Carter's Blog

Halloween 2011

2011-11-05T23:09:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago, we went to get some pumpkins from the local farmer's market, and we got some good shots of Carter picking out his pumpkin.

At first he was a little grumpy.

Eventually he started having fun with it.

And ultimately he decided that this was the pumpkin to bring home.

A few weeks later and Halloween was upon us. Although he rarely makes up his mind quickly on other topics, Carter never wavered in his desire to go trick-or-treating as DJ Lance, from the Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba!

Here's Carter's take on the outfit:

As you can tell from the picture, the glasses were a little big on him, and he wasn't a very big fan of the hat.

Here's a shot of the full outfit, sans hat and glasses.

After all that, he only had a few pieces of candy corn. He was tired from sprinting from house to house (literally).

Goodbye 'B'!

2011-08-21T14:57:00.006-04:00

In the months approaching Carter's third birthday, his binkie, or 'B' as he calls it, was a constant bedtime companion. Seeing that most other kids his age had long ago abandoned their pacifiers, we started discussing with Carter whether it was time for him to also say goodbye. For the most part, the answer was no. But then Carter started making comments about how cute babies were, and he would often notice if a baby didn't have his own binkie. So it was suggested that perhaps Carter should give his binkie to a baby, since he was soon going to be three years old, and thus a big kid who wouldn't need a 'B'. Surprisingly, it worked. During his three year old wellness visit at the pediatrician, Carter noticed a large glass jar full of binkies. Laura told him that this jar was for the babies, and that we should give his 'B' to the doctor so that he could add it to the jar for the babies. The day after Carter's big birthday party, he was finally ready to do the deed.

Here's Carter and Laura, addressing an envelope, so that we could mail his 'B' to the doctor.

And here's Carter sealing the envelope.

I had the camera out, to make sure Carter remembered this occasion. Carter was feeling especially photogenic for this picture, providing a rare smile in response to my request.

And here he is sprinting to the mailbox, to mail the envelope.

Here's the same picture, zoomed in. Notice that his feet aren't touching the ground.

Finally, the big moment. He was eager to drop the envelope in the mail box. You can see he's a bit sweaty from all the running. Also, I should point out that Laura pulled the old 'switch-a-roo', replacing the loaded envelope with an empty version. So his 'B' is actually safe at home, just in case a crisis were to ensue later that evening.

When bed time came, Carter asked where his 'B' was, and we politely reminded him that he had mailed it to the doctor, so the doc could give it to the babies. Thankfully, this was acceptable to him, and he went to sleep.

Our Summer Vacation - Phase 2 - Ohio

2011-07-28T20:13:00.003-04:00

We got to see lots of family - but i didn't take as many pics as I had hoped. Bob was in Puerto Rico for work until Friday when he flew into Akron-Canton and met up with us.
Before he fot there we went to see Grandma Cinda and Uncle Tom.
We played with bubbles, played ball and helped grandma gather sticks from the yard -even got to sit on Uncle Tom's scooter!

The next day grandma took us to the outlet mall where we got to ride the train!! Which has caused him to ask all vacation, when we are going to the outlet mall again.

We enjoyed some quiet time at grandma's just playing and reading.

We also got to visit some friends and thier kids -We always have fun with Jacob and now Ethan too!

Jacob was doing a little off roading in this pic.

Now that we've met up with Rob- we're off to South Carolina. We plan to stop about 7 hours out for the night and finish the trip on Tuesday -about 12 hours total to Charleston, South Carolina.

Our Summer Vacation - Phase 1 - Knoebels!

2011-07-28T19:54:00.003-04:00

We rode lots of rides at Knoebels with Aunt Jenni-
We rode the train-

Several times Carter rode the handcars- he called them "little trains".

We rode the little cars-Carter drove!

The next morning before we left Danville, PA we went for a swim- Carter loves the water!!

Now we're off to Ohio-

A trip to the Philadelphia Zoo!

2011-07-16T17:18:00.004-04:00

This Tuesday we went to the zoo with Aunt Jenni and "Uncky" Chris. We had a great time! The whole time Carter was looking for the zebras. We got to see the family of Giraffe's -they have a new baby named Abby. No zebras yet.

Then we saw the polar bear -mostly from behind. Well, no zebras here either.

All the animals get a snack at the zoo-even this one! Wonder what "my favorite zebras" are eating for snack??

The cheetahs were out in their pen roaming around. Definitely no zebras here.

After taking this picture Carter commented, "Now I want to ride the real bear!". We visited the real bear but did not ride on it. Still no zebras.

In the middle of the day we ate our picnic lunch and took a ride on the train (a tiny train that went aound in 4 circles!)

