8 months old today

He's growing up so quickly. His personality is developing so much, every day. He's not at all the baby he was last month, he's changed in so many ways. Everyone told me how each stage in a baby's life got better and better. And it's true. I loved him last month, but god I love him that much more this month. I get thinking I have it pretty good, and then the next day I wake up and he surprises me again. He does something he couldn't do the day before, and I think - I can't get much better then this. But it does!

He's moving like mad now. We put him down on the floor in one room, and minutes later he's clear across the room coming into the next. He loves it down there. Sometimes it's hard to put him on the ground sitting down, he either wants to stand or to be on his stomach so he can move. I think trouble is right around the corner.

He knows his mommy and daddy and gives us a both a huge two teeth grin and turns us into gushing idiots. Before we would have to work at getting a laugh, and now we know exactly what to do to make him squeal!

He's wonderful to be with. We go on little excursions, little adventures and he never disappoint us. He flashes smiles at anyone who wants one and he pays attention to everything now. Just yesterday he was following an ant crawling on the ground at Grandma and Nono's! He loves the water. He's been in the pool LOTS, he's been in the ocean and the water park, and he kicks and squeals every time he gets in the water. Thank goodness - his mom and dad love the water just as much.

He's incredible and we love him to death.

This was me

About this time of day 2 years ago

Scrapbooking

Wow. I've started going through my pictures, picking out the ones I want to use in my scrapbook. I use the term loosely, because it's really just a photoalbum on really sweet handmade paper with some more than typical descriptive words, I few stickers, titles etc.... but not really a scrapbook. Anyways, I'm only at 2 months and I already have like 50 pictures. I have ten more months to go and I don't want this album to be the size of a dictionary!

I assume once they are all printed and I start the layout for each section, I will make cuts - and it never hurts to have extra printed pictures!

Big Boy Baths

Ever since we got home from PEI, Carson has been having big boy baths. He sits up on his own and he would have been doing it in PEI but there was no bath tub there! He LOVES his baths. He stays in there about 20 minutes and just plays with his toys, attacks the sponges and drinks the water :)

Little pieces of me

I think alot about Carson's future. I wonder what he's going to look like. I wonder if he's going to be into sports, or play the piano. Will he love rock music, or will he be into rap like his Dad? Will he love to read, will he love to stay outside for hours upon end, will he be able to draw (definitely NOT like his mom), will he be an athlete or a book worm?

I believe that alot of these things are destiny. Already mapped out in his genes. But I also believe that us, as parents, have the greatest gift ever. We have the gift of having the opportunity to teach our children.


I also think about this. I think what is it about me that I would like to pass onto Carson. What part of me will I work so hard at, to make sure he doesn't get from me.


I want him to laugh. Laugh at himself, laugh with others. I laugh alot.


I want him to be outgoing and make friends easily. I don't want him to be shy like I was. Although it takes me a while to get to know someone, but once I do, I cherish those friendships. I hope he does that too.


I want him to be able to be silly. Don't take yourself and your life so seriously all the time.


I want him to love the outdoors. Like me. I've always loved being outdoors in the rain or shine (just not as much in the winter). I think being in the outside is good for your body, mind and spirit.


I want him to be happy for others, I don't want to pass along my jealousy.


I want him to be a hard worker. I want him to share my wonderful feeling of accomplishment after I stick with something and see it through to the end.


I want him to be confident and proud of who he is. I want him to be able to stand up for himself and not to be afraid of other people. I don't want him second guessing himself often and worry about what other people think of him, like his mom does (although being a mom is teaching me to get over that, quite quickly).


I want him to enjoy treating his body well - go biking, walking, running, anything to just keep him moving. I haven't always treated my body the best, but when I do, I love the way I feel.


I've started teaching him physical things (how to eat, how to pick up things, how to put himself to sleep etc...) but now I have to add teaching him mental things... wow, being a mom is huge!


And now? Carson in a box.

A trip to the park!

Our first trip to the park, specifically for Carson. Sure we've gone with Ethan and Isabelle (but he always stayed in the stroller), we've swung in a swing at Brayden and Brinley's, we've walked to the park, through the park, but never to the park. For Carson to play.

Until today. It was after his second nap, so we packed our bags and went. He went in the swing and he would giggle when he would swing towards me. Then we played in the sand. Sure he ate some, but really - what kid hasn't eaten sand? Then we went to the water park and sat on the ground and splashed in the water. It was pretty hot, so I didn't want to keep him out in the sun too long (despite all the sun screen and his hat) so we only stayed an hour or so.

Got him, and put him directly to bed - the outside exhuasts him (hehehe another reason why I love it so much)

Pictures...

