Carter Goes To The Zoo!

Carter and his cousins Jett and Finley spent Saturday at the Zoo! Carter was a bit overwhelmed by the experience and he spent a good part of the day with his fingers in his mouth in awe of the animals. He loved seeing the animals and he even got to feed a giraffe! Carter and I both learned that they have VERY long tongues.

My Oscar and Me!

He's 5 times the larger and heavier than Carter but he dances around that boy like runningback slicing and dicing past the defense. Carter LOVES Oscar and Oscar puts up with Carter. He puts up with him because for Oscar Carter is a road to puppy happiness. Here's what I mean:

• Wherever Carter is Oscar is following closely behind hoping to snatch up a trail of cheerios, goldfish, or whatever treat Carter may be munching on.
  
• Oscar is regularly treated to bits and pieces of dinner that Mom and Dad would never allow before Carter and his food dropping capabilities.
• Carter loves to get Oscar a treat out of the cabinet. If we even say the word treat Carter jumps up and walks to the cabinet saying, "treat, treat, treat, treat." Once Carter grabs a treat for Oscar he runs away, climbs on the couch, and does all that he can to NOT let Oscar have it. This continues until Mom or Dad wrench the treat out of Carter's hand and let Oscar have it. End result - happy Oscar and a wailing Carter.
• Carter repeatedly grabs Oscar's toys, climbs on the couch, and holds the toys just out of Oscar's reach. They both get a kick out of this one.
  
• Oscar is Carter's indoor jungle gym.
• Oscar makes a comfy seat for Carter if everybody is tired and we're taking in a few minutes of TV.

Carter loves his Oscar!

Carter has only had a couple of opportunities to get outside lately due to the heavy amount of rain we've been having and his 2 ear infections, eye infection, and cold he's had over the past month. The poor little guy can't catch a break!

When we can get outside he loves to climb up and slide down his new swingset that grandma and grandpa Butterworth got him. He especially likes the sliding down part.

If you didn't know Carter's favorite thing lately is Choo-Choo's and when Susan saw this Carter sized train she just couldn't pass it up. Thankfully the track just fits in our living room if we move the table, chairs, etc. Carter repeatedly pushes the Choo-Choo button and rocks back and forth on his conductors seat.

He's a goofy happy little guy as you can see!

Carter's First Haircut

Carter's hair is rather hard to describe. First of all it's blond which is a feat of genetics considering mama and dada's hair is brown through and through. Secondly his hair is very thin, fine, flowy, and wispy. His hair is also straight as straight can be. All of these factors worked together to push us into getting his first haircut. As you can see below the ductail was in full effect!

My sister suggested a place that was more than ample to the task. There was a large train table in the waiting room, video games, and televisions playing Bob the Builder all over the place. He was quite content to play around the trains until it was "time".

When they called Carter's name the kid friendliness deepened. Carter chose a Thomas the Train video to watch as he was placed in the yellow Taxi for his haircut.

The haircut itself had it's ups and downs as he went from both content with his fingers in his mouth to screaming at everyone, "GET ME OUT OF THIS TAXI!"


In the end the stylist did a great job and Carter has made yet another leap towards being a little boy and moving away from being a toddler.

Go Steelers!

Carter insisted that he have his lucky jersey to root on the Steelers in the Super Bowl. Forget the fact that he had a fever and is teething... nothing could get in the way of him cheering on his team. It's embedded in his Butterworth genetic code. He gets a bit fired up during the game though:

He had some choice words during the game for the officials...


After a Steelers touchdown he was so fired up that he spiked Oscar's dog toy!


During halftime he needed to blow off some steam so he spent a few minutes working out on his horse. After his brief workout he was much more centered and civil for the beginning of the second half.


In the last seconds of the game the Steelers pulled it off and Carter was ecstatic! He cheered and clapped himself to sleep. What a big night for the Steelers and their number 1 fan in Clovis.

Can You Say Whale?

Can You Say Whale? Well Carter can! It's more of a prolonged whaaaaaale with a very high crescendo in the middle. At almost 14 months Carter is a little parrot that will attempt to repeat all sorts of words... some with more success than others.

Here is a list of my boys vocabulary:
whale (of course we already covered that one)
thank you
big boy
poo poo ( yes I was responsible for that one)
choo-choo
up
more (mo)
please (peas)
duck
puppy (puuuuuuupeee)
train (trains are his favorite)
treat (as in I want to give Oscar a treat)
finger (he said that for the first time this morning)
mama and dada (the old favorites)
uh - oh (that was the first one)
and there are several others I can't recall.

Where does he learn all of these words? From reading books of course!

What happens if you take his book away from him when he is in deep thought? He comes after you and he attacks your vulnerable areas! Cover your noses around this boy! His fingernails are like little razors. This was the second time he bloodied my nose.

Mom and Dad get a night in the mountains!

Susan and I lined up the grandparents to watch Carter and planned a weekend getaway to the mountains months ago with our good friends

Josh and Roxanne and Kevin and Jamie

We headed up the mountain from 200 ft to 7,000 ft. A driving rain in the valley and a 7,000 ft snowline left us wondering if we would be greeted with a slushy mess or with a fresh white blanket of snow. As you can see below we were very happy to have lots of fresh snowball material.


A West African favorite, Chicken Yassa, was on the menu for the evening and a good time was had by all.