We also saw hippos, snakes, alligators, monkeys and many more before finally getting to see "my favorite zebras" just before we left.

Despite the upper 90 degree weather and the unanticipated scenic route we took home we had a great time!!

Jan-June 2011

2011-06-28T20:45:00.014-04:00

Why is the spacing so weird - I just don't know but keep scrolling and you'll see all the new stuff.

Wow - we've been slacking with posts on the Carter blog!

Well major events of the last 6 months include:

Spending a very rainy week at a cabin in western Pa with Matt, Jenni and Jacob

Carter's Dad (Rob) getting his PhD from University of Penn in May

Celebrating Father's Day by doing yard work, relaxing together and opening some gifts-

And traveling to Puerto Rico!

Carter's Holiday Pagaent

2010-12-24T09:24:00.006-05:00

Last Friday was Carter's holiday pagaent, and Carter had been training for weeks, learning the words to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town". Well the big night finally came, and the ridiculous number of people there started making Carter a little more introverted, so he clutched my leg and I ended up staying with him during the performance. As a consequence, Laura was in charge of photography. Not being blessed vertically, we ended up with a lot of shots like this:

Can you find Carter? He's there somehere!

They gave us all a Santa headband, which we had fun trying on.

Since everyone was dressed nicely, we thought taking a family picture for a Christmas card was a good idea. This one worked out well. But then we saw the big Christmas tree, and thought we should use that as a background.

Getting Carter to look at the camera was a challenge.

This turned out to be the best one - Carter is eating a cookie, if you hadn't noticed.

And as you can see here, the clock has run out on Carter's patience. Off to the next adventure!

Ahhh! Singing makes you thirsty!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:09:00.006-04:00

Today was a beautiful day of leaf raking and trick or treating. First the leaves had to be raked, so that the trick-or-treaters could see the sidewalk.

Of course, Carter helped to make sure that the leaves were "jumpable".

And here are two prime specimens for the leaf collection.

I'm glad that at least Aunt Jenni decided to look at the camera.

Now time for the costume. Carter is dressed as a cowboy, but whenever you ask him, he says he is a horsey.

He really didn't like the costume at all when we tried to put it on. But once people started handing him candy, he forgot all about his dislike.

Of course, sometimes cowboys ride on their horse on top of a front-end loader. He rode this over to neighbor Carol's house.

And here Carol provided his first treat of the year.

In this final pic, Carter was getting tired of holding up his horse and walking, so I had the pleasure of providing transportation for the final leg of the journey.

And finally, I'm sure you're curious - it seems that chocolate tootsie roll pops are his favorite candy, at least tonight. Me - well I like Carol's brownies.

Carter's 2! Photo Shoot

2010-09-03T08:32:00.004-04:00

Our good friend Peggy, an engineer turned soon-to-be professional photographer, once again volunteered some time to photograph Carter. The venue was the Philadelphia Water Works, near the art museum. Peggy will be posting a full set of photos on her blog, http://pcs-photography.blogspot.com. Until then, I wanted to post some of her lower-resolution images so all the non-Facebook users of the world can see the pictures too.

Carter turns 2!!

2010-07-27T09:28:00.007-04:00

Today is Carter's 2nd birthday!

We celebrated on Sunday by having some family over for a BBQ.

Carter had a great time, he especially enjoyed opening presents and eating cake- who doesn't!!?

He really enjoyed the tricycle from his grandma!

He also took a break to read a book from Grand-pere (Grampa).

Aunt Jenni made a car shaped cake that Carter shared with Chris and Chris shared with Carter!

Aunt Jenni & Uncle Chris get married!!

2010-07-14T17:11:00.002-04:00

Today we were part of Aunt Jenni and Uncle Chris's wedding. It took place at Smith Cove (near Georgetown, Grand Cayman). The weather was hot and sticky-but sunny and a beautiful day to be at the beach! Jenni, Chris, Kathy, Bob, Laura and Carter all met at Smith Cove and the ceremony started around 10am local time. Bob "gave Jenni away" and with the sand in our toes, a few tears and lizards crawling nearby Jenni and Chris exchanged vows and rings - a beautiful ceremony!!

After the ceremony, pictures and some cake and champagne we took the bus back into Georgetown where we had lunch at Breezes by the Bay and wandered around Georgetown a little before sending Jenni and Chris on their honeymoon (the remainder of thier cruise).

Bon Voyage!

Congratulations Chris and Jenni!!

Grand Cayman -The Cayman Turtle Farm!

2010-07-14T16:11:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we took Carter to The Cayman Turtle Farm- what a fun time!

We saw and "held" baby sea turtles-adult sea turtles and big sea turtles. They also have an aviary with some interesting "tweet tweets". Finally, Carter and Daddy got to swim with some fish and sea turtles!!

