Carter Update

There has been a lot of stuff I've been meaning to write about regarding Carter that I just haven't gotten around to lately (or forget about when I finally sit down at the computer at night to do a post). So I'm going to try to capture most of it in one post before he changes too much and this stuff is irrelevant!

Carter has hit that age where he is starting to test his boundaries and we have to start really disciplining him. There are some days he is a perfect angel and other days where I would use the word "brat" to describe him. Carter is starting to hit both when he's mad (which I expect) and sometimes because he thinks it's funny (which is the harder one to deal with). He has been getting timeouts when he does this but timeouts don't seem to be much of a punishment to him right now. I make him stand in the corner while I count to 20 and he stands there perfectly never trying to get away or making a peep. He's usually happy during them. I'm trying to be consistent and hope they will start making a difference. Carter also has been hitting Charlotte or throwing toys at her. He used to be so gentle with her, but not anymore - poor Charlotte. And then he just does other random stuff he knows he's not supposed to do. Like dump Charlotte's water or food bowl out on the floor, throw things like his sippy or toys, or climb up on tables or the outside of the steps. The thing that's hard is he knows he's not supposed to do these things because he'll do something he's not supposed to and then look at me for a reaction. We're trying not to get mad and react. We're trying to be stern when we need to be, explain why he shouldn't do some things, and have consistent consequences.

So that's the "bad" stuff, now for all the good stuff ...

Some of Carter's newer words are bird, go, whee, baby, and boo-boo.

• He loves seeing birds almost as much as dogs and is very good at pointing them out.
• Carter likes to say "go, go, go" when we're about to leave the house or when I'm driving.
• "Whee" is said a lot when we're driving on a curvy or hilly road.
• Carter has become obsessed with babies (just in time). He likes to point them out in stores or in books and say "baby". He also will point at my belly and say "baby". I think he kind of gets that there's a baby in there.
• Carter learned "boo-boo" today. He scraped his knee on Saturday and kept pointing the spot out to me this morning. I said something about seeing his boo-boo and then he just started using that word. He kept pointing it out all day to me and saying "boo-boo". He also has kissed his knee several times. I have kissed spots he's hurt a few times, but not that often. I was surprised he had picked that up.
  

Carter also loves to kiss my belly now. And give it hugs. I'm really hoping he's sweet to his little brother and doesn't throw anything at him or hit him! Oh, and he also wants me to kiss my belly after he does it. He will stand next to me and keep trying to push my head down. He doesn't quite get that that's impossible for me to do!

Carter has become more social when we're out shopping. When someone says hi to him, I can ask him to wave and he will. Unprompted, he always waves at the cashier when we're leaving a checkout line. And he'll often also wave at random cars.

Carter is getting really good at throwing and kicking balls. He has quite an arm. Though he tends to favor using his right hand, he can throw almost as good with his left. Catching is something we're still working on. Carter's just now starting to learn how to catch but it's rare that he actually does it. He still likes when you bounce a ball off his head - it makes him laugh. Back to Carter misbehaving, we want to encourage sports but we're also trying to keep him from throwing anything other than balls right now. Discipline can be confusing!

We have a few versions of the "Five Little Monkeys" books and some other similar stories. A few times, I shook my finger during the "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" or a similar line. Carter picked that up and now shakes his finger during that line too. He is such a copycat and we have to be really careful not to do something in front of him we don't want him doing.

And we finally stopped using Carter's bath seat about a month ago. He now has freedom during baths. He's just now starting to stand up more in the tub and we have to keep reminding him to sit. He discovered the other day that the back of the tub is sloped like a slide and he can slide down it. We're working hard to make sure he doesn't do that.