Katerman the Explorer

Karter is learning to open and close doors, his favorite being the doors to our entertainment center. He has discovered that we keep his books down there and he likes to open the doors and pull them out. Friday, he decided to get a closer look at the cabinet! I was doing the dished in the kitchen when I noticed he had gotten very quiet. I turned around and saw what he was doing, instead of interrupting, I switched camera lens and started shooting pictures!

Getting a closer look...

BUSTED!

"She won't notice if I play some more..."

"What, I have to get out?"

Riding Around Town

The weather has finally started going up the thermometer instead of down, and we are taking full advantage of this warming trend! Saturday was the first 50 degree day that we had had in a long, LONG time. The sun was out and it was too nice to stay inside. So, we loaded Karter in his wagon and took it out for its maiden voyage. As you can see, Karter LOVES riding in his wagon. We have been out riding everyday since, and Karter sings to us the whole time! We are so happy it is warming up.

Happy 9 Months!

Karter turns 9 months old today! Time is flying by and everyday our baby is turning into a real boy! He truly is all boy, destroying everything! What a blessing Karter is to our lives, he is a sweet boy and we couldn't imagine life without him!

Here is a list of what this little guy is up to these days...

• MOVING! Karter cannot sit still. Or stand still for that matter, even when he is standing he likes to move around, especially jumping when you are holding him! He still doesn't really crawl, it is more of an army crawl, but he is FAST and it gets him where he needs to go.
  
• He doesn't just move on the floor, he also moves in his crib. Karter never wakes up in the same position that he is laid down in.
• He is still sleeping like a champ. He hit a bit of a rough patch last week when Grandma and Grandpa was here, but we think he was just too excited to sleep! He still goes to sleep around 8pm and sleeps until about 7:30am. Last week we started covering him up while he sleeps, he loves Great Grandma Ellen's quilt! Naps are getting better, he will put himself to sleep for his morning nap and nap for 2-3 hours, but still has to be rocked for his afternoon nap.
• Karter is really good at playing by himself. Of course, he loves when we play on the floor with him, but he is fine by himself too. His favorite toys by far are his blocks, but coming in a close second are the coins that go with his new piggy bank! He almost always has either a block or a coin in his hand as he cruises around the house.
• He still hates socks! They don't last more than a minute in the car and I don't even bother with them around the house!
  
• He loves music! Karter likes it when we sing to him or play music, he will just bounce along and wave his arms around. He will also play his piano and dance along! We were at Chipotle this weekend, and he was so busy dancing in his highchair that it was hard to feed him!
• He is still a great eater! At both lunch and dinner he has one container of fruit and one veggie and then whatever we are having too! His favorite table food is cheese. He can eat half of a string cheese by himself. With his lunch he gets a sippy cup with breast milk in it. After a couple weeks, he is finally drinking the whole thing!
  
• Karter is always making noises of some sort. He loves to say "da-da", blow bubbles with is mouth, laugh, fake cough, clap...just about anything that makes noise!
• It is very difficult to change him or get him dressed. He is so active, it is hard to get him to sit still for 5 seconds.
• Lately he is really into books. Thankfully, he has outgrown the eating of books stage and now likes to look at them. He loves to turn the pages! He will finally let us read him a book without whining the whole time because he wants to eat it! I think that going to the library every week is helping!
• Our Dr. doesn't do a nine month visit, so we will have to wait until next month to see how much he has grown, but we are sure it is a lot! All of his clothes are now 12 month clothes, and some of them aren't that big on him! Growing boy!

Well, this turned into quite the list! I am sure there is a lot more, but these are the main things. God continues to bless our family everyday, and we are truly grateful!

A Couple of Firsts

Our family has a couple of motto's - "Go big or go home" and "Everyday is an adventure". The later of the two is definitely true in our household. With an almost 9 month old (gasp!), you never know what each new day is going to hold. Karter learned this past week that being a big boy comes with a price...if you stand on wobbly legs, eventually you will fall down!

