The Wagganer Zoo

Birthday Number 2

2009-09-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today is Carter's 2nd birthday! I can't believe that is has been two years already! We celebrated last weekend with our friends Ryan and Kelly. They got Carter his "game shirt" which he wants to wear everyday. Steve LOVES this present.
This past weekend, we celebrated with family. All grandparents and uncles were at our house to celebrate. Carter got lots of Go, Diego, Go toys, a basketball hoop, and a tricycle. I also made a Rescue Pack birthday cake, and Carter recognized it was a Rescue Pack :)

Today, we took Carter to Sea World. He has been talking about "Shampoo" for about a month now. He sat through both the sea otter and lion show and the Shamu show. We also saw other animals around the park. I love the off season because we made it through the whole park in 4 hours. Then, it was time for ice cream at Friendly's! All in all, a wonderful day! Happy Birthday, Carter!

Saying Hi to Shamu. Carter wouldn't get too close though.

Feeding the dolphins with Mommy

Eating birthday ice cream at Friendly's

Passed out with his Rescue Pack

Quick Update

2009-09-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been back to work for the past three weeks, and I feel completely swamped. I have kids at all different grade levels, and I feel like I am never caught up. But, we are trying to spend each moment we can with Carter. Starting next week, Steve starts working 4 nights after teaching and all day Saturday. It's going to be a rough three months with him gone so much. But, maybe I will have time to update you with pictures. :)

Carter turns 2 on the 22nd. We are planning just a family party with his new favorite show as the theme--"Go, Diego, Go!". Wow, he is obsessed. We have had to limit his Diego time to one show a day or else he would sit in front of the TV the entire time when he is home. He even has a Build-a-Bear that is "Baby Jaguar" that he takes with him everywhere.

Some adorable things he is doing now...
Each time we drive by a McDonald's he says "There's Old McDonalds"
Shamu's real name is "Shampoo"
He can throw a ball in the air and hit it with a bat (which is amazing!) but he can't take off his clothes, which is probably a good thing.
He tells us daily that "Carter's birthday coming up". We finally have him convinced that he is turning 2, not 3 or 4.
He is obsessed with baseball and has taught himself to slide across our living room.
He LOVES rocks, and keeps a bowl of rocks he collects to take to the boat to throw in the water.
He wants a bike, although he can't ride one yet. :)
He is growing up too fast....

I will post pictures soon, I promise.

The Beach

2009-08-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago (yes, I am a little behind again), Steve and I took Carter "to the boat" to see Grandma and Granddaddy. We decided to try the beach again. He was terrified of the waves the last time, but he LOVED it this time. His favorite party was running around in the fine sand because it made a squeaky noise as he ran. Carter wasn't too sure about the water yet. He doesn't like waves very much. I love the pictures with his daddy and his granddaddy...

Fourth of July Fun

2009-07-07T18:18:00.001-07:00

We had a very busy Fourth of July weekend together. Carter is very reactive to everything going on around him, so it makes all our outings much more exciting. Our Fourth of July started off with us watching a children's bicycle parade in Winter Park. Carter is obsessed with bicycles (and motorcycles) right now, so he was enthralled. There was also a fire truck with sirens and lights. Talk about an child in shock! I'm not sure he thought fire trucks were real since he has only seen them in books. This festival also had free hot dogs, lemonade, music, and games. It was really neat!

Carter and Mommy at the parade.

This is a pom-pom that I made Carter from Target bags, a wooden dowel, and blue masking tape. The idea came from a mommy magazine I get. This is the only time he would wave the thing. Steve hated that I called it a pom-pom, but what else would you call it? A bag waver?

This was one of the games that was at the festival-carry a wooden egg on a wooden spoon. We tried hard to keep Carter away from the games, but it didn't work. So, Steve held the egg on the spoon, and Carter walked up and down the line. Then, about 20 minutes later, we went back to walk with a Frisbee on his head, which I held on his head the entire time.

Carter's oh-so-lovely smile. I made pretzels dipped in white chocolate and sugar crystals. I thought it would be a semi-healthy treat. However, Carter only ate off the white chocolate and gave the pretzel back for me to eat. Silly boy.

While I went to a dog agility competition, Carter and Daddy played in his new pool. Steve said he was terrified of it at first, but once he got in, he loved it. He only wanted to go down the "water slide" head first. Typical boy...

We decided not to attempt a fireworks show this year. Good thing too because Carter was done by 7:45. We attempted one sparkler, which he loved to watch (not hold).

On Sunday, we went to the Fourth of July celebration at the Central Florida Zoo. Once again, we tried the petting zoo, and Carter loved the sheep. Once he saw Steve feed them, he couldn't get enough. Big change since the last time we went.

