Afternoon at The Dallas Arboretum

We spent the afternoon at The Dallas Arboretum with some friends from our Square One playgroup - Melissa & Kendall Conklin, Katie & Greyson Bowman, Kellie & Grayer Davis and Kellie's sister & niece Chrissa & Elle Stavlo.  The weather was gorgeous and, once again, unseasonably warm for the end of February - the high was 82 degrees!!!  We ate a picnic lunch, let the kids run/crawl around and just enjoyed being outside on such a beautiful day.  Carter was into everyone's belongings and food.  And I am pretty sure his favorite thing he did today was eat the Arboretum's beautiful grass...

Enjoying the Arboretum's cool, thick grass

This is so much F-U-N!!!

Eating the grass

And sharing some with me...

And he's off!

Big boy Grayer running around in the grass

Greyson and his buddy the walker

Exploring the bench

It's really sunny over here!

Our setup in the shade

We used our blue jean quilt from Grams!

Carter, Elle & Kendall

Buddies Carter & Kendall

H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S

I did not get one shot of them all looking at the camera

  

My baby and me

So thankful for some fun in the sun!  And Carter has been asleep for the last two hours.  I guess the Arboretum really wore him out!

Beautiful February Day

Today did not feel like February weather at all!  It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside with a high of 78 degrees.  After running errands and Carter taking his afternoon nap (his only one of the day, since he decided this morning not to go to sleep), Melissa & Kendall came over to play and go on a walk.  Carter & Kendall are such good buddies!  They play together really well and always seem to have a good time together.  Of course, Melissa and I have a great time together, too!  Before our walk, they both crawled up into Carter's baseball chair and I just had to take a few pictures of the sweet scene:

Hey!  What's he doing up here?  I was here first!

I guess I will let him stay...

Oh!  She is taking our picture...

I guess we should pose for the camera!

Sweet buddies

I finally have it all to myself!

Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of 82 degrees, so we are heading to the Arboretum with Melissa & Kendall and a few other moms & babies from our Square One playgroup.  We are trying to enjoy this glorious weather before another cold front hits tomorrow night.  Thank you, Lord, for a beautiful February for us to enjoy being outside!

Walking with the Walker

Carter walked with his walker for the first time today!  I got it on video, but I did not get any pictures.  The Armstrongs gave this to him for Christmas, but up until now, he has only wanted to sit in front of it and play with the attached toys :)  We are so proud!  He needs a little bit of stabilization from one of us so that it does not totally fall out from underneath him, but he is moving along really well.  I still don't think he is close to walking by himself, but I know that will come with time.  We are in no hurry!  For now, we are proud of this next little milestone!  Way to go, Carter Lee!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We had a great day today celebrating Carter's 2nd Valentine's Day!  It started out with him going to Mother's Day Out and me getting some time off to run errands, clean up the house and do some laundry.

All ready for school and admiring his "I Love U" balloon!

Carter's Valentines (clockwise from the top):

Heart-shaped crayon & "Where is Baby's Valentine" book from Jenna, Sally & Lee

Card from Mama & Dada

Card from Nana

Card from cousins Ned & Max

Card from Great Aunt Sally & Great Uncle Tom

Card from Lissy & Moon Daddy

MDO Homemade Valentine from today at school!

"God made a beautiful world." - Genesis 1

"A friend loves at all times." - Proverbs 17:17

Valentines

Then we came home and while he took a nap, I prepared our Valentine family dinner of heart-shaped homemade pizzas and chocolate-covered strawberries.  While we waited for Daddy to get home from work, we decided to enjoy the beautiful spring-like day and do a little swinging, one of Carter's current favorite activities:

Happy Boy

Chewing on the swing straps

My little valentine

Tyler's Place Setting

Carter's Place Setting

Ready for the youngest guest of honor

My Place Setting

"Helping" us make our pizzas

Please notice how cute he looks in his Mullins Square tuxedo bib!

Valentine Tablescape

We were very proud of our pizzas!

My Pizza

Tyler's Pizza (always prettier than mine!)

I love this man!

My two valentines

My baby valentine

Laughing at his balloon!

He loves his new Krazy Straw cup!

Winding down after a fun-filled day...

Happy 2nd Valentine's Day, Carter Lee!
You are so incredibly loved!!!

"We love because he first loved us!" - 1 John 4:19

12 Month Checkup

Carter's 12 month checkup was this afternoon with Dr. Charles Dunlap at Pediatric Associates of Dallas.  I still can't believe that my baby is one year old.  It just can't be true!  We went pretty late in the afternoon, so we did not have to wait very long, which was wonderful!

Below are his stats:

Weight: 22lbs. 1oz. (40%)

Length: 30" (55%)

Head: 18.25" (45%)

These are pretty consistent with his other checkups.  His height percentage has dropped quite a bit, but nothing out of the ordinary.  He got a good report from Dr. Dunlap and is developing just perfectly - praise the Lord!   One funny thing that I have noticed lately is that Carter does just fine with all of the nurses at the pediatrician's office, but the minute that Dr. Dunlap walks in the room, he starts crying and gets extremely clingy with me, so much that he usually will not let go unless I pry him off.  He continued this trend during our visit today and Dr. Dunlap even tried to befriend him with a sticker towards the end of our appointment.  However, Carter would not even look at him, so Dr. Dunlap handed the sticker to me and then Carter took it out of my hand.  What a little stinker!

Ready for my checkup!

Busy 12-month old

Playing with the Tonka truck sticker from Dr. Dunlap

Ready for my shots!

He did just fine during the vaccination portion of our appointment.  He cried for a few seconds, but was fine as soon as I picked him up.  What a big, brave boy!  There is also routine bloodwork done at the 12-month appointment, so we went over to the lab for that afterwards.  They only had to prick his finger to draw blood and he screamed for the first few seconds, but then decided that he was fine and just watched her finish the rest.

We are so thankful for another good report.  Having a healthy child is such a blessing that we do not take for granted.  We love you, Carter Lee!