Carter is TEN MONTHS!

Impossible to believe, but true- our sweet Carter is TEN MONTHS old today!  The past month has been a very busy one for Carter.  He's a faster crawler than ever before!  Although he still crawls on his tummy army style about 75% of the time, this month he managed to do some crawling on all fours.  When he's really trying to move though, he knows he is much faster in his perfected army crawl and drops from his knees to his belly and moves, moves, moves!  He is SO fast!  It's unbelievable!  He has also started doing some serious cruising.  He loves to cruise the sofa, tables, train table, and even along the cabinets just keeping his hands on the outside of the cabinets for balance.  At this rate, I think he will be running by his first birthday.  :)  As he has become more active he has become less content to be in the Johnny Jumper, Exersaucer, and Walker much to my dismay. I miss being able to put him somewhere semi-stationary that he would be happy. 
I think the main reason that he's so active and moves so much is because he tries to stay caught up with big brother.  Speaking of brother-now that Carter is more active than ever, there have been some sibling disputes in the playroom. :)  Carter wants to be right where Dawson is, playing with what Dawson has, talking (babbling) when Dawson talks, and so on.  Dawson attempts to be as patient with him as a three year old can be, but to be honest, a lot of times this does end in one of the two boys upset.  It really is sweet though, how interested Carter is in his brother.  If Dawson's talking, Carter just starts babbling over him, Dawson gets louder, then Carter does too!  We are convinced that Carter is the loudest member of our family because he's always yelling.  He's happy, just yelling.  The other day Dawson took something from Carter, so Carter took off after him crawling and yelling, after a minute of unsuccessfully trying to catch his brother, Carter just started yelling, "MA MA MA MA!"  Is this Carter's first time tattling?  :)
Carter is so aware of everything that is going on around him.  Lately this is making food very difficult.  As far as we know, he is still allergic to milk so he is very limited on what he can eat.  He looks at brother's plate and yells and reaches for the things on it meanwhile I feed him veggies, meat, fruit, and dairy free crackers.  He has realized that he's not getting EVERYTHING, and he's not too happy about it.  The good news, though, is that he's still an excellent eater.  We have perfected dairy free pancakes, and he eats between one and one and a half big cakes.  He still likes his oatmeal for breakfast and bedtime snack and meats, veggies, and fruits for lunch and dinner.  He nurses about 5 times a day still too.  He's started having little snacks of dairy free crackers, Cheerios, and fruit too.  If anyone in the house is eating or having a snack, he thinks he should be eating too!  I guess it takes a lot of food to fuel all the moving he does!
Carter is still on the same nap schedule, and he has still been getting up just two times a night to eat.
In addition to Ma Ma, Da Da, Bye Bye Bye, and Bu Bu (brother), Carter has also started saying BO (boat) when pointing to the sailboats in his room.  He's really proud of this and wants to do it each time we're in his room.  When you ask, "Where are the lights?" he will now point up to the lights in each room and smile.  In addition to this communication, he's still signing "more," and he's also started signing "all done."  We have shown him the sign for "changed" when he's getting his diaper changed, and he tries this but he has yet to perfect it.  We are also working on the sign for cup, but at this point he finds it easier to yell when he wants his cup than take time to make the sign.  :)
Carter is still a very happy boy, and he's the happiest crawling or cruising around the playroom with big brother's big kid toys.  Carter also LOVES bath time.  He seems to know that big brother does not like to be splashed, and so he makes sure to do this all the time.  He's so wild in the tub, but he has so much fun splashing around.  Carter doesn't mind at all when his entire face including his eyes and noes are soaked, he just smiles.  One final thing we love that Carter is doing more and more at this age is dancing.  If there is music playing anywhere, Carter hears it, stops what he is doing, and sways side to side!  So cute!
We love Carter so much, and we can't believe how quickly the past ten months have passed!!
On to the pictures....

Carter is 10 months!

Both boys were giggling and squirmy

during the pictures, but they were having fun!

Dawson and Carter.

Carter clapping for himself during his little

photo shoot!

Carter cruises all the furniture and walls

now, but sometimes he gets tired from

all this crusing and has to rest!

And then he's back to crusing!

Carter trying his first pancake (dairy-free, of course).

He liked the his pancakes much better

the second time around.  (I improved

upon the dairy free recipe, and they were tasty!)

Now he loves them!

I love to watch these two play

side by side.

And, Carter still loves to tunnel!

