Laryngotracheobronchitis (AKA Croup)

Carter is sick. He has been whiny the past couple days. This morning he woke up and it sounded like he was barely able to breathe. He didn't even cry. He had a temp of 101.5. I took him into the doctor's office and they gave us some nasty medicine to help with the swelling of his throat. It has been difficult for him. Through it all - he still makes faces and tries to talk.

David cannot prounounce Croup. He calls it crap.

Diapers & Dryers

I keep my clean diapers in a basket on top of the changing table, the dirty ones go in my handy-dandy Baby Trend Diaper Champ. Carter's dirty clothes go under the changing table in a basket. Somehow my balance was destroyed today. Somehow a diaper got into the basket of clothes, and in turn, in the washing machine!! I went down to rotate laundry and found a big nasty mess. I will never know if it was a clean or a dirty diaper. It is clean now. The washer was full of those little gel beads that are designed to absorb as much liquid as is physically possible. (I read that a diaper can hold as much as 300 ML of water - Science Project.) I panicked - I didn't want to ruin my washer. So, upon the advice of my friends, and my wonderful visiting teacher, I vacuumed out the washer and hung the clothes out to dry. After the washer had dried out, I wiped it again. My washer has a self cleaning setting. I think it heats up the water as hot as possible and runs it around for an hour and a half.

So, the plus side of this - we moved into this house 2 years ago, and I have never gotten to try out the clothes line built on to the back side of the house. It is at least 40 years old. I hung the clothes out, and it slowly sank to the ground. It was sad - but it did the job. The gel beads shriveled up and dried off. So weird. My next step will be to re wash the load. Fun Stuff.

You like our overgrown yard?? It totally needs a good weed whacking.

Last Day of Swim Class

9 months

We have a wonderful pediatrician. Dr. Chesley. He is probably 6 foot 7 inches. He is so tall. The first thing he told us after reading Carter's discharge papers was "Five weeks early huh? Well, it won't stunt his growth any." He is very knowledgeable. He grew up in Vernal, Utah. His dad was LDS, his mom was Jewish, and they raised him and his sister Unitarian. Interesting combination. He saw David's CTR ring and said that when he was growing up he always wanted one, all his friends had one. He is great with Carter. He is constantly reading and attending classes to stay up to date on all the most current research. I think if our insurance changes, I would still go to see him and pay out of pocket. He is just that good.

Carter's Stats at 9 months:

18 lbs 1 oz - 10%

28 inches - 36%

17" around the head - 11%

His head barely fits through openings in his shirt. I cannot imagine if it was any bigger. Everybody comments on what a big head he has. I think it is just proportionate to his little body.

I couldn't resist

Today while feeding Lydia her brunch I noticed that her hair is getting long in places. I decided that I'd try to pigtail her. I couldn't help myelf.

Usually this is the response I get when I do anything, or nothing (So you know this was not an easy venture):But after much dangling and funny faces, I got this:

Just because I'm not sure where else to put this picture, I caught them this morning. I had put them both down sitting on opposite ends, they just can't help themselves. I will have to take better precautions next time:

The greatest toy - you never would've thunk

I have seen many excersaucers. It is a very rare occation that I see one I have seen before. They all have different toys. Some are very noisy and musical, some have no batteries at all. These pictures were taken by Chandra, and I think they were taken in February. I watch her daughter Lydia in the mornings while she is hard at work. When she got this saucer from her sister-in-law we both laughed at this E. It is so silly. It just hangs there. It does nothing but taunt them. What fun can you have with a hanging alphabet. Well, I don't know anything about children's imaginations. The E is THE saucer favorite. In fact, I think it is THE most popular toy in all of Chandra's house. When that E swings around to the outside, far from any infant grasp, there is a tumult in the house. You will know when one so small cannot reach that E. We laugh now when we realize that Evenflo really had something going with that E. I only wish that my saucer had an alphabet to play with.

Carter and Lydia so deep in love:

Lydia's feet, something at 4 months that Carter didn't find until 8:

Farmer's Market

Carter and I went to the Farmer's Market today. It was beautiful. Lydia went with us, and brought her cousin Mason. Mason is 6 months, Lydia is 8 months, and Carter is 9 months. Lydia and Mason rode in the double stroller, and Carter had his own stroller. Everybody thought Lydia and Mason were twins. They think Carter and Lydia are twins when they are in the double stroller too. One lady even thought we had triplets. It was a lot of fun. Hawiian day, with shaved us. Yum.

Who says you can't fit three carseats in the back of a Saturn? We did it quite comfortably.

Swimming Lessons

I finally got pictures from our swimming adventures. My mother-in-law came and took a couple. The pictures from my camera didn't turn out so well. I will post more as they come.

This is Carter practising his floating and his kicking:

Here are Carter and Lydia fraternizing in the pool. He is more concerned with the other class next to us. She reaches over and tries to pull his swim suit down:

Beautiful Days

Our last photo shoot didn't go very well. Today was such a nice day, we had to go out and get pictures taken in the yard. I got some good ones.

Carter and Vortex looking serious:

Carter Blu & Vortex with the sun in their eyes:

Carter and Vortex having a staring contest & making faces at eachother:

Our First Word

I am no expert on when you determine a child's first word. He has been spouting DaDaDaDa for a month now. Or maybe he is trying to say Dog. He doesn't have his Gs down, so it is hard to tell. He says DaDaDaDa all day long, but doesn't connect it with anything. He knows who Daddy is, but hasn't addressed him specifically yet. Last week we started Bananas. He liked the word more than the food. He would stop eating and smile when I would say Banana. This morning I put him in his chair to feed him his breakfast. He saw the mush and said Banana - or a very loose rendition of it. He attempted the B sound, and then followed with a very clear NaNa. I am going to call that his first word since he identified something that I had called Banana. Unfortunately that mush was applesauce. However, he hadn't tasted it yet - so he really didn't know.


The real thing is actually quite yucky. He didn't like the peel - if you can't tell by his face.

I just have to add this somewhere. Carter is a very laid back little dude. You could go so far as to say Lazy. If he feels a pillow behind him, he will no longer sit, he will fall backwards. He leans against the wall of the playpen and eventually falls over. He just kind of hangs out and goes with the flow. Lydia is completely opposite. She likes things her way, and is very stubborn about them. You could go so far as to say she is a control freak, in an 8 month old kind of way. I put them both in the playpen today and went to unload the dishwasher. I came back to find this. Carter had given up sitting, and Lydia had hoarded all the toys. I am not sure how she did it, but here it is. He is left with a rattle and two links. He didn't even care. And she wasn't about to acknowledge me in the room. They were all her toys for all I was concerned.