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.

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

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...

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!

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!