But yet again our day ended with a trip to the beach and then the pool-at Carter's request for more water!!

Grand Cayman

2010-07-12T15:25:00.004-04:00

Carter loves the water :)

Ocean, pool...he doesn't care!

On our first afternoon here we spent some time at 7 mile beach and some time at the hotel pool. Each time we left Carter said, "MORE WATER!!" and then there was some crying until we reassured him that we would return.

We spent today walking around Georgetown and seeing the sights -found this really cool tree downtown.

Makin' Brownies

2010-06-28T20:11:00.019-04:00

Hot Dog!

2010-06-25T23:19:00.006-04:00

Carter came over for dinner this week. On the menu: hot dogs, crinkle cut fries, and blueberries. How delicious, you might be thinking. Oh yes, we only serve the finest cuisine at Aunt Jenni's!! Here are some pictures from our family dinner.

Yet another trip to the playgroud

2010-06-10T20:54:00.006-04:00

It was a nice day today, not too humid, so Carter, Grady and I went to the park to play. Aunt Jenni and Uncle Chris came to play as well, and this made Carter very happy. And I want to say, regarding his hat, I'm not really sure that I like it, but Carter has no doubt - he wears that hat all the time.

Except sometimes he bumps his head, then he takes the hat off.

Next up - slide.

And then, time to check out the other slide on the other side of the playgroud.

In the preceding picture, I'll have to ask Aunt Jenni what it was that she was saying to Carter as he went down the slide. Anyway, after successfully testing that slide once or twice, back to the original slide.

One more trip down the slide, and then it's time to go home and go to bed. I should add, as we left the playground to go home, Carter waved and said "Bye bye". No crying though, which made me happy.

2010-04-20T21:23:00.006-04:00

Carter, Laura and I went to beautiful Ringing Rock Park this past weekend. It was pretty incredible. Temperatures in the mid 60s, sunny, a slight breeze. Beautiful weather. So, as the name implies, there are rocks, and they ring. But first we had to find the rocks. And as you might guess, it's slightly more efficient to travel when Carter isn't making the decisions on where to walk.

After successfully finding the rocks...

...it was time to hit them with a hammer. Seriously, this is what everybody does. You can tell the good rocks, because they have a lot of strike marks.

I spent a lot of the day bent over like this. I definitely felt it the next day. Anyway, so these rocks, they all make a different tone - beautiful resonance. I told our friends who were there with us, that I wanted to get a group of people together with hammers, and make music. They said it had already been done. Instead of a bell choir, it was a rock choir. I can only imagine.

So this park has another hidden gem, a cool river bed. Again, we had to find it. Carter was done riding on shoulders, but luckily mommy thought ahead and brought bubbles. So I walked ahead, blew bubbles, and Carter would follow.

Eventually we found the river bed. Very cool. Of course, Carter enjoyed stomping in the water, and throwing rocks into the water.

I was proud, because he only totally immersed his foot in water three times. Luckily, moms plan ahead for this kind of thing, and bring other shoes.

Finally, time to go. On the way back to the car, we ran out of bubbles. So back on the shoulders he went. And the whole way, he just kept chanting "bu-bbles".

Overall, it was a very good day.

Trip to Wendy's

2010-02-28T09:54:00.008-05:00

After going to the gym, we took a trip to Wendy's in an attempt to satiate our little guy's enormous appetite. On the menu - chicken nuggets, fries, some milk, and of course, ketchup for dipping. I snapped a few photos with my cell phone, and they don't have the best of quality, but otherwise tell the story pretty well.

Shortly after sitting down, Carter is going to town on the french fries. Notice that the ketchup is full in this picture.

Now here he is, after realizing that pretty much anything tastes better (and is generally more fun) when you dip it in ketchup.

The general strategy is to suck all of the ketchup off of the food item...

...then suck all of the ketchup off of your hand. Mommy sometimes gets in the way though...

...and sometimes you just need to look like a pirate when you're eating.

Time for a drink...

...and now it's time, in Carter's words, to "go go". Notice his hands are making the "go" sign. Time to drive home and take a nap.

SNOW!

2010-02-06T17:10:00.006-05:00

OMG! Snow! Historic snowfalls! Grocery stores - sold out! Home improvement stores - empty! Blockbuster - crowded! We've been preparing for this storm all week, and then it finally came. And we got about 1ft of snow. That is a lot, but it seemed to happen all the time in Cleveland. I'm not sure why everyone has been freaking out all week. Nonetheless, Carter hasn't been out to play in the snow yet this year, and he's been begging to go outside since it started snowing, so we (ok, it was Laura) suited him up and everyone went outside.

I tried to take his binkie out for this picture, but he wasn't very happy about that.

