Muscle Man

Kyle and I are 100% convinced that if there were a contest for Strongest Toddler, Carter would win without a contest! He is made up of mostly muscle -- seriously, this child is one big strong muscle! Below is a video of his newest "strong man" trick: using his amazing core to wheezle himself onto the coffee table. Crazy...

Winter golfing...

Ever since Carter got a taste of the outdoors a couple of weeks ago when we had that beautiful 65 degree weather, he has been so anxious and antsy to get outside. It seemed somewhat mild today so we went out to play with Kyle's old golf clubs and quickly realized how cold it was with the wind whipping. Hopefully the next golf shots I post of Carter, he will be wearing shorts and a t-shirt rather than hat and mittens!

Silverware skills...

One of Carter's favorite foods is yogurt. He hasn't quite mastered his fork and spoon skills yet and since he refuses to wear a bib, I find that I'd rather feed him myself than deal with more dirty laundry and several outfit changes per day. However, I have also realized that I do not want to someday have to be feeding my 5-year-old who doesn't know how to operate his own silverware because his Mom wanted to avoid doing laundry. So we are now working on Carter's silverware skills and I was pleasantly surprised with how well he did with his first attempt at feeding himself his yogurt!

We have spoon-to-mouth contact: success!

Only a little mustache -- not messy at all!

What a clown...

Kyle and I had a few friends over for a little Mexican Fiesta/March Madness gathering at our house on Saturday evening. Carter loves greeting our guests at the front door and he also apparently loves to wear their shoes around the house. He disappeared to the front of the house at one point and we heard him clunking his way back towards the kitchen in Ted's size 13 shoes -- he looks like a clown in such big shoes! What a goof-ball :)

PJs and Toothbrush

Carter's Auntie Maggie gave he and cousin Kieran the cutest matching Monkey PJs for Christmas but Carter's were a little snug from the start (who would've guessed size 24-month pjs would be too small for a 12-month-old). We thought they would definitely be too small now, but they actually weren't too bad. I don't think they'll last much longer, but we had to get a picture of him in them for his Auntie to see :)

We also thought this picture of him brushing his teeth was just too cute not to post. He loves standing on his stool (thanks Grandma Mary!) and brushing/sucking on his toothbrush -- what a good boy!

Sporting his monkey PJs
Brush, Brush, Brush

Piano Man

Dave and Dorothy just returned from their trip to Florida so Carter was excited to go visit his Nonnie and Papa for dinner at their house. One of his favorite things to do at their house is to bang on the piano -- thank goodness we don't have one at home!!

Playing piano with Nonnie

Grandma's New Car and Boomer

PICTURES TO BE ADDED SHORTLY:

Carter was lucky enough to spend the evening with his Auntie Jesse, Uncle John, Grandma and Grandpa Miller and Boomer (Jess & John's dog) while Kyle and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner out at Cafe Maud in Minneapolis with our good friends Jill and Cory.

It was a fun-filled evening for Carter:

My Mom just got a beautiful new car and Carter was so excited to take it for a spin -- in the driveway :) He and Grandma look pretty cool!

One of the reasons Carter loves going to Jess and John's house is because he gets to play with Boomer -- Carter loves him! Since it was such a beautiful evening, they decided to go out for a long walk before dinner and Carter got to walk around with Boomer on his leash -- it was pretty cute!

THANKS for taking such good care of Carter for us Brines! We're so lucky to have you so close-by!!

Blackberry

Most days Carter is just waking-up as Kyle is getting ready to leave for work. While I get breakfast ready, Carter likes to see daddy off to work.

On this particular morning, Kyle set his Blackberry down while he was getting his shoes on -- Carter wasted no time, grabbed it and started typing away. Luckily Kyle has it locked most of the time so Carter wasn't able to cause too much damage :)

"Look what I found!"

Like Father Like Son :)

Owie!

Anytime Carter takes a little tumble or trips, we usually say "owie" and give him some extra lovin' to make him feel better. Our smart little boy recently made the connection between the word "owie" and extra attention, so now anytime he feels like he isn't getting the amount of attention he would like, he throws himself down and says "owie" -- and for added drama he makes his fake crying face (most of you have witnessed it -- it's pretty hilarious :)). Below is a picture of Carter faking a wrist injury -- such a drama king...