After we saw the animals and the zoo and played in the mini splash park, we took Carter to the "choo choo train". He is taking Kindermusik this summer, and the theme is Zoo Time. You get a CD when you join the class, and there is a song and a book about a train called the "Alley-Alley-o". So Carter was really excited to ride the "Alley-Alley-o" train. When we pick Carter up from daycare, we ask him what he did that day. He has been telling us for the past few months that he rode the "choo choo train". Well, he never rode the train until today. The child was in awe!

He loved every second, and now tells me each night before he goes to bed- "ride choo-choo train tomorrow?" Guess we will have to go back soon.

Random Pictures from the Past Few Months

2009-07-02T17:35:00.001-07:00

Being mischievous on the fireplace. All dressed up to go to the boat. Granddaddy bought these shoes before Carter was born, so we squeezed his chubby feet in the one time.

We took a vacation to Cedar Key a few weeks ago. Here are the pictures from there...
Playing at the beach

Digging for treasure at Manatee Springs

Watching the sunset and throwing rocks into the water

Taking a walk through the nature trail in 105 degree heat!

Daddy and Carter eating watermelon. Carter had watermelon juice from head to toe.

While at Cedar Key, we went searching for sand dollars. We took a boat trip across the inter coastal (hence the life jacket on Carter) to a sandbar off a natural bird sanctuary island. Then, we swished out feet through the sand in about knee deep water searching for sand dollars. We found six of them. Two of the sand dollars are about six inches across!

Daddy and Carter at Manatee Springs. This is the face Carter makes when we say "smile". Hopefully, this will fade by two year pictures :)

Too Much To Do

2009-06-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

I have really been slacking on these posts, and I say I will try to do better. It is hard keeping up with this blog. Now that we are home for the summer, we are trying to get little things done around the house while keeping Carter engaged in fun activities. I will try to post some pictures by the end of this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Free Babysitters

2009-04-11T13:04:00.001-07:00

Steve and I have been very busy these past two months, and Carter has spent three weekends with his grandparents Meeks. Here are the bad habits I have to undo when he returns...My parents feed him Chef Boy-r-dee out of the can and let him drink Diet Coke...Give him way too many Oreo cookies...
Take him to the toy store and get him addicted to $300 power cars (which they don't buy him)...

Put glasses on him, so now he wants his own pair....

And somehow, manage to have him fall asleep in his stroller-something Carter won't do for Steve and I anymore.

In all honesty, my parents are great babysitters, and do it all on their very tiny living space in the boat with three dogs running around. This is quite a task since Carter NEVER stops moving.

They do feed him on a plate, but he is addicted to Diet Coke thanks to Granddaddy. He only gets a couple cookies a day, but he drinks a lot of chocolate milk at their house. He is addicted to driving fast cars and has learned all the buttons on the Mercedes my parents drive. And, we can't find sunglasses to fit Carter's head because it's too big! Carter loves the boat, and we hear how he wants "Dada take big truck to boat" almost every day. I know he is completely spoiled with them, but that's what grandparents are for, I guess. :)

Gatorland

2009-04-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

Over our Spring Break, we wanted to take Carter to Sea World. However, when we got close to the theme park, it took over ONE HOUR to drive half a mile, and we never even made it to the entrance. We could only imagine the amount of people that would be in the park that day, so we nixed the idea and headed to Gatorland.

All those things in there are alligators. This is a normal scene from any lake near us. Well, maybe not as many, but we do see them all the time. For example, whenever we cross the Lake Jessup bridge, we count how many alligators we see in the lake and on shore. My highest count has

been 12.

This is what an alligator will do to you if you mess with it :) This was too cute for us to pass up. Carter and Daddy with the alligators. It was 68 degrees out that day, cold for Florida in April. However, the next day I was wearing shorts and it was around 80 degrees.

Carter is going to be an alligator wrestler one day. They actually have alligator wrestling at Gatorland, but Carter wasn't in the mood to watch it. I've seen the show before, and they do not tape their mouths shut. It's pretty wild.

Our family outside the original entrance. Carter climbed all over the teeth and had a meltdown when we moved him out of the way so other people could take pictures. Ahh, life with an 18 month old.

A Month of Strawberries

2009-03-15T10:40:00.001-07:00

March has been the month of strawberries our family. In the beginning of March, we went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City. I have always wanted to go to this festival, so Steve took me for my birthday. It was not quite what I expected, but it was a fun (and cold) day. We started off at the 4-H show of cows. Once Carter got over his shock of how big the cows were, he loved listening to them "moo". Then, we went over to see the roosters and the rabbits. Carter perfected his rooster sound as he listened to all the roosters crow. He "cocka-do-do" all throughout the roosters and the rabbits.

Next, it was time for the "big truck", as Carter calls it. It amazes me how large those tractors are. He looks so tiny next to the wheel!

Grandaddy put Carter on one of the tractors. We had to pry him off of it so other kids could get on. Does he have farming in his future?

