Karter IS ONE!!!

The arrival of Karter’s birthday brought much reflection and many memories. What joy this little guy has brought to our family. He has brought smile after smile to each one of our faces. He causes us all to become a bit (or maybe a lot) proud! We love to see his accomplishments. We love to spend time with him. We love to snuggle and we love to play. I love seeing his cheerful face when he comes down in the morning after a good nights sleep. I love his bashful look when anyone but our family looks at him. I love how he snuggles and becomes cozy because he is “shy”. I love how he loves his siblings and I love how they love him right back. I love how he sleeps with his bum in the air and his ankles crossed. I love how he smiles with his mouth crazy wide open sometimes. I love how he can be a goof when he knows people are watching him. I love how he loves to be outside and see what is going on. I love how he meanders around the house – sometimes playing, sometimes just wandering. I love how when he can’t find me in the house he starts to whimper and then eventually get rather sad. I love how he smiles just so easy. I love how he gets sad (or mad) and will lie down on the floor or with his face to the wall and pout and cry. It’s pretty cute (for now!). I love hearing him shriek as he runs from room to room. He can get pretty noisy sometimes. I love his character and seeing it changing, growing, and being molded every day. Really . . . in this mother’s humble opinion . . . there’s not too much NOT to love.

(one year ago)

We are so thankful for this boy. What a gift from God. We are excited to see him grow and mature and pray that we will be diligent and wise in our leading and guiding of him. We pray that he will love the Lord from a young age and have a heart that want to serve Him always. WE LOVE YOU KARTER!!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

At the beginning of the day I had thought that Karter would have  a "gift-less" birthday.  We have so many toys already and a lot of them that haven't been played with in a long time and are starting to be fun for Karter now. So since gifts really aren't that big of a deal for a one year old, I figured we'd just skip that part of the day.  But I found a few things in my stash that I had bought way back and then got too "young" for Kevin and Kade . . .so he did would get a few things after all. 

And then Jonathan came home with this as well . . .

 Which of course was a hit!

 Opa and Oma came over at night and although Karter wasn't interested in the gift at all at first . . . when he caught sight of the candy inside, he changed his mind.

 Except Oma had only packed candies for the oldest three!!  Imagine that!! So Kevin "offered" his to Karter and took a substitute.

 We did icecream "cake".  Karter was not very happy at this point. Teething and diaper rash made him very sad . . . but you can see that his mood did improve as the ice cream made its way into his belly:)

 At 12 Months/1 year Karter . . .


• Has had his first haircut and it is stinkin’ cute!

                                                                           (Before)
                               

 (Before with his fabulous wide open mouth smile!)

 (after - blurry - but with another of his fabulous smiles)

 (After)

• Not only walks . . . he runs too.

• Has 8 teeth . . . he is getting his top molars – one is somewhat through – the other is causing a lot of grief still.

• Is shy and cute about it. He has gotten a little friendlier in his shyness, but if Jonathan or I are around, we are the preference. If we are not around, he is fairly friendly.

• Loves busying himself in the bathroom. He loves to flush the toilets. He loves to play with the toilet brush. He loves to play with the toilet water. He loves to dump out the garbage cans.  Most of the time it is not a big deal to keep him out of the bathrooms, but it is when I need to get ready for something and do my hair, makeup etc. that it can be a bit of a trial. He gets so upset if I shut the door and block him out.  Either way, I wish he would get bored with this fascination . . .but he doesn't.

• Expresses his sadnesses in the cutest way. You just can’t resist rescuing him when he stands against the wall with his hands over his eyes and his lip out and cries.

• Loves animals. I can’t wait for the weather to get warmer so he can actually see more of them. He doesn’t seem to have any fear at all yet. (hopefully that doesn’t change).

• Loves it outside . . . the few chances he has had! Come Spring come!!

• Can be a showoff.

• Loves his toy bus. It’s got the perfect "handle" on it for driving it around all over the place.

• Loves hockey and anything else with a ball.

• Has a pretty good routine – 2 naps (though they are never very long) and bed at night from 7:30 to 7:30 ish.

• Plays peekaboo with his blanket and finds it quite entertaining now that he is the one “in charge”.

• Loves chasing Kevin around the island and trying to find him.

• Climbs and is starting to figure out the right way to get down off of things.

• Drinks milk . . . took a bit of convincing and a bit of “flavor enhancing” at first, but he likes it alright now.

• Drinks from a sippy cup and a bottle. He is not a cozy drinker. He rarely will lay there or sit and drink the whole bottle (and I only have the small ones). He drinks a bit, walks away, comes back to it etc.

• Can be a bit of a bully to his fellow one year olds at church. Now that he is walking he figures it’s time for revenge!

• is affectionately called "Piggles" by me.

• Loves his soothers though if they are out of sight, they seem to be out of mind. (except for in bed . . . then they become a bit more important)

• Is loved!!!

 

  This is what a lot of my pictures are looking like lately - he moves too fast!!! (and always runs straight for the camera)

 We had a meeting at our house one night and Kylie was being a bit of a nuisance. She was supposed to be in bed, but was "scared". I finally put her on the mattress in Karters room. This is what I found before I went to bed. Pretty cute!

Kylie shared her sucker with Karter . . .