Carter - 9 Months

Note: I preface this post by saying that I left Bryson in charge of taking the 9 month photos this month while I was traveling to Peru for work (more on that later) and they were hilariously bad. I've chosen to feature the "outtakes" so you can see his handywork. 

"I'm really happy about being 9 months!"

It’s been another fun month for little Carter bean. He’s developed a very steady routine that revolves around eating and sleeping with non-stop crawling, pulling up, and play time peppered in. He’s solid as a rock and somehow maintains balance in a variety of situations when surely we thought he’d fall over. This is good because Brooks insists on trying to push him down with great frequency.

He seems to be a much more physical child than Brooks – so determined to get around, explore, and experience life through movement. As such, he is now a big liability and has almost pulled chairs, stools, and large bins of toys on himself on more occasions than we’d like to report.

Brooks and Carter continue to grow more and more into each other. And even though Brooks doesn’t always play gentle (and worse, occasionally very purposefully whacks him in the head with a plane or other hard, plastic object), Carter doesn’t seem to mind. He usually just thinks his brother is totally hilarious. Brooks too finds Carter very entertaining. It’s really fun to see them having a relationship. The other day before nap they were both standing by Carter’s crib. Carter reached over with a big smirk and touched Brooks’ smiling mouth. With a shrill of glee Brooks proclaimed “Carter touched my teeth, Mama!! That’s so silly!” So silly in fact that he cracked up about it for 3 more minutes and asked Carter to do it again. Which Carter did.

Sure, they have their moments of turmoil. As evidenced below: 

"I can see into your brain, Carter."

"Can I eat your face?"

"What? You don't like being choked?"

He still has only 2 teeth but that doesn’t slow down his eating conquests. With Brooks, we were so careful to introduce new foods purees one at a time and started with very small bites of only the softest finger foods. Of course, his diet consisted of only the freshest and finest of organic ingredients. On the contrary, Carter’s voracious appetite and seeming durability has inspired us to be a little more “reckless” in his feeding adventures. Before nine months and with fewer than 3 teeth, Carter had tried chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and turkey meatballs! Oh, second child-syndrome.  

I take it back. He got ONE good one. 

Throughout all the ups and downs with Brooks during and post-Kawasaki, Carter has been steady as a rock. Totally oblivious to any changes. Steadfast in his sweetness and happy in life. Dealing with Brooks’ temper tantrums and “I don’t WANT tos” these days has made us realize just how easy the 9 month phase can be. Soon he’ll be walking and I’ll have two crazy monkeys on my hands. For now, I’m appreciating his temporary pseudo-mobility.

Cannot believe I have to start planning his ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY. I’m like a broken record, but time is FLYING.

Until next month… I leave you with this.