Beach Baby

Karterman is a beach baby, he absolutely loved our week at the beach!! Before we had Karter, Kristoffer and I preferred to be beach bums, however with a VERY active one year old, our days of laying on the beach all day are long gone! Although, it is a lot of fun watching Karter explore the beach.

After Karter would wake up from his nap, we would get him all lotioned up and then head out to play.

Karter would get so excited when he would see where he was headed!

This boy had NO fear when it came to the ocean. He would run out as far as we would let him. Even when the waves would splash on his face, he would just like his lips and continue on.

He loved the ocean, but I think his favorite thing was the dig in the sand and collect shells. Karter was always covered in sand.

Daddy liked to dig holes with Karter.

How cute is this picture!? My 2 favorite boys!

Sometimes while they were digging a wave would come up and surprise them. Karter wouldn't mind though, he would just start splashing around!

Another thing that Karter loved to do was point at and chase the bird on the beach. Thankfully he never actually caught up to any of the birds, but he loved to watch them.

Karter and Daddy splashing away!

By now you are probably thinking..."wow, she has a lot of pictures today!" Sorry, there are still more to come. This is the problem you run into when you have such a cute babe!

Whenever a wave would hit him, Karter would let out the cutest laughs.

Karter smiling at Grandpa and Grandma while digging in the sand with dad.

Whenever Karter was walking on the beach, he would talk the whole time. He was just SO excited to be at the beach.

Sometimes I think that Karter thinks his life is a parade! While on vacation he started waving at everybody, he made so many new friends on the beach! Now that we are home, he still waves all the time, and most of the time there isn't anyone around!

Karter and Mommy both enjoyed having a week of Daddytime!

Karter also enjoyed spending the week with most of his Gray family. Grandpa Kim and Karter became real buds last week and they loved to sit and let the waves crash on them...and of course wave at the waves!

When playtime was over and the swim diaper came off, Karterman had to be hosed off because his little body was covered in sand!

Thanks for having us Kim & Terry, we loved every minute of it!

Here is a video of Karterman in action on the beach...

13 Month Appointment & An Announcement

We still have a lot of unpacking to do and a lot of photos to go through, so I am delaying our beach posts for one more day! Yesterday afternoon Karter had his 13 month well-baby visit (his doctor doesn't do a 12 month visit) and boy is this little guy growing! He weighed in at 24.3lbs which is 61% for his age (his weight has steadied out since he is walking/running everywhere), his head was 48cm which is 85% for his age (he has a big brain!), but his biggest change was in his height, he was 34.5in....are you ready for it...99.5%!! He is going to be a tall boy! Dr. McKenzie was very impressed by his development and for the first visit ever he wasn't scared of her and actually smiled for her. He showed off a little and pointed to all of the things he learned while on vacation. That was about the end of the good news...he then had to get 2 shots and have his blood drawn. He had just calmed down from the shots when we had to go to the lab, and he had the tech that always leaves me with bruises and she wasn't any more gentle with Karter either. All in all it was a good visit for Karter and we will be going back in 3 months for more shots!

While on vacation, Karter was able to make a big announcement for our family...he is going to be a big brother! That's right, Kristoffer and I are expecting Gray Baby #2 on January 29, 2010! We are obviously very excited and this pregnancy is just flying by already, on Friday I will officially be in my second trimester. So while Karter was at the Dr yesterday, so was mommy. My regular OB is on maternity leave until next month, so I have also been seeing Dr. McKenzie for my last couple of appointments. With this being my second pregnancy, my appointments are much less eventful than they were when I was pregnant with Karter, this time I don't go in with a whole notebook full of questions! Much to my surprise, I actually lost 3lbs since my last appointment. Who would of thought that after everything I ate last week!! Karter and I were also able to hear the babies heartbeat which was a strong 145bpm. We will keep you updated on the pregnancy as we go along!

Karter at play

We are leaving for vacation tonight, so this will be our last post until July 21st. When we return we will have lots of pictures of Karter with different family members and of him playing in the sand and water. Until then...here are two videos I shot of him this week playing with his toys.



This next video is of Karter and his piggy bank. It was love at first sight with his pig when Grandma Terry bought it for him back in March. He is very protective of his pig and doesn't like to share his coins. And please don't think that just because he hands you one of his coins that he actually wants you to keep it, it is just for you to hold for 1 maybe 2 seconds. Last week while playing with cousin Jonah, Karter learned how to put the coins in the piggy slot, so now his obsession has been taken to a new level!