Our Visit from the Houghs

The last weekend of January was a lot of fun!!  Our friends the Houghs came up from Alabama to visit us.  Steven and Kelly have been kind enough to host us in Alabama TWO times, and we have been trying to work out a time for them to come visit us since July!!  Thankfully it finally worked out!  We had such a fun weekend hanging out with them and their sweet 11 month old, Henry! 

The Friday they were supposed to arrive we had an ice storm, and I was worried they wouldn't be able to make it.  BUT thankfully they did!  Friday even we just chatted and let the kids play.

 

 

Saturday morning the boys spent a long time playing in the playroom all in their footed pajamas!  Carter and Henry were REALLY interested in each other.  We joked that they were baby wrestling because they would just crawl over top of each other.  Dawson enjoyed the little boys too!  He loved to refer to them as "the babies."  (Since Henry left, this has actually continued.  Now he has been referencing Carter and Baby 3 as "the babies."  I think he just like distinguishing himself as a big kid!)  He was always telling us what "the babies" were doing; not tattling, just updates.  "The babies are looking in the toy box."  "The babies are playing with the train tracks."  It was so fun to spend some time with Henry because I know if we were still in Alabama, we would be having playdates with Henry all the time (for Carter and Henry's benefit, of course!)  :)

On Saturday afternoon we all got dressed up in our Tennessee orange to go to the UT basketball game.  Lolly and Pop kept Dawson and Carter since it was nap time, and the rest of us headed on to the game.

Go Vols!

When we first arrived,

we took some time to walk around campus.

Steven and Kelly went to UT too, although

we didn't know them until we moved to

Alabama.  It was fun to walk around campus

a little though and see what all had (and hadn't) changed.

Then here we are before the game began!

Henry loved watching everything that was

going on in the arena.  He was perfectly

entertained the whole time!

Thankfully we cheered the Vols on to a one point victory

over Alabama!!

On Sunday we had the Gibsons over for lunch

for a little Alabama reunion!  :)

It was so fun having this group together and

watching the kids play.  Here's a group shot of

all the kids!

Left to right:  Dawson, Carter, Henry, Olivia, Charlie.

Babies with Mommies.

 

We really had such a great weekend with our friends!  We hope they will come back to visit again very soon!!!

Baby Number THREE!

John, Dawson, Carter, and I are excited to announce that our family will be growing!  Baby Zorio 3 is due on August 12!

We had our first ultrasound to see Baby Three

when I was 8 weeks pregnant.  The baby looks

healthy, and the heart beat was strong!

Then we got another ultrasound at

11 weeks!  Look how much our little

baby grew in just three short weeks!

Again, the baby looks healthy with a

strong heart beat.  We could see him/her

moving during the ultrasound too.

I have to say, that even with this being

our third, it is still amazing when they

show you the tiny baby on the ultrasound!

 

When we were 10.5 weeks along we decided to share the news with our families.  We shared the news with Dawson the same day we told our families since we knew he couldn't keep a secret!  :)  Dawson said, "that's good" when we told him the news.  He didn't have much of a reaction at all.  Over the course of the past couple of weeks though, Dawson has been talking about "the new baby" a lot.  He has told us that he thinks the baby will be a boy, his favorite color will be yellow, and he's also given us several name suggestions.  In true, three-year-old boy fashion, the first two names that he suggested were Poopie and PeePee (lovely, I know), but then he suggested John Deere.  Lastly he suggested Moby.  (I think he came up with this name from the Moby Wrap Carrier I put Carter in a lot.)  We will clearly NOT be naming the baby any of these names, but to make it fun for Dawson we told him we could call the baby Moby until we find out if it's a boy or girl.  Then we will call him/her by their name.  He thinks this is fun for now.  As for the gender, John's guess is boy.  Dawson's guess is boy.  AND my guess is girl.  Maybe I'll hold up some pink and blue and have Carter pick a gender before our ultrasound, so he can be involved too!  :)  As of now, we are scheduled to find out the gender on March 6th!  We have our girl name picked out, but we still have to determine a boy name before the gender ultrasound!

Other pregnancy information, so far this has been the easiest pregnancy yet (knock on wood)!  I have not been sick at all really.  The only thing I have experienced is fatigue.  I will admit I'm a lot more tired than either previous pregnancy, but I can take tired over the other options!  :)

When I was twelve weeks we shared the exciting news with our friends, and now here on the blog too!

By the time Baby Zorio Number Three arrives Dawson will be four and Carter will be 15 months.  We are so excited to be welcoming another baby to our family, and we love him or her already!

 

 

11 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Three

 

12 Weeks Pregnant with Baby Three

January 2013

We spent the month of January looking for indoor activities to entertain ourselves since it has been SO cold here!  We have had some crazy weather this month from flooding, to snow, to an ice storm; needless to say, we haven't played outside much at all!

