the spout. His baths are probably one minute long because it is just so much work! He fights getting in his car seat and the stroller, too. Ugh…everything is difficult with him, as he just wants to be crawling around, doing his own thing. I remember this phase with Abbie and it was no fun! It is even worse when Abbie is in one of her moods, too!
• Carter is waving, giving high-fives and clapping now. So cute!

I hope I remembered everything I wanted to mention at this age. He is changing so much every day that it is hard to keep up! In the next couple of months we have his first Christmas and first birthday to look forward to. My baby is not going to be a baby for much longer!