It's only fun until one looses an eye...

Carter loves the eyes. Loves em. He loves to poke his little fingers in our eyes, in other people's eyes, and even the eyes of characters in picture books. Does this mean Carter will be an Opthamologist?

I have included a few pictures from our trip to Winnipeg...all seem to mysteriously have...eyes...in them. What can this mean?

Not only can you see Carter's eyes...you get a good view of the crack in his butt!












Luckily Alison left Ant Jennette's house with both eyes. Her head was a little worse for ware after Carter brained her with his truck, mind you.




Carter plays with his Mom's old lady balloons. "Gosh, my Mum shure is olde!", Carter exclaimed with excitment. The balloons were a HUGE hit.

Baby = Jeff Goldblum?

Today, Matt mentioned that Carter spends his time searching for the anomaly, inspecting and deciphering it. Does that make a baby like a scientist? I think so. It is all about patterns.

E.g. There is a floor. On this floor (which is so clean, no dust, hair or food-RIGHT!) there is a single speck of dirt. What on earth can this be? I will touch it with my finger. No, that is not good enough. Let's just place it in the storage, incubation facility to determine texture, taste, and ease of digestion.

OK, really, once you break it down, it is less Carter trying his darndest to get into EVERYTHING, and more Carter having a need to learn about everything. That makes it easier...especially after a weekend spent following Carter crawling around, saying "Danger, danger." pulling him away from life ending object after another and placing him in front of a boring toy.

This just in...Carter now can put himself in a sitting position from crawling. Now that he can do it, he can't be stopped.

Today's broadcast is brought to you by the letter, C

I think it may be time for a new edition of ... what is Carter doing? This edition will be broken into catagories (rather than chronological, or an as it happens report)

Chow:
Carter is now eating some of his softer foods, like avocado, diced. It is pretty tempting to squish the softer foods in your hands. I know, it is hard to resist that urge even now. It is also amazing to see Carter progressing with a cup. He can actually use a standard sippy cup. Matt and I just leave the cup on his tray, and he takes a sip whenever he wants. A further extension of how his demands and needs are becoming more obvious to him, and he is even able to act on them as well, rather than relying on us.

Mobility:
Carter has quickly gone from rolling everywhere, with great accuracy, to the beginning and now mid-stages of crawling. He has gone beyond rocking on all fours, and will now get up on all fours and launch himself forward. Sometimes he is a little close to a wall, door, or object, but he does not seem to mind the collision. Ruth mentioned today that Carter was "this close" to sitting from a laying down position. Try that at home, kiddies!



Carter in mid crawl

Going for Gold:
Along the lines of mobility, and being able to achieve and get what he wants, Carter also is motivated to get to places. Often places he is not supposed to go, and I think he also knows he is not really supposed to be there. He hears the "no no no", because he will turn back at times, and then keep on truckin' to the target. I think the favorite is cords. How nice, eh? Yes, the monitor cord on Matt's computer, the tv cord under the entertainment unit. Ahhhh, safety boy.

Vocalize
Carter has added to "mum mum mum" with an occasional "ba ba ba" and "da da da". However, the most interesting development to date has been the growl. I can"t say how long he has been doing this, but not too long. When I say growl, I mean, yes, that guttural noise that starts at the base of your throat and comes out from often sealed lips. He will often do it during times of concentration. The other quite funny thing that he does is making a noise and then taking the back of his hand and rubbing it back and forth over his mouth to make the sound come out different. Coupled with talking into his "measure up cups", it all makes for a noisy household (where on earth did he get that from?)

Bath time game
Carter has been doing this for a while now, but I have not posted it yet. Since Matt is in LA this week at PDC (even the guy on the logo LOOKS like Matt!) I have been bathing Carter regularly (he smells better that way). For some reason, I think it is the buttons on our shirts, Carter likes to make a game of trying to pull us in his little baby tub with him. He will pull on our shirts while he is in there and just keep yanking towards him. Quite funny for the bather, and bath-ee.

I know every one tells you "they change so fast." You really don't have any comprehension of what that means until you see them changing before your very eyes. When Erik was a baby, he was always different every time I saw him, but I saw him only every few months, so I expected that. I just had no idea how quick the changes were. I guess you really don't until you are there at the time.

Basically, I am saying, I am sure I am forgetting things that Carter is doing, that are new, but I don't quite know what they are-they seem so natural. He is still the little boy full of smiles, giggles and grins, ready to figure out the next puzzle.

This one is pretty cute too...

Wanna see me teeth?

"Toothy McClure, at your service...wah."










"How did you find me? I am wearing camo!"











Carter's best Gene Kelly look














Close your eyes!

My Family, by Carter Heinrichs....

Erik Stokes Smith on his first day of School. He is so dapper!












Aidan and Ethan Elies in Calgary-they really hate having their picture taken.

A trend that has to stop.

Yesterday we had quite a scare with Carter, and I will start off the post by saying, "Everything is fine, Carter is fine (minus a few missed zzzz and some bruising from tests), Mom and Dad are still recovering"

Yesterday I got a call in the early afternoon from Carter's primary daycare provider, Ruth, telling me that when Carter was in a different daycare last week (a friend of Ruth's) he was exposed to meningococcal meningitis. The little girl who had it was quite sick at the Children's Hospital downtown in the ICU. The floor dropped out from underneath me. "What does this mean?" Ruth explained that Carter will likely have to go to the doctor and get tested, and may be put on antibiotics. She also gave me the phone number for someone at the Minnesota Department of Health (who I called and she told me to follow through with the same course of action).

I got an appointment for Carter at the end of the day, and proceded to call Matt. Luckily, I was at home, and I could turn into a sloppy mess. Matt was at work and did not have that luxury.

At Carter's appointment in the afternoon with the nurse practitioner, it was discovered Carter was running an internal fever of 102. We were then told we had to go to Children's Hospital Emergency downtown. Of course, the time currently was 5:30, so we couln't get there near as fast as we wanted (which I think if we could have accomplished, instantly would have been preferable).

At the hospital, Carter, Matt and I were placed immediately in a negative isolation room, and any staff that entered had to wear a mask. (info on negative isolation rooms, fyi) I think the mask people really freaked Carter out, especailly since they were obsessed with sticking things into him, and most of his holes.

By the time the night was finished, Carter had blood drawn (2x), once from the finger, and once from a line inserted into his hand (which they later used to administer the antibiotic), had many internal rectal temperatures taken, and just generally poked and prodded.

Carter's case caused quite a kerfufle. Several ER docs had several meetings about what what the next best course of action. The Infectious Disease Doctor made the final decision, but that took most of the evening.

Because they were talking most of the night about giving Carter a spinal tap, he was not allowed to eat anything. Once they decided a spinal was not required, and to just administer the antibiotic, Carter got to eat some milk, and they even coughed up some applesauce for his trouble.

Now? After his follow up appointment today, the little boy sleeps. He had a wonderful lunch outside in the wind and sun (ohhhh, how exciting that was, indeed!) And I have time to reflect on how lucky we are to have such a wonderful son.

More than ever, we're just thankful that we have a healthy and happy little boy, who for all he went through last night and all he couldn't possibly understand, is still in wonderful spirits today.