Happy 17 month birthday, Carter!!!

Our little rockstar has lost so much of his babyness, and is fast morphing from a fat lil squishball into a taller and leaner toddler. I say “leaner” with a grain of salt because, comparatively, he is still kinda gigantic. But, he IS stretching upwards, and has way way less fat rolls – so that’s a good sign! Though, I do secretly miss his squish factor………… He’s so willful (sorry, I actually mean LOUD AS HELL) that he make all of us roll our eyes and go “just get over it, dude”. He’s a Drama King and, when in a fretful mood, has us all tearing our hair out in an attempt to placate him. He is LOUD and he ain’t afraid to show it!! But then, those grumpy episodes sweep over in mere minutes and, suddenly, he’s back to his happy chappy self. Leaving me to wonder if I’d just hallucinated the whole thing. I mean, with a cheery smile like this, I just forget all the bad times!!:

• EATING – Carter still has FOUR teeth. And not even fully out yet, just the top bits. Phenomenally late tooth developer, yet eats more than any kid I know. I always wonder how he manages to eat so quickly (double the speed of Hunter) and any and every kind of food… just by chewing with his gums! He pretty much eats nonstop. He can have a full (huge) meal, rest for 15 minutes, then go all eager beaver when more food arrives (by this, I mean MY meal). I dunno where all the food goes.

• SLEEPING – Still puts himself to sleep at night for a 12-hour stretch. So that’s fine, but we are struggling with his nap as I’m trying to shift it later to a 1:30PM nap for 1.5 hours… and he can’t really last that late! But he needs to for when he starts Playgroup 3x/week, so we’re trying.

• SPEECH DEVELOPMENT – I’ve completely lost track of his words now, because he had a bit of a word explosion this month. Also, milestone: he’s saying multiple-words! First one? “I love you”. I won’t lie, it made my heart go *melt*. He’s also now saying “please” and “thank you”, which I love!! I’m not tracking his other new words this month.. just too difficult to when there are quite a few. (previously spoken words: dada, mama, there, star, row row, car, up, down, shhhhh, fish, meow, apple, pebble, more, playdoh, round and round, hi, ball, teddy, wow, hat, flower).

Singing “I love youuuu”

• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – The kid is active! It’s hard to keep up. He loves thrills, he loves action, and he loves tumbles. This month, he’s starting to get the hang of using a scooter – he’s nowhere near adept at it yet though. He loves swimming, playgrounds, and anything outdoors really.

  Hunter now views Carter as bonafide competition now; someone that cramps his style and snatches all his stuff. Carter’s not an angel either – nothing is more pleasurable to him than going up to whatever Hunter is playing with and snatching it away. And vice versa. Arghhh!! Why must kids always zero-in on the SAME toy, when there’s ten billion all around them?? Generally it’s just easier if the kids play separately, so no one gets into the other’s territory. Carter’s great on playdates though, when we go out and meet friends. He’s highly tolerant (thanks to constantly having to compete with an older brother), plays pretty well with others, and doesn’t bully. Whew!

  Happy 17 months, my baby wombat!! You are such a handful but your awesome smile makes it all worth it. I just can’t get enough of your super sweet “mamaaaa” and crazy run on your fat lil legs – straight into my arms 🙂

Compare with Hunter at Month 16-17 here.

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