Thursday, April 24, 2008

Tagged!!!

Well, my friend Allyson "tagged" me on her blog. There are a couple of different tags in the blog world, but with Allyson's tag, I am charged to share five random things about myself. Hmmm...where to begin...
For those of you who have openly expressed (or silently thought) that the quality of a post is directly proportional to its inclusion of pictures of Carter, please scroll down, as I did not want to disappoint you.
On to my random facts...
Random Fact #1: I have an irrational dislike of shower drains. I cannot begin to explain this. I wish that I could. I wish that I could say it started in college, when I had to wear flip-flops to shower at Tutwiler (the freshman girls' dorm) or the sorority house. I wish I could say that it started all the years I was a counselor at camp and wore flip-flops in showers that were cleaned (or not cleaned) by the campers in the cabins. It didn't. I can remember hating the shower drain in the tubs/showers at my parents' house growing up. I don't think anything is going to come out of the drain and bite me. I don't think they are especially dirty compared to anything else. I just don't like them. Doesn't matter if it is my house, The Four Seasons, or some nasty communal shower. A shower drain is a shower drain. And I don't like them.
Random Fact #2: I have a flossing obsession. Unlike the shower drain dislike, this did begin when I was a camp counselor. The first summer (after my junior year of high school), one of my co-counselors flossed every night. We got into a conversation about it one night, and she challenged me to floss every night for a week. (The next part is nasty...just a warning.) She said to see what I would get; and, then, if I didn't want to keep flossing, just stop. Ah, Eva. Anyway, I did, and I didn't stop. Enough said on the learning experience. I now hoard floss. I have it in my bathroom, my purse, my desk, and when I was a sales rep, I had it in my car. I love it when I go to the dentist and they tell me they can tell that I floss. Maybe that has more to do with the fact that I like recognition than the flossing obsession, but I digress.
Random Fact #3: I am not a morning person. Or a night owl. I am just a run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-day kind of girl. I am not sure if this has to do more with the fact that I like my sleep or that I operate in sort of a bell-curve fashion. Takes me a little time to ramp up, then I am good to go for a while, and then I like to wind down. Either way, I find that the time of day is less important to my productivity than the environment that I create for myself to accomplish whatever task is at hand. I find it interesting that while many people seem to identify themselves as morning people, night owls, etc., few people actually say that they just like the "core hours" of the day. I do.
Random Fact #4: I hold a lifetime saltwater fishing license in the state of Alabama. This is really only seemingly random and is truly attributable to my husband (though, I think his logic is solid). My dad has a nice fishing boat in Orange Beach, Alabama, and he and my brother are quite proficient fishermen. When Nick and I were about to move to Indiana, he decided to buy a lifetime AL hunting and fishing license while we were still residents (it is cheaper as a resident). He made the suggestion to me that I should consider getting a lifetime fishing license while we were residents so that, if I wanted to, I could go fishing in the Gulf with Dad and Steve without having to buy an out-of-state fishing license. Not the first time he has been right about something. Probably not the last.
Random Fact #5: I am a middle child. (Ha, ha...I can hear you laughing now, family!) See, the fact that I am a middle child is not inherently a random fact. I think that the fact that I am still talking about the fact that I am a middle child is probably more the random fact. I grew up believing that I was so slighted and so mistreated because I was the middle child. My sister, Button, was older and she and Mom were a pair. My brother, Steve, was younger, and he and Dad were a pair. Or at least this is how my warped young mind perceived things. I can clearly see now that this was not at all how it truly was, but there was no convincing me of that growing up. I don't really exhibit a lot of middle child traits--at least I don't think so. Others may disagree. When I was a sales rep, I called on psychiatrists. One day over lunch, two of my female psychiatrists and I were discussing my middle childhood. After a disclosure much more detailed than the above, I said, "But I got over it." One of them responded, "Clearly. ...since you are still talking about it." Touché.
There you have my five random facts. My turn to "tag." So, I am tagging Andrea, D, and Caroline.
And for pictures of Carter: These pictures are of him on Wrigley's bed. He loves it! I do not. He winds up covered in dog hair. This is not, in and of itself, a terrible thing, as clothes do wash. However, Carter is a thumb-sucker, and putting his hands in his mouth after being on Wrigley's bed can't be good!



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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

A little be-hind

Carter is quite the entertainer these days. He is crawling all over...and is actually getting pretty fast. It is so fun to watch him go speed-crawling toward the front door when Nick gets home in the afternoon! His teacher at school told me that he has taken to crawling to corners of their room to play. She said he crawls faster than the others, so he gets over there to play where they can't take his toys. We may have trouble in the months/years to come regarding sharing...
Carter is also trying to pull up. Well, I suppose, more accurately, I should say he is pulling up...some. Right now, he likes to pull up on people. I guess he likes the security. He is pulling up on other things, too, though. He tries every morning to pull up on our bed, his crib, and, as evidenced below, the bathtub. This is from earlier tonight when I sat him down on the bathmat so I could get his washcloth.

