9 Months!

Carson is 9 months old and the cutest baby you'll ever meet. 

He is getting more and more social every day. He loves meeting new people and loves getting attention from strangers. On our flights to and from DC last week he kept grabbing the men next to me and smiling at them. He made friends with everyone around us on both flights. I love my happy baby. 

Carson's weighs 21 lb. 6 oz (70%) and is 29 3/4 in. long (90%). I guess it's time to move out of his infant car seat!

He is in 6-12 and 9 month clothes. They are getting pretty tight but it's still cold here in minneapolis and I don't want to buy bigger clothes that he will hardly wear. 

He is sleeping pretty well these days. Usually around 11 hours at night and then two 1-1.5 hour naps at 9:30 and 2:00. I am loving the schedule he is on. 

Carson seems to have picked up after his dad in the picky eater aspect. He is doing 3 purée meals a day and usually loves them. I have tried getting him to eat little bites of food here and there and he hates it.  At this rate he will be on purees until he is 20.  He does like if I give him strips of things to gnaw on (crackers or cooked veggies), but for some reason could care less about little bites of food.

He loves to wave, give slobbery kisses, shake his head "no", and scrunch up his face and spit.

He also got 2 new teeth this month, his two top teeth.  He now has a total of 4 teeth!

Carson can finally army crawl!  He figured this out a few weeks ago and is now getting pretty fast.  He beelines it to all of the "toys" he's not supposed to play with.  He is getting up on his hands and knees a lot but only rocks.  He can't quite figure out how to crawl the normal way yet.  He is into everything!  I miss the days of him laying on his play mat for a half hour because he had nowhere to go.

Here are some pics from the past month for your viewing pleasure.

Loves sleeping with his monkey.

Cheesing it up.

Loves playing/looking/biting his books.  He could do this all day.

Rolling the ball with dad.  He LOVES his soccer ball.

This used to happen a lot.  He would roll right under the coffee table and get stuck.

Pictures with dad and mom.

What we do in Minnesota to try to have fun.  Note the excited expression on Carson's face as he swings.

First time in the front of the grocery cart.



And too much fun for one day.

Spring Break PT 2

Ok...so this wasn't really University of Minnesota's spring break, but it was Alpine School District's spring break.  Even though I don't work for them anymore I am still reaping the benefits!

My sister, Lindsay, is now a teacher in Alpine and had a break, so we (of course!) had to do a girl's week.

Lindsay, Carson, and I, all flew home to Virginia for the week.

Wow. Flying by myself and with a social little baby was a lot harder than I anticipated! But boy was it worth it!

We had the best week ever!!! To sum it up in a few words: nails/lunch/shopping/relaxing.

Carson takes 2 naps a day now, so after each of his morning naps we would go out to lunch and then go do a girly activity (AKA get nails done or go shopping).

Then, during his afternoon nap we would watch Pretty Little Liars (my new fav TV show), nap, or relax.  

I love that we had a routine down even though we were only there for a week.

None of us were good at documenting the week, so here are a few photos from our phones.

Lots of hanging out and playing.

Lots of watching Carson laugh at and try to get to Sadie.

And lots of eating out.

 

 

 What a fun weekend!  Miss you already mom and Lindsay (and dad).

Easter

Easter was really fun this year.

I went all out and made Steve (slash me) and Carson a basket.  

I didn't expect Carson to care so much because he didn't really care at Christmas.
But this little boy went crazy over his basket of toys.

Steve explaining to Carson why we really celebrate Easter.

 

Good thing Carson learned to army crawl just before Easter so I could hide his basket behind him and watch him try to find it.

Like I said, Carson went crazy over all the toys inside.

A little pre-church photo shoot with mom.

Sadly, the only photo we got as a family was this one taken in church.

Spring Break

For Spring Break this year, Steve, Carson, and I took a mini vacay to Duluth, MN.

We had heard lots of good things about Duluth from fellow Minnesotans and decided to check it out.

We absolutely loved it.  It is located right on Lake Superior and there are tons of things to do in the little city.  We'd love to go back when it is warmer and enjoy the outdoor Duluth experience.

We drove up Friday after I was done nannying (around 4). Our Spring Break was definitely not Spring, see for yourself.

We had to get a shot of our very first stay in a hotel as a little family. 

We swam in the hotel pool a few times.  Carson was pretty speechless (because the water was a little cold), but he loved when we held him in our laps in the hot tub.

In Duluth, we took a scenic drive around the lake,

toured a mansion (where the last living heir got mysteriously murdered...it was pretty cool),

 had some yummy eats,

and went to a boat museum.

It was fun, Duluth.  Hopefully we'll see you again when it's warmer!