Besides putting outlet covers on each outlet, we aren't doing any extreme baby proofing in our house. We believe that this is Karter's home too, and he needs to learn what he can and can't have, as well as what may hurt him (of course we watch him and won't let him get too hurt!). Sunday morning, he found out that the coffee table edge will hurt him. He didn't fall very hard and it didn't really even bother him, but it got his nose! Karter has his fist ouchie! It's a small cut on his nose, but it is the first one he has had.

You can't really see the cut in this picture, I just thought it was cute!

Also on Sunday, another first happened. Karter said his first word...da-da!! Of course he doesn't know the real meaning of what he is saying, but don't tell Kristoffer that! Karter now crawls around the house saying da-da all the time, he is so proud!! Here is a video of him just showing off. He is showing hi ability to stand, talk, turn pages in a book and find things in the book! Enjoy...

Our Fun Saturday

Last Saturday, while our visitors were here, we got all bundled up and headed down to Red Wing to see this...

During the winter, Bald Eagles roost at Colvill Park in Red Wing. The park is right on the Mississippi River, and it doesn't freeze because of the power plant close by.

It was really neat to be able to use my awesome new camera lens to get some close up shots of the eagles!

Don't let this cute face fool you, it was cold out there and he wasn't really having it after about 20 minutes. While mommy and Grandpa got Karter settled into the warm car, Grandma and Kristoffer walked a little further to capture this....

...12 Bald Eagles! Pretty neat!

That evening, we celebrated my birthday. Kristoffer made us a yummy dinner and this super cute cupcake cake! Isn't he creative!?

The rare shot of the three of us together!

Thank You Grandma & Grandpa!

Wow, what a great weekend we had! I know, it is Wednesday already, but our weekend just officially ended yesterday. Karter's Grandma Terry & Grandpa Kim came up for a long weekend to visit there Tunkin (and maybe his parent's too!). We always have fun when we are around our family, and it always leaves us wanting more.

Here is a little bit of what Karter was up to while his grandparents were visiting....

Lots of snuggling and smooching with Grandma.

Cuddling up to Grandma before bedtime.

Lots of playing and laughing at Grandpa! He thinks Grandpa Kim is hilarious!!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for coming to visit us, you are welcome anytime. Karter is excited for his next visitors, Auntie Em and Grandma Terry will be back up in a couple of weeks!!

New Cup, New Goal

Karter got a new sippy cup this week. The spout on his new cup is designed a little bit more like that of a bottle, and he drinks out of it much easier. Now that he has a new cup, we have a new goal. We plan to start introducing cow's milk into his diet at the beginning of May, with the hopes of having a full transition by the end of May. We have a lot of trips planned for this summer, and mommy doesn't really want to have to bring the pump along!

The first step in this LONG process is to let Karter know that milk will be coming from his sippy cup. He gets milk four times a day, and starting this week, one of those times he gets the milk in his cup. On Monday, he flat out refused to drink out of his sippy cup, he knew the milk was in there but didn't want the cup. Now, he is drinking almost all of the milk when offered. It will be a long road...

Daily Dose of Cuteness

Someone beautiful turns 26 today!!

IMG_0910, originally uploaded by minnesotagrays.

I won't mention any names, but 26 years ago today, a beautiful baby girl was born. Little did she know at the time that 26 years later, she would turn into a beautiful woman, be a proud mommy, and live in Minnesota!

We will be celebrating on Saturday when her hubby makes a wonderful dinner and attempts a birthday cake. What a beautiful birthday girl (with her baby boy)! Happy birthday, Dana!!

Pulling Up

This is the face of one happy (and dirty) little boy! Karter has learned how to pull himself up on things and he gets so proud of himself when he does it. His favorite thing to pull up on is the coffee table. He thinks there are things up there that he isn't suppose to have, so naturally, that is where he wants to be!! Karter can't quite reach the top of the table when he is sitting, so we pull the drawer out and allow him to pull up with it. Daddy is always close behind to make sure he doesn't hurt himself on the coffee table. Here is the little guy in action....

Success...now what can I grab?!