We started the month out by taking Dawson

and Carter to our old high school for the homecoming

basketball game!  Dawson had a blast watching the game,

getting attention from our friends and teachers, and eating

some snacks in the stands.  Carter did great too!  The

game went until after 9:30?!  John and I both commented that

we couldn't believe it went so late, and then we laughed at

ourselves because the games went that late when we were in

high school too and we never thought a thing about it.

When you have kids to get in bed it's a different story!  :)

Dawson and Carter were great for being up almost TWO

hours past bedtime, and both seemed to have a great time!

Above is a picture of Dawson and Daddy in the stands!

On January 13th John and his Dad left

Tennessee for Arizona.  They had planned

a several day vacation to Phoenix to

play golf and see some sights.

Here are some amazing pictures he took

while on his trip. 

Oh, and here's Carter helping

pack Daddy's suitcase before John

left for Arizona.

So pretty!

John and his Dad in Arizona.

John on the Arizona trip.

Arizona.

Arizona.

John in Arizona.

When John and his Dad were flying

back from Arizona, it started snowing!

Dawson loved watching it snow!

He was so excited!

We took some time to play in it

the evening it snowed.  Dawson

also got some time in the snow

the next morning after John was

home.  Dawson was begging to

ride his Gator through the snow,

but it turned out not to go well

in the snow.  So the guys made

snowballs, played, and even built a

fire in the fire pit in the snow!  Dawson

loved it!!  (Carter and I stayed inside

where it was warm!!!)

Carter ready for the snow in his

snowman sweater!

Carter got a little time in the snow,

but he wasn't really a fan of the cold!

Dawson made this snowball that we kept in our

freezer until two days ago when he decided it

was time to throw it on the patio and drive over it on

his John Deere Gator!  haha!

John brought us back some souvenirs

from Arizona.  This is Carter's onesie.

Too cute!

And here he is wearing it!

The week that John was in Arizona

we had some wild weather.  At

the beginning of the week it flooded.

This was a picture I took driving down

the street to send to him!  Then at the

end of the week he was welcomed back home

with snow.

We had to get the baby gate out

of the attic since Carter crawls everywhere

quickly now.  If I leave the room, the both stand

at the gate like this yelling...you would think I

locked them in a room with no toys or something?!

I love to see these two sweet brothers

playing side by side.  Look how big

Carter looks!

 

Also this month we've had some fun playdates with our friends the Gibsons and the Myers.  The last weekend of January we had some friends from Alabama come up for a visit.  I plan to do their visit as a separate posting as soon as I get the pictures together.  Other than that, this wraps up January!

Carter, Uncle Logan, and Pop!

Everyone always comments on how much Carter looks like his Uncle Logan, and I couldn't agree more.  Carter does look A LOT like my brother.  Since I'm eight years older than my brother, I was old enough to really remember what Logan looked like as a baby...and he looked like Carter!  To have a little fun with this, I decided to get out some of my brother's baby clothes and take some pictures of Carter in them for comparison.  So here we go...

Uncle Logan above

and Carter below.

(Carter is a little older here than Logan

was in the photo above, but they still

look alike and have on the same outfit.)

Logan above

Carter below

(The outfit Carter is wearing for this picture

 is one of his Uncle Logan's.  Again, although

there is an age difference between these two

pictures-Logan being older this time-they

still look similiar!)

And now just for fun and because

I think Carter looks like my Dad too...

Above is a picture of my Dad, Carter's Pop,

and below is a picture of Carter.

I love this sweet boy!

Carter is NINE MONTHS!

These two are so wiggly and silly that it's hard

to get a photo of them together!

Carter 9 months!

Dawson 3 1/2 years!

As soon as they got in the chair together

they both got wiggly and wild.

Silly boys!

Carter is 9 months!

Unfortunately Carter

has figured out how to climb the two

step we have in our house.  They

go from the playroom to the kitchen,

and he thinks it SO fun because he knows

he not supposed to do it.  After he climbs

to the top he takes off crawling and smiling!

Carter must think this looks like a fun place

to crawl because he always tries to get

between the couch and end table...

then he gets stuck!  It must look like

a fun tunnel to him!

Carter had a really hard time being still

for his little 9 month photo shoot in the chair

because he really wanted to crawl over to the

arm and pull up on it.

Carter's favorite toys are Dawson's toys

that are tiny and a 9 month old should never

play with...like this hotwheels car.

He loves these things!

Look at that sweet face!

Carter 9 months!

He LOVES to tunnel!

Dawson and Carter playing on the

musical table!