"Owie"

Happy St. Patty's Day!

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

Spring Fever...

The last few days have been absolutely beautiful! We took advantage of the nice weather this weekend by taking lots of walks in the wagon, coloring on the driveway with the sidewalk chalk from Grandma Mary, going to the park, etc. Carter absolutely loves the outdoors and has even started to throw a bit of a fuss when we do bring him inside. I guess "cabin fever" can hit at any age!

Kyle and I were able to enjoy our own outdoor activities while Carter napped on Sunday. I went for a nice, long run while Kyle cleaned out the whole garage and went for a short cruise in his car with the top down -- we can't wait for it to get a little warmer so we can take a longer drive with the top down -- Carter is going to love it!

Most of the time, Carter would rather pull/push the wagon himself than ride in it
Right after his nap, we took his lunch outside and had a little picnic while cruising in the wagon
Carter wasn't so sure about the chalk, but we know he'll love it once he fully figures out what to do with it

Mr. Giggles...

Carter's new favorite giggle game...when Kyle stops, Carter says "again, again" until he starts again. Love it! :)

Clean freak...sort of...

Carter has become a clean freak -- sort of.

Not only does he love to vacuum, (as you've learned from previous posts), but now he can't get enough of the Swiffer and wood-floor mop. The only problem is that we keep the Swiffer, mop and vacuums in the front closet behind all of his "big" toys, so in order to get to these things, he has to remove all of his toys from the closet, making a huge mess in the process.

We have since found a new spot for the cleaning supplies.

Empty closet -- toys everywhere...
Mopping the floors for us

35th Wedding Anniversary...

My Mom & Dad celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary on the 16th of March, so we gathered the whole family at our house on Friday night for a casual dinner party. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful example of what a marriage should be -- thanks Mom & Dad!

I didn't get many photos, but Carter and Kieran were up to their old tricks -- playing with the vacuum. I'm not sure what the fascination is, but we found out that Kieran's love of vacuums runs much deeper than Carter's -- apparently he has a magnet at home with a picture of a vacuum on it and he carries it with him everywhere, sleeps with it and chews on it -- too funny!

Checking out the deer in the backyard

New kicks...

I have never understood the fashion trend of Crocs for adults, but I couldn't resist picking-up a pair of toddler Crocs for Carter (they were practically giving them away at Macy's -- on sale from $30 to $1.99!!). The fuzzy lining is removable for warmer months and I think they will be perfect this summer at the cabin! Carter was thrilled with them and spent last night breaking them in...

Buddies...

Carter and I had a playdate on Monday night with two of my high school girlfriends and their sons, who are both 10-months-old. It is always so much fun to catch-up with them and see the boys interact. They are at such a fun age and it is hilarious to sit back and watch them figure things out together. Thanks for hosting this month's gathering, Catie!

Declan (Shannon's son), Henry (Catie's son) and Carter

Intense...

One of Carter's favorite toys is his shape sorting tool bench he received from his Aunt Maggie as a birthday gift. We love watching how intense he gets while hammering away at the shapes. The video below is a little dark, but you'll see how much he loves this toy...

Wagon...

Carter was so excited to get his wagon out again today -- it's been a long winter and we were thrilled to see the sun shining so bright today! We can't wait for the spring and summer days when we'll be able to take longer wagon rides to the park every morning...

First wagon ride of 2009

15-months-old

Carter turned 15-months-old on Tuesday -- we can't believe how quickly he is growing up! This morning we went to visit Dr. Dirks for his check-up and our suspicions were confirmed: Carter is a big boy! Here are his stats:

Weight: 26 lbs. 9 oz. - 77.20%
Height: 2 ft. 9.25 in. - 95.45%
Head: 19 in. - 80.77%

Dr. Dirks said that it is too early to determine if Carter will always be so tall. Apparently you can double what their height is at age 2 and that will come pretty close to determining what their adult height will be. We have a feeling he has inherited the Maloney height! Overall, Carter received a clean bill of health and did a great job with the 3 shots he received.

