LAS VEGAS!

(Last post of the night, promise!! ;)

I'm so excited! We booked our Sept. vacay to Vegas this morning! We're going to stay for 4 nights. My mom is taking a week off work to keep Carter for us. I've left him before, but never for that long or that far away. Hopefully I'll be OK! ;) I know he'll be fine at Gramma's with all the animals and Pa to play with.

Puke.

Lots of it. And a fever to boot. Poor Carter. He had a slight fever and the runs on Wednesday. He was fine as frog hair on Thursday, then on Friday (last night) started with another fever and a tummy-ache. So with some Motrin and Mylicon he slept decent, then today has kept a fever of around 103* with meds, and tonight started vomiting. Whoa. Only have ever dealt with that with him once before, and nowhere near this much. (I'm obviously not counting the buckets of projectile formula give-back from his infant reflux!) We got him cleaned up and I put him in a luke bath for his temperature, and the poor baby was shuddering as hard as he could. So, I didn't let him stay there long and got him out, wrapped him up and cuddled, then meds before he conked out.

Finally! What every mother longs to hear...

Her child calling her "mama". Sure, it was his first word, but he's never used it as a word, but more of one of his "first sounds". As the mother of a late talking child, I have waited to hear him say this for almost 2 years, or even longer if you count the time I would daydream about it during pregnancy.

This morning, Carter said "Mama". I am on cloud nine. He's had a hard time with bi-labial (front/lip) sounds, and mainly uses back sounds, so this was a great accomplishment for him!! And it wasn't a fluke, he's been saying it all day! He will point to Chris and say "daddy!" and then to me and say "mama!". MELT!!! Also, he now says "baa baa" for a sheep sound instead of "eeh eeh". haha! OH! And he loves to say "Hey" and wave to anyone and everyone now! So cute. YAY! Come on word explosion!!!!!!

His sign language is proving to be VERY beneficial to him as well. Last night he woke up at 3am (ugh), and was able to tell us he wanted a drink of milk by signing "drink" and then "milk". Awesome. I very gladly got his milk for him and he went back to sleep.

Library time!

We've got a couple of public libraries close by - each having a little program for toddlers. Last week we (I) decided to take Carter to the one in Elkin, which was more of a story-time deal. That one didn't go over so well, as he was in a new place and wanted to "explore" the room while the other kiddos sat and listened. Granted, he was the youngest there, and a few others took his lead and got up too... but it was still a little much for me.

So today we went to the Wilkes library where they have a weekly "Music & Movement" toddler program on Thursdays. I was a little apprehensive going in there and hoping it wouldn't be a repeat of Elkin, but it was AWESOME! Carter had such a great time, and so did I! They had music, dancing, got to play instruments, blow bubbles, it was a blast! So, we're going to be doing that more often I think! :) He seemed to really enjoy himself. He did tell me he was ready to go though by going and sitting in a chair, rubbing his tummy and doing the sign for "eat", and saying "num yum" then proceeded to take my finger and lead me to the door! Guess he was hungry!

Something else kinda cute, he tells me to "Shh!" now when I sing to him! HAHA He does this every time now, he will put his finger over his lips and go "SHH!". Hey - I don't care - it's a word!!

I'll work on my singing later! ;)

Now what?

I'm new at this whole blogging thing... I've been wanting to start one for a while as an outlet for some feelings toward certain things, and hopefully it can help to clear my head some. So often I feel that there is so much running around in there that I can't keep it all straight, and having this to look back on will be good. I think.

Here lately Carter has really seemed to start calming down a lot. He doesn't run completely wild all the time anymore, and seems to be more content with one thing at a time for more than a few minutes. His imagination and pretend play is picking up too and I love it. It's so cute to watch him play with his tractors, farm animals and barn, pretend the horsey is eating hay. "Umm num yum goo!" (that's mmm yum yum good for those of you who don't know baby talk ;)

His speech is slowly but surely picking up as well, and I love it! He's saying more and more words now than he did a month ago. He's only had 3 speech therapy sessions so far, and those mainly consisted of sign language. While I think the sign language is great, I want him to talk already!! haha He picks right up on those signs though. After seeing it once he knows what it is and uses it. Sometimes Chris and I will have to look up what one is and then, "OH! you want help?" Awesome. His two newest words are "daddy" and "hey". Still no "mommy" since he uses "backing" according to the SLP, all his sounds are made in the back of the mouth, so b, p, m aren't his best sounds yet. I'm working on that! The other night before bed he finished his milk and said, "Daddy! Aw go. He go. day do." (daddy! all gone, here you go, thank you) and handed his cup to daddy.

Just under a month until he turns 2. Amazing.