Rocked DC!!!

I was accepted to present at the American Evaluation Association conference in DC, so we decided to make a vacation out of it. I flew out with Carter and Casey met us there about an hour later. We got to stay in the very cushy Washington Hilton, which was near Dupont Circle. 

The first day the government was still shut down, which was a big time bummer. But we made the best of it by going to Lincoln's Waffle Shop for a delicious breakfast.

And visiting Ford's Theater. We also went through the Lincoln museum across the street. We learned a lot of cool stuff there.

Carter and I outside the white house. He has some amazing looks in most of these pictures. It's a mix of confusion and disinterest, but he really had a lot of fun.

On most days, I was in the conference and Casey n Carter hit up the sites. At the Capital, Carter was told that the government was shutdown and is giving his, "are you kidding me, you ridiculous politicians look. "

The next day the government was back up and running, thank goodness, and so the boys went to the Smithsonian. 

Casey really enjoyed the air and space museum and Carter was undecided. 

Carter got to cruise around in his lush stroller, while Casey and I pushed him all over DC. We ate tons of food, so it's probably a good thing that we walked so much.

Carter was too young to enjoy the zoo, but we liked it! Especially the sea lions and penguins. Carter enjoyed all the kids around him and was constantly trying to talk to them.

After the zoo we made a stop to eat our first ever falafels. They were delicious and the shop was cute too. That night we had some amazing wood oven pizza and got Carter and Casey ready for their trip home. They left at 5:15 am and got to Utah at 1:00 pm. It was a long trip for both of them

The sad part was that Casey's job wasn't over. He had Carter until Sunday morning when I got home. Casey did a great job and reaffirmed the truth that he's a great dad!!!

Sorry for the Long Lapse in Posts

I've been super busy for the last few weeks with Carter waking up at night, teaching a night class for University of Phoenix and then just my regular stuff (work, cooking, laundry, etc.) So this will just be a quickie of cute photos of Carter.

 Bathtub fun!

 Still loves the computer. He's doing what we call a modified butt pop. The full butt pop is more of a V shape.

 New uses for the play station. LOL.

Hungry for something to eat and trying to see if anyone will catch him in the act.

End of Summer Fun!

It's amazing how fast 3 weeks fly by when you're working, watching a kid, doing the home chores, and trying to have a few minutes of fun. Casey had a fun Saturday with Carter and left me so I could watch Michigan play. There were fake glasses involved in this fun, hopefully he will never really need them!

 Next, I'm pretty sure that we crashed a stake activity, which I thought was a yard sale. They had 4 huge tables full of clothes, which were actually a clothing swap. They also had hotdogs, cotton candy, and snow cones. We had to partake. They also had various animals. As you can see, Carter loved riding the tortoise. And I was horrified to hear about the SNAKE that Carter was holding/wearing. Can't take my eyes off Casey for even a second.

 Oh, and that's not snow cone remnants on Casey's teeth; it's just a weird shadow. We had fun last weekend at the Brazilian festival. Carter's favorite part was trying to put the cap back on my water bottle. He was sooo focused. And he inherited the tongue out focus from his father. We witnessed this "tongue out focus" while Casey was water skiing while on vacation in Texas. Like father, like son.

Carter is crawling now and it's only a matter of time until he finds the toilet. He loves the water and I'm just praying that he never manages to find it.

Best Summer Vacation....Ever!!!

Ok, it was the best summer vacation this year and our only vacation. We did a 6 hr drive to Mesa Verde and camped for one night because Carter is not a good sleeping camper. We ate some amazing foiled dinners and goulash and did a bit of hiking.

 This is a common face for Carter during the hiking portion. Not sure if he really loved it.

 Carter did look around a lot and often when we were trying to take a family picture. We enjoyed touring 3 houses, going down in the kiva, and learning about the culture.

 One thing that he did love was drinking water out of mommies water bottle. Though most of it ended up on his shirt, he was a much happier hiker.

 

 We climbed through small tunnels and up some really tall ladders. By the end of the ladder, I was methodically going one rung at a time so as not to kill Carter and me.

Casey wasn't nearly as scared and hauled up the ladder with Carter!

All in all, we had a great time (even Carter) and really enjoyed learning about the Pueblo people. After Mesa Verde, we drove through the night for 14 hours to get to Tyler, Tx. We were going to stop and rest a bit, but every time we stopped the car, Carter woke up. That monkey!

Once in Texas, Carter adapted well and is saying "howdy" in this picture or maybe he's just yelling, which he does a lot now. We continued the good food theme with some delicious Texas BBQ, amazing Japanese food feast, and lots of Blue Bell ice cream. Carter loved being around so much family and especially that silly Grampy!

But Carter, by far, LOVED playing with his cousin, Ruby. He would light up even when she took his toys or gave him whiplash in his jumper. Now that's family love. I enjoyed holding and snuggling with little baby Gary. He was just as cute as can be and so light compared to Carter!

Carter spent most of the 21 hour drive home either single or double-fisting his car seat while sleeping. He's a fun kid!

 

Handcart Days

We had a lot of fun during Handcart Days here in bountiful. 

 We met a real life Indian! and although it was pretty hot in there it was really amazing how big the tent is. Toshi's popsicle is melting as we took the picture.