Some highlights of what our 15-month-old is up to:

• Carter is very chatty and will repeat anything we say.
• He never really sits still -- unless he's sleeping. Even when he is in his highchair or on our laps when we're reading books, there is at least one limb in constant motion -- usually a swinging leg.
• He is about 1-month into part-time daycare and has finally adjusted to being away from Mom.
• Carter's favorite words right now are "no" and "naughty" -- probably because those are the words he has been hearing a lot lately.
• He loves to throw his toys under the couch/chair/table, lay on his belly to look at it and say "uh oh".
  
• Carter seems to eat nonstop -- some of his favorites are yogurt, sweet potatoes, goldfish and pasta.
• He's down to one nap/day but that nap is usually a solid 2.5-3 hours!
  
• He continues to flood the bathroom everytime he takes a bath -- Kyle and I are usually soaking wet due to the crazy splashing.
• Carter's sense of humor is really starting to show -- he loves to be goofy and make us laugh. (refer to picture at the bottom of this post)
  

The list could go on and on. It will be fun to see how it will change and evolve over the coming months and years, as he seems to be doing new things everyday!

Carter being goofy: took the decorative bowl off the table, grabbed my cell phone, sat in the bowl pretending to talk on my phone. Goof-ball :)

Little helper

About a month or so ago, Carter and Kieran spent a solid hour of playtime at my parents' house trying to figuring out the vacuum -- ever since then, Carter has been obsessed with vacuums. He will walk over to the closet where we keep ours, point and repeat "vacuum" until we take it out for him. His favorite is the big vacuum, but that's a bit too big for him to handle, so now he uses our little vacuum, which is just his size -- he loves pushing it around the house.

Checking-out the vacuum
On the move

New spot...

Carter has a new favorite spot to sit and read his books: in the drawer that holds his books -- bizarre...

Carter's new spot...

Florida

For the past 2 years, Kyle and I have taken a trip to Fort Myers, Florida to watch the MN Twins Spring Training. We have always gone with our good friends, Andy & Summer Minnich, and last year we had 3-month-old Carter with us as well. With Andy & Summer expecting their first baby in just over 4 weeks, they were not able to join us this year, so we decided to make it a quick 5-day trip without Carter.

My parents and Kyle's parents are always so willing to help us out with Carter, and this was no exception -- THANK YOU Mom, Dad, Dave & Dorothy for watching Carter while we had this nice little getaway!! You're the best :)

Instead of flying directly into Fort Myers on Wednesday, we made a stop in Miami so Kyle could visit with one of his clients. From there, we had a 2 1/2 hour drive across the state, which really was not as bad as we anticipated. It reminded us of the drive to St. Cloud -- a lot of nothing to look at :) We arrived around dinner-time, settled into our condo with an incredible view of the ocean (thank you Wieden family for letting us stay there!!!), and headed to a nice dinner on the water.

After sleeping-in each morning (until 7:30am -- it was great!!), we'd do the 2-mile walk to a little breakfast spot called Pat & Deb's -- it was delicious but it was definitely good that we had the 2-mile walk on the beach after breakfast to burn off all that food.

We were able to do a lot of our favorite things while there: sleep-in, relax on the beach, nap by the pool, have our own happy hours in the condo, watch the sunset, catch a Twins game, mini golf, incredible dinners out (lots of fresh seafood), and mostly just spending some wonderful one-on-one time with each other.

We missed Carter and talked about him a lot, but we were so happy to have had the opportunity to get away for a while. Enjoy the pictures...!

This was our view on the 2 hour drive from Miami to Fort Myers -- pretty boring
First night -- dinner at Junkanoo on the beach -- one of our favorite little casual spots

Sunset from the condo
Dinner at Vincenzo's -- delicious Italian restaurant

Joe Mauer warming-up on the practice field
Twins vs. Yankee's game team line-up
Justin Morneau (my fav :)) warming-up
Mike Redmond & Justin Morneau pre-game
Our annual pic in front of the fountain at Hammond Stadium -- we're already looking forward to next year!