Carter - 5 months

Carter James, you are five months old! We can't believe how much you have grown in just a month! You are so much more aware of your surroundings and you are ready to interact with everything you see. You are becoming more expressive and we love watching you smile at us and the things you like and your laugh just makes our days! You are excited to reach for things that you want to hold and put in your mouth and you love to bang on tables, arms, hands, and anything else within your reach. You have started to enjoy tummy time as long as there are toys or Mama and Daddy around to entertain you while you're on your stomach. You also love to watch Gromit and track him across the room anytime he walks by. When you have had enough tummy time you fuss and then pout by putting your head down on your hands on the floor. It's funny to watch and we can't help but laugh a little when you do it.

You seem to be enjoying going to Carrie's house (daycare) and all of the little boys there love to help take care of you. I love the big smile on your face when I come to pick you up - it's like you know that I am Mama and I'm there to come and snuggle you up and take you home. I love it! We know you are in loving hands there and are so glad you are so well taken care of while we work.

You continue to amaze us with your growth and development and we just love that God made you a part of our family. We love you, Bug!



Weight: 18.3 pounds

Length: 27 inches



Clothes size: You are wearing size 6 month or 6-9 month clothes, both which are already getting tight on you and seem like they just barely fit you. You grew out of a whole size in just a month! Mama is not ready for such a big boy!

Diaper size: Size 3



Sleep: At night you go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. You usually sleep until 11:30-12:00 and then wake up every 2-4 hours in no consistent pattern. You most often wake up during the night because you are unsettled and start rolling around in your bed. I try to settle you back down before nursing and sometimes that works, while other times nursing is the only thing that will comfort you back to sleep. Often times you end up in bed with us so we can "side nurse" which lets both of us get more sleep and seems to keep you settled for longer periods of time.

Eating: You are such an efficient eater and eat for 8-15 minutes on each side and often like to stop eating to talk me or pop up to check out what is going on around you. If Daddy is making noise somewhere nearby then you have to check out what is going on. You usually have 3 3oz - 100mL bottles of expressed milk at Carrie's house and we still breastfeed every 2-4 hours any time Mama is not working. We are still not having any issues with going back and forth between the breast and bottle. Hallelujah!



Likes: Playing with your toys, sucking on your binky, being held, taking baths and splashing, playing on the floor, looking at lights and ceiling fans, going to public places and taking in all of your surroundings, and playing in your Baby Einstein Activity Jumper (which you LOVE!). Favorite songs right now are Going to the Zoo, Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Loves Me, You are My Sunshine and the special song Grammy made up for you.

Dislikes: Being hungry, being bored, waking up on your tummy, and being overly hot.



Milestones this month: Rolling from your back to your tummy, scooching around on the floor by yourself moving mostly in circles, sitting up with less help, reaching for things you want or drop, reaching for us when you want to be picked up, recognizing who we are, ever-improving motor skills, and “talking” more and more.

Memorable moments: Meeting Grandma and Grandpa, meeting extended family members, going to your first birthday party, getting your first cold, and going to the farmer's market.

My new Mommy-mobile!

I loved my Volkswagen Beetle (which we called the bug) and always felt it was the perfect car for me. Cute, fun, powerful and bright yellow. You couldn't help but smile looking at it. Plus it was super funny to watch people punch each other when I drove by.

But the time came for my cute little bug to be replaced.

It was 11 years old, had 140,000 miles, had some quirks with the electrical system, needed new brakes, next year's registration was due soon, and it recently had some work done on it which made us fearful that it was just the tip of the iceberg of needed maintenance and repairs. Plus getting the infant carrier in and out of the back seat was no easy task and to make it fit we had to slide the passenger seat waaaay forward leaving little leg room for any additional passenger. And when Carter moves up to a bigger, stationery car seat soon, it would have been really difficult to get him in and out of the tiny back seat. My back would not have survived. So it was time to look for a new car.

We thought about getting a minivan but decided that it was too expensive to pay for seating and extra space that wouldn't be used very often. So we changed our focus to full-size sedans and small SUVs. After a lot of research we had a short list of cars we liked and local dealers that were offering incentives on used cars and 2013 model clearances. 

After many unnecessary hours at the dealership we we offered a great deal and traded in my beloved bug and drove off with a 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan! Hello, new Mommy-mobile!

This car, while not top-of-the-line, is super fancy to me. I still have a turbo engine (which I had gotten used to with my bug and LOVE), airbags everywhere, power locks and windows, and air conditioning. But I upgraded to a huge sunroof that goes all the way behind the second row of seats, plenty of trunk room, an electronic display for things like mpg calculations, tire pressure monitoring, etc., and its set up for bluetooth connectivity to my phone (so I can make phone calls or listen to music through the car speakers) which is a HUGE upgrade from my former car that still had a cassette deck. Now I just need to find a way to attach my flowers to the dashboard...

Although I miss my cute little bug, I'm happy with the upgrade to a more grown-up vehicle. And if you see me driving down the road feel free to (lightly) punch the person next to you - I may not be in the bug anymore, but since I owned one before, it still counts!

Grandma and Grandpa meet Carter!

A couple of weekends ago Carter's Grandma and Grandpa (Sue and Rick who are Dave's parents) came out from Colorado to visit and meet Carter! We were SO excited that they were able to come!

Even Gromit was excited to see them. See the smile on his face?

It was so special to see Carter be so comfortable with his grandparents right away. It’s like he just knew that they were family!

I swear Carter doesn’t always have his hands in his mouth, but most of these pictures don’t seem to support that statement…

Anyway, we had a pretty low-key weekend just hanging out and playing with Carter. We managed to get out a bit to show our guests our little town including where we both work. We even stopped to have lunch on the property where I work overlooking a beautiful golf course. Of course, we didn’t take any pictures while we were there - oops!

We also got a special visit from Sue’s aunt and cousins who live in other parts of California - Dorothy, Deb, Rob and Dwight. It was fun to be able to meet them and to introduce them to Carter. They only stayed for a little bit, but they will certainly have to stay longer next time they are in town! Below from left to right is Dorothy, Deb, Sue and Carter.

It was a very special weekend for us and we are so glad that everyone was able to come and visit. We can’t wait until Grandma and Grandpa can come back again! We love you! 

New Carter tricks

Hi all! It’s been a while since I’ve posted and Carter has learned to do a few new things that I wanted to share with you. We aren’t always able to capture things in pictures or on video (since Carter is more interested in staring at the camera/phone than performing for it) but we do our best.

First new Carter trick: he can scoot backwards (with help from Daddy)!

Second new Carter trick: he can put his binky in his mouth by himself! Please excuse the background noise in this video, we were near a power generator… it’s a long story.

Third new Carter trick: He can almost sit up!

Fourth new Carter trick: He found his toes! And he “talks” to Mama a little bit too.

Fifth, and last, new Carter trick: he can roll over from his back to his tummy!

Well, thanks for humoring me. I hope you enjoyed the new Carter tricks and we’ll be back with more updates soon!