After we all filled up on corn dogs, strawberry shortcake, fried Snickers, fried Reese's Peanut butter Cups, fried Oreos, and bacon dipped in chocolate (yes, you read that correctly), we headed over to the pig races. These were a "snort"-pun intended. Carter liked watching them run around the track, and he especially liked watching them jump into the water and swim.

Finally, it was time for the concert. We saw Rodney Adkins perform. He was a great entertainer, but not great enough for Carter. I got to sit in my seat for about 5 minutes before Carter said "walk", and took off for another row. Luckily the concert was not sold out, so Carter and I sat in the very back and watched. Well, I tried to watch and keep Carter from eating rocks and falling off the chairs on his head.

Carter's opinion of the concert. Even food did not keep him occupied for long.

This weekend, we went strawberry picking about 45 minutes from our house in Sorrento. Steve and I have never done this, and it was really fun! We picked strawberries with Carter for about 20 minutes, when he decided that smashing them between his fingers was more exciting. I can't believe how big and juicy the strawberries were! We picked so many, I am making two desserts with them today, and we will still have some left over.

After picking strawberries, we cooked hot dogs over a fire on the property. Steve is the master hot dog cooker. Then, we gorged on a strawberry milkshakes and strawberry shortcake.

We are probably going to go strawberry picking one more time this month. The weather has turned nice again, between 70-80 degrees, so we are spending as much time outdoors as we can before it gets over 90 degrees. It was nice to be together as a family since Steve is working so much lately with umpiring baseball. I'll do my best to keep you updated more frequently.

Carter Being "Nice"

2009-02-11T18:18:00.001-08:00

Right now, Carter is going through a hitting phase. One child at his daycare hits and kicks when she doesn't get her way, and so Carter is picking up on it. Fantastic! :( So, he has carried the hitting over to the dogs. Chance and Wrigley are very tolerant and patient with Carter. So, we are trying to teach Carter to be "nice" to the puppies. This is Carter being "nice". He gently pets the dogs and says "Nice" as he does it. It is rather cute, although the look on Wrigley's face is telling me that he doesn't have food so he shouldn't be touching me! Now, Carter is petting everything (including mom and dad) and saying "Nice". Maybe he will start being "nice" to the kids at daycare when he doesn't get his way :)

First Hair Cut

2009-02-01T09:05:00.001-08:00

It seems that I only post about once a month. Life has been crazy here. With both of us working, and Steve working a second job, there isn't much time for blogging. I finally get about one hour to myself at 8:00pm, and the last thing I want to do is sit in front of the computer. I will try to be more frequent though.

This weekend, Carter got his first "official" hair cut. I have cut, more like butchered, his hair up until this point, but now it was time for a real one. We have tried for two weeks to get his haircut. One weekend he was sick, and the other weekend there was no time between planned events.

The hair on the back of his head was so long, and I don't know how to cut it. He also has his daddy's double cowlicks. Lucky boy. It went much better than expected. He only whimpered a little with his bottom lip stuck out, which he is famous for with those that know him. And, he got a sucker, which he got two licks of before I panicked and took it away.

Trying to figure out what she just put on him. She was very good. She gave him a brush and a water bottle to hold, although after a few seconds, he told Daddy "All Done" in a sad voice and handed them back.

Not so happy about this!

Look at how long his hair is over his ears and on the back of his head. She probably cut about 3-4 inches off the back. It was long from his cowlicks down. I kept the back of his neck short. His bangs were in his eyes, and he had to look up to see anything.

Almost done...Such a handsome boy with Mommy!

Florida Winter

2009-02-01T08:49:00.001-08:00

So we have been having some pretty cold temperatures here in Florida. The other morning, we woke up to ice. We only get ice here about twice a year, if that.

My husband, who is from Alaska, was a little worried because we don't own ice chippers for the windshield. (I didn't even know they made ice chippers). All it took was to turn the defroster on for a few minutes, and the ice melted. I took some pictures for all of you up North to see. Yes, there is ice in the pictures.

Steve's truck with ice on the windshield and hood.
Ice on my Explorer.

One lonely bush outside covered in ice.

At least this year Steve remembered to turn off the sprinklers. During our one freeze last year, Steve ran the sprinklers that night. We had a lovely ice kingdom in our front yard, and some few dying plants. :) Today, it is about 65 degrees and we are in jeans and sweaters. Can't wait for it to warm up!

Carter's Trip to the Zoo

2008-12-25T17:51:00.001-08:00

Carter received some Christmas money from his grandparents, and we chose to purchase a year's pass to the Central Florida Zoo. We took Carter there this past weekend, and we all had a great time. I can't wait to see the changes in his reactions throughout the year as he becomes more aware of the animals.

Here Carter is feeding the "nice" goat. Carter got scared by the goat after he feed her and tried to eat all the animal food himself.

This is a Zebu. Still not sure what a Zebu is, but it looks like a cross between a cow and a horse. This Zebu was small. The other Zebu's head was up to my shoulders! There tongues were very slimy and their noses were very snotty (kinda like Carter).