He was so excited! Everyone is outside, and it's time to play.

Look at all the snow! He enjoyed exploring the well-shoveled sidewalk.

So it was now time to throw him into the snowbank. We soon discovered that he didn't actually enjoy playing in the snow, he'd rather play near the snow.

Time to go inside.

Oh No! He fell down, and the snow touched his hand!

Time for Carter and Mommy to come inside.

Everyone Likes to Eat

2010-01-18T18:50:00.002-05:00

Here is the latest installment in the Carter film series. Sorry for the lack of pants.

Story Time

2010-01-18T10:54:00.002-05:00

Here's a video of Carter reading his favorite animal book with Daddy. Make sure you turn the sound up on your computer!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T09:34:00.002-05:00

At pick up at the day care, Carter presented us with this lovely Christmas card. It looks like he just got up from his nap (notice the cot in the background), but it also seems like he might have something tasty on his lips. Regardless, Carter and the rest of us hope you have a merry Christmas!

Carter's Newest Friend

2009-11-24T09:53:00.005-05:00

Laura and I were very excited yesterday to wake up and receive the following text message:

11/23/2009 12:29 AM --
"Jacob Matthew was born at 11:47 at a weight of 8 3 and length of 22. Both mom and baby are doing well."

This was the news we had been waiting for, another friend for Carter. New parents Jenny and Matt must be very excited! But I feel bad for Jenny, she must have been exhausted even beyond normal childbirth-level exhaustion - I received this text from Matt the prevoius morning:

11/22/2009 8:38 AM --
"Been a slow start, but we're at 5cm. Shouldn't be too much longer now!"

So apparently at 8:38 AM, they thought it "shouldn't be too much longer", then a short 15 hours later, Jacob was finally born. Wow. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Congrats to both of you, Jenny and Matt, and also to you baby Jacob. I'm sure Carter can't wait until he can come visit.

Here's a picture of Tank, who is very excited about his new brother.

And baby Jacob, enjoying his first Thanksgiving.

Guitar Hero!

2009-11-15T18:30:00.005-05:00

Carter and Laura came over today to visit Chris and me (and our washer). Chris helped Carter master the finer points of guitar hero, such as holding the guitar.

Halloween!

2009-11-05T20:23:00.007-05:00

Carter was pretty excited for his first Halloween, as you can see from the following picture.

Grandma Karen always made Laura's costumes when she was growing up, so Laura decided she needed to continue the tradition and make Carter's costume too. So the grand idea for this year? I should be a pirate, and Carter will be my parrot. This is kind of what we were going for:

And here was the result.

Don't ask me about the hair. I really don't think I saw myself before this picture. Apparently pirates had hair like that. So isn't Carter's costume pretty awesome? Looks just like a baby parrot.

The hat was a last minute addition. Carter probably wore it a total of 3 minutes the entire night. That boy is not a fan of hats. So in the end, we put on our costumes, took pictures, walked down and back up the street, gathered some candy, and came home- total of about 20min. An added bonus is that with Carter on my shoulder, I finally talked to some of the neighbors I've been living next to for years.

We miss you Grandma Conrad!

2009-10-13T23:32:00.004-04:00

Today, Carter's Grandma Conrad passed away after a short battle with ovarian cancer. Everyone was very surprised with the speed and force with which this disease attacked.

We are all obviously very sad, but at the same time, we want to celebrate all of the great times we had with her. She loved Carter very much, and I hope someday Carter can look at this and start to realize the extent of her love. Grandma Conrad really was the nicest person I've ever met. I just dug through my archive, and here's a selection of some of the good times we had.

If anyone is interested, I thought I'd mention the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation - sandyovarian.org. A friend of mine also lost his mother-in-law to ovarian cancer, and since then, we've run the Sandy Sprint, a 5K fundraiser that is held in Fairmount Park each April. It's a good organization and a good race. I hope to see you out on the course next spring.

2009-09-25T21:58:00.001-04:00

Carter "Casanova Jr" Meyer makes a pass at the camera, then moves on to his game of cat and mouse. But is he feline or murine?

The Meyers visit the Ricarts

2009-09-25T21:51:00.000-04:00

At first Carter wasn't sure what to do with the kittens. But he quickly figured out how to foil their evil plan of sleeping on the couch.

Carter and Dan

2009-09-20T12:36:00.004-04:00

These photos are a little old - I think Carter was not quite 1 at this time - but they needed to be posted nonetheless. So, without further ado... Big Dan lives down the street, and he and Carter love to play in the water together. I'm thinking the inflatable hats were probably the idea of one of the adults - Carter only tolerates hats when sufficiently distracted.

