Wow! What a week!

I can't believe all that has happened this week.  It seriously feels like a month since I last posted pictures.  Carter is growing at the speed of light.  Every morning, I wake up and can't believe what a little boy he is becoming.  This week was BY FAR my favorite.  The little man started reaching for people, rolled over (finally!), and gives great hugs.  Occasionally, you can get a wide-open mouthed smooch on the cheek, too!

Unfortunately, this week was also time for another Upper Respiratory Infection.  Poor guy.  He just smiles through the coughing, snot, and wheezing....

This week was filled with a lot of love for you, Mr. Carter. 

Of course your mommy and daddy love you, but so do...

Grandma Liz

Auntie Pam

Uncle Josh

Grandpa K

and especially cousin Jaden.

There are so many people who love you.  What a lucky guy you are!

Momma's Boy

Uh oh!  Carter woke up tonight at 11 for bottle. Travis went to get him and brought him back to the living room.  The little guy stuck his bottom lip and and did his "I really have my feelings hurt," bottom lip hanging out, cry.  He kept straining his neck to look at me and settled down only after he was safely in my arms.  Just to be sure, I handed him back to Travis later and the same thing happened.

I felt so loved I almost cried.  I hope this isn't the start of something, though.

Father's Day and Five Month Fun

What a blessing it was to celebrate Father's Day with my best friend and husband, Travis!! I always knew that Travis would be a terrific dad one day, but I am amazed at how my goofy, kid-at-heart, still doesn't know how to run the dishwasher even though I've shown him a million times hubby has turned into one of the most caring fathers I have ever seen. I love to watch him with Carter as he plays and talks to him. Mostly, I LOVE to listen to him read to Carter because he is almost never saying the actual words from the book. He makes up stories and songs as he goes. I try very hard to catch this on tape, but Travis is aware of my desire and blocks it at all costs! Carter is lucky to have such a great man to call 'daddy.' Happy Father's day, babe!

Now, onto some of my favorite photos of Carter. We were sitting on the deck enjoying the morning sunshine and bird chirping. He was content sitting out there for quite sometime. Long enough for me to chug my coffee at least:)

I snapped these of my two boys playing. Carter absolutely adores Hendrix and is starting to notice other dogs too. Hendrix tolerates Carter, but could do without the hair pulling.

Thinking

After talking with a good friend this week, I started thinking. (Scary, right?) She had asked me what my thoughts were on how non-biological children were accepted into their adoptive families. Okay, to be honest, she did not ask. It was very casually mentioned in conversation, and because I am becoming one of those ladies who speaks her mind, I started discussing it.

Carter is not "biologically" ours. It doesn't matter. Travis and I were talking the other day and laughing at how we sometimes forget that he was adopted. We forget the waiting, and paperwork, and money, and stress, and home visits, and.....
All we know is that he is our precious little boy. Our life.

I can honestly say that I could not love a child more than I do Carter. Travis seconds that statement:)





I am not one of those people who say, "I can't remember what my life was before my son." I can. I slept more. A lot more. I did my hair and make-up. My house was cleaner.

I am one of those people who will say, "Life before my son was not as meaningful or fulfilled. Life before him may have been organized and restful, but it was not nearly as beautiful."

I feel completely humbled by God's mercy and grace and fulfillment of promises.

Yep, that's what I was thinking.

And the winner is....


Butternut Squash! Who'd have thunk it?

Somewhat mobile

So....I pride myself on being a pretty laid-back mom. I am certainly not one of those who worries about every little thing I do or don't do. My motto thus far has been, "We survived just fine on less," meaning that all the new fancy baby items and 'medical findings' weren't out when I was growing up, and yet, here I am! Don't get me wrong. I want to do everything possible to help Carter grow into a strong, smart, well-behaved young man, but I am not going to freak out if the baby book says that he should have done this or that.

The ONLY thing that I have slightly been pushing with Carter is using his arms more. As far as he is concerned, those pudgy things with 10 dangling digits are used mainly for sucking on. I have been trying to teach the little guy that his hands can be very useful for lots of other things, like pushing himself up into the crawling position.....

Carter had other plans for his mobility at this point in time. He has learned to very effectively, lie on his back and push with this feet to scoot across the floor. The poor kid is going to get carpet burn on his head if he is not careful!!!
This is how we first found out he could do this. Until this particular evening, he stayed in one spot in his crib. When we happened to check on him, this is what we found. Carter, where are you?



There you are!



Totally unrelated to that-Carter LOVES carrots (and by loves I mean will actually keep more than 1/2 in his mouth).

He also LOVES to feed the swans. Bulging eyeballs and talking up a storm the whole time.