This is the "mean" goat. We weren't fast enough feeding him, so the goat decided to repeatedly ram the fence with his large horns. We quickly left to feed the "nice" goat and the zebus again.
These are spotted leopards. The one on the ground kept pacing the fence. We think he wanted Carter for a light snack, so we kept our distance.

Maude and Mary are the two elephants at the zoo, and they have been together since the 1970's. Carter didn't really care about the elephants, but he spent 20 minutes climbing up and down the steps of this wooden picture. He should have been hired as the official elephant section greeter because he said hi to about 20 people as they passed by.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Our families traveled in different directions this year, so we celebrated Christmas three different times. Here are our favorite pictures from the past couple weeks. Merry Christmas!

Carter at the Polar Express exhibit at Sea World.

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kelly gave him a motorcycle for Christmas! Vroom-Vroom! (Sorry it's sideways. I couldn't figure out how to turn it around.)

Grandma and Bob (Granddaddy's new name) Meeks gave him a climbing set. His favorite thing to do is stand at the top and "stomp, stomp, stomp".

Wrigley decided the climbing set looked fun too.

We should have just bought Carter boxes.

This animals sang "Jingle Bells" everyday for at least 3o minutes.

Can't wait to pack them up soon!

Carter seeing the tree on Christmas morning.

It is much better to sit on the presents to open them.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-21T13:28:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we went for our annual picture with Santa. We have tried to prepare Carter for this day since Thanksgiving. Carter can point out Santa anywhere, loves to say Santa's name, and can even say "Ho, Ho, Ho". Steve even took him to the mall a few times to just look at Santa.

I guess nothing can prepare a one year old for actually sitting with Santa. The funny thing is, as he sat in Santa's lap, he yelled "Santa" in a frantic voice. Another memory to add to his scrapbook. :) Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Day

2008-12-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

One thing Steve and I are thankful for is that Carter is a good eater. He eats breakfast at home, breakfast again at daycare, double lunches, 2 snacks, and dinner in one day. At daycare, the teachers made a "Thankful Turkey", and Carter's feather said he was thankful for extra food. So, we were very excited about his first "real" Thanksgiving this year.

The Wagganer's and the Meeks' families got together at our house to celebrate. We had our traditional meal full of casseroles, bread, and of course, turkey.

Carter did not want any of those casseroles or that bread. He wanted TURKEY! I think he probably at 4 pieces of the turkey breast himself!

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. We are looking forward to Santa this month!

Halloween

2008-11-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken awhile for this to get up. We've been pretty busy around here.

For Halloween this year, Carter dressed up as a Red Baron. Not our first choice, but the costume we borrowed was too small. However, he was absolutely adorable! He even kept the hat on for about two hours. No trick or treating this year, but he did sit in the wagon and "hand out" candy. I'll update you on Thanksgiving next week.

Carter's Accidents

2008-10-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

Carter has been walking for about a month now, but he is still extremely clumsy. Of course, when he falls, he chooses to fall near sharp corners, tables, or head first. At daycare, he fell and bumped his right eye on a table. His eye swelled up pretty good, but not too much damage was done. Then, the following day, he decided to climb up on our fireplace and crawl around smiling at me as in "look what I'm doing, even though I'm not allowed". He then proceeded to get down from the fireplace head first. This escalated the bump into a nice shiner. The next day, we headed to NY for my cousin's wedding where family pictures would be taken. And, Carter has a exquisite black eye.

When we returned from NY, Carter ran into another table at daycare and scratched underneath is other eye. The next day, he gave himself a nice bump on the head when he fell into the steps that lead to the sink at daycare. Steve and I have decided that Carter needs excellent health insurance with a low deductible.

Look closely his right eye (the left side of the picture). It is multi-colored...blue, black, green, and brown.

Carter & Erin's First Fall

2008-10-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

This month, we attended my cousin Becky's wedding in Swain, New York. We spent four days at my aunt and uncle's home in Rochester, where we spent lots of time with family. The weather was gorgeous, nice and cool for us Florida people. Since Florida only has two seasons-summer and winter-this was the first time that I had seen fall leaves. Our leaves in Florida go from bright green to nasty brown in a matter of weeks--no in between stages. I was the crazy person walking through the neighborhood taking pictures of individual trees. We took so many pictures, but here are the best ones.

Here is just one picture of a tree. I think I have over 20 pictures of trees.

This was the backdrop for my cousin's wedding. Her pictures are going to be absolutely beautiful. It took us many shots to get Carter to look at the camera, but the fingers won't come out of his mouth.

For the entire wedding ceremony, Carter sat on the ground, hit the ground and chairs with his bat, and ate Gerber Graduates and Goldfish.

