Catch-Up Journal (Again!)

Ok, so it’s been a while since I posted a journal. I’ve managed to stay pretty up-to-date with pictures though. Can you believe Carter is almost 9 months old?!?! I can’t…it seems like my baby just arrived!
Within the last few weeks he has become very independent…although he still wants someone to be close (pretty much at all times), he doesn’t want to lay down and snuggle in our arms as much (which is still hard for me to get used to). He’s very squirmy when he’s in our arms and tries to climb up us! His favorite thing is for us to hold his hands and walk him around. His legs are really strong and he has always loved standing! He pulled up for the first time on July 18th and has done it several times since then! Still hasn’t crawled yet…we were beginning to think he would skip that since he hates being on his tummy. Last night while sitting up playing, he went over onto his tummy 3 times by himself. Still didn’t attempt to crawl, but it’s a start…at least he got on his tummy by himself! Even though he’s not crawling or walking yet, he scoots all over the place…and manages to stretch his body all the way across the room! : )
Lately, he loves playing in the kitchen floor…he slobbers everywhere and paints the floor with it! : ) He scoots around the kitchen and tries to open and pull up on the kitchen cabinets (thankfully, hasn’t learned how to open them yet)…he also loves to play on the refrigerator. It’s stainless and he likes to make faces in it…last night, he was even licking it! I’m a neat freak - and a germ freak when it comes to him, so I quickly moved him to another area! He here’s the word Dirty a lot…I’m always telling him everything is dirty…we joke that it’s probably going to be one of his first words! : )
Carter says Mama all the time now…and loves to holler and talk loud (especially when we’re out in public)! : ) The only other thing he says sometimes is “Ba”…sometimes he adds it to “Ma” and will start saying “MaBa”. No other words yet…we’re still working on DaDa!
His first tooth popped through (again…we think it’s here to stay this time!) on Friday, August 1st. He’s having fun using his new tooth to bite down on his spoons and he's been sucking on his tooth lately too…it’s really funny!
He had his 3rd haircut on Monday, August 4th (I know, it’s crazy- at this point most babies haven’t even had their first one yet). He fussed a little, but was really good when Amy used the clippers on him (that was his first time with the clippers…I was a little worried, but the noise seemed to calm him)- he just sat there and stared at himself in the mirror! I only took a couple before and after pics…I can very easily get carried away with taking pics of my baby. I did have the camera in my purse in case he did something really cute…and I did have to hold myself back from taking pictures when they put the cute little animal print cape on him. I just reminded myself that I’ve already been that crazy mom taking tons of haircut pics TWICE now…
He’s doing great with his food…I’ve been posting pictures of a lot of his firsts. He’s a good eater…he didn’t like peas at first, but my grandmother has been working with him and he’ll eat them now (but you can tell he’s still not crazy about them). Bananas are his absolute favorite! Lately, I’ve been trying to make some of his food…he still doesn’t like different textures, so I have to make sure it’s blended really good! He was on a milk strike (from his bottle and sippy) this past Monday and my mom was worried he was going to get dehydrated, so I told her she could try some juice…he had some of Meredith’s pear juice and absolutely loved it! He loves sweet stuff! : ) I don’t plan on giving him juice very often, but at least we were able to get some liquids down him while I was at work. We also let him try a couple of Mere’s peach puffs (he wants everything she has and she wants everything he has)…he did really good with them, but we’ll probably wait a little longer before we give them to him all the time.
We take him for his 9 month doctor’s appointment on August 20th…we are so thankful that he has been healthy and hasn’t had to go to the doctor very often! I’ll update the growth chart section once we find out his stats…we haven’t weighed him in a few weeks, so I have no clue how much he weighs (we had been checking his weight every week, but have slacked off lately)…he’s definitely catching up to Mere!
We took him to the Farmer’s Market yesterday and had a great time…I added a new picture page of our favorite pics from the day! And last night he slept the best EVER…I put him down around 8pm and he didn’t get up till 2:30 this morning and then again around 7:30!!! I got over 8 hours of sleep total- that is the most I’ve gotten since before Carter was born!
Oh, I almost forgot...he started giving the sweetest kisses on August 7th!!! Well, I guess I better run…my baby hasn’t been up for very long and I can’t wait to go snuggle!