A Few More Pics from the Weekend

 

Pictures from our Weekend

The view from our porch.

Thomas at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Cooking a turkey.

A warm day.

Razz-berry

Carter has developed a new skill. He's been working on it day and night. In fact, he practiced in his sleep for a good half hour late last night. I managed to catch it on video yesterday afternoon. Enjoy!

Double Hooray!

We just got back from our trip - more on that later - but in the meantime...

We are doubly blessed by our friends' love this week!First Patrick and Kirstin, and now Stubbie and Shannon! Stubbie and Shannon got engaged on Thanksgiving day. We are SO happy for them! Below is a picture of the happy couple from their trip to New York back in April. In the photo Shannon is sporting a very fake rock that we got for her. This will have to do until we get some pics of her wearing the real thing! 

Thanksgiving Woodland Fun

No postings for awhile as we are headed up to a rented cabin the Catskill Mountains this week for a little Thanksgivings vacation with Helen, Phil, Patrick & Kir. Don't worry, we will take the camera with us and post lots of pictures when we get back!

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Hooray!

We've given them 24 hours to tell people themselves, so I think that it is safe to post now...

Carter is getting a new, official aunt! Patrick and Kirstin got engaged last night! We are so very happy for them, and are so happy to officially be getting Kirstin as part of the family.

Congratulations, Patrick and Kirstin!

Only in New York

Thomas and I had a rare night out tonight. We were planning to go to dinner and a movie, but dinner took too long, so we just had dinner and coffee. Dinner took too long because we picked a very crowded restaurant. We were originally told that the wait would only be five minutes, but five quickly became fifteen. The hostess was very apologetic and eventually came over to us and one other couple and offered us an interesting option. We could dine at a different restaurant with the menu of the restaurant we originally picked (and/or the menu of the new restaurant). Apparently these two restaurants are owned by the same people, so not only could we do this, but we didn't even have to go outside. The hostess led the four of us through the shared kitchen in the back and into the other restaurant. We had a lovely dinner.

Headed Home

I am headed home bright and early in the morning. This will be my second pre-5am trip to the airport this week. I am missing my boys, but they seem to have done just fine, and I have kept busy with work (and pumping... so far I have about 50 ounces to carefully pack up and take home!). I've been traveling to do market research this week, which has been very interesting - I have been behind the one-way mirror all week. I'm looking forward to being home with my family tomorrow night.

Staring Contest

In an unexpected showdown this evening, Carter challenged Theodore to a staring contest. In the beginning they were neck and neck (so to speak).



As the challenge wore on, I thought Carter would do well as I have rarely seen him blink (babies do that, which looks weird, but it works for them).

What I did not expect was that Theodore, trained in China, was some sort of 9th Degree Grand Master Uber-Sensei of the No-Blink Technique. Carter started to wither.



After an epic battle, Theodore prevailed, Carter was beaten.

He has vowed revenge and is currently in training (we are considering going to a barn in Russia).

Don't Worry

Everyone have no fear, Carter and I are doing fine (though one of us is a bit sleepier than the other). Shortly after the crack of dawn this morning Carter decided his newfound skill of the consonant "ba" or "bla" needed practicing, so off he went. "bla-bla-bla-bla-bla-ba-bla-ba-bla-bla-bla-bla-bla-bla-bla-ba-ba-bla-bla-bla-bla-ba" for about 25 minutes. While it is one of the cutest things he does, I must admit that it is much less cute an hour before the alarm goes off. Regardless, we talked for awhile and got dressed and even made it to school on time and would have made it to work on time save the stupidly long line at the Starbucks.

I'll try to post more, but I may also just try to sleep. I see a few long days ahead.

Slow Blogging

You may not be seeing many posts from us this week. Well before the crack of dawn tomorrow I am headed to Boston for work. I return late tomorrow night and then turn around and head to Austin Wednesday afternoon. I'm there until Friday morning. It will be up to Thomas to keep up the blogging while I'm away - and to take care of the wee one. As for now, I'm off to catch my five hours of sleep. Lucky for me, I'm used to little sleep!