(Sorry for the hiny shots. Don't worry...I didn't leave him alone to get the camera. It is all-hands-on-deck at bathtime at our house--Nick was with him.)

The little guy loves bathtime--and has such a great time in the water. I can't wait to see him in the pool this summer. I know he is going to love it. This is him playing after his bath. I know it looks like he might be fussing, but he was not at all. He was squealing, laughing and flailing his arms.

It is FINALLY warming up here. We are thankful and just hope it sticks around!

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Friday, April 18, 2008

Nothing quite like....

...waking up to an earthquake! This morning, Nick, Carter & I (along with the rest of the midwest) experienced an earthquake. Carter snoozed right through it, but it definitely woke Nick and me up. It was a really strange feeling. It started off with pretty weak shaking for a little bit and then got really strong. When Nick asked "What the heck?" (at 5:30 in the morning), I said that we had either just experienced an earthquake or our house was about to fall in! You can read about the quake in this article from the Indianapolis Star.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Livin' the Good Life

Carter got his first taste of "real" food this past weekend. We were out to lunch on Saturday with James and Haley and James' parents who were visiting from NY. When our food arrived, I gave Carter a crouton to gum (since he has no teeth...I swear they have to be coming, it feels like he has been teething forever!). He loved it! He had been dropping toys left and right, but he had a death grip on the crouton. Of course, the boy loves to eat. Some foods he warms up to faster than others, but we are still looking for one he doesn't like. His teacher at school says that eating is his favorite classroom activity. Or at least it used to be; I think he is starting to enjoy showing off his crawling skills more and more!


The weather was beautiful today, so we were able to spend some time outside when we got home from work and school today. Carter enjoyed his swing a little more today, but he really enjoyed exploring the sticks on our patio!
This doesn't taste so bad

So, what do you do with this?


All this playing with sticks makes me sleepy





Friday, April 11, 2008

Enjoying Spring

For the past week and a half, we have been enjoying nice spring weather! For those of you who are reading this and live in the southeast, that means that we are enjoying the weather you experienced at the end of February/beginning of March. It is just now getting to fairly consistent 60 degree days. I say fairly consistent because while it has been in the 60s or 70s all week, it is not supposed to get out of the 40s tomorrow! Yuck.

At any rate, Carter got a surprise from his mom this week. I ordered him a swing to use and enjoy this summer. We decided to try it out after work/school one night this week. As you can probably tell from the pictures, he wasn't too sure about it. He wasn't unhappy, but he wasn't squealing with delight either. That could also be because he was pretty tired, so we will try again another day.

Carter is definitely on the move these days. He has used this week to perfect the crawling that he started last weekend, and he is all over the place! I was out of town for work last night and Nick said that he left Carter in his room to fix his bath water. Carter crawled from his room into the bathroom while Nick was in there. I got the pleasure of having the same experience tonight...I guess I should have known better. His teacher called me to give me an updated on him today, and she said that now that he can move, they find him in every corner of the room!

Every time I tell someone that he is crawling the next question is, "Have you baby-proofed your house?" Hmmm... I am assuming that you have figured out that the answer is no. Guess I should get on that...

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Sunday, April 6, 2008

And He's Off...




It is still a bit primitive, but Carter is crawling. Yesterday was the first day that I saw that he actually got the whole arm-leg thing worked out. I think the video shows pretty well how he still goes back and forth between crawling, scooting and trying to stand up. Call it what you like, he is now mobile. My days of leaving him unattended and expecting to find him in the same place I left him are over!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

My Little Houdini

This is where I left him...
This is where I found him...
Just for reference...
What, Mom? I didn't go far; I just had to get to my books.
I put Carter down on the floor tonight in his room to go get his bath water ready. I was in the bathroom for maybe 3 minutes. I walked back into his room and didn't immediately see him. Talk about heart failure! When I looked around, he was sitting next to our chair "reading" a book! (His books are in a canvas tote on the floor next to the chair.) I have to admit...I was pretty impressed with my little fella.
He still is not crawling, per se; but it is obvious that he doesn't have any trouble getting around. Mostly he just walks his hands forward and then pulls both of his knees up at the same time. It is funny to watch, and I tried to get him to do it so I could post a video to the blog. He would have nothing of it while I had the camera ready. He, of course, decided to get moving while I was out of the room!
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