Ok, I have a question. Where do you all get your digital pictures developed at? I usually bring mine into Loblaws or Walmart but the matte are too dull and the shiny ones (whatever they are called) are too shiny. I don't know if I should spend the extra money and get them printed at Black's..?

Do you like the way yours turn out? If so, WHERE?

Thanks :) (Can you tell I'm starting my scrapbook!) (My mom didn't keep the Michael's coupon so I have to wait until next week to go shopping there)

A new (well new to the blog anyways) trick

Since we left for PEI, he's been able to stand up on his own. Holding onto something, obviously, but standing up none the less. Jeff was staying close in the picture - hard wood floors and a hard cedar chest give mommy weak knees.



He sometimes manages to walk a few steps if I'm holding him up by his hands, but he's still shaky. I'm not expecting him to walk anytime soon (so you can stop rolling your eyes!) but I like giving his legs some practice. And really, I think I owe it to the Jumperoo for his legs being so strong.


We were playing in the grass yesterday and I really liked these two pictures :) The second one shows him kind of puckering his lips (I caught him just as he was finishing). He thinks it is hilarious when I made the fish face and he tries to imitate me. Now he just puckers his lips randomly.

Oohh and Jeff was the SMRT one, and took a short video of Carson's inchworm routine

Giggle

Is it so wrong to give your baby a lemon to suck on?

If it is, sue me. He LOVED it. Now it's his treat if we go out to eat - I always ask for lemon in my water and now I give it to him.

He's eating (and I use that term loosely, it's more like just gumming) crackers and bread. And cheerios - he loves the damn Cheerios. He is so good at picking them up, but sometimes they drop out of his hand before he gets it into his mouth and then he looks around wondering where it went.

I haven't started him on meat yet, but I'm intending to today.

We're back home now, I swear when I brought him into his room yesterday he looked at his crib and smiled. I was happy to see MY own bed, so why wouldn't he be happy to see his bed?

I'm collecting the Michael's coupons to pick up a scrapbook, some double sided tape and a package of super nice pens to make his photo album. It's going to be gorgeus! Now to sift through the 3000+ pictures that I've taken since he's been born and decide which ones are going in the album.

Baptism Pictures

Baby for Sale

Today he woke up tooo early. For him. For me too.

The rest of the day he was cranky, tired and fussy.

I think it's getting to be time to go home. Everyone says they go through a 6 month growth spurt, maybe he's just delayed on that? He's growing SO quickly. Honestly every day he's doing something that he didn't do the day before. You should see him move around now - he does the inch worm to constantly move when he's on the ground. It's hilarious

Deanna and I took him for a walk, and he flipped right over in his stroller and was peeking out the back (where the two flaps meet). My heart melted and I forgave him for his awful mood today.

I tried my best to keep him up till his bedtime but about a half hour before bedtime I had it. He had enough. I brought him into his room, laid him down and less then 20 seconds later he was asleep.

I'm going to shower, give myself a facial mask, have a cup of hot tea and go to bed.

Cheerios

This is a sure sign that he's growing up - we gave him Cheerios for his first time yesterday. He was sitting in his highchair and finished his dinner so I gave him a few Cheerios. Well he just thought they were the greatest things. He ate them one at a time and smiled the whole time. It was great! Today we are going into town for the morning and for some lunch and I packed a little bowl of Cheerios!

Mommy's little boy

Over the past two weeks or so, Carson has really become a momma's little boy. At the beginning, sure it made my heart swell when he only wanted me, but now it's become a bit of a pain. If he sees me when he's with anyone else, he whines until I go get him. His face lights up, a smile bigger than anything on his face and his feet kick faster then a blender, and it makes me melt, but then when I need to do anything, I can't. Cause he wants me. I'm sure it's just a phase but it's a bit frusterating right now.

I think there's something bothering him too. He used to be happy as anything to sit on the floor, surrounded by his toys for a really long time. Now as soon as I put him down to play, he isn't happy and always wants to be held.

At least it's summer. He loves being outside, so we spend quite a bit of time outside playing on the grass, on the beach and in the water.

So happy

He truly is made of PEI blood. He LOVES the water and LOVES being outside. Today we went for a long walk, then had a long nap, played with cousin Lucca, went swimming in the ocean, went for another long nap, went for a walk in the ocean while the tide was out, ate some dinner and went back to bed. A perfect day.

I was walking along a sand bar, looking along the shore and seeing quite a few families with the kids splashing in the ocean, digging for clams and making sand castles and I thought to myself that I'm quite spoiled, being able to spend a month by the ocean - with my husband and little boy.

PERFECT!!!

For any other couple, today may have been a bit of a disappointment, but to Jeff and I, it was perfect.

