A Trip to the Museum

With temps reaching 95 in Hotlanta, we decided to find an indoor activity for the family. Children's Museum of Atlanta had been on our list for a while so we decided to give it a shot. We started off in the toddler area where Carter had a plethora of toys to choose from.

There were a some tunnels and slides to play on....

and even a Water bed but Carter preferred the musical instruments. He spent a while with the big red piano.

He also had fun playing the guitar with dad.

Then it was on to the water table. Carter suited up in preparation.He had fun fishing and splashing about.

But like usual, Carter doesn't stay in one place long so it was off to Africa. To prepare, he changed into some traditional attire.He had a lot of fun playing the bongos with dad.

He was so good they even put him on TV.

When he grew tired of the bongos, he took a quick ride on a camel.

Then it was off for more fun. Carter left Africa and climbed on over...

To something more up dad's alley... the Tool room. There were all sorts of machines that moved plastic balls around including this crane. A big boy was nice to let Carter co-pilot with him for a while. When we took Carter off to let someone else ride, he tried to climb back on.

So mom distracted him in the ball pit!

After all the ball excitement, Cater took a break in the garden.

But that didn't take long as he went off in search of more fun.But first, he stopped for a quick bite

Then he came upon a supermarket where he loaded up a cart and took it for a spin.

He took his groceries home where he cooked mom and dad lunch and even did the dishes. What a sweet little boy?

After lunch, Carter was pretty beat so he decided to take relaxing boat ride with dad.

He even caught some fish for dinner!

After all that activity, Carter was pooped so we headed home. Carter had a great time at the museum and I'm sure we'll be back soon!

Embracing Technology

Carter doesn't sit still for much these days. But dad's iPad is entertaining enough to capture about 10 minutes of his time. He likes using his pointer finger to make things on the screen move.

But the best part is that he gets to play with his dad!Carter definitely enjoys his iPad time...but it can only keep him still for so long. Watch out, Carter is on the move!

A Day at the Pool

After last Saturday's success in playing with water in our backyard, we decided to take Carter to the neighborhood pool. Carter was super excited as his trip to the pool was in his new Radio Flyer tricked out wagon. The boy knows how to ride in style!

Dad and Carter slowly got into the water (the big pool is still a bit cold) and Carter was only comfortable getting his legs wet, but did not want to go past his waste for quite a while.

But as he got used to the water and also watched the neighborhood children have fun swimming, splashing, and playing in the pool, he soon become more and more comfortable moving about with Dad.

Carter soon became comfortable to stand alone in the the children's pool (smaller pool next to the big pool) as it was much warmer. Carter ended up spending more than an hour at the pool and Mom and Dad had to call it an afternoon to make sure to not miss dinner. We are sure to be here many more times as the summer continues to take hold.

Backyard Fun

The weather has quickly turned from spring like, to an normal hot and humid Atlanta summer. Luckily, Carter received some gifts for his birthday to help cure the summer heat. To really beat the heat, nothing is better than a sit in the kiddie pool in the backyard!


Once Carter felt sufficiently cooled, it was off to playing with his new water table (it is a sand/water table, but for Mom and Dad's sanity and lack of cleaning ambition, both sides are full of water at this time).

We brought some bath time toys to play with and Carter quickly grabbed onto his favorite rubber duck while Dad played with the what wheel.

Carter soon got into the action with the water toys and the smiles and giggles quickly followed

Carter spent a good part of the afternoon exploring the fun that is water

And Dad made sure to keep him sufficiently entertained

We were soon back in the kiddie pool, but we had forgotten how cold the water was. It was a quick re-entry/exit the second time around.

But the water fun was not over, suddenly it started raining on Carter (which was a bit off given the crystal clear sky). Carter soon turned his attention to Dad to find the cause of the drops

Which quickly changed from surprise and confusion, to intrigue and curiosity as to how the hose worked.

Over all it was a great afternoon with Carter having a great time in his newly updated backyard

Carter's One Year Photos

We had the photographer who did Carter's newborn pictures come back and take some pics for Carter's first birthday. Hope you enjoy!

Website:
http://dylanbluephotography.zenfolio.com/p736021407

Password:
jordan

Eating Fun

Carter has been having more fun with meal time these days. He has been tending to lean towards swallowing his food whole so we have been trying tricks to get him to actually chew. So far we have a few successful methods. First is stuff his mouth full so that he has to chew. The biggest hit has been letting him feed himself. It starts with giving Carter his own fork.

Then you help him get a little food on it and he does the rest. He immediately puts it in his mouth.

Then comes the post-bite celebration which consists of shaking both hands and smiling big! Good thing the boy has a big appetite because all that celebration takes a lot of energy!

Mid-Month Update

Carter has been quite a busy boy this month. Here are a few updates from the past few weeks. Teething has continued to be a big story. Carter's 3rd molar has started breaking through so he has cut 8 teeth in 3 weeks. Needless to say there have been tears shed and some overall crankiness but it looks like that is almost behind us and smiles have returned!We have 1 molar and 3 cuspids left and then hopefully a LONG break before the 2 year molars hit.

Carter has been getting better at walking and thus is into all sorts of new things. He likes playing in the toilet and opening all the drawers/cabinets. He is really enjoying touching everything at his new level and trying to grab onto things one level up. He can't wait to get his hands on everything in site! With Carter's new mobility, we bought him his first pair of real boy shoes. He has taken a few days to get use to them but they definitely haven't slowed him down.

Carter has started saying a few new words. "Uh-Oh" and "Bye-Bye" are his two new favorites. He even has his accompanying wave down - it's pretty cute!

On the food front, Carter is doing really well with the switch to milk. He has been taking 1/2 whole milk bottle for a few weeks with no issues so we'll probably switch to 100% in the next few weeks. We have also had fun with Carter's food. He definitely prefers pasta over his veggies but we have been trying to be extra sneaky and get them in. Unfortunately Carter doesn't seem to enjoy chewing his food, he prefers to just swallow everything whole so we'll have to figure out how to stop that habit!

Other than that, Carter is doing really well. He enjoys Daycare especially the Bye-Bye buggy. And his favorite activities are anything active, outdoors or "reading" books.
Stay tuned for what the next few weeks will bring!

Walking Fun

Carter loves walking these days. But he just can't keep his hands still while his feet are doing all that moving. He spends a lot of time pointing at things.

He also loves picking things up and carrying them around. Sometime he even has his mouth pitch in as well.His favorite objects are the ones that mom and dad use the most... aka the cell phone or the tv remote. Dad did try to but him his own remote but that wasn't very effective.

But sometimes bigger is better and Carter goes for things as big as he is!Watch out world, Carter is coming to get ya!

Playing Around

Carter is as active a little boy as ever. His favorite activities involve being thrown, swung, tossed, dipped, pushed and every other active verb you can think of. One current action that elicits a laughter fit is horsing around with dad.

It starts with a fun ride on dad's shoulders...Then the giggling starts as dad leans him forward...And the laughter erupts when he leans all the way forward...

And it explodes when he falls all the way back!

What a silly, silly boy!