You might think from looking at this picture that Dan is sitting closer to the camera than Carter, and it makes him look much bigger than Carter. You're wrong - he really is that much bigger than Carter, despite only a few months difference in age.

Look at that smile! Carter really loves playing in the water! In fact, he splashes in the dog's water dish every time he walks by it.

Playing sure makes a boy hungry. And holy cow he likes pancakes. Luckily, he hasn't yet discovered the joy of syrup.

Glamour shots #3

2009-08-13T20:28:00.001-04:00

Meyer Family Vacation to Wildwood New Jersey

2009-07-29T19:25:00.013-04:00

Our family had a great time!

Sunny days, cool beach breezes and Carter attempting to eat living sea life! A day at the beach is no longer sleeping or reading, now it is filled with phrases like: "Eww yuck- please don't eat that Carter!" (said in response to tiny clams being shoved into his mouth) and "When did you last put on his sunscreen?" (as it is easy to lose track of time at the beach).

It has been an adventure that we are loving!

Carter loves plaid!

However, his disdain for hats can make sunny vacation days a little difficult, not to mention unpleasant for all within earshot.

Carter celebrated his first birthday at the sea shore. He loved the ocean and playing all day, but most of all he discovered he LOVES icing- for its luxurious squish between your fingers feel and for its delicious taste!

Carter had no time for photographs or ridiculous tiny hats - all his energy was focused on getting back to the water!

Ahhhh- back to splashing!! Carter surprised us with his enthusiasm and complete lack of fear for the ocean waves. He couldn't get enough. Even when a larger wave caught us by surprise and splashed into his face - he shook off the water and wanted to splash.

Who doesn't love a nap on the beach!? Carter had exhausted himself and this letting him nap on the beach seemed like a great idea. While the sea air and the sound of the waves crashing helped Carter sleep for over three hours it involved a great deal of sand in his ears and nose.

This post brought to you by Mommy.

Rockin' Out at Cracker Barrel

2009-07-08T19:20:00.003-04:00

Laura and I decided to enjoy some pancakes at Cracker Barrel since our respective men won't set foot there. Carter loved them, and the tiny rocking chairs out front.

Michael Phelps, look out!

2009-06-02T22:47:00.006-04:00

This post is being blogged by Uncle Ike -

Here's a video of Carter in his new pool. As you can see, being in the water throws off his balance.

Carter either giving or taking fish.

Carter is trying to figure out just what kind of fish this is.

Mmmm! Seafood! (Kinda rubbery though)

If mom only knew what I just did in the water.

I specifically asked for a pool with jets.

Can't... Breathe..., Mom's... too strong....

The new stair master

2009-05-25T09:55:00.004-04:00

Crazy kid. His new favorite activity is climbing the stairs. Doesn't seem to mind if there are obstacles in the way, either. Check it out.

I especially enjoy his commentary as he climbs. If anyone out there has a guess as to what he's saying, please post it; I'd love to hear it. I'm not sure why our camera goes in and out of "Green Carter" mode, so sorry about that.

Here are some other misc. pics I had lying around. As you can see, Carter is progressing from bottles to sippy cups, but don't draw any conclusions about him being a big boy - he will only "drink"from them when they are empty. If he's actually going to drink, then he refuses anything but his bottle.

Baseball practice

2009-05-04T10:46:00.006-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, Carter, his mom and I, Aunt Jenni and G'ma/pa went to the park to hang out - it was a beautiful day, and I had a wiffle ball bat in the car, so I got it out to play. In general, Carter likes balls of all sorts, and I wanted to see if he'd catch the ball when I threw it. Here's a video of the result:

As you can see, he's an excellent fielder. Unfortunately, his binky is kind of distracting at times, and he's not sure whether he'd rather play with that or the ball. After a while though, he grows bored with my intense training regimen, and seeks refuge with Aunt Jenni. But then she tried to make him wear his monkey hat! He doesn't like that hat, or any other hat for that matter! Anyway, I'm sure Tiger Woods' dad had some tough days training with his son too.

Here are some other misc. pictures that I thought someone might like.

The usual suspects - Grandma K and Mom posing with the little guy

Baseball is exhausting!

Trying to catch up...

2009-04-07T23:14:00.010-04:00

I just realized it's been over a month since I posted anything. Kim, I used to count on you to guilt me into being a good father... Ok, well I'll try to cover a everything that's happened in the last month. First, I want to share the most recent pictures first. Last Sunday, the 5th, it was about 65degF and beautiful, sunny weather, so we went up to the playground at the end of our street. I was pretty excited to put Carter on the swing. Below I have the before and after pictures. At first, he didn't seem to care at all about swinging. After a while, we got him to smile for the picture, but honestly, I think he would have rather gone to sleep than posed for pictures.

Here is a quick movie of Carter swinging, but don't be fooled - he was still bored by swinging, but his mom was doing some pretty funny stuff to make him smile.

Here's my baby and baby mama, at the conclusion of swinging.

In other news, Carter is crawling like a big boy these days - see the Feb. 28th post for comparison:

Finally, I wanted to show off this picture of Carter in his jogging stroller - the Artinos got it for us last summer, but Carter was too small when we first got it, and once he was bigger, it was too cold to run outside. Now that the weather is warmer, I take him on jogging tours of Royersford, during which he simply stares and takes in his surroundings. Grady likes to run with us too, but he has trouble running in a straight line - anytime he smells something interesting, he veers off course. Thus, he usually stays home.

Carter playing fetch

2009-02-28T09:51:00.002-05:00

This week, Carter has been getting closer and closer to mobility. He doesn't quite "crawl" in the conventional sense, but he has started getting around on his own. A week ago, he could "crawl in place", meaning he would kind of go through the motions, but not actually move anywhere. So it looked like he was Fred Flinstone or another cartoon character that needed to run away quickly - moving his feet, but not actually moving. Or maybe he was pretending he was on a baby treadmill, and he was just trying to get a workout. Well, within the last couple of days, he's figured it out - sort of. See below:

As you can see, he's got the basic movements of "forward" and "rotate" down, but it's pretty much all arms. He's going to look like Popeye if he keeps this up. The process seems to be (1) push self up with arms, (2) belly flop in a forward direction, (3) repeat. His motivation today, as you must have noticed, was Grady's squeaky bone. Wherever I put it, he moved to that location so that he could pick it up and taste it. Grady always makes it look so appetizing. Luckily, I was able to intervene.

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Carter!

2009-01-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

Ok, these aren't the best pictures I've ever taken, but I thought it was important to document Carter on his 1/2 birthday - January 27th. Here we are watching tv.

From the look on his face, I think he is bored with all the pictures we keep taking.

Here is the birthday boy removing his socks - which he does all the time. Grady obviously loves it, since his diet consists mainly of socks.

Any given Sunday

2009-01-18T13:00:00.002-05:00

Continuing with the theme of giving Carter new foods, and laughing at the faces he makes, today we gave Carter sweet potatoes. As you can see, at first he was very enthusiastic, as he always is at meal time. Here he is trying to grab the spoon from me, because obviously he thinks he's big enough to feed himself.

As is usually the case, he isn't a big fan of today's new taste sensation.

And now he's giving me the evil eye. I'm a little worried that he might get revenge on us tomorrow - the sweet potatoes have a lot of dietary fiber.

Right before he ate his sweet potatoes, Carter was "petting" Grady. He loves to reach out to feel Grady's soft fur, and Grady is usually tolerant.

But as you can see in this picture, Grady thinks there has been enough petting today - time to move away from the baby.

Carter vs. Grandma's Applesauce

2009-01-10T23:21:00.003-05:00

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa this weekend, and I decided to give Carter some of Grandma's homemade applesauce, which is sweet, but a bit tart. Carter's response was great - I hope this video does it justice.

The experiment continues... I can't wait until he tries vegetables!

Switch to "solid" food

2008-12-14T21:29:00.004-05:00

We recently started the switchover to "solid" food - finely ground rice that you mix with milk to make a viscous paste. It takes about three times as long as giving him a bottle, and it gets everywhere, as you can see from the pictures. Still, he and I have a good time. I get the spoon close to his mouth, he opens up, I try to scrape what's on the spoon onto his gums, then he spits out about half of what was on the spoon and it ends up on his chin. I scrape what's on his chin onto the spoon, add a little from the bowl, and the process repeats. Thirty minutes later, he looks like this:

It's hard to get upset about the mess when he makes this face.

Carter in Motion

2008-11-30T16:47:00.003-05:00

This was a momentous weekend - little baby Kruffy learned to roll over. Watch for yourself!

Carter's Book Shower

2008-11-09T22:19:00.006-05:00

Most of our extended family still lives in Ohio, and last weekend was Carter's debut with that bunch. Laura's cousin Kim organized a book shower for Carter and Laura, so the guests were asked to bring a book or two for Carter's library. Here are some pics from the party

Someone is VERY creative. Luckily, the balloon animals didn't scare Carter too much.

It looks like people are enjoying themselves; I wouldn't know, I wasn't allowed to go.

Here on the left are two Whitacres, trying to figure out what was in the bag without looking at the item. It probably was butt paste - I'm not making this up, it's a real baby item. On the right are Laura's mom and aunt doting on Carter.

Here's Carter posing separately with his two grandmas. Can you guess which one is which?

In the end, Carter seems to be enjoying his books.

