Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Daddy's Home!

Chris came home a day early this week!  Little man was thrilled!  Here's a bit of Carter's dragon voice/laughter/celebratory drooling!

Lately

These days Carter cracks me up. With Chris out of town each week for work, we get to spend a lot of time together and I love getting to watch Carter change and grow. His personality is blossoming more and more and I'm always surprised by what he says and does.  The most recent addition to his repertoire is what I call "The Dragon" voice.  I have no idea where he picked this up, but it comes out quite regularly when he's playing with toys or crawling to catch up with me.  What's interesting about this, is that I too can do a very similar "dragon" voice, yet I've never done it in front of him.  Guess some skills really are genetic!

Carter loves laughter.  He has the most adorable natural laugh and being that he is especially ticklish, we get to hear it frequently.  But Carter also loves to mimic any laughter he hears.  This imitated laugh sounds like someone trying to make the sound of a shooting machine gun (eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh).  It is truly hilarious.

Carter has also shown that having patience, when related to food, is not his forte.  Meal time has become particuarly interesting, or challenging (for mom), as I must be prepared to deliver food immediately when Carter's bum hits the high chair seat.    The food must be ready to be consumed immediately or I suffer the wrath of a high pitched squeal and flailing arms until I deliver.  One thing that has been a plus during meal time is Carter's ability to sign "all done."  After months of practice, this is the only sign he'll do so I especially appreciate it!

Carter keeps me on my toes as well.  His recent obsession with the toliet has reinforced my need to lower the lid and shut the bathroom door at all times.  If I forget even once, Carter quickly reminds me as I'm bound to find him fishing away in the toliet bowl.

Last but not least is Carter's obsession with wrinkling his nose. This too cracks me up.  I'm pretty sure he learned to do this to avoid the light in his eyes from a camera flash.  When he senses a flash will go off, he wrinkles his nose and squints his eyes tightly.  This of course has changed many adorable shots to ones that look more like those below.  Now he just wrinkles his nose at people whenever he wants to be cute or funny.  Yesterday at Trader Joes, he literally did this to about 10 different people until they gave him the reaction he was after.  All I can say is he definitely knows how to get attention! 



Is he starting to look like me at all?  He is our little mini-Chris!

First Hockey Game!

On a recent Saturday afternoon, we made the trek home to Albany for the annual Cornell vs. Union hockey game.  This was Carter's first hockey game with the family so we were all very excited. Cate made her way home and Jeremy and Liz came down too.

After an amazing dinner by Mamma K, the family made their way to Schenectady for the game.  Carter did a great job at the game, but I was surprised how much Union has changed over the past 10 years.  The main difference was that the Union fans cared and were passionate about their team. Back in the day, when Union was not good, it was a nice quiet game to go to as a Cornell fan, and you knew that your team would win so it was fun.  Now that Union is really good, things are a bit different.

The best example from the evening is the following:  when the National anthem is sung, the Union fans put a little emphasis on the "U" of "Oh say can "U" see", and the Cornell fans like to hit the "red" of "rockets red glare".  The Union folk now add "sucks" after the Cornell folk yell "red".  Awesome.  Game on.

Carter was having a great time at the game, but it got a little rocky because of all the noise after the first Cornell goal.  Then when Union scored, Bear had a full on meltdown.  So, 10 minutes into the game, Julie, Mamma K, Carter and I were out the door heading home.  We were pleased he stuck it out as long as he did.

We love having the family tradition of going to hockey games.  It is good to know that we can count on this fun family get together, especially as Carter gets older.


Thursday, February 2, 2012

Carter v. Daddy

The face off...well sort of.


Daddy's move: Use Carter for an enjoyable back scratch


Carter's move: Inconspicuously slobber all over Daddy's back


And the winner is...Carter, of course!

Standing...

Well at least for a little bit!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012