Merry Christmas!

Candy Cane on the move!

Carter's First Crawl

Exactly 8 years after Dax asked Kathleen to be his wife, Carter (feeling like the day required something momentous) elected to crawl his first few steps.

Carter has been so close the past few days, rocking back and forth with abandon (and falling over each time), but today he mastered the move if only for a fleeting second and took three moves towards an object that he just had to have. Kathleen and Dax are so proud to have a child that recognizes the truly special anniversaries and can rise to the occasion.

The moment was witnessed by Kathleen and his Nana. Dax can confirm the moment as the conference call he was conducting was interrupted by the uncontrollable screams from the other room.

Hello, World, I'm Eight Months Old Today!

A few shots of our rice cereal eating, board book reading, almost crawling, balancing on Daddy's hands (Mommy is a little leery of this trick!) eight-month-old little man.

Hello, World, I'm Seven Months Old Today!

As our little man celebrates the beginning of month seven, we thought we'd share a couple of his great loves.

1. The Bouncy Seat. (Not that there's a lot of sitting happening in it - quite the opposite!)

2. His fingers. He likes to jam as many as possible into his mouth, ESPECIALLY during meal time. But not the thumb. Never the thumb.

3. Killa. She is the creature he wants to see most when he comes down the stairs in the morning. Thank goodness the bouncy seat swivels so he can track her at all times.

4. Remote controls. The more buttons, the better.

5. Playing with as many toys at the same time as possible. No wonder this kid doesn't sit up unassisted yet. Sitting involves remaining in the same place for more than four seconds at a time. Completely unacceptable to young Mr. Carter White.

6. Walks with Daddy in the Bjorn. Carter doesn't care that colder weather has arrived in Chicago. As long as that fleece will stuff into the Bjorn, he's good to go.

(Disclaimer: two of these pictures - the second and last one - show Carter before his official seven month milestone. But they were just too cute not to include.)

Gooooooo Dawgs! Sic 'em! (hoohoohooohoohoo...)

A couple of weekends back, Carter and his parents flew down to Georgia for a special event that Dax has been planning for almost a calendar year...ever since he heard the words, "It's a boy!" at our 20 week ultrasound appointment.

On October 16th, three generations of White family men (a baby Bulldog fan, a daddy Bulldog fan, and a Granddad Bulldog) walked into Sanford Stadium to cheer on the University of Georgia Bulldogs in their football game against Vanderbilt. Kathleen was along for the ride for diaper changes and a quick exit from the stadium with Carter when the crowd noise became a little more than a nap-needing baby could handle.

For the past three weeks, the Bulldog chant has also been a surefire way to make Carter smile and belly laugh, so you can bet we'll be cheering on UGA in all their future matchups.

Go Dawgs!

Happy Halloween!

Love Affair with a Lint Roller

Engaged in some tummy time play yesterday, Carter fell head over heels with a new object. Not the elephant with taggies that vibrates and has a bell. Not the stacking rings that were just recently introduced. No. His new favorite item? A lint roller. His mommy was using it to capture some of Killa's hairs from his playmat, never expecting that the rolling motion and sound would result in ten solid minutes of belly laughs from her son. Here's the photographic evidence that for a six-month-old, it really doesn't get better than a lint roller. (Expectant parents, take note and update your gift registries now!)

And speaking of rollers, the last picture shows that the little man doesn't stay in one place for very long these days!

Hello, World, It's My Half Birthday!

Well, yesterday, October 7th, was the official six month milestone. Mommy dropped the ball because Carter is actually celebrating six months with a head cold, poor little guy! The first two pictures taken on our growing boy yesterday with his mommy and then daddy were snapped at Lakeview Pediatrics, just before Carter's first sick appointment with the fabulous Dr. Perlman. Since Dax has a history of chronic childhood ear infections, we wanted to make sure Carter isn't following in his daddy's footsteps in that one regard. (So far, so good.) I will say that Carter amazes me: even with a lot of congestion, he still manages to retain his good spirits and even belly laughed a couple of times yesterday while camped out in a steamy bathroom with his mommy. I couldn't ask for a better baby!

The other five pictures are a photographic look back at the past months leading up to Carter's half year milestone. Holy cow, where did the time go?

Football Saturdays

Two weekends ago, on Saturday, September 11th, we enjoyed an anomaly in our fall schedule - a weekend "off" to watch football. The contenders that day were Northwestern versus Illinois State (the Wildcats celebrated the "W"), Florida State versus Oklahoma (sadly, FSU was not the victor) and The Ohio State University versus
Miami (since both sides of Carter's family tree were rooting for opposing teams in this matchup, I'll let Carter's outfit speak to who the Family White cheered for... One hint - the winners' mascot is a poisonous nut.)

Carter's Uncle Harrison was rooming with us during said weekend, before officially moving into his Southside apartment and starting classes at U of Chicago, so he got in on the football cheering action and even posed for a few pictures with his nephew.

