Congratulations Aunt Jenn!

Carter has been helping his Aunt with some of the finer points of statistics all semester. 

Aunt Jenn graduated from Goucher College last weekend and Carter was happy to see that at least some of his answers must have been right.  He even got to share in the celebration.

There were quick cuddles with Great Grammy...

And giggles with Gram...

And showing off the new eating skills...

Carter has some new foods under his belt this week.  He's a fan of baked plantains, and avocado, and gumming cantaloupe slices to death.   Apple sauce is still the favorite, but he's getting the hang of newer, more textured foods all the time.   

Next weekend we're off to Cumberland, MD where we'll see what he thinks about 36 hours of bluegrass...

Carter's Latest Trick

I hadn't fed Carter a bottle in a while, these days I'm mostly on spoon duty, and the little guy surprised me on Wednesday afternoon.  He was acting like he wanted it, so I just handed the bottle to him and he did the rest.  I just had to recline him a little, towards the end, so he could get the last few drops.  

Way to go big guy!

Past few weeks...

No big changes going on over the last few weeks - hence the blog silence.  Carter got to go to his first Sheep and Wool festival where he got to see sheepdog demonstrations, smell some livestock, and nurse among thousands of his closest friends.  He especially liked the funnel cake (after I metabolized it a little for him).  The day was rounded out by an evening spent with Pontus and Saga.  We seem to be getting better about being more adventurous and getting Carter out of the house for more and more of the day.  We did, however, pay the price later that night because the little guy didn't quite get his scheduled naps for the day and had a restless overnight.

This weekend we got the rest of the garden into the ground and harvested the first of the spinach.  Carter thinks he likes spinach and picked up a handful, immediately trying to stuff it all into his mouth.   Our great friends Allison and Sarah visited on Saturday and we all went out for crabs (forgot to take pictures - poo!).  Carter does not like crabs, although he does seem to like Guinness.  As you can tell, he's getting very mouthy and trying out lots of new foods: green beans (meh), applesauce (yums), pineapple (yums), peas, turnips, sweet potato and pears are all part of his diet now.

Last night, Carter got the giggles while we were sitting down to dinner.  The video was too cute not to share.

Also, a few days ago we thought it might be fun to see what he does with a cup, so we gave him a little water to sip on:

You can't quite see in the video, but he kept bringing the cup to his cheek while looking at Brian - the classic "drinking problem"!  And then he'd get some water in his mouth, look up at me, and let it all run down his throat.  Not bad for his first try, I think.  :)

Coming soon: Aunt Jenn's graduation, DelFest, and maybe some pool action!

Camping with Carter

Since we're going to DelFest in a few weeks, we wanted to have a go at sleeping in the outdoors before we drop a couple hundee on festival tickets...  We wanted a very short drive and easy camping for our first family camp, so we chose Cunningham Falls State Park - only about 1.5 hour drive and full service campground.  We packed up Friday night and set out Saturday after second breakfast.  It was an easy drive out there, but the first campground we tried was pretty packed in and a lot of the spots were full - which we didn't expect at all since it is still a little chilly (Maryland folk tend to prefer hot weather for outdoor activities).  So our second try, we went to a smaller campground that was a little less busy and found a spot not too near our neighbors in case there was inconsolable crying to be done in the middle of the night.

We snacked a little bit and got on the trail:

And went UP for a couple of hours (Brian was a great pack mule for Carter!) to, uh, summit Bob's Hill at a whopping 1765 feet.  Carter's first ascent!  You folks that live in the west can stop laughing now - we work with what we have.

Upon returning to camp we realized we forgot the coffee (!) and the squeeze butter (!!) at home, so we made a quick trip (5 min drive into Thurmont, MD) before Carter could relax and play in his baby cave:

There wasn't TOO much fussing, but there was a lot of distraction, so eating was a bit of a challenge.  We gave him some banana before dinner which he seemed to like, but then he spit up a TON after that, so I think we're implementing a banana embargo until his guts mature a little more.  After his last meal for the day, we put him in his down snowsuit (no hood) and put him down in the baby cave inside our tent and after he got over being in the new environment, little dude didn't make a peep until 6:20!  Sweet!


Sunday morning was a quick breakfast and camp breakdown:

Then we got in the car and headed home with sweet dreams of marshmallows dancing in our heads: