9 months

how did mr carter get to be 9 months already? here are a few tidbits of our sweet mr man:

1. he is obsessed with grabbing noah's glasses when within a few feet of noah's face. noah usually is ok with it, but it makes brother hug giving more difficult
2. he likes to wrestle with you when you lie on the floor. this is a fun after dinner/before bed family fun time game we like to play. beware - there will be plenty of hair/ear/nose pulling
3. he likes to play in the play kitchen in our front room. mostly just banging pots and pans and spoons and taking things in and out of the cupboards
4. he also likes it when we get in the fridge. he wants to check out what's inside, usually trying to stick his hand in the gunk that has accumulated at the bottom
5. he also likes the toilet. which is awesome.
6. eating solids have been hit or miss. we've been mostly trying just table food in small bites since it is nearly impossible to get a spoon near his face. he seems to like bread-type things the best so far with fruits not far behind that.
7. he seems to be very interested in all sorts of musical instruments. he likes to play the piano (especially when noah is playing), he likes to hear how things sound when they are banged together, and he really likes rattles. (yay musician!!)
8. we're starting to see the beginning of some signing. in the "how big is baby carter?" SO BIG way. and he waves at you now. we've seen him deliberately signing something that looks like "more" but we're not sure if that was a sign or something completely random.
9. and a story combining points number 5 and 8. today, carter was crawling around the house when i was making lunch. i found him in the bathroom standing up at the toilet. (lid closed) when i said, "there you are, carter. what are you doing in here?" he smiled at me and waved.
10. he's been sick for the majority of November so far. first he ended up with hand/foot/mouth disease that lasted about a week. then he ended up with a nasty cold with a fever for 4 days and the worst stuffy nose of his sweet little life since then. and let me tell you how a stuffy nose (combined with mama's mastitis) can make sleeping VERY difficult.

and then some pictures on his 9 month birthday

enjoying his sippy at breakfast. not that he actually drinks anything from it, rather just chew on the end

a good look at the 4 teeth that he has:
he crawls too fast for me to get a good picture:
too fast:
oh, hello, carter! (and your gunky eye cause you're sick!)
just cruising:
and looking cute:
hey! i can play the piano too!
and chew on spoons from the kitchen:
he's also really good at helping noah build castles with blocks:
more like knocking down castles with noah:
forget castles, i'm just going to crawl all over it: