6 Months Old!

Well really he is 6 1/2 months, but we just went to the doctor Friday.  His monthly stats are 16 lbs 3 oz (25th%), 27 in (75th%). Carter thought the paper on the table was the most fun.  Not much of it left by the time his doctor got there.   She said he is doing wonderfully.  He put on quite the show for her.  He wanted to make sure that she knew how busy he is.  She was impressed at how well he could sit, even though he was moving around like crazy.  The food thing is not going so great.  She suggested giving real food that we are eating and cutting down on the bottles a bit.  Here's hoping he turns into an eater!

Doctor Fun, sorry I don't know how to make it the other way

Things we want to remember about Carter at 6 months:

-Not loving the solid foods.  We have tried: rice, apples, carrots, sweet potato, avocado, and butternut squash.  He is really good at not letting that spoon even think about getting through his pursed lips.
-Loves to roll around on the floor, not sure if he will ever crawl, he can pretty much get what he wants this way
-started a new daycare, fingers crossed this works out or he might be in a kennel at Niles's work!
-Two teeth still coming in
-hates the blender!  Never heard a child cry like he does when you turn on the blender
-Still very easy going, don't know how we got so lucky

Yonder Rocks!

Niles and I took a trip to Denver last weekend to our favorite Colorado venue to see one of our favorite bands, Yonder Mountain String Band.  Carter stayed overnight with Lonnie, Taber, and Maizy.  It was a great time for all parties.  Carter was super easy for them.  Which is always nice to hear.  Maizy and Carter have a love thing going on.  When they are in high school Carter is going to be the guy who hangs out with all the cool older chicks!

Here are a few pics from our night out!

Red Rocks is an out door amphitheater that is literally surrounded by mountains

If I were you I would travel to Colorado, just to see a concert here.  Nothing like it.  (on a side note, that lady right in the middle of my pic looks like Shelly S!)

We have a great friend who had the opportunity to get front row seats.  We are very lucky that he  included us when buying tickets.  This is how close we were.

 That is Railroad Earth behind us

 Yonder!

 The kinfolk fam aka all our Yonder friends

Great Night, but glad to get home to our Carter, Carter.  Now we need someone to come around New Years so we might make it to one of their five nights at the Boulder Theater.  Start planning that Post-Christmas vacation to Vail...with one night of babysitting!

Oh I forgot the best part.  This guy is a security guard at Red Rocks.  Every time we have been, he busts a move at set break to entertain the crowd.  I should have taped him longer, but I felt weird;)

Bad News

We are in our second week of daycare and it was going well.  First few days he was a little cranky, but he seemed to get used to it.  Then the bad news happened.  Grandma Linda called me Thursday night and let us know that she was going to have to drop Carter from her daycare.  Yes the daycare that I have had booked for 6 months, because infant daycare is impossible to find in our area.  Has something to do with complaints from her neighbors about traffic and her HOA is making her downsize.  She had to cut 2 kids and Carter is new.  I called around to a bunch of places and found one opening in Eagle.  We were actually on this waiting list exactly a year ago.  We decided to go with the one in Gypsum because it was a lot cheaper and a block away from my work.  We are going to look at the new place on Wed, so hopefully it will work out.  It is $20 more a day which is crazy, but we don't have much of a choice.  I have a couple of friends whose kids go there and they love it, so that is all you can want in a daycare.  Here are a couple of pics from the last week:

Baby Blues

Studying to be a vet

 Eating has been very...slow.  Having a hard time getting anything to go down.  Niles had a break through with him tonight and let him suck his thumb after each bite.  Worked wonderfully!

 Bath time

He really likes the thumb, can you tell?

Thursday Carter spent the day with our friend Nick and his son Cayle.  Thank you Nick for saving us in a bind!  On cranky days I am going to their house, he sleeps really well there.

Making Baby Food

I've decided to try making  baby food.  It is cheaper and supposedly very easy to do.  This will be a very uninteresting and long post if you are not ever going to make baby food.  Prob not worth the read, but if you will ever make baby food here ya go, straight up Pioneer Woman style. (If you don't know who PW is, you are missing out).  We shall see how this goes...

These are the things you need:

Steamer, ice cube trays (I bought silicone $8, yes I know that is outrageous), freezer bags, and blender/food processor.  That is really all you have to have, but I also bought the book Superfoods by Annabel Karmel ($12), small glass bowels to travel with food for daycare ($8), and that cute zebra lunch bag just because it was so adorable ($13, yes I know outrageous again, but I need it:).  My expense for materials was $41. Once again all you really need that I bought are the ice cube trays.   I am telling you how much everything is because my mom does not believe it will be cheaper.  They make these machines to help with baby food, but reading all the so-so reviews I couldn't justify spending the money when I already have a great steamer and blender.  I am also freaky about heating foods in plastic (holla MM!) and couldn't find any machine that would do the steaming and blending in one that was made of glass.

