What I Love About 16 Months

Carter is such a blast right now.  I'm loving so many things about this age and want to write them down.  He has become so sweet and caring with his friends.  He's still a 16 month old and brushes them away or pushes them when they are bugging him, but man can he be sweet.  Yesterday at daycare I put Carter down and his little friend who loves to hug and kiss on him came over.  He wasn't in the mood for hugs and kisses so he decided to run away from her which started a huge game of chase with the 4 kids there.  When one of the little boys fell down, Carter stopped and held his hand out to the boy.  He also loves on one of the kiddos getting ready to move up to the one year old room and will go get toys and bring them to him because he's not fully mobile yet.  Our sweet boy sure has a big heart!

He is so talkative and really uses his words to interact with others.  He still babbles some, but the majority of his talking is centered around communicating with others.  Uh oh is still a favorite, but he also loves to say "hi".  We were at the grocery store picking out produce and there was a lady next to us.  Carter kept saying "hi" to her, but to no avail.  Finally as she was walking away he yelled "hi" after her a couple times.  She turned around, smiled, said "hi", and waved back.  I laughed all the way to the dairy section of the store.

Sharing food is so much fun.  Every morning Carter eats his breakfast around 6:00-6:30 depending on what time he wakes up.  When it comes time for me to eat breakfast around 7:15 or so, he clings to my legs desperate to have a bite.  He stares up at me, lifts one hand in the air beckoning my food to come toward his mouth, and says momma over and over.  I then sit at the table with him in my lap and we eat my breakfast together.  This 2nd breakfast tradition started out a little bit frustrating, especially when I was running late and only got to eat half my breakfast and spent all morning hungry, but now I love it.  I account for Carter eating a portion of my breakfast and prepare more.  This morning I was eating Raisin Bran so I gave Carter his own spoon and he rocked it.  It was so hard to eat my breakfast because I wanted to giggle the whole time.  Seeing me share has also encouraged Carter to share.  When I arrived at daycare this afternoon he was eating his afternoon snack and insisted I eat one of his chunks of apple.

Oh, hello mom, have some apple!

I love that little dude is tough.  This month has been the worst as far as injuries go.  I feel like he's had a constant bruise on his forehead all month.  He typically gets right up and goes about his business.  I usually say, "All falls down" when he falls and then cheer for him when he gets up.  Occasionally he has a bad fall where I immediately pick him up and rock him for comfort, but most the time he just brushes it off.  For some reason he tends to always land on the left side of his head and is constantly re-bruising his left temple.  Thank goodness he's a tough guy because he has needed it!

Carter has figured out the buttons on his toys and what they do.  He loves his Scout doll and his dolly the most.  He will carry his dolly around giving her hugs so she'll laugh and make noise.  His Scout doll has been in the car for a while and he loves it when I buckle him in and then hand him Scout.  The entire drive home or to daycare he repeatedly pushes the button for music.  I crack up because he keeps pushing it until it gets to the song that says "I'm going to sing a song about you Carter" and then it raps his name, spelling it to him.  After that he'll push the button and let the songs play out.  Before that song comes on, he'll push the button, hear the start of the song, realize it's not the one he wants, and then pushes the button again.

I can't imagine how life could get even more fun and exciting, but I know it will.  Bring it on, Carter man!