Time for Vacation

Well, we survived the first leg of our journey to the Outer Banks. We drove from Pittsburgh to New Jersey yesterday and had to pass through about three hours worth of heavy rain and fog from Tropical Storm Fay. So pleasant. At one point there was so much water on the road that my car hydroplaned really badly...quite scary. I was still catching my breath after my life flashed before my eyes and Derrick looks over at me after skillfully maneuvering out of the fishtail and says, "it's a good thing I played so many video games when I was younger." Uh ok, not what I was thinking at that moment. At least we were ok and my car was unscathed.

Tomorrow begins stage 2 of our trip from NJ to the Outer Banks. We'll hope for a less eventful drive!!

Zucchini Remix

I made this recipe for Zucchini Patties for the second time tonight. I'm a big fan...very yummy.

Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS
2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, combine the zucchini, eggs, onion, flour, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, and salt. Stir well enough to distribute ingredients evenly.
Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drop zucchini mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls, and cook for a few minutes on each side until golden.

Ball Pit

Not much explanation needed...my friend I.C. recommended this to me and I finally got around to buying the balls for a homemade ball pit. Needless to say, Carter is loving it. He kicks like a little frog and sends the balls flying...so cute!

His first "mama"

Carter said Mama for the first time yesterday. I sorta half heard it and then he didn't do it again the rest of the day. But this morning he said it again several times. Soooo exciting.

He is now pointing at EVERYTHING too, which is neat to see. He's finally connecting words to objects and he is communicating with us this way too. He's crawling everywhere and faster by the day. This morning he spilled the dog's food all over the floor...don't know what I'm going to do with that but it will probably have to be moved very soon. Ugh.

Haircut: before and after (and a new talent)

BEFORE

Derrick got tired of people calling Carter a girl, and so finally after an incident at Kohl's last week when he was wearing all blue and a woman asked me how old "she" was, I bit the bullet and let Derrick proceed with a haircut. Sniff, sniff...I wanted to hold out till 1 year, but I have to admit it does look better now.



AFTER


You can see in the background of my after pic, my OCD kitty licking his bald stomach. Yes, my pets are all insane. Like Carter's new skill of standing on my coffee table??

Weigh-In

Carter had his 9 month weigh-in, I mean Check-Up, today. hehehe He's offically 3 inches taller from his 6 month height and gained 3 1/2 lbs, now placing him at 22 lbs 11 oz. He's a big boy. The doctor confirmed that he has 2 more teeth coming in on top which will make 6 total when these arrive. He's been sleeping like a champ this week once we can get him to fall asleep, about 10 - 11 hours a night without waking up which is Oh-So-Nice!!! As a reward for a good checkup today, I took him to the petting zoo afterwards. (really it wasn't a reward I just thought it'd be cute to see him react to the animals...I'm a sucker for animals). He got to see two sheep, a donkey, a cow, a pig, two rabbits and two goats. It was a toss-up whether his favorite was the pig or the goat.

The Baby Olympics

I sometimes feel like I'm competing in some kind of crazy contest and Carter is testing out these new "events" on me each day to see how adeptly I can react to his ever-increasing repertoir of abilities.

We have the log roll, which gets the little guy quite effectively from point A to point B without crawling, thank you very much.

The shot put, as see in included photo - beach ball version of course

Carter showed real potential on the rings on our New England trip:


The discus, with training buddy Radar and Coach DaDa



I'll continue this list later on...

9 months old...already

Lots of firsts this week...first attempt to crawl, first "Da Da", first pulling up onto knees on my bookcase, first standing up in crib, fourth tooth coming through, and first "car" ride. (See below)



Look at the little hillbilly front tooth!!

Let the Baby Gate be Raised

Well, as much as I don't want to do it, I think we are going to be setting up the baby gate this weekend. Carter is looking more like he's going to crawl at any moment and he pulled himself up to a kneeling position on my bookcase the other day. Sigh...goodbye my last shred of freedom...I will miss you.

Carter is loving life these days, so much so that he never seems to want to go to bed at night. Naptimes are going better but bedtime can be an all-out struggle. He fell asleep on my lap around 6 pm last night and Derrick was talking, sitting right next to me, then he whispered in Carter's ear, then he clapped his hands several times, the baby did not even twitch. But at bedtime, if he's FINALLY fallen asleep and I'm trying to carefully tiptoe him over to his bed, even the tiniest squeak in the floor has him instantly awake. How is this possible!?

Untimely boomers

Summer is the time for hot hazy days, ice cream, running through the sprinkler, and....THUNDERSTORMS. Yes, as much as we need some decent rain around here, they always seem to come at the worst time of the day...bedtime! At night, just as Carter is drifting off, it seems like storms are always passing though. This morning, I thought I would have some good time to be productive since it was cloudy (he always sleeps later on cloudy days). But unfortunately these clouds were accompanied by heavy rain and thunder. I know I shouldn't complain becuase we did really need it...but it's hard not to want a few minutes of peace and quiet before the long day begins.

Carter is fascinated by wires these days and since he is currently tugging on some wire that leads to some electrical device in my living room, I must sign off...

A Trifecta of Trouble-Makers

As if a rolling baby weren't enough to make your head spin...my three pets have been increasingly neurotic these days. First we have Nimbus, the OCD kitty who licks himself so obsessively that his whole stomach and most of his legs are completely bald. His favorite pasttime is sneaking into my bathroom and rooting around in the trash can to find any q-tips that are in there, then bringing them downstairs and playing with them. Weird, I know!

Next up is Cirrus the hunter. He has spent the last two days chasing this fly all around the house, leaping up in the air, over furniture, etc. to try and catch it. When he does catch it, and he will, he eats it. BLECH! When the fly manages to hide, Cirrus must find other prey. He carries our socks around the house, or Carter's clothes, or last night Derrick's terrible towel. And while he's dragging it around in his mouth he is meowing this strange gutteral meow, as if to say, look what I caught!!

And finally, we cannot forget dear Radar, whose furry bottom would have been exiled from this family long ago were it my choice. hehehe Her lovely neuroticism is that EVERY night, when we turn off the TV, she thinks there is someone trying to break into our house. Any other time of the day that I turn off the TV, she could care less but at night (when the baby is asleep of course) it's like a 5 alarm fire, she jumps up even when in the deepest slumber, hackles raised, barking, ready for battle. EVERY NIGHT. Maybe someday she'll get it.

How did we manage to surround ourselves with these ridiculous animals, you ask??? I have no idea how we got so lucky.