Carter's 16 Month Update

This about sums up our Carter Lee...

However, I can elaborate on all that too.

This little guy is no longer my baby boy, but my little boy now.

He is an outside boy through and through.  He gets crabby, we grab his shoes and out the door we go.  He's been great about staying close to me and not running off.  He has his moments, but then comes right back around.  He loves to slide and swing.  He loves to dig in the sandbox, help me garden, blow bubbles, and draw on the sidewalk with chalk.  He loves to swim, play with balls and trucks out in the grass.  We have been outside A LOT this summer.

Caught him mid "hey!"

Biggest thing since he turned 1 year old is the talking.  He always gibber gabbers and sometimes he really is trying to get a point across but we have no idea what he's saying.  What we DO understand now are the following words:

Hi

Bye Bye

down

done

kitty

bubble

"what's this?"

"there it is" - more like "there is"

the end

sis and sissy

UH OH!

shoes

cheese

Hey!
YAY!

fish

He also signs the following words:
done

milk

eat

more

and we are working on "potty"

He blows kisses, plays patty cake (love the roll it up part), favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus"

We are actually in the VERY early potty training stages.  He has used it nearly everyday give or take a few, for the last 3 weeks at least once a day.  One day we got twice in a single day.  I just put him on the potty before and after bath time and usually that works.  He says "yay!" claps, gets tissue, and helps flush.  We added in M&M rewards this week which he seems to like.  Just trying to get him to wrap him head around the concept of what the potty is and what you do with it.  No way is he ready for full on potty training, and he may not be for quite awhile, but this is a good start for him.

We are still cloth diapering - you can read more about that HERE

He is a BIG eater right now.  There isn't really anything we do not give him that we aren't eating at meal time.  He went through a phase for about a week or two where he didn't want to hardly eat anything, but that quickly turned around. He did go through a period where he protested eating veggies, but we found he liked to dip them in salad dressing that got us through that phase.  Now he seems to eat most everything on his plate with or without something for dipping.  He LOVES fruit.  Always eats that first.

He is still nursing 1-2 times a day.  Only during nap and bedtime just to get him to go to sleep.  He usually does just fine with a bottle if he's with my parents or his daddy at bedtime (yes, I'm ok that he takes a bottle for bedtime still right now, it's the closest to the breast if I'm not there).  I did pump while we were away for two nights on a trip, but otherwise he no longer has a freezer supply of milk and has whole milk if I'm not there (which isn't that often).  He gets whole milk at breakfast and other then that he gets water the rest of the day.

Sleeping Angel

SLEEPING!  That's been a new and wonderful change.  We struggled with nap times, and bed times, getting him to go down.  Naps weren't as bad as bedtime.  He loved his naps and was napping twice a day, but then way up till 10-11pm.  Not only that he wasn't sleeping well at night and was up constantly.  To the point where I was over the sleep deprivation.  So I decided to take out one of his daytime naps and he in response he started going to bed earlier and then also SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT.  He was about 14.5 months old when he finally started to sleep good and for a good 10-12 hours a night. (I say this as he was up at 1:30am last night, which must have been a fluke b/c he hasn't done that in weeks).  So HALLELUIAH for SLEEP!!!

Morning play time

His routine right now with sissy back in school for the year:

7-7:30am: Wakes Up

Breakfast and play time till about 10:30 when I start thinking about lunch

11am - lunch

11:30 - nap time

1:30-2:00 he gets up from his nap

Get sissy from school at 3pm

Homework with sissy then time to start cooking dinner at 4:30pm

Dinners usually ready by 5:30-6pm

We hang out as a family till 7:30 then it's bath and shower time

Bedtime is at 8:30pm for both kiddos

We are usually up till 11pm working or cleaning up or trying to relax

It's a busy kind of day but it is working for us right now.

Carter had a 15 month check up but he was closer to 16 months when we got in there.  He was:

21 lbs

31" long

Pretty much average for his age

He also got two vaccinations last week and has to go back in November for more :(

Aside from all that he's pretty much a wonderful little boy!  He has his times where he doesn't like the car and shopping is one of his least favorite things to do.  But he's pretty normal.  He makes us laugh every single day.  He makes me smile ear to ear with pride.  I wasn't sure what to expect with having a little boy after I knew how much I loved having my little girl, but it is just simply amazing having a son.  It truly is different but wonderfully different.  He is mine and I am his.