Happy 6 month birthday Carson!

Today is June 1st, which means Carson is 6 months old. 6 months since he's come into our lives and now I can truly say I can't imagine our lives without him. I'm listening to him babbling in his bedroom. Jeff and I were watchin in the highchair this morning and we can't remember when he became the baby he is now. He's reaching for things, holding things intentionally, he cries when one of us (mostly me) leaves the room (again, I don't totally like this), he knows us, looks for us, loves our voice, likes to snuggle, rubs his face into your chest when he's tired, happily sits with us, plays with his feet, rolls over (back to front and front to back) all the time and is a constant joy to be around. When you're holding him, he's always turning his head trying to see everything around him. If anything is within his reach, he grabs for it. He loves feeling the different textures of things, he loves my hair, Jeff's glasses, holding things and turning them over in his hands over and over and above all else - EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. I can't believe how fast the time is flying by.

Yesterday we got his two car seats installed by a certified car seat safety instructor. Jeff met him through work, so we called him up and set up an appointment. He's one of 5 instructors in Canada who runs the car seat clinics (for those of you who will need to install one soon, you have to sign up the minute the clinic is open for registration, as it fills up really quickly) but lucky for us he was willing to help us out. He's a paramedic and he was on dispatch last nigh but he met us at his work an hour early to install our seats.

We had installed the Alpha Omega Elite ourselves, and he inspected it and said we were probably in the top 5% of getting it installed properly so that made me quite happy. But we ended up taking that one out and putting it in the van, and then putting the Eddie Bauer one in the Matrix (it's more pillowy (for lack of a better word)) so it looks like it's more comfortable for us. They are both made by the same company so for all intent purposes, it's the same car seat.

A little tip for those installing it themselves, in order to get it level (most cars don't have completely straight bum seats, they all kind of lean in towards the back) use pool noodles. He cut one up into three pieces, tied it together with duct tape (it looked like dynamite) and put it under the part of the seat closest to the back to get it level. We had used a phone book (bad) so now they are both installed correctly and I'm happy! We even got the sheet saying they were both installed according to the standards, apparently they sometimes have RIDE-type programs but for car seats. Crazy!

It's a completley different dynamic, now that he's in a car seat that stays in the car. We ran into Wendy's last night for a taco salad before we met up with Patrick and Carson can't quite sit in the high chairs they have available at the restaurants, and he's out of the infant car seat so he sat in my lap. Which was fine as we were just eating a salad, but I guess our restaurant dining is on hold until he can sit up himself. Which, we eat out so rarely now, isn't that big a deal. Also, if he falls asleep on the way to the grocery store, or anywhere else, I can't just pull out the seat and hope he stays asleep, I have to pull him out and carry him. I've been using my bjorn ALOT but it's still just not the same. It's funny how you so look forward to each new stage with them, but then you miss so much from the last stage.

Tomorrow is a garage sale in our neighbourhood, and I have quite a few things on my list to look for, the first and foremost being a monitor that we can keep at mom and rick's house seeing as he is often there taking naps and when we are out back I have to be constantly coming in to check on him. So much easier with a monitor. There are so many young parents with kids that I'm hoping to find lots of goodies for the C-man.

We had a wonderful walk this morning, Carson had a cat nap and we were walking for about an hour and a half. I love our mornings together. I'm starting him on veggies tomorrow, I have pureed carrot all ready to go!

Oh - he decided he loves sleeping again, thank goodness! Although I have experienced MANY new things since Carson's been around, the one thing (and please, don't hate me) that I didn't have to go through was sleep deprivation. I think the least amount of sleep I have gotten since he's been here is about 5 hours. Granted, I didn't get longer than a 2-3 hour stretch for the first two months, but he's always been a great sleeper. His naps sometimes aren't present, but he's never not gone to sleep at night. Maybe he'll be a bad sleeper as a toddler, or maybe he'll just keep loving his sleep!