Have a great week, we will be thinking of you all as we enjoy our time on the beach!

So Long Bottle!

So Long Bottle!, originally uploaded by minnesotagrays.

Sunday night we decided it was time for Karter to give up his nightly bottle, and replace it with a sippy cup. With vacation coming up, we thought the timing would work out and it would be better to not have to pack bottles too. It was rough the first two nights, but the last couple have gone really good. He doesn't drink nearly as much milk before bed as he did with the bottle, but he still sleeps the same...so I think he is doing ok! He looks pretty happy with his sippy cup!

Random Shots of Jonah & Karter

We had such a fantastic week last week with my brother and his family. Surprisingly though, I actually didn't take that many pictures, but if you want to see some good ones, check out Jake's flickr account...he took a lot! Here are a few of the random pictures I do have though...Jonah and Karter all ready to head to the park. Karter wasn't too sure about having someone else in his wagon though!

Karter always loves to swing!

Jonah and Karter playing in/with the swings.

Last Wednesday while Kristoffer was at work, the rest of us headed out to the zoo. It was in the sixties that day, so as we were picnicking outside we were second guessing our idea to go to the zoo. We went in anyway and it started to warm up.

Instead of loading 2 strollers into the car, we rented one at the zoo. The boys thought it was pretty cool to be riding with each other.

The aquarium is always a hit!

The boys started to let us know when it was time to head home! We tried all the usual mommy tricks and none of them worked for that long...but not before I could catch Karter sharing his snack with Jonah!

Thursday morning was pretty hectic trying to get everything packed for our camping trip. The boys tried to help out as much as possible, unfortunately, they aren't that great of helps when it comes to packing!

They may not be much help, but they sure are cute!

Jonah hamming it up and Karter being a zombie!

Thanks for coming to visit Jacob, Jos and Jonah!

Our 4th of July

Most of our holiday was spent traveling home from up north. We didn't get home until around 5, and none of us had any energy left to make anything for dinner. Jake and Kristoffer ran into Hastings to pick us up something to eat, after a failed attempt to get Chipolte, they returned home with pizza.

To try and make things a little more festive, I made a fruit pizza while they were gone. It turned out pretty cute and I was able to use raspberries from our own backyard!

We thought it would be cute to buy the boys matching shirts and even though we didn't get home until late, we still had to put them in the shirts!

Karter being chased by Jonah. They had so much fun running up and down the hallway chasing each other!

In addition to matching shirts, what 4th of July is complete without a flag to wave?!

They are such patriotic boys!

All I wanted was to get one picture with both boys looking at the camera and holding their flags, well...that didn't happen! Here are the shots that I got though, all cute in their own right.

Both of the are looking at their dad's who are trying to get them to smile.

They can't smile when they are being blinded by the sun.

Who knows!

Karter has had enough and is outta here!

"Hey, where did my cousin go?"

"No more pictures, mama!"

Camping Up North!

On Thursday morning we loaded up two cars with all of the stuff it takes for 4 adults, 2 1-year olds, and 1 dog to go camping...not another thing would fit into the cars! We were heading up north to one of our favorite campgrounds, Glendalough State Park.

Jonah was a natural! He loved being outside, but more importantly, he loved Rascal's leash!

This was Karter's second camping trip and he liked it a lot more than the first time! Now he can walk and he loves to explore everything.

These two cutie pies...they are partners in crime!! There isn't anything much cuter than hearing these two laugh with each other!

Jos and I enjoying our shrimp kabobs.

It's kind of hard to see, but Rascal is resting between the two tents. We had just put the boys down for the night and they were both crying, so Rasc thought he had to protect them both!

On Friday afternoon we took the boys down to the lake to go swimming, and the absolutely LOVED it! We forgot to bring our cameras, so we decided to go for one more swim before leaving on Saturday.

This lake is so beautiful because the water is so clean and clear. The water was a bit cooler on Saturday, so Karter wasn't really into playing in the deeper part, but still liked splashing from the shore.

Jonah was so brave, he kept walking out until he couldn't touch anymore!

Both morning we were gone, Kristoffer and Jake went fishing really early. Kristoffer was so happy to have someone who was willing to go fishing with him! They were very successful and caught a good mess of fish. They claimed they took picture while they were gone, but I didn't find them on our camera!

It was a fantastic trip and was definitely a tradition in the making!