 

As of yesterday, January 13th, Carter is now 9 months!  He has such a wonderful personality and is a really happy 9 month old.  Thankfully about a month ago he got into a much better night sleeping pattern.  Now he only wakes up two times a night!!  It's awesome!  He will still have a few nights here and there where for an unknown reason he is awake more than usually, but for the most part he's only getting up twice between 8pm and 6-6:30am.  He also takes two naps during the day a one-hour morning nap, and an afternoon nap which is also an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.  He really doesn't sleep much to just be 9 months, and he's SO active when he's awake that I'm not sure how he's not exhausted all the time.  I think he just doesn't want to miss anything big brother could be doing!
Speaking of Dawson, Carter LOVES Dawson more than ever at this age.  Now that Carter can crawl around wherever Dawson is, Carter is right beside him (or on top of him).  Carter will just crawl right over Dawson's back if he's laying on his tummy or up on his lap if he's seated on the floor.  It's really sweet, and Dawson loves it about 95% of the time.  That other 5% of the time, Dawson just doesn't want Carter messing up something he's built-blocks, train tracks, etc. 
Back to how I said Carter is crawling.  He is and isn't crawling.  He has been army-man crawling for about a month now, but he's gotten really good at it!!  He's super fast!  A lot of the time he will get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth like he is going to crawl, but then he puts his stomach back down and does the army crawl while also pushing with his legs...I guess he has decided this is fastest way for him to move!  I'm beginning to think that he is not going to every "really" crawl on his hands and knees because he's started pulling up on everything lately so I think he may move to cruising/walking next.  Either way, he's mobile!  This month he has also figured out how to go from his tummy to sitting back up on his bottom!
Carter is continuing to grow, although I don't have is official weight and length for 9 months because his check up is still a few days away.  He will have gained weight for sure though!  He's going through a little over 100 ounces of food a week!  This is NOT counting the fruit (apples or bananas) I mash into his oatmeal at breakfast and bedtime which probably adds about 42 more ounces on to the weekly total.  AND he's eating regular oatmeal, not the infant powder oatmeal, those two times day, and he loves it!  For lunch and dinner he has veggies, meat, and fruit.  He loves to snack on Cheerios or Puffs.  He also demands that I share my bagel (most bagels are dairy free!) with him each morning AFTER he has finished a big bowl of oatmeal.  He still nurses about 5-6 times a day too.  So I know he's gained weight!  All that crawling and exploring requires a lot of calories!
Carter has learned and perfected some new "tricks" this month!  :)  He now waves bye bye and hi one command or sometimes just when I carry him out of the room.  He will say bye! and sometimes hi!  He claps!  If anyone says "yay" he knows that's the cue for clapping and starts clapping, although he just does it a lot on his own too!  When he does it he makes a sound like "ayyyy" imitating our "yay!"  He will still sign more and we're working on "done."  There have been three times this week where he has seemed to sign done at the appropriate time, but I'm not 100 percent certain it was intentional...so I don't know that is official yet!  :)  He's started making the kiss sound when we say to give a kiss, but he's not wild about performing this trick yet and only does it about 3/4 of the time.  He will also high five if you ask about ask frequently, still not a favorite of his yet, although he does know what to do. 
Carter is very vocal!  He's a loud baby, just babbling and making sounds ALL the time!  The louder we are, the louder Carter gets.  He knows I am "Mama," John is "Dada," and Dawson is "Buba" and calls us those names.
Carter also loves to dance if there's music playing anywhere, he hears it and moves side-to-side!  I love it.  He will also dancing when I sing him little songs.
When Dawson became mobile he was obsessed with tunnels, and Carter seems to be developing the same fascination!  We have a few tunnels now and he LOVES to crawl through them, especially with Dawson.  Some of his favorite places in the playroom are under his musical table (this doesn't work well because he ALWAYS gets stuck and I have to rescue him), under the train table, and under the desk he and Dawson share. 
Nothing goes unnoticed to Carter at this age either.  We're having to begin baby proofing things again, as we had mostly it all down since Dawson so good and careful about everything now.  BUT Carter loves to open the bottom of the entertainment armoir and empty out the dvds and push buttons.  He also crawls directly to all outlets and points to the holes.  If there is a cord anywhere, he will find it and crawl like mad to get there before I can stop him.  For this reason we now spend even more time than ever in our playroom because it's so much safer for him!
We love our sweet Carter! 
Enjoy two more pictures...

I'm not really sure why these two pictures uploaded

after all the text, but here are two more

pictures of my sweet boys!  Look how happy!

More pictures, Mommy?!?