This is how my cousin entered her wedding--on a ski lift. It was really neat. Guests could either take a tractor hay ride or the ski lift to the wedding ceremony. We chose the ski lift. :)

After the wedding, we put Carter in a "hay pile" (aka: dried up grass clippings). He hated it. This is him rolling around trying to get away from it.

After the wedding, Steve and I had a "brilliant" parent moment. We decided to take Carter back down the mountain on the ski lift. Horrible idea...Carter enjoyed about 2 minutes of it, and then, he wanted "down". Well, you can't just get down off a ski lift. So, 20 minutes later of Steve holding on to Carter who is bucking like a bull, and me singing songs to Carter to keep him somewhat calm, we made it to the bottom. I still have nightmares about it.

Our First Real Sickness Scare

2008-09-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting few days here in the Wagganer household. On Thursday, Steve picked Carter up from daycare, and was surprised to find out that Carter had been running a fever most of the day. When I got home from work, Carter looked terrible. We took his temperature, and it was 104! I bolted to the Internet, and our pediatrician's website said don't call until it is 105. We gave him some Tylenol and sent him to bed. Obviously, there was not much sleeping on my part that night.

On Friday, my mom came over to watch Carter. She said Carter was great all day, and didn't run a fever. When she dropped Carter off with me, I noticed he was running a low grade fever. By the time we got home, his temperature was 103 orally. So, off to the pediatrician we went. At the pediatrician, his temp was 104.5! They took some blood, gave him a catheter, and sent us home with a diagnosis of a viral infection. Great...we don't know what he has.

Three days worth of fluctuating fevers, bouts of diarrhea (one at Target in the shopping cart), a throwing up episode, tons of sleep (on Carter's part), non-stop crying, and severe crankiness I thought he might be back to normal today. Boy was I wrong. After an hour and a half at daycare, I got a phone call that Carter had not stopped crying since we dropped him off. So, off I go to get him and head back to the pediatrician. When I pick him up from daycare, they tell me he has a rash all over his body. My first thought was that he had chicken pox because he just had the vaccine this past Wednesday.

When we got to the pediatrician, of course we have to wait in the room for about 30 minutes. All Carter wants to do is "down" and "go" as he points to the door. Then comes the crying. I want to pull out my hair by the time the doctor arrives. She looks at him briefly and says its a common case of roseola. Roseola is a common childhood illness that begins with three days of high fevers, then the child breaks into a rash. The good news is that the rash is not itchy. The bad news that my child now looks like a strawberry. No professional pictures for his first birthday yet! Carter will be just fine and can go back to daycare Wednesday. It's nice to know that everything will be ok after a few days of craziness. Below are some pictures we took of his rash tonight.

Sea World

2008-09-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

On Carter's birthday, Steve and I took him to Sea World. Both Steve and I get into Sea World for free because we are teachers, and Carter is free too. It was an inexpensive day full of great pictures. We only went to one show, Pet's Ahoy, because at this point, Carter doesn't know the difference :) We stayed about 3 hours, which was just long enough. No one was in the park, and we saw everything we wanted to see. Carter loved all the animals. His favorite place was the Shark Encounter. He loves fish, and it was a giant aquarium. However, everything we saw was a "dog". We saw fish-he points and says "dog". We saw the walrus--"dog". We even saw Shamu--"dog". It was cute. In the polar bear cave

Barracuda! It looks like the fish is going to bite him. :)

My favorite pictures of Carter and Steve with Shamu. Look at how small Carter is compared to the whale! He loved watching the "dog" swim past him over and over again.

Carter's New Chair

2008-09-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

For Carter's birthday, our friends Ryan and Kelly bought him a rocking chair. It's not just any old rocking chair though. It is a Chicago Cubs rocking chair...Steve's favorite team. Carter loves it! His favorite thing to do in it is try to stand. We're working on that. Thank you Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kelly! (Steve is in Cubs heaven. I think he even tried to sit in the chair.)

Happy First Birthday, Carter!

2008-09-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, after a couple months of planning and a lot of help, Carter's first birthday party went fantastic! His party was this past Sunday, at a park near our home. There were about 15-20 people there to help us celebrate. I am so glad that we had it at a park. Number 1-no clean up. Number 2-the park animals will eat all the cake that was dropped on the ground.

This is Carter's smash cake. I made it (a whole lot cheaper than Publix). We went with a dog theme because Carter says three words constantly now-- "Uh-oh", "ball", and "dog".

Testing out Mommy's handiwork to make sure it tastes good.
"Mom, here's the candle. It's in my way!"

Trying to share his yummy cake with others.

There were no takers on that one.

Taking big bites! Carter had a great time "smashing" and eating his cake. He made a huge mess! He kinda looks like Santa in these pictures. After the smash cake was "smashed", it was time to clean up. Of course, we forgot something--towels and baby wipes. Luckily, our friends Shawn and Jessica have a little one too, and they are always prepared. :) Shawn and Steve spent 10 minutes wiping frosting and vanilla cake out of every crack and crevice of Carter's little body.