Father Joe (from our church in Ottawa) was vacationing in PEI and agreed to baptize Carson for us. Deanna asked Father Brian (from the church here in Summerside) if the church was available for today at 6pm and would he allow Father Joe to come in and perform the blessing? They said yes. Deanna confirmed on about 4 different occasions.

We all got showered, prettied up, dressed up and to the church for 6pm. Doors are locked. Jerry went around the whole church and each and every door was locked.

Father Joe showed up - in his jeans and casual beach short sleeved shirt. No one from the church showed up.

So what did we do?

Carson got baptized in the garden. The holy water? Was in a Dasani water bottle.

It was about a 10 minute do, Father Joe was amazing as always, Carson spent the whole time looking at Father Joe with the cutest face, like he was actually listening to him. He was blessed with the Holy Water and didn't even flinch.

Honestly - it was perfect. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather (it was probably the nicest day we've had since we've been here). After the 'ceremony' we all headed back to the cottage for dinner and lobster cake. I mean, he's getting baptized on PEI - it only makes sense that we get a lobster cake, right? I loved today because it wasn't a big shin-do. I don't like big fusses, I'm all about non traditional, easy going, low maintenance things. We got some fantastic presents that were completely unnecessary but appreciated none the less.

Some wonderful pictures will be coming soon (Jeff just went out to his 20th high school reunion and took the camera with him)

Not so good "first"

Carson went to bed at his normal bedtime and woke up crying about two hours later. Erin got him out of his playpen and held him until he fell back asleep. The house was awfully hot (we were staying at Erin and Jan's in Charlottetown) so we carried the playpen downstairs and put him back to bed. He woke up a few times crying and then finally around 2 he wouldn't stop, so I got him up and we snuggled on the couch for about 2 hours. He wasn't sad, he was quite happy - touching my face, looking around, smiling.... just not sleeping.

Back to bed he went, around 4am and up again at 6.

I'm not sure why, but it never happens so it wasn't really that bad. I like to think he's nervous about getting baptized tonight. Lots to do today, we are just having breakfast and then heading back to Summerside to get ready for tonight (I got such a pretty dress for tonight!). Will post pictures later (only sometimes will blogger let me post, the connection at the cottage is rather slow so it doesn't always work)

Seee, I DID jinx myself

I feel guilty...

But a little part of me wishes Carson would sleep like half an hour longer. He's waking up around 6am here, which is fine, but that means it's 5am Ottawa time. We've kept him on Ottawa time (goes to bed at 8 here, 7 in Ottawa) so 5am is just a tad toooo early.

Maybe when we go back home he'll sleep a tad longer.

I feel guilty wishing for it, like I'm going to jinx everything good about him. I'd rather him wake up early then not nap, or cry at night, or wake up during the night, or just about anything actually. See? I'm just being greedy.

So excited...

Carson, Grandma, Grammy and I just went out walking on the sand bars (low tide) , digging clams, looking at snails, starfish, mussels, oysters... and I loved it. I love just walking and pointing out all the different things that we were seeing and Carson was in his bjorn, kicking his feet, singing, talking, leaning his head back towards me and snuggling, and just being happy.

I can't wait until he's older and he can be out walking with me and I can tell him all about the world, everything that lives in it and why they are there, what they do. I'm so looking forward to teaching him so many things.

Some times I just feel like I want to do so many things all at once, I just feel like I won't have enough time with him, which I guess is silly, but maybe not.

I also love that fact that each summer we will migrate to PEI to a beautiful cottage RIGHT on the water - he'll be saying "How much longer until we are there" and he'll run right out of the car and towards the cottage... almost like we do right now :)

Dada

I didn't see it happen, but Erin told me that Carson was in Jeff's lap - standing up and looking at Jeff. Holding his nose, touching his chin and his lips, just touching Jeff all over the face and then he clearly said Dada.

Now, whether or not he meant it will remain unknown, but we'd like to think he meant it.

He's moving like an inch worm all over, and still spinning himself in circles. He's been pretty cranky-ish the past couple days. Who knows if he's teething, bothered by mosquitoe bites, overwhelmed by all the people, a bit messed up cause of the time change or what. He's not quite himself these days and always wants his momma. Which makes my heart smile, of course, but also can get a bit tiring!

Loving the island life

This past week has flown by. We are enjoying our vacation and Carson is getting loads and loads of attention from his grammy and grampy, aunts and uncles and cousins. We are staying at the cottage with Deanna and Jerry, Erin and Jan and our three person family. The way it works out, Carson is in the playpen in Erin and Jan's room (they are too tall to sleep in the bed we are sleeping in, but the room we are sleeping in is too small to put the playpen). Everyone else hears Carson first thing in the morning before we do, so I've been able to sleep in each and every morning. They claim they like getting up with him, so really, who am I to rob them of this joy?


