"Mum, mum, mum, ba, ba, ba"

We are still waiting for Carter to utter the words "da da da". Regardless, Carter started baby babble this weekend. So cool to hear, and so funny to watch. Carter will warm up with moving his mouth the way you need to in order make annunciated sound, but not vocalize. Then he will follow with his voice, which will crescendo as he gets going. He started on Saturday with a few "mum, mum, mum's" and Sunday in the car on the way home, he was a man unstoppable. Beginning Monday he branched out to "ba ba ba", and now we are working to get other sounds going.

If you missed it-we were in Canada this weekend (thus the car reference on Sunday). We had a great, small, rather secret trip. We arrived on Friday (very a.m.-like 2:00 to be exact). Friday evening we surprised Mom for her birthday on Monday. Erik, Amma and Adine enjoyed some birthday cake and patted each other on the back for turning another year older. Saturday we headed to Altona to celebrate the Heppner's 60th wedding anniversary. That too was fun, as we got to see relatives we have not seen for a while, and new ones (like Max Heppner-born 5 months ago in April) we have not met yet.

All in all, we had a great trip to Canada, with a difficult drive there in rain that was heavy, and fog that was thick, and a smooth drive home with a baby that babbled and slept the whole time.

Here are some photos:



Great Grandma and Grandpa celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary












Rolling around like a crazy fool with Dad










Matt busy, hard at work, making burgers and farmer sausage for the crowd

"I see you there...not playin' with me."



Here is a shot of Carter and his Auntie Kate.



Here is a shot of Carter and his PT, Joanna Freeberg.

Sharp as a razor, yo.

Carter officially has sprung a new tooth. How cool! It has just made its way out of his gums and is sticking a little bit out. Sufficed to say, he is still getting used to it. Today while he was playing, he kept swiping his tounge over it, as if it was food in order to eat it?

Not too sure, really, but he was checking it out, that I know-I think (the mantra of a parent).

Wave Bye Bye

We have been trying to get Carter to wave bye-bye for a few weeks now-making a big deal of when we leave for the morning waving goodbye to each other. Today, as I was leaving with Carter to drop him off to daycare, I was waving to Matt with Carter's right hand, and he started waving his left hand. What a SMART baby! If you go to the title of this entry, you will see a poll done by babycenter.com-who found that most babies are beginning to wave goodbye at Carter's age (45%). Still, to see your own child do it...I know he is not the first, by far, but it was so cool!

Carter is getting better and more efficient at rolling, and the creeping is also getting him more places he wants to go. It is really a matter of weeks before he is truly crawling.

What else is new and exciting today?

ERIK STOKES SMITH, Carter's cousin, turns 4 years old today! When we got to daycare today, I got all the kids to sing happy birthday to Erik over my cell phone. I feel bad, because I don't think he heard it all that well. Erik and his mom (Carter's Tante Kirstin) are off to Kenora today for a few days of R&R.

ALSO-Carter's ANT Jennette got a new job at the University of Manitoba as the film tech. What does this mean? you ask. Ant Jennette is employed at a job she is going to love, and get a ton of experience doing...plus she gets to be a hard-ace enforcing the equipment policy to all the students borrowing equipment.

So, today is a good day. Have a good one yourself.

Emergency Room Visit

Carter had his first visit to the emergency room last evening. After digesting a good portion of a magazine insert, and calling the urgent care hotline at Carter's clinic, the doctor on call recommended a visit to the emergency room. The first attempt was the urgent care clinic near our house, which was not open that time on Saturday. So, we did the next closest thing, we went to Fairview Southdale-the hospital Carter was supposed to be born in.

Now, during all this commotion, Carter was as happy as could be, and not fussy to be fed either. I guess the magazine helped curb any food urges he may have had.

After seeing several nurses, and then the doctor, we were discharged and home by 7:00. I am sure everyone in Canada reading this is wondering what time we arrived there...you may not want to know. If you don't-just go to the next paragraph. For those who do, we arrived at 5:50.

The best part of the visit? Everyone was very friendly, and told Carter how adorable he was. He was at his most charming. The worst part of the visit? Several. After thinking that something could be wrong with him, and suspecting that although it isn't, there is still that dread hanging over your head that it may be. Also, the doctors and nurses who thought we were skiddish first time parents for bringing Carter in. We were told to do so! You can't very well NOT do something after thinking that every movement afterward was him choking on magazine...could you? Also, coming to terms with the fact that even if we keep insane watch on him, he will still do distructo things that may actually hurt him the next time. We can only hope he doesn't have my emergency room history in his future (for those who don't know, I was visiting the emergency room once a year from age 7-14...pretty good record, eh?)

Oh-and also, we learned that Carter weighs just over 20lbs.

And, for those of you who were wondering? I think Carter has eliminated his magazine this morning...not only was his poop stinky, it was pretty colourful.

To Physio or Not to Physio

The short answer is, by being and doing Carter will be keeping up with his physio. If things keep going as well as they have, Carter will not need to go back to the Physiotherapist.

Carter likely had his last appointment with Joanna yesterday. Honestly, it was his best appointment yet. He was so charming and had such a great time. I think it was definitely a pay off for those times that he would scream the entire time he was there in the beginning. Joanna had Carter reaching behind while sitting, which was a challenge for him, and also had him propping himself on his hand while laying on his side (also difficult-and something else for us to work on). I am glad he doesn't have to go to PT anymore, but I am sad that we won't be able to get to see Joanna. She was so nice and patient with Carter, and always complemented him even if he was purple from screaming. Now, a reminder, Carter's discontent at PT is still a big "?" because Joanna was not manipulating him in the least. It was one of those baby-who-knows-what-the-heck-is-going-on moments.

I do have pictures coming, but as my motherboard is on the fritz, you will have to wait. Check out the links on the side-I have just learned how to do this, and will likely populate it this weekend. The link for They Might be Giants, is to promote a new CD Carter got called "The ABC's", which I am not sure he likes as much as he enjoyed watching me dance to it.

Still Hangin' On

Although Carter's fever had gone by the end of the day last week, it seems whatever he was fighting is still trying to rear its ugly head. The poor baby has a nice rattle-y cough. Hopefully this is the last of it, and not something that is going to linger.

Carter is starting to pick up food with his thumb and pointer finger-but is a long way from doing it with ease. Sometimes the cracker will slip into his palm and he will either forget about it (if he isn't that hungry) or he will open his palm and drag his hand into his mouth. Again, it really depends on how motivated he is for the cracker he is going for.

More and more he is laughing and even initiating games with us, which is kind of cool. It is funny to watch him sitting on the floor playing with a random object, and just start laughing-obviously something has struck him as funny, but who knows what it could be. The newest is the raspberry game. This involves blowing a raspberry at us (with much spittum included) and waiting for a return (but not always needing one!) Of course peek-a-boo is an all time favourite for any baby, but can get a little tiresome for everyone after a short period.

Matt and I are in the process (well, Matt is) into looking into having video clips on the blog. Hopefully we can score that, because then you can, from time to time, see Carter in action. We will keep you posted.

As for recent pictures, I have some shots of when Morrie and Keith visited, but my computer is down for the count, so you will have to be patient and just keep reading our posts!

Disco Fever

Carter woke up today with a small fever...his first. It is a low grade fever (99.5), and really nothing to worry about. He still went to daycare, and apparently has spent the morning glassily gazing at the older kids running around and playing.

"WHY DID HE GET THE FEVER?" You may ask yourself? Well, I have been sick, without a fever, I may add, but he must be fighting my infection.

So, send your healing thoughts out to Carter today...poor sleepy, feverie, baby.