Late again!

Well, here it is, Sunday, and I'm just getting around to posting this week's blog. We should change our page to say we're currently aiming for updates whenever we get around to it. :)

Carter is now 5 1/2 months old... and the staged photo to the left is meant to announce that he can now sit up! (What that means is that once propped up, he can sometimes manage not to fall over for a few seconds while somebody snaps a picture. This is the fourth photo we took and the first one where Cierra's hand is out of frame.) So, yay for phony milestones!

We all had 3 days off in a row this week, so last minute we decided to take Carter and Pogo on a mini-vacation to the mountains of NC! This was Carter's first experience with mountains and he seemed to really feed off of it. Here he is feeding off of his Baby Bjorn...

Here he is feeding off of Cierra... Hey, Trail Mix Milk... this stuff is good!
Back at the cabin, we finally decided to chill out for a while.

C'mon Dad, wake up! I gotta get back out there!

And finally, a view of what we hiked out to see... Stone Mountain, NC. It's pretty awesome. In our pre-baby days we'd have taken a half-day and dragged ourselves all the way up and back down that sucker. But I was more than happy just hiking around near the bottom and snapping photos. The view from the top can't be nearly as good anyway. :)

Carter's stirring now, so we'll write more next week!

It's tough to stay crunchy.

Carter is now 5 months old! Whoa! You mean, I've been doing this daddy thing for 5 months already? That can't be right. Does having a kid turn up the time-speed dial to somewhere between "blur" and "warp"?

The title of the post is an inside joke that I should explain. Some friends of ours who also attended our birthing class liked to refer to people who care about the environment and act accordingly as "crunchy". Not sure if they just made that up, or heard it somewhere, but somehow it seems to me that the term fits really well. Now that we're growing and selling local produce at the farmer's market, I would proudly suggest that we are "crunchy" people...

We're also using the cloth diapers, so that we keep Mother Earth happy and reduce waste going to our local landfill. And I'm more than happy to be doing that, 99.9% of the time. The other .1% of the time is when I am changing a diaper that is a giant mass of poop. Other folks just have to worry about removing poop from the baby. When I'm done with that, I must also remove poop from the diaper. Though at least the diaper doesn't fight with me and try to stick it's hand in the poop while I'm cleaning it off.

Still, sometimes I wish I could throw an occasional diaper in the trash. Faced with smelly feces in the future, I fear I may go stale and lose my crunchy-ness completely.

Enough complaining! Let's look at the world from a new perspective!

No matter how bad a day Carter is having, turning him upside down will almost always result in a smile. Other things he loves.... well he likes us alright, but he really LOVES Pogo.

But when Carter's done playing with the dog, he has to go to work like all the rest of us. Here he is at the office, at a little outfit I like to call "Starship Command." Listen to him issuing orders to his subordinate officers. :)

Poopsplosion!

Remember the scene at the end of the Lion King where they hold the little baby up under the arms to show him off? That scene was re-inacted in our home this morning except Hunter was showing off (and keeping his distance from) the "poopsplosion" that had just occurred in Carter's pants. I'm glad both of us were home to tackle that mess! Hunter held him over the tub, while I sprayed him off - what a scene. Happily, there are no pictures of that event, but here's what else happened this week...

We all went to the farmer's market as a family - Carter didn't know what to do with the watermelons except bang on them like bongos (fortunately, I don't think that alters the taste at all!). The end of the market got rained out - Carter had just fallen asleep when the drops started to fall. I was sure that they would wake him up on the 1-2 minute jog to the car, but he didn't seem to notice!

Our babysitting co-op is officially up and running. Hunter and I took the opportunity to get out for a lunch and a movie date day while Carter played with Riley. Doesn't it look like he is trying to sneak is arm around her?!

Riley was kind enough to let him try out her swing, too - I think he liked it!

We are still trying to do everything we can to get him to giggle, but without even trying, Pogo always wins the prize. Carter loves it when we through her 'egg'. We'll try to capture the scene for a video post next week.

Carter and I continue to try and make it to the library to shelve once a week - they also have a fun 30 minute baby program with singing, toys, books, and bubbles that is great for him. He loves looking at the other babies and shaking his groove thing!

Where is the time going?

I've been distracted from today's post, going back through all of the photos from newborn to now. It is absolutely incredible how much the little man has changed right before our eyes. At one time, it seemed like ages waiting for him to smile, waiting for him to laugh, and waiting for him to develop a consistent sleep pattern. Yet, looking back - how quickly it all went!

He really seems like such a little man now. You can feel him watching your every move (don't watch daddy dance Carter - those aren't moves you want to follow!)

The laughing is absolutely the best - I seem to have the most success getting giggles when I nuzzle in his neck. Hunter plays the tickly spider game to get the gaffaws. Pogo can do just about anything and he'll giggle which is especially helpful when he's getting a little fussy.

In general, he is more in control of his little world - he knows how to control his hands and grab directly for something he's interested in. He's found his feet, but they haven't found their way into his mouth yet. Carter has been eyeing the watermelons that Hunter has been selling at the market - wondering if he could get something as big as that in his mouth. We haven't let him try yet, so he'll have to stick with gnawing on the Bjorn as dad chats with customers.

I am excited to continue trying new ways of carrying him in the wrap - he still loves being in front and flailing his arms and legs as we walk, but 15lbs of active can be a little hard on the back after a while and his hands are too good now to allow me to cook and eat with him attached, so we have been practicing a 'rucksack carry' with Hunter spotting me as I wrap the little guy up on my back. Once he's up there, he's very content and thankfully hasn't pulled out too many tufts of my hair yet!

Below are a few videos of the sounds we hear around the house....talking and snoring.....