Erin and Jan took him into their bed this morning (Erin said she walked by to go to the washroom and he was looking up and smiling, and on her way back he had his toes in his mouth so she couldn't resist and got him out of bed). When I heard people up, I walked into their room and he PULLED HIMSELF UP TO SEE ME. Definitely a first.

The weather isn't exactly cooperating with us so far, but we have sunshine in amongst the rain so we've been able to get outside a bit. The mosquitoes are driving me insane, but I don't want to be negative and curse on my blog, so I'll leave it at at that.

My mom and Ricky left Ottawa this morning around 4am and are driving straight to PEI today. They are mainly coming for Carson's baptism on Friday, but they are spending the week with us and I'm excited! It's so wonderful being in a family where absolutely everyone gets along so well.

Carson's been slightly overtired (so many people, so much action!) so it took him a while to go to bed this morning. Grammy took him into her room with her and she said he fell asleep when she gave him the bottle and she was just watching him lie in the bed. Then he woke up (a few minutes later) saw the bottle. He rolled over, CRAWLED towards it, grabbed it and put it in his mouth. Like what? When did my little boy grow up so fast? Holy! It may have been easier to crawl on the bed - who knows. I do put him on the floor quite often now and he does the inch worm to move towards his toys. It's so frigging cute.

So then he was awake and Jeff brought him into our room, he was there for about 45 minutes on his own, talking, playing and then... quiet. He's exhausted, poor little guy. All my clothes are in that room and I don't to go in and wake him, so I will hang out in my pyjamas for a while longer. There could be worse things, right?

Today there's a parade in town (for Lobster Carnival week!) so we will be heading to that. Carson even has a special outfit :)

Restless

Is what Carson is yesterday and today. Yesterday he had 3 two hour naps today and went down to bed at 8 after crying for a few minutes (which is not like him). He was happy just lying in bed with mommy or daddy but otherwise he was restless. Restless while eating, restless while playing, just plain restless.....


His top gums are a tad red - so maybe his two top teeth are coming in? He has a bit of a rash on his tummy and his cheeks have been flushed after his naps.


I gave him a hit of camilia, yesterday and today. He had a bath last night (which he cried for the first minute or so, which is strange because he LOVES his bath) and today it's much the same thing. We went for a long walk and he slept in the stroller the whole time, and I think he'll be off to bed again soon.

(still can't post pictures and I have some good ones!)

He's growing up...

He always sits up now (he only fell once, on top of his hands and he cried because I think he was scared)
He makes a ton of noises and I think he's close to saying Dada (the D is easier then the M to say)
He is REALLY loving his mom these days (sometimes he cries when I leave the room)
You can always get him to laugh
He's super tall
He takes his pants off when he's sleeping (not looking forward to him taking his diaper off)
He wants to feed himself instead of me doing it
He's starting to move (he can inch himself forward on the ground)
If I'm lying down with him he'll turn himself all the way around and try to crawl up on me
It's only a matter of time before he's crawling
His two teeth are so big now!
He puts his head down on my shoulder when he's tired

He's so adorable and such a really good baby and I love him to bits and bits and want to throw him against the wall (believe it or not that's how I explain just how cute something is)

On vacation!

We made it in one piece :)

Carson was an absolute dream on the car ride. We left around 5:40 am on Monday morning and made it to St. Stephen by 4pm our time. For an 11 hour car ride, he was quite good! He cried once, for about 5 minutes before he crashed. He didn't sleep that much (not like I was anticipating) but he was happy, chattering in the background and staring outside at the scenery. We stopped at my Grammie's house, had dinner, and then put Carson down. He slept for about 1/2 hour and then woke up for an hour, just really unhappy. This hadn't happened in months, but I guess it's the drive that finally got to him and he was so tired he just couldn't sleep. He finally crashed and slept till about 6 the next morning.

Tuesday morning we got up, had breakfast and then visited with my Grammie's good friends (and got a few books, Shirley founded the "Born to Read" program in NB and gave us the books they send out to babies in New Brunswick. A few of them we already had, but we got a few goodies!) and the hit the road. We made it to PEI around 5 and we are happy to be here.

As soon as I figure out how to download the pictures from my camera to Jeff's laptop, I'll post some. The tide was out last night so we walked out a bit and put Carson's feet in the water and sand and he quite liked it. I wish it was a bit warmer here so we could put him in the water (on the sandbar) and he would love it... we'll just have to wait and see what happens. It's sunny and about 24 today. I think Carson will be in a bit of shock of the cold water, he's used to Grandma's pool which is at 89 all the time :)

We went out for a run this morning, and now Jeff's trying to convince his mom to fry up the trout that Richard brought to him last night (I laughed and said if anyone brought me a bag of fish, I'd kill them!).