First you have to steam the veggies.  You can boil or bake, but steaming helps them retain the most nutrients.  It took about 15 min for them to become soft enough.  This is how my dad eats them:)

Next, you throw them in the blender or food processor.  Thin with some kind of liquid.  I used breast milk to make it familiar.  You can do formula or the water left over from steaming (except with carrots, spinach, beets, cabbage, and broccoli which are high in nitrates and that does something to babies, see how scientific I am!  read more here ).

Then you put them into the ice cube trays.  Each cube is 1 oz (3 tbs).

Let them cool in the fridge for a little while.  Throw them in the freezer.  Next day pop them out of the ice cube trays and put them in freezer bags with the name and date of food.  Super easy.

If you want more info I used this site and the book mentioned above, but I bought it more to help with mixing foods and cooking protein in the future.  I checked it out at the library before I bought it, so you could find it there too.  I will finish making all my food and then post my cost analysis for ya.

Rice Cereal!

We started rice cereal yesterday!  I don't know if you could really call it eating...more of an attempt to eat.  He didn't really like it all that much, we will start something else on Sun.  Maybe he will like it better.

Back to Work...

I went back to work on Monday.  I feel very grateful to have a job that allowed me to spend almost 6 months at home, but I am still sad to go back.  I was eased into the transition with Johnny and Terry being here.  Carter was able to stay at home for 2 more days playing with them.

GG and the Leafs came up for a short visit.  Sorry for the long drive back guys.  Bad part of living in a tourist area.

Some short videos:

This is how he plays with his new teeth

He has been playing with this for awhile, but he just discovered how to bounce

Working hard for the money!

 

Have a great work week Ya'll!

Lawrence Trip #2

Carter has been a trooper traveler the last few weeks.  This round was to Lawrence.  We (Carter and I) were able to see Grandpa H, Grammie H, and GG's H. 

Carter loved Stormy (a theme is developing here, he loves dogs, can't be surprised)  

Carter was dinner entertainment, we ate and he chilled in his bumbo

 I said who wants to read Carter his bedtime story, my dad says, "does he listen?"  I smiled and said, "Yes" with my fingers crossed behind my back.  They made it through a few pages, I took many pics, and then dad said, "The end."  I only posted this pic so when we look back in 15 years, it will be like, "Oh look how smart Carter was, he sat through books at 5 months old.":)

My dad is known for being a ball of energy, Carter found it very amusing.

Carter had his first media guide pic taken.  No one else got to be in the pic which was fine by me!  I like this one best, bc Carter is being funny!

I bet this is the one they use

We also took a H family 4 generation pic, Carter is very lucky to be able to enjoy so many generations of family!

On a side note, the number one question over the last 2 1/2 months was, "What is on his face?"  You can see it in the pics (except I photshopped it in a few, can you tell which ones!  hint it isn't in this post.)  We went to the doctor and she gave us two creams to put on a billion times a day (3),  hope it goes away, and does not turn into infantigo (very unlikely).  We can't start real food until it goes away, so pray for some clear skin, because this boy is hungry!  On a second side note, we have two teeth coming in!  Growing, growing.

Home Sweet Home...

I love living in Colorado, but Tulsa will always be home.  Not sure if Niles would agree with that, especially after spending a few days sweating in the 110 degree heat ( As I am writing this it is 66 degrees outside).  We were able to see almost everyone.  I hate how I feel that I saw a lot of people, but didn't really spend any quality time with anyone.  Just too many family and friends to really be able to appreciate in a quick visit.  Niles and I both are the kind of people that don't make casual acquaintances, we make a few life-long friends. When I win the lottery we will own a  Tulsa home and visit every month, because we won't have to work!  Time for pics, I don't disappoint!

Great-Grandpa T and Carter

 4 generations

 GG, Owen, and Carter

Aunt Corrie, Owen, and Carter

 Gangi reading Carter his bedtime story, Carter thinks of it as dinner

We went to the splash pad on Riverside, I took a lot of pics so collages were in order

Carter Collage

Owen Collage, he was a little more difficult to get pics of!  He is a mover and a shaker!

This one deserved to be by itself!

Dinner at Mary and Jason's new abode.  

Carter loved their dog Jake and Jake knew it!  Carter would smile and laugh, Jake would lick him and run around.  So fun.

We visited the H Family, it was late and Carter was not so happy

 So this is what he did, only in the famous rocking chair (Alex says)

 Linda's picture of the boys was much better than mine

An afternoon with Casey, Lindsay, Maverick, and Jagger.  Surprisingly I took no pics, but Cas did.  Jagger has already learned to give an immediate smile for his mommy!

They played together very nicely

It was short, but a great trip!  We heart Tulsa ( I need that t-shirt, note to Christmas gift givers:)