A Letter to Carter at 14 Months

Little dude!  Right now you are just the most fun.  Your personality is shining through more every day and it is amazing, hilarious, and surprising at times!  You are inquisitive and sweet.  You definitely think things through before you act.  At times you can be stubborn, you get that from your momma.  You are just out and out fun.  Watching you learn and play is the best.  You bring so much joy to our lives and I can't get enough of you.  Seriously, not at all enough, every night when I lay you down in your crib I miss you already.  Then I go sit down with the monitor and secretly hope you will cry so I can go in and snuggle you.

Right now you are always on the go, go, go.  Your favorite form of transportation has shifted a bit.  You still crawl all the time and really fast.  It's crazy how fast you can crawl.  But now you would rather walk.  Whether it's walking along holding onto our hands (it's always gotta be both hands, you are not about only holding onto one hand), cruising on furniture, or pushing things as you go.  Walking is what you prefer to do.  You'll find anything that you can push and walk with and it is so funny.  The other day you were walking along pushing an empty tote in front of you.  You have gotten really steady with walking, now we're just waiting on the confidence.  You just aren't confident enough and want that comfort of having something to hold onto.

Walking with the help of a tote.

Now you are all about climbing things which surprises me.  It's hard to fathom not having the confidence to walk, but having the confidence to climb things.  And I'm not talking small things like the slides at the park, I'm talking up to the 2nd rung of a ladder.  You are a bit of an Evil Knievel, but that seems in line with your daddy's antics as a child.  Well and your grandpa after hearing a story from your great grandpa about him climbing a ladder and sitting on a rafter in the attic.  But you didn't have much choice with the added bonus in there that I climbed a ladder to the roof when I was little.  We will definitely have to keep an eye on you.  Even if we just pop into a room to grab slippers!  I still giggle every time you get up on your tippy toes.  It is just so precious!  

With all the moving you've been doing lately, getting pictures was nearly impossible.  Last night as I looked through them I was disappointed by how few included your face.  Most of the pictures you were crawling away or turned with your head away from the camera or rolled to a different side.  The best part of the photo shoot was all the stuff you played with and the things you did.  I was laughing so hard trying to take your picture.  You went from playing with a stacking cup to cars to books to a monkey stuffed animal you pulled off your changing table.  And the chalk board?  I might as well forget it.  When I actually manage to get it in the picture, the next thing I know all of the writing is pretty much rubbed off.  Oh well, I'll remember what month it was later on, right?

Playing with his cars.

Driving his firetruck across the chalkboard.

Looks like a deep conversation with the monkey.

You still like to stand in the tub.  Unfortunately you went through a phase for part of the month where you hated baths.  You wouldn't sit down, clung to the side, and cried the whole time.  Not sure what that was about, but you still loved to play in water in the sink.  You are all about putting things into containers.  In the bathtub when you see me pull down your toy container to clean up, you light up.  As I put your toys away, you very sweetly place them into the container for me.  No more of the putting it in only to grab it straight out.  You leave the toys in now.  It's so nice to have a little helper!  At dinner time you love to feed me, or daddy, or Harper.  Sometimes you reach out as if to offer food and cackle as you pull it away and slip it into your own mouth, much to Harper's dismay but daddy and my relief!

You adore your daddy and light up when he gets home.  When he walks in and you hear his voice, no matter where we are, you start to nose dive out of my arms.  Not sure if you think you'll magically land in his arms or if you are trying to get to the floor so you can take off after him.  Either way it is adorable.  I wish he could see more of that.  When you are tired and want soothed and rocked you will not let daddy do it for anything.  He has named the move you do when he tries to rock you the "crocodile roll" or the "death roll".  You spin and whip around violently trying to escape from his hold.  Maybe you remember the old squeeze and overheat trick he used on you when you were younger.  At any rate, I'm sure you'll be over that in no time and crying for daddy when I don't let you do something you want.  The story is that's what I used to do as a kid.  You still love to climb into my lap and have become more efficient at it.  It melts my heart and I love having you cuddled into me.

Crawling into my lap for a little rest.