PS - this particular book was provided by Joe Segatta, who actually didn't attend the party.

Weekend at Kim & Dan's

2008-10-31T23:37:00.002-04:00

We're visiting the Szibers and their three kids this weekend in Ohio. Sorry, no photos, but I had to share a story. So this was the first time any of the Szibers had met baby Carter, and I wanted to know what Owen (he's eight) thought of our kid.

Bob: So Owen, what do you think of our new baby?
Owen: (giggles)
Bob: What?
Owen: (whispers and motions to kitchen) Come in here. I don't want Laura to hear.
Bob: (leans down so Owen can whisper in his ear)
Owen: I think he's chubby, and I think he's fat.

He's an observant kid. Anyway, I thought some of you might enjoy that conversation.

He finally managed to turn his frown upside-down

2008-10-13T19:25:00.003-04:00

For a while I was concerned that his facial muscles only worked in the downward direction - he frowned a lot, but never smiled. So-called "experts" like Laura said this was normal, but it seems to me that if he can frown, he should be able to smile. Seems logical, right? Regardless, he started smiling recently, if you entertain him enough. Apparently for the first 10 weeks of life, we weren't very entertaining. He seems to like us ok now. Anyway, here are the pics:

We're home!

2008-09-26T10:22:00.008-04:00

X marks the spot! The doctor came in

and marked the correct side for the procedure.

Carter rested easily in his comfy crib.

The nurses even made him a sign for his crib!

Cords and wires everywhere - and this was after two IVs were removed!

Carter was discharged yesterday from CHOP and we got to leave the hospital around 5pm.

Our stay was exceptionally short - thankfully! But while we were there the staff especially the NICU nurses were extraordinary- all were very compassionate and friendly.

-Laura

Carter's out of surgery and doing well!

2008-09-24T10:13:00.005-04:00

Carter had his surgery this morning. We just spoke with the surgeon, and he said everything was completely routine. He removed an egg-sized section of lung. We're told that the rest of his lungs look fine. They expect to discharge him on Friday or Saturday. Also, we were told that he's all doped up on narcotics. Because he really liked the pediatric Tylenol formulation and kept licking his lips, we're worried that if they make the Vicadin taste that good, we may need an intervention. If I can get a picture of his lung tissue, I'll post it here.

Oh, I should mention that the nurse weighed him, and I'm afraid his weight gain has started to level off. He only gained about 1lb. in the last two weeks - I was predicting a 4lb. gain.

Carter's First Trip to CHOP (outside the womb)

2008-09-13T13:58:00.005-04:00

On Monday, Sept. 8th, Carter, Mom and I went to the Childrens' Hospital to get a CT scan. They took a look at Carter's lungs - don't worry, he's fine, just has to have a little operation. More on the operation later. I wanted to share some pictures that I took while we were there - they are off to the right. And in case you were wondering, yes, he is wearing a purple baby hospital gown with little koala bear astronauts on it. The pinnacle of fashion! Anyway, Carter was a real trooper. First, they made all of us get up ~5am to head down to Philly. Carter dealt with his grumpy, sleep deprived parents pretty well. They told us that he couldn't eat anything after 6am, but wouldn't get his scan until 9am. That's ok, he usually goes ~3hrs between meals, but as you probably guessed, they were running late. Then, they needed to give him an injection to provide contrast in the scan. Well, Carter didn't seem to mind the needle too much, but he sure didn't like when they held his arm down while trying to find the vein! Luckily, he tired himself out with a lot of screaming, then went to sleep so they could do the scan without sedating him. Like I said, he was a real trooper. Here are some other misc. pics.

PS - During the scan, I got to wear a lead vest decorated with 101 Dalmatians! Lucky for you, I didn't take a picture.

He's gaining weight

2008-09-08T15:28:00.004-04:00

I apologize to those of you that have waited so long for me to publish this post. I've been getting harrassing text messages lately, so I know Carter's fans aren't too happy with me. Carter's been keeping us busy lately, in that he likes to be held pretty much all the time, or else he is sad. Anyway, if you can remeber this long ago, I posted the poll question "Any guesses as to how much he'll weigh at his 30day check-up?". Most people thought he would be around 9-10lbs - a decent weight gain given that he came into this world weighing 6lbs 12oz. Well the majority was wrong; Carter's weight was over 10lbs at the doctor visit! Being me, I had to make a graph - this is shown below:

So it's been going up quickly, and I wanted to model this. Exponential growth seemed appropriate. As you can see from the agreement between the data (blue dots) and the model (solid black line), he is growing at an exponential rate. I then projected where he would be at the end of the year (85lbs) and on his first birthday (2,719lbs). He's going to be a big boy. Here are some other pictures that further demonstrate his increasing girth.

