Our Little 19-Month-Old!

Carter celebrated 19 months of life, laughter and RUNNING on Monday, November 7th! Although his mama is hopeless at capturing her little man in a non-blurry photo, Carter's Mimi is in town, so you know what that means. Great pictures galore AND someone to entertain Carter while I frantically post the pictures.

We love you, Carter! Thanks for slowing down long enough to hug us and blow us kisses with an exuberant "Mwah!"

Carter's 18th Month Doctor's Appointment

Do not let this picture fool you, Carter is a "Beast." He had his 18th month doctor's appointment today and measured in at a robust 33 3/4 inches and 28.6 lbs (90th and 75th percentile respectively). Dax and Kathleen have made the executive decision to stop saving money for Carter's college education as he is clearly going to get a football scholarship :) Besides, it appears that they will need those nickels and dimes for food and clothes.

Long Overdue Update!

Even though we haven't posted in a while, that doesn't mean we haven't been up to anything (quite the opposite, actually). Can you believe our little guy (who is not so little by the way) is already 18 months old?!? Here are some recent pictures of Carter's first Pumpkin Patch (complete with first pony ride), and our trip today to the park.

What can we say, we cannot get enough of this guy!

Celebrating a Daddy and a Beagle

Happy Father's Day 2011 and happy birthday to our seven-year-old beagle, Killa! The man of honor wanted a hike on his special day, so hike we did, at the Sag Valley Forest Preserve, a mere 30 min drive to the south side of Chicagoland. A thrilled Dax shared his love of nature with his son (and his wife.) We trekked a heavily wooded trail that seemed more like rural Ohio than anything we could get to after such a short drive from our house! A nice change of latitude for us city folk.

Upon arriving home, we trekked again; this time to Scooter's, a Roscoe Village frozen custard institution, to get for our birthday beagle her annual "doggy cone" (a miniature vanilla frozen custard cone) and properly celebrate her seventh birthday. After all that hiking, Carter was also excited to try his very first dairy treat... although you can see from his tired eyes that he had skipped his second nap and was a little confused as to how to eat his cone. I guess licking takes a little practice!

Early bedtimes for the family White tonight! And Happy Father's Day to all of our incredible fathers - we love you!

Carter's First Year

Here is a collage of Carter's First Year. Many of these pictures have been shared at other times and places, but Dax was bored and consolidated them in this fun format. When you see them condensed like this, you realize just HOW MUCH we did with Carter the first year!

Carter and his Great-Grandparents Walsh

Don't misread Carter's yawn in this group photo; our little guy was pretty darn enamored with his Great-Grandma Nancy and Great-Grandpa Jim. He just wishes we would have let him pull their potted plant completely apart. (We are at the beginning stages of teaching Carter that he can't do absolutely everything he wants to do, all the time. What a rough life lesson... and a necessary one!)

Thanks for the great visit!

14-Month-Old Carter!

How is it possible that our sweet baby boy hit his fourteen month milestone today? We don't have a "day of" picture to share just yet, as we're currently enjoying family time in Augusta, Georgia with Carter's Great-Grandparents Walsh, but we promise to post more pictures of our busy toddler soon. It's hard work, all this wooing of great-grandparents: waving to them, hugging them, pointing out every breakable object in their house...

Special Day

Today was a special day. It was the first time that Carter or Dax had ever gotten to run around the field at Wrigley! It is a day that Daddy will never forget.

The Dance of the Belt

Lucky Dax; he was the happy recipient of a new belt on his birthday two weeks ago. And not just any old belt, but a nautical-themed one, with the flags of the Moorings Yacht Club adorning it. Captain Dax loves his belt. One tiny issue...

CARTER loves Dax's belt even more! Every day, upon entering his Mommy and Daddy's room, he seeks out this belt and performs "The Dance of the Belt," an exotic and concentrated modern dance-esque performance. He clutches the belt, and toddling or crawling with it, drags the buckle on the ground, bangs the length of the belt against our sliding glass door, spins in complicated three-point turns from a sitting position, winds the belt around his legs and maneuvers out of pretzel-like positions... there is intricacy in "The Dance of the Belt." (And perhaps only one known performer!)

Woe to anyone who tries to take the belt away during The Dance. Or anyone who tries to thread the belt through his pant loops and wear it. The Dance ends only after a significant period of time, multiple rooms have been traversed, and perhaps Mommy cajoles Carter with a handful of Cheerios or cheese.