Proud Daddy covered all the basics with Carter, from the Heisman to tackles. And we even got a family shot in our college football finest.

This past weekend, Nana was in attendance for more football and very sweetly agreed to babysit her grandson while Kathleen and Dax ran around town doing errands.

Carter's First Yawn

So now that we know how to post video, we are going back to the beginning. Here is the first video taken of our little guy back on April 7, 2010 (his Birth Day!). We were fortunate enough to capture his first adorable yawn. Enjoy!

Carter's First Belly Laugh

Eureka. After months, literally months, of attempting to upload videos of Carter, all it took was a visit from Carter's Uncle Harrison to finally figure out how to extract video of Carter. Here is the first of many videos set to come. It is a video from about a month ago when we put Carter in his bouncy seat for the very first time. As you will see, he LOVED it! Enjoy.

Hello, World, I'm Five Months Old Today!

In his second (nearly destroyed) oufit of the day, Carter poses in his carseat in his hometown's Midway airport. The family White returned today from a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe to witness friends Adam and Alicia Ginsburgh (!) become husband and wife. Two days at the Hyatt in Incline Village have left us wondering why in the world every sane person doesn't call Lake Tahoe home - it's GORGEOUS there.

Taking Carter along on the cross country jaunt was possible because a very kind Mimi offered to spend the vast majority of her Labor Day weekend in hotel rooms, continuing the sleep training that Carter's mommy and daddy began two weeks ago. Early bedtimes for Carter, and a lot of room service meals for Mimi! Luckily, we let our babysitter out in the daylight hours for some fresh air to hike with us and exercise her amazing photography skills... we dare you to guess which two of these pictures are her work.

We are very happy to report that our little guy behaved himself fabulously on both four hour plane trips between Chicago and Reno, NV. He slept the entire way there, and napped and played happily, with no screaming on the return. Hallelujah! (The little stinker did subject his mommy to a rather foul diaper change in the much-too-tiny lavatory on the way home, and earned himself a costume change with his efforts. But a perfect baby with no bowel movements would just be boring, right?)

Indoctrination

With football season right around the corner, I spent a chunk of my morning playtime with Carter today demonstrating how to cheer for the Ohio State Buckeyes: I say, "O-H!" and the reply is "I-O!" Needless to say, the little man doesn't quite have it down yet, but he did squeal along with me and very much enjoyed watching his Mommy throw her hands in the air repeatedly.

Five minutes later, Dax appeared with his laptop and proceeded to teach Carter the Seminole chop, complete with audio/visual prompts from a clip of an FSU football game. (With Dax working from home, he can hear the goings on upstairs, via our 100+ years-old-home's air vents, and wanted to make sure that our child is simultaneously and evenly a Wildcat/Seminole/Buckeye/Bulldog fan.)

And don't worry, fellow NU alums; we've been working on Carter's Wildcat claw and growl since birth - if you don't believe me, check out the posts from April 2010.

Dax and I may not always agree on our favorite college football teams, but we are united in our support of our hometown Northsiders and are teaching our son to love them as well...go Cubs!

Hello, World, I'm Four Months Old Today!

Our little man starts his fourth month today, yet he's acting a bit older than his age! Carter is a baby on the go, and is happiest when standing on his (wobbly) legs, which he can even use to take steps (stomps) forward with the help of one of his parents holding him up. If he's not standing up, he wants to be sitting up, and although he doesn't have the ab muscles to remain steady, he loves being propped against pillows or a sturdy seat to check out the world from an upright position.

"The Carter Show" has also been expanding, with coos starting in consonants; G's are his favorite sounds, and if he's reclined in his vibrating seat while performing, he must be strapped in so that he doesn't launch himself out of the seat!

Because of his love of being upright, (and the utter exhaustion of Mom and Dad's biceps from constantly holding up a 15+ lb baby) this week a dutiful Daddy constructed his son's bouncy seat activity area and was rewarded with 30 seconds solid of belly laughs the first time we placed him in the bucket seat and swiveled him around. We actually captured the whole event on camcorder, although we haven't quite figured out how to upload the footage. Stay tuned.

What a wonderful month it has been!

Hello, World, I'm Three Months Old (and a week) Today!

Carter was too busy vacationing on the shores of Lake Michigan last week, during his actual three month milestone, to write a blog post. For a blissful and relaxing week, we enjoyed all the spoils of a rented lakehouse with the Christy clan... We swang him into slumber on a swing overlooking Lake Michigan, enjoyed daily doses of "The Carter Show" (Carter's morning routine of smiling and cooing and entertaining the masses - or just Mommy) over coffee, and stroll(er)ed around the lovely little town of Saugatuck, stopping routinely to sample wines and plenty of the sour cherry preserves. Carter's swimsuit didn't get wet yet, but he did dip his toes into the 70 degree waves of the lake...and the adorable photo capturing said event will be posted soon.

So, here's our darling 14 week old boy, performing "The Carter Show" this morning...