Grandma and Grandpa Meeks bought Carter a popper for his birthday. He plays with this toy constantly, although he can't walk while pushing it yet. He's getting the hang of it though.

We brought out the bubble machine to the party. All the kids loved it!

This was one of the best $5.00 I ever spent.

Carter then got a little too close to the bubble machine. Commence the crying and bubble machine being turned off. He learned that you cannot try to drink out of the bubble machine while it is in operation.

Happy Birthday, Carter!

Smash Cake #1

2008-09-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

We officially started Carter's first birthday a little early last week (his birthday is September 22nd). On Thursday, we had his first smash cake for Steve's dad. His dad works in Alaska two weeks out of the month, so he wasn't able to come to Carter's birthday party. So, Steve and I decided to have a small party for him before he went back to Alaska.

Carter had no fear! He stuck his finger in the icing, and once he realized it was sweet, he dug right in. However, I forgot to take off his clothes, so that was a fiasco trying to get off the icing covered onsie in the kitchen without smearing it all in his hair. The kitchen floor was full of vanilla cake and icing. The dogs had a field day licking up the leftovers.

Mmmmm...cake.....

Want some, Mom?

I will update you soon on his first birthday party, and Carter's first trip to SeaWorld on his first birthday. I have about 150 pictures to download first. They only turn one once!

Happy First Birthday to Maddie and Ruthie! We missed you!

Enjoy your smash cake too, says Carter. It's yummy!

Go Braves!

2008-09-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

Although the Braves are awful this year, Carter still shows his team pride. This picture was too adorable...

Notice the new sneakers. Our child has to have Stride Rite, $52.00, sneakers because his feet are extra wide. Grandma and Grandpa Meeks are responsible for the next pair. :)

Goin' Hunting

2008-09-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

One thing that I got Wrigley for was that I was going to compete her in hunting field trials. Now, I don't own a gun, nor do I know how to shoot one, so I will never actually go hunting. However, Wrigley was bred to run frantically through fields looking for birds, such as quail, and point them. See below--

About once a month, I go out with some friends to train Wrigley (she needs all the training she can get), and this month Steve and Carter went. I train out at a hunt camp, and we got some great pictures of Carter out there. We are all wearing hunter orange for safety reasons, not a fashion statement.

Daddy and Carter

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

2008-09-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

August 29th was Steve's birthday. He is one year closer to becoming an "old man", as I endearingly call it. He turned 34 this year. This is Carter and Steve on his birthday morning. We all had to go to work (and Carter to daycare to play), but Steve and I went out to celebrate that night at a restaurant called P.F. Changs. It was the first time in awhile we had been out to dinner with out the "little man." It was very nice.

On Saturday, we went to my friend Shawn's wedding. Shawn and I were college roommates, and we share many embarrassing stories and some wonderful times. She has been dating her now husband for over 9 years! So, it was about time they got married. The wedding was about 2 hours from our house. My parents were supposed to watch Carter, but Steve and I couldn't part with him for all of Labor Day weekend. After all, we have just gone back to work, so we don't see him as often. The wedding and the reception were beautiful. The reception was outside and very hot, but Carter did great!

Steve and Carter at the wedding.

(We were smart and brought his high chair to keep him strapped down. Now that he can crawl, he wants to be on the go constantly.)

Erin and Carter at the wedding. Shawn's wedding theme was butterflies. During their first dance, the wedding party let go of monarch butterflies. It was really pretty. We tried to take pictures of Carter with a butterfly that landed near us after it was released. But, no picture. Carter wanted to grab it, so Steve kept having to move his hand away. So, here is the wedding favor, a cookie cutter. This was the best butterfly picture we could get.

Shawn and Ken entering the reception.

This was the only decent picture I got of the whole wedding.

On Sunday, we went to my parent's house, well, boat. There isn't much room for Carter to crawl around, but he finds lots of things to do, as you will see. This is a picture of a onsie my dad bought him of Jeff Gordon from NASCAR. I couldn't resist a picture of his little bootie while he was crawling around. This picture is why he wears this onsie a lot. It's so adorable!

So, Carter has learned to crawl over, under, through, and around things now. At daycare, he crawls over the soft gym set, and even sits still in a regular kids chair to eat his lunch. We can't even get him to sit still and eat his food strapped in his high chair (or keep him from throwing food he doesn't like on the floor). Anyway, this is a stool at my parents boat. Carter sat in front of the stool for a little bit, examining it, deciding if it could be fun. The chronicle of pictures shows the order of events with the stool.

Carter was playing near the stool. I asked Jamie to hold the stool in case Carter decided to play in it. Good thing I did.

Carter studied the bar and thought it would be a good starting point for this climbing adventure. He grabbed hold of the bar and contemplated his next move.