UPDATE: Catch Video

YouTube still seems to be having issues, so I posted the new video on our website. Check it out there.

Catch?

Be sure to turn the volume up to hear some serious baby laughter. (NOTE: YouTube is having some issues, so sometimes the video won't load. If you are having that problem, try again later.)

Day with Kirstin

We had a fun day with Kirstin today. Kirstin, Carter and I went to the park to swing and then went to lunch. Kir watched Carter while Thomas and I went to a friend's afternoon party and then Kirstin, Carter and I went for another walk. Kirstin taught Carter all kinds of things! By the end of our day, he was sticking his tongue out (almost) on command and had picked up a couple of new consonant sounds!

Social Butterfly

Carter's daycare was closed today for Veteran's Day, so he went to a back-up daycare center that is provided by my company. It is near my office, which was a good thing because I realized when I got to the office that I had forgotten an important component of my breastpump. Three times during the day I walked the 300 paces to the daycare center and fed Carter. It was so convenient! However, Carter didn't seem as thrilled as I was with the arrangement. The first time that I went in to feed him, the teacher and the two other babies went into another room to give us some privacy. Carter could hardly eat because he was staring at the door they left through and whimpering. Apparently being alone with me was not nearly as entertaining as being with the teachers and other babies.

Carter's Animals

Some stuffed, some not so stuffed.
 

Happy Boy

I don't want to call it a phase, because I hope it lasts forever, but that's what I'll call it for now. Carter is going through such a happy phase! He is all smiles (almost) all the time. He is really a lot of fun.
 

New Toys

This weekend our friends Jim and Betsy were in town and we had brunch with them on Saturday. They brought Carter a very cute baby bowling set. Here are a couple of pictures of Carter enjoying his bowling set. We'll work more on the basics of the game when he's a little older!

Goodbye Cart Cart and Nonna!

Carter (the elder) and Donna are headed back to Atlanta in the morning. We all enjoyed their visit. Especially Carter, who enjoyed some time alone with his grandparents this afternoon while Thomas and I were at work.
 

Post Fauxgiving Trauma

Post meal I asked Dad to go ahead and cut off all the rest of the meat from the turkey so we could have it ready for sandwiches or turkey chili or whatever and we could get rid of the carcass (save some skin and bones for soup) to keep the house from REALLY smelling like "smoked" at least a little. Well, after a few minutes, the sharp knife got the better of Dad's finger (thankfully just a nick), though it just would not stop bleeding. After being repeatedly told to keep pressure on it and keep it above his heart (his finger, not the turkey), he decided what was most important was the turkey. Call it persistence, stubbornness, or just plain being a little silly, he diligently continued to slice the turkey with the same sharp knife with one hand and the other hand held (more or less) above his heart. I guess I can see where I get it from, though I am still not sure what to call "it" (see above list).

Thanks again to Dad and Donna for the great turkey and wonderful visit so far!

Fauxgiving

Carter (the elder) and Donna are in town this weekend. Since we won't be seeing them at Thanksgiving, we had fauxgiving tonight. The smoked turkey was as smokey and delicious as ever, Thomas' mashed potatoes were yummy and I had brussel sprouts for the very first time (contrary to popular opinion, they were good too). And it wouldn't have been like thanksgiving without Joo, so she came over for fauxgiving, too!

Baby Got a New Pair of Shoes...

and a new bouncy seat.

Leo

Carter is becoming very playful. He's particularly enjoying his green lion- "Leo" (you can see the bottom half of Leo here). Carter used to be smaller than Leo, but now he can wrestle him down. (Also notice how nicely Carter's hair is starting to fill in.)

Paper Monster

He hasn't figured out how to eat solid food yet, but he tries to eat everything else! Like his cousin t, Carter enjoys our junk mail. He rifles through catalogues, but mostly he likes to put paper in his mouth. We let him gum it for a while, and take it away from him before he actually can eat any! He really went after my boarding pass on the way to Texas last week. I was glad that I had an infant with me so that it made my shredded boarding pass make more sense.

Carter also enjoyed his slinky this evening!