Carter performed a similar ritual this past weekend at his friend, Ian's, birthday party. Luckily there was no belt involved; instead, our one-year-old in perpetual motion found a mylar Elmo balloon with a long ribbon string and proceeded to lap the McFarlane's apartment with the balloon clutched in two hands for an entire hour and a half. I was certain someone had strapped a pedometer on the little man and told him he couldn't stop moving until he reached a certain number of steps. But I should have known better - Carter was simply performing "The Walk of the Balloon."

I see marathons in this kid's future. Perhaps run while clutching a belt.

Birthday Boy!

A few pics from Carter's birthday party. More to follow.

Can you believe it, I am 1 year old today?!?

There isn't a better way to celebrate than with Carter's first Southport Grocery cup cake! He took to cake and icing like a Gator football coach takes to quitting - he tried it once and liked it so much he did it again. Although we celebrated today just as a family, on Saturday, Carter is having all of his little buddies over for a proper bash. Kathleen is hard at work on Carter's elephant cake as we speak.

If only Carter were a happy baby...

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our Little Leprechaun!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Carter rocked his green outfit and took his first 6 steps! At this rate, Carter is only a few months from heading off to college :)

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

After a weekend in Southern California celebrating radiant bride-to-be Michelle, this morning's 6:30 a.m. wake up call from the little man should have been annoying or exhausting... it wasn't. Never have I been so happy to sprint to my son's room, throw open the door and watch him turn in his crib to grin at me and exclaim his greeting. Carter has stolen my heart, yet again! (Just like his Daddy before him...) I'm convinced the pre-7 a.m. wakeup was purely because he was excited to see me, too.

Our little guy welcomes his eleven month milestone today, still with the sniffles (day 16 of a head cold, poor kid!) but no lack of energy or spunk. Seconds after I've rescued him from his crib, changed his diaper and fed him his morning bottle, Carter is crawling around his nursery at the speed of light, greeting his toys and stuffed animals, pulling on cords to see how I'll react, and then sprint-crawling into my lap to stand up and bounce. Carter loves to bounce. It might be his favorite thing. Either that, a bath, a Bjorn walk with Daddy, or the whole milk yogurt of which he can't get enough.

In a month we'll be celebrating his official birthday, so we are going to soak in all the joys of having a baby boy this last month before having to reluctantly admit he's a toddler.

Carter Discovers "Echo"

With Kathleen in California for a bachelorette party, this weekend was the first time it was just Daddy and Carter for an extended time. Despite having the sniffles, Carter did wonderfully and the two had a great time together. Carter also discovered the wonders of cups and just how funny they can be.

Hello, World, I'm 10 Months Old! (plus two days...)

Yep, Mama and Dada are running a little behind on a milestone post. But we're willing to bet that if you spent all day with the most active little man ever, you'd be behind on other tasks (eating, bathing, posting on the family blog) too!

Carter has welcomed his tenth month with a flurry of activity. I have taken to calling him "Mini Mighty Mouse" because he never. Stops. Moving. Ever. Around seven a.m., I am called to his nursery with squawks -sometimes growls, growling is a current fascination and preferred form of communication - to find him standing up, a big grin on his face. From that moment until roughly twelve hours later, Carter is on the go. Crawling, rolling, pulling up, standing, turning, cruising, grabbing, banging, toppling towers of blocks, crashing... it's hard to find an action verb that doesn't apply to one Mr. Carter Christopher White. Thank goodness for affordable on-site daycare at my gym and for the carpeted, block-and-platform-filled space at Gymboree! These outlets for action were especially important to my sanity last week when we were snowed in for a day during "Snow-pocalypse 2011." A special thanks to Dax for quickly shoveling 20+ inches of snow so that Carter and I could emerge as soon as possible from our house.

Here are two pictures taken on February 7th, two more post-blizzard and a final shot I snapped yesterday showing the little man taking a brief moment to stop and grin.

Peek a boo

As you can see, Snowpocolypse 2011 did not stop Carter from having some fun with his Mommy and Daddy.

Carter Playtime

This video was taken on Dax's phone several months ago. In order to preserve it, we are posting it here as well. It is actually a pretty sweet father/son moment.

Hello World, I am Nine Months Old today!