Carter then decided he should move into the stool. Still gripping the bar, he slowly moved one foot, then the other foot into the stool. He bumped his head a few times, but this did not slow him down. It only made him more determined.

Then, Carter thought it would be great fun to crawl out of the stool, over the bar. This took some concentration and problem solving. Both feet are still in the stool, and his hands are on the ground. Keep in mind, that Steve, Jamie, my mom and dad, and I are hysterically laughing through this whole event. Carter was taking this so seriously. There were only a few frustrated yells from him. At this point, Carter was perplexed. He had his hands out, but his darn feet wouldn't come out. So standing on his head, he stared at his feet for a moment wondering what was wrong and why they wouldn't get out of that dumb stool. He stayed in this pose studying his feet for about 30 seconds. (We are still laughing at him, and Carter is still taking this adventure very seriously.)
He figures out how to remove one foot, but now the other one is stuck. This took some concentration as well, but he freed himself in no time.
He is so proud of himself! Of course, we all cheered for him, and he gave a huge smile to his Uncle Jamie. Then, he went back and did the whole thing again.
On Monday, we spent the day shopping for Carter's one year birthday party. I can't believe how much work (and money) goes into such a thing! I hope the party is memorable...

By the way, my cousin's little girl, Maddie, who had heart surgery is now home and doing very well. We will miss the twins at the party, but I hope we can have them all celebrate together another year.

Carter, the Dog

2008-08-17T17:51:00.001-07:00

Most people that know me know that I love dogs. We have three, and I would love more. However, Steve has told me no more. So, Carter is around the dogs often. Now that he is mobile, the dogs stay behind a large baby gate in our bedroom when he is out and about in the living room. One of his favorite things to do is stand up holding on to the baby gate and shake it as hard as possible while yelling loudly. We think he is yelling at the dogs to come to him, or he just associates the dogs with yelling. We tend to yell at the dogs to be quiet a lot (great use of my dog training skills).

Today, Carter and I were playing around the living room. I gave him a new ball and bat to play with. They are both very soft. Well, to Steve's dismay, he shoved the bat out of the way to get to the ball. He proceeded to put the ball in his mouth, then crawl around with it in his mouth like a dog. He almost looks like he is growling in this picture.

I thought, maybe this is just a fluke. He would only do this once. Nope...after crawling around for about 30 seconds with this ball in his mouth like this, he sat down, took the ball out of his mouth, examined it, placed it back in his mouth and headed down the hallway.

This scenario went on for about five minutes until he decided to stand at the baby gate and yell at the dogs again. Do I love dogs so much that I have willed my child to act like one? He tries to bark like the dogs, he constantly eats like the dogs would like to, and now he is crawling around with objects in his mouth.

Later that afternoon, Carter was playing with Steve in the living room. See picture below...

This is a soft Michigan football that our friends Ryan and Kelly brought Carter back from Michigan. My son can't throw the ball, he has to carry it around in his mouth. This isn't looking like a promising future in football.

Are there any sports out there that require you to put the ball in your mouth and run? I guess it is time to do some research. And, start investing for future braces. Maybe Carter believes he is a dog. Maybe he has observed the dogs so much that he thinks it would be fun to be like them. Or, maybe he was a dog in a past life. All I know that it is darn cute, and we will continue to encourage this behavior for awhile. :)

Carter Loves His Wrigley

2008-08-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Wrigley, our Gordon Setter, took to Carter as soon as he came home. This is how she introduced herself to him. I'm sure she smelled something dirty that needed to be changed. And yes, he is on the kitchen table. In my defense, he couldn't move yet, so he was safe. Well, safe from everything but Wrigley.

So, as Carter has gotten older, Wrigley has gotten wiser. She has associated Carter with the smell of food. At first, it was formula. In the spring, Wrigley gave Carter his morning bath of dog slobber to clean up any remnants of formula that might be on his face. Carter loved it! It doesn't look like it in this picture, but he really did enjoy the puppy kisses. He is about four months old here. Notice the empty bottle. This is Wrigley's cue to lick up the leftovers on his face.

Then, Carter started eating in his high chair. There is not only milk, but now there is baby food. Sometimes, the baby food would be swatted out of my hands by a flailing baby and hit the walls and the floor. Wrigley was right there to clean it up. Carter also discovered that Wrigley was near his high chair. Most meals now consist of some form of feeding Wrigley and pulling out her hair in large clumps as he yells at her. Carter is six months old here.

Now, Wrigley feels she is invited to every meal that Carter has. He eats mostly finger foods now, so some of it drops on the floor. During each meal, Wrigley lays beneath his high chair, and snaps up any drops of heaven that fall on the ground. After he is done eating, Wrigley cleans up the high chair for us (not the tray), and Carter thinks this is fantastic. We don't ever have to sweep up after his meals because Wrigley is our vacuum.