Notice the wrist fat - rolls that almost look like a bracelet.

He doesn't like to sleep laying down.

But if he is forced to lay down, he likes to spread out.

Frequently Asked Questions...

2008-08-25T20:58:00.002-04:00

Lots of people have been asking Rob and I some of the same questions, so we thought we'd post some of them here for everyone to share:

How is Cater sleeping?
He is doing pretty good - we have a schedule of sleeping for about 3-4 hours at a time between feedings. If we time things right throughout the day that means 1 or 2 night time feedings! Those involve both mom and dad as Rob gets up to change Carter's diaper before I feed him.

How are you feeling?
TIRED!!!
I don't understand how it is that before Carter was born I got 8 hours of sleep at night and I was content.
Now I get 8 hrs minus 2 or 3 ten minute interuptions and I'm exhausted in the morning. Why is that?
-Bob
I am feeling pretty good! I'm happy to have Carter home with us!
-Laura

When is Carter's surgery?
As many of you know, Carter was diagnosed with a CCAM (cysts in his lung) while in utero. Although they don't pose an immediate problem, we have been told that the cysts must be removed. They will take out a portion of one of the lobes of his lung. He goes to CHOP (Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia) on September 8th for a CT scan and back to CHOP again on the 24th of September for the surgery. They have told us that he will need to stay at the hospital for up to a week.

We think Carter has the build of a model. What are his measurements?
His father and I agree, he is very well proportioned. Here are some dimensions:
Bust - 15.5"
Waist - 14"
Hips - 15"
Ears - 1.5" x 1"
Pinky finger - 1"

How much do diapers cost?
Good question. Diapers run about $0.19 each, for a total daily cost of around $2.

Does Carter have any nicknames?
Rob likes to call him Squeeky McBaby. I refer to him as Squeelie, or my little nugget. His Aunt Jenni calls him baby Buddah (I apologize if this offends anyone, but she really does call him this).

Baby's First Bath

2008-08-17T20:31:00.003-04:00

Carter handled it very well, and only peed on Laura once.

Now he's a clean boy!

Tribe Day at the Meyer House

2008-08-17T20:21:00.003-04:00

After an unfortunate leak of bodily fluid, Carter got to wear his Indians onesie. Since I too was sporting Indians apparel, we decided to get a family shot wearing our garb. Grady actually had a Tribe hat, but he ate it.

Carter's Many Friends

2008-08-17T11:41:00.007-04:00

Carter's been getting a lot of visitors lately - it kind of makes me jealous. If you too want to be a famous internet celebrity, stop by and have your picture taken with Carter, and you might see your face here!

Here's Carter posing with Artino and Leonardo. After the visit, I got an email from Artino; here's an excerpt:
'Oh, by the way, Leo talks about Carter all the time, says things like "mamma, that -insert item here- is little like Warla and Bob's baby" or "Bob and Warla's baby can't do that because it is too little". He was obviously fascinated by how little he was.'

Here are Laura & Carter posing with the Lees: Jason, Taylor and Becky. They brought Carter his first Philadelphia Eagles jersey - before I had a chance to get him his first Browns jersey! Hopefully I can raise him to like both teams.

Joe doubled the size of Carter's library when he came. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Carter can't read.

Carter's Dance Moves

2008-08-07T22:36:00.005-04:00

I think this video speaks for itself - Carter has
the best dance moves in the 0 - 3 month age
category. PS - Beware, the file is large!

2008-08-02T00:10:00.009-04:00

Many faces of Carter

Pictures from Aunt Jenni

2008-07-31T08:43:00.004-04:00

A few shots from the hospital and Carter's 2nd day at home!

Bringing home baby

2008-07-30T23:33:00.004-04:00

So yesterday was our first day at home. We were somewhat worried what the Mowgli (the cat) and Grady (the dog) would do. Grady is afraid of children, for the most part. But after Grady did the requisite sniffing (and one lick - we quickly put a stop to that), he was very interested in Carter. He investigates anytime Carter cries.

Mowgli, however, is indifferent about the kid.

Originally we were worried...

2008-07-30T23:10:00.003-04:00

...that Carter wasn't urinating enough. Three times per 24hrs, they said. Well, just now he peed enough to fill up both his diaper and my shirt. See for yourself.

More Pictures

2008-07-30T12:38:00.001-04:00

Here are some other miscellaneous pics from the hospital

First Post

2008-07-30T12:30:00.000-04:00

Carter Thomas Meyer was born at 5:12pm on Sunday, July 27th 2008. He was about three weeks earlier than we expected, but he is perfectly healthy, weighing in at a whopping 6lbs 12oz. and measuring 1ft 7in. I really hope that no one uses this information to get a credit card in his name.