Toshi Carter and I made it through the obstacle course.... barely. There was an obstacle that you had to get over and when you climb up on it it collapsed. Carter landed on me so he was fine. Hardest part was the wall you had to climb to get to the top of the slide. Toshi even had to help a few kids who were stuck halfway up the wall. Carter as usual has something better to look at than the camera. 

3 Teeth

You can't see the teeth, but the bottom two and top one are making their grand entry into Carter's smile. We've had a few early wake-up calls, but other than that, he's teething pretty well. I think it's because he chews on things so much. As you can see below. 

He's rolling around a lot and I'm pretty sure will be crawling soon!

Technology vs Nature

My apologies to the very few loyal Mau 2.0 readers, but I had carpal tunnel surgery about 2 weeks ago and it's been tough to get things done. But we did have an active 4th of July. I decided that we should go on a hike near our house to Elephant Rock. As you can see, Carter looks less than excited, despite being in a pretty sweet carrier that we got for $5 at a yard sale.

The 2.5 miles (1.5 hours) to Elephant Rock went well and Carter took a little nap. Unfortunately, just as we got to the top and were basking in the beautiful view, he lost it. Started really crying hard. We thought he had been bitten by a horse fly, there were about 2.4 million along the trail, but he was just tired of hiking. So we pretty much ran all the way back down the mountain and got down in about 40 minutes.

Casey kept taking pictures of the back of me while hiking (see one of the many below) not sure what that was about. But by the time we got home, we were pretty much done for the day. Carter went to sleep at 8 pm, so no fireworks for us. 

 Is Carter the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? We shall see, but he truly is just like daddy-loves the computer. He even has the face down. One thing that Casey would really like him to do is crawl. I'm still not on board because once he is mobile; it's over. Despite using the computer and Haagendazs Mango sorbet, to lure him into crawling, he is still not moving.

 This picture shows that he finally found a use for the pacifier. He would never take it as a baby and has finally found joy in using it as a chew toy. Sometimes he tries to put the entire thing in his mouth, which is hilarious and he usually chokes himself.

But he's a fun little noise machine. He's getting big, about 27.5 in long and 18 pounds. I'm hoping for a future tight end.

Carter is learning so quickly. We are starting to see a trend of him sleeping more, which means everyone gets to sleep more (especially Lori).

 He is jumping now in the jumper, it is actually quite entertaining. A black kid from Detroit was selling cleaner door to door and Lori gave in to his good sales skills and charm (it might have to do with the fact that after finding out she was from Michigan he yelled, "Go Big Blue!") So now we have this "amazing" cleaner.

I also thought we should add another of carter. This one was while eating peas, not his messiest encounter with solids.

My Everyday Routines

This isn't a very exciting post, but it's been a while. We have been busy having family visit. At the end of May, Grandma Rettew visited and now Grandma Sugiyama is here. Carter is being very spoiled.

 This is one of his newest, used toy that makes tons of fun sounds and lights up. He hasn't learned to jump yet, but we hope he will figure it out soon.

 We often go outside now that it's nice. Carter loves the grass and picks up anything he can find and sticks it straight in his mouth. You can't tell by this picture, but he is finally growing more hair.

The last thing we love to do is read books. Thanks to his Grandmas we have plenty of books to read!!

Did somebody say food?

As you can see, Carter is still a baldy, but this kid loves to eat. Sometimes it's a chore to get him to drink his bottle but could eat 5 lbs of rice cereal if we would let him. He's starting to realize what happens when he sits in this chair and so he's always happy.

Hey guys, do you think that my mouth is big enough? Casey is always tempted to give him random food that we are eating but stops because he doesn't want to be up all night with Carter if he has a tummy ache.

We haven't found a food that he won't eat, but we haven't tried peas yet. He usually just has a funny face on the first bite or two. This is the funniest video of him eating that we have so far.

My body is so fun!!!

 About 3 weeks ago, Carter really started to realize that his tongue is a fun toy. He loves to stick it out in all shapes and sizes. He also loves when you stick your tongue out and make noises with it. He's a pretty silly monkey.

His new favorite toy is his feet. He tries to pull his socks off and also eat his sock. I'm happy with this new, inexpensive entertainment!

 

 

 

First Feedings

 It's finally spring!!! So we have been doing a lot of walks and hikes with Carter. Because he doesn't have much hair on his noggin, he may be wearing hats all summer.

We just started feeding him rice cereal and he loves it. He's a great eater (he's definitely a Mau), which you can see from the photo, his bib is clean and just a little on the face. We can't wait to start feeding him baby food and will post videos of that fun soon.
He loves to stick his tongue out and make noises with it. He's learning new things every day!

As carter looks up and thinks to himself, "who is that crazy looking weirdo?" or maybe, "ummmm, will you let go of me now?" or, "why is this guy smiling so much?" Carter is drooling a lot, gnawing on just about anything he can put his mouth around including a Doritos bag, which he very much enjoys playing with.

Recent Dandies

 Here's a cute one of him raising his eye brows, though you can't actually see them. He is slowly getting darker eye brows as well as more hair on his dome. Thank goodness.

 Carter celebrating St. Patty's Day with Great-Grandma Nordstrom. They were both lovin' Julie's corned beef, though carter got it much later.

 Carter's workin the gangster look and sportin a headband that I won at Crimson Nights at the U. Thank you again to Candace who babysat so we could rock that party.

Lastly, he loves to see himself in the mirror. He's givin himself a smile cuz he's thinkin, I'm lookin good. He's just like his daddy.