Carter is crawling all over the place. Wrigley does not understand that she is MUCH bigger than him, so she tries to play with him whenever he is mad dashing through our house. Carter thinks it is funny, but we are scared she might accidentally hurt him. On rare occasions, Wrigley is allowed out with Carter. Here is what happened the last time:

Wrigley is laying quietly on the floor, for once, letting me take her picture. Doesn't she have a pretty face?

Carter discovered Wrigley on the ground and crawled over to her. He is either trying to give her a kiss or bite her nose. Wrigley is checking him out for leftover food or milk on his face.

Carter then decides she would be fun to crawl over. I am telling him no, so he stopped for a second. Wrigley is looking at me saying "Please save me from this child!"

Carter then proceeds to attempt to crawl over her, even after I said no. No is an optional thing, right? Wrigley is allowing him to do this, but under protest.

After slipping and sliding, and me trying to remove him (although I didn't try hard because it was a very cute scene), Carter gave up. He then decided to come grab the camera from my hand. This is his close up.

As for the other dogs, Chance, our Golden Retriever, would prefer that Carter doesn't exist. If Carter gets close to him, he moves to the other side of the room. Chewy, our mixed breed, tries to eat the food off his high chair, but Wrigley pushes him out of the way. Chewy is lukewarm about Carter, but knows he is good for food.

My First Professional Baseball Game

2008-08-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

As Told By Carter--

On Sunday, I went to my first MLB game in Tampa--the Detroit Tigers vs. Tampa Bay Rays. My Uncle Ryan's favorite baseball team is the Tigers, so I decided I would cheer for them. Go Tigers! Mommy and Daddy rode with Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kelly to the game. They all thought I would fall asleep since it is a two hour drive to Tampa, and they think I love to sleep in the car. Well, I fooled them and decided that it would be more fun play and bug Mommy and Daddy for attention. After a long time, I finally gave up and fell asleep, but Mommy woke me up really soon after that. I heard Mommy say that I slept for 20 minutes and that she hoped I would be good at the game. In my opinion, I am always a good boy.

When we got inside the ballpark, there were so many people and colors and sounds! I was a staring at everything with my mouth wide open. We walked around, and then Daddy took me over to this really hairy looking thing. I couldn't figure out what it was. It was as big as Daddy! I stared at him for a minute, but he was really scary. Mommy and Aunt Kelly tried to get me to look at them for a picture, but I didn't want to. I wanted to leave that scary blue, hairy thing.

This is me and Daddy with Raymond, the Rays mascot. He sure is funny looking!

We had to go up some very big moving stairs to get to where we would watch the baseball game. Daddy said we were in the nosebleeds, whatever that means. My nose didn't bleed. All I know is that we were really high up.

Daddy and me going up the really big moving stairs.

When we got to our seats, we saw the Tigers hitting the ball. I didn't really pay attention to them. There were other things to do, like jumping on Mommy and falling backward on Daddy's lap to look at people all around me. I also at some lunch--carrots. Mommy gave me some bread from her sub too. I would rather have a sub than some mushed up old carrots.

Then, more people came and sat near us. I started to get really hot. I was very sweaty because Mommy put me in these silly overalls. I heard her say that it is never this warm in here. All of a sudden, it got really loud with some man saying a bunch of stuff. Then, this lady sang some song. Everyone was really quiet, but I decided to sing along really loud. Everyone looked at me. I must have been singing good! When the game started, I decided it was time to crawl around. But, Mommy and Daddy wouldn't put me down! I couldn't even stand on the ground! In my opinion, baseball is really boring right now. Not enough colors or action for me! So, I decided to get cranky. Sometimes when I get cranky, Mommy and Daddy let me get my way. It still didn't work. So, Mommy gave me Cheerios instead. I like Cheerios, but not as much as crawling.

Daddy played the jumping game with me again, and I shook my rattles around for awhile. Then, I started to get really sleepy. Well, I think sleep is overrated. There are too many things to see, and I can't see them when I am asleep. Daddy held me tight, but I squirmed around and fussed. Then, Mommy took me. Daddy calls Mommy the fun stealer sometimes, and she was definitely the fun stealer at this game. She held me tighter, and I couldn't move! I finally gave in a fell asleep.

Mommy and Me (asleep)

How embarrassing!

I was asleep for a little while when I woke up to a really loud noise. Someone hit a home run for the Rays! Lots of people were cheering, but Uncle Ryan was really mad. Daddy explained it me. See, the guy for the Tigers that catches the ball, the catcher I think, was traded to the Yankees (Daddy says we hate the Yankees), and the yucky Yankees gave the Tigers a pitcher named Farnsworth. Well, Daddy said that this pitcher played for the Cubs (Daddy's favorite team) and lost a lot of games for them. So, Uncle Ryan was not happy with this trade because Pudge, the catcher for the Tigers, was one of his favorite players. It just so happens that this was Farnsworth's first game for the Tigers, and his first batter