Not much has happened in the communication department.  You still repeat sounds back when we say them, but don't have meaning behind them.  Mama is used in situations where you want held, such as being hurt or tired.  Skippy is still ki-ka and Harper is now either duhduhduh or gaaaaaagaaaa which I think are your attempts at dog.  I always call her Harper Dog and dog so you will understand later on that she is a dog and her name is Harper.  You love making ssss and th sounds and are really practicing them.  You've been shaking your head no for a long time, but not using it to mean no.  You've just picked up nodding your head yes, but don't use it to mean yes.  Typically you will respond to talking with a nod or a shake.  Before you always shook your head no, now you are always nodding your head yes.  It will be fun when you actually use them to answer a question!

You definitely understand a lot more of what we are saying.  For a while now you stop and react when I said no, mostly just when you try to play in the toilet or the pet water bowl.  Of course before you stop, you flash me a very sweet smile.  One day when you were supposed to be napping and refused, we would tell you to lay down.  When we said, "Carter lay down," you would lay your head down.  Then you would pop your head up over the bumper to see if we were still there.  My favorite was when you would pop up, see we were there, and give a grin before putting your head back down.  I couldn't help but laugh, you can be a bit ornery!

Me ornery?  No way!!!

Looking at your 13 month post, it's hard to believe you had only been weaned for a little less than a month.  When you were weaned we never looked back.  You were so ready and did such a great job!  You still aren't much of a fan of cow's milk and it's hard to get you to drink much at all.  You'd happily drink water all day long.  I haven't been giving you much apple juice at all.  You've been drinking mostly water.  You did try some orange juice this month and you seemed to like it.

I did eventually move your bedtime up to 7:00 because you were getting so tired in the evening.  Now you are sleeping in until 7:00 in the morning most days.  Sometimes you wake up at 6:00 or 6:30.  This past weekend was rough.  You woke up at 5:40 and 5:30 and then 5:00 this morning.  Naps have been a bit sketchy here and there with 30 minute, hour, and no nap days a few times.  Most of the time you do get in a full 2 hour nap though.  Every once in a while you still take a 30 minute nap in the morning along with your 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  Most days you just take one nap.

We went with the doctor's weight from your ear infection appointment.  You weighed in at 21.2 pounds.  Daddy measured you and had you at 31.5 inches.  You are still in size 3 diapers and shoes.  Your size 4 shoes are quite a bit too big.  You still fit in size 12 pants the best.  They don't drag on the ground when you are walking around, but are a bit short when you sit down.  When we put you in 18 month pants they are loose around your waist and long enough we need to roll them so you don't stand on them.  Your 12 month onesies are starting to get short in the arms and we've had a few that we can't snap anymore.  We don't have many 18 month onesies, so we are just going with the 12 month ones.

We started working on your big boy room.  I'm so excited about it!  I love picturing you playing in there and having so much room to get around.  You probably won't move over for another year or so, but I like to get started on things early and have fun with it rather than waiting and being rushed!  Daddy and I made the decision that I will stay home with you next year.  I am so happy and can't wait until June to start staying home with you every day.  It has been so hard being away from you all day long.  I miss you so much and look forward to holding you again the entire time I'm at work.  I thought I knew love before I met you, but I had no idea what the love of a momma felt like.  I am so thankful to have you in my life.  Just thinking of you makes my day better.  Love you, love you, love you precious boy!!!!   

Now on to daddy:

It seems that the biggest change that I have seen in you this past month is your reaction and comprehension to what your mom and I say to you. It's fun watching your mind work over a problem or sentence from one of us.

You are a master of walking with assistance and would do so all day if we would walk with you. Only a matter of time until you take those first steps on your own! You also taught yourself to climb the ladder this month. I was working on the attic and you took it upon yourself to climb up to the second rung! That is something that runs in the family as your mom has an early ladder experience and so does your Grandpa Cox!

I had President's Day off this year and you and I got some one on one time. We went to the zoo and had a blast. You had so much fun in the petting zoo we almost spent all of our time there. I cannot wait until you really form your own favorite animals and seeing your face light up when we take you to see them.