Reed Baby Blog

Will Rick Perry still be running for governor when I’m old enough to vote?

I PROMISE that I am a better mother than I am a blogger!  We are enjoying Carter more and more every day and are trying to expose him to as much fun as we possibly can.  We stayed busy this fall with a week-long visit from Cory’s 5 year-old cousin Lily, the Dallas Arboretum, the State Fair, and a visit to the Pumpkin Patch.

For Halloween, Carter decided to be an elephant.  And he was CLEARLY, the cutest elephant ever!  We trick-or-treated at Mimi & Papa’s, Grandaddy Vick’s, and at a few houses in the neighborhood.  Since Carter has become shy lately, we had to improvise with stroller-trick-or-treating, as Carter had no interest in walking up to strangers to get candy!  But, he was sweet enough to share his loot with Harold.

The day after Halloween was beautiful, so we decided to make another family trip to the Dallas Arboretum.   We have really become fans and will enjoy our newly purchased “Family Pass” for many trips in the future.

Carter is such a happy kiddo and adjusts to whatever we throw at him!

Carter had his 6 month check-up on Friday. He weighs in at a whopping 18.3 pounds, is 27 3/4 inches long, and has a head circumference of 18 inches . Those come out to be the 62nd, 87th, and 92nd percentiles, respectively. So far, he still has a pretty good weight to height ratio. Hopefully, he got the tall skinny genes that both of his uncles have!

Carter is now sitting on his own and thinks that he is so big! If we stand him up and hold his hands, he takes off walking. I fear that once he has balance, he will be gone! He’s working on the top 2 teeth and based on the amount of drool, they can’t be that far off. We started him on baby food and so far, he likes his peas much better than green beans. Once we get through the green veggies, we’ll try the yellow ones and then fruit. He’s also getting oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast.

Weekend before last, we took a trip to Louisiana and Arkansas to visit Cory’s dad and grandparents. Carter was a hit with the whole family and acted like a ham the whole weekend. Here are some pictures of our last few weeks, as well as pictures of him eating. Oh, and the last picture should help explain the title of this post!

WARNING: Pity Party to follow. Read at your own risk.

I think that the worst part of parenthood so far is that birthing Carter seems to have reset my immune system. Back to zero. Here’s a little glimpse of what my body has decided to do to me lately: heal from the c-section, wrist problems from “holding” Carter incorrectly, a cold, mastitis, another cold, another bout of mastitis, and yet anther cold. All within 4 months. How can one person be sick so much? Granted, my immune system wasn’t stellar prior to having Carter, but I don’t think that every germ that jumped onto my body felt a warm, inviting spirit like it does now. Can I please go back to being mean to germs?

That being said, I would do it all over in a heartbeat to be able to wake up to this every morning!

It’s official. Carter is teething. While I see this as a huge step in him growing, I’m pretty sure he just sees it as a huge pain. We can see at least one tooth on the bottom trying to break through and can feel another. Oh, and the enormous amount of drool coming out of him is also a big clue. He cannot get enough of trying to eat his hands, and I even caught him with the pacifier in while attempting to shove both hands in as well. And of course, he’s more fussy than usual and isn’t sleeping as well as he can. Here’s hoping this process ends soon!

Carter has officially started rolling over. Over the past week, he spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get himself off of his tummy, since he hates it so much! I guess letting him get a little frustrated spurred his determintation and he finally figured it out. However, it was a big surprise to him once he finally got all the way over. We don’t have good pictures or video of him in action yet, but here is a picture of the surprised look he had once he finally got over!

Oh, how I love Fridays. And not just because they start the weekend. I love them because they are “my” day with Carter. I need work to keep my sanity, but because they are rare, my days alone with Carter are so special. I love watching him grow and develop. He has made a friend that magically appears in every mirror that he looks into. And he LOVES to smile and laugh at the other baby. He is also trying really hard to start rolling over. Although, since he’s not a true fan of tummy-time, he’s starting out trying to roll from his back to his front. The only thing standing in the way is the shoulder. He has also discovered his toes. Socks and shoes now last less than 5 minutes before they are long gone! Here are a couple of pictures that show how big my little guy is getting!

It’s pretty amazing when you really think about all of the “firsts” a baby experiences during infancy. Everything is brand new. How exciting (if maybe only for the parents)!  Too bad the kiddos won’t remember any of it.  I got the BEST first the parent of a one month-old can get this morning.  After Carter ate his breakfast, he and I were just playing and talking.  When I smiled at him, he smiled back at me.  A REAL smile.  Not one that is the result of gas.  It made my day!  Since it was so quick, I don’t have a picture, but here are some of Carter’s other “firsts”:

First car ride:

First sponge bath:

First trip to the doctor:

Meeting my great-grandaddy Vick:

First nap in my big-boy bed:

First trip to a restaurant:

First Thanksgiving:

First big-boy bath:

Rest assured, there will be many more “firsts”!

I cannot believe that Cory and I started the whole “bring Carter into the world” process four weeks ago today with induction.  After 20 hours of labor, 2 1/2 hours of pushing, and a resulting C-section, you would think that we would have been too exhausted to enjoy Carter.  However, it was quite the opposite. These four weeks have flown by, yet I can’t really remember what we spent our time doing before Carter was here.  And I have no recollection of where all the love I have for him was hidden.  Carter has been welcomed into this world with so much love that he can’t help but be a little spoiled!

Carter had just woken up from a nap where he must have been having quite a dream.  He was laughing and grinning for several minutes before he woke up.