Big Boy

There are so many things that Carter is doing now that make him seem like such a big boy (as compared to, you know, a baby). I really can't believe how quickly he has become a little person. Here's the first installment of big boy stories:

Bye-Bye Boobies
Shortly after his first birthday (and around the time he started biting), I weaned Carter off of breastfeeding. At the same time, we weaned him completely off of bottles, so he is a sippy cup man (specifically, he is a straw-style sippy cup man – he won’t take any other kind of cup).

Personality!
Lately, Carter has gotten very sweet – and a little feisty. He has started to really love on his stuffed animals and to give people spontaneous hugs, too. He is definitely starting to assert his independence and realize that he has a mind of his own.

At bath time tonight, I was demonstrating how much fun his new alien bath toy is. I was filling it up with water and showing him how it squirts water out if its mouth. Apparently I was having too much fun because he took it out of my hand - and put it away.

At bed time, I wanted him to settle down, but he wanted to grab, play with and drop everything in sight (including the aforementioned sippy cup). Eventually, he decided that he was done playing. He handed his cup to me, turned around, threw his arms around my neck and cuddled. After a minute, he looked up at me and pointed to the crib, as if to say, “Okay, mom. I know Dad usually does this. You are supposed to put me in the crib now.”


Picky Eater
Carter has always been the wonder-baby who would eat pretty much anything and particularly loved vegetables. We are now starting to get a taste of the picky-eating phase that probably lies ahead.

First of all, Carter prefers his food to be cooked. None of this 'pull it out of the fridge, cut it up and hand it over' stuff. I can usually get away with just warming things up in the microwave, but he definitely prefers a home-cooked meal. What he prefers most of all, however, is bananas. He doesn’t care much for other fruits (except blueberries), but he loves bananas. He’d have one at every meal if he could. And he’d have it in a single bite if he could work out how to do that.

At dinner tonight, I was trying to get Carter to eat his cumin black beans. I picked a couple up and put them in my mouth, “mmm, yummy, black beans…”. He watched me closely and then reached for the beans. I thought, “hooray, he’s going to eat one!”. He then picked up a bean and held it out to me, as if to say, “you like them so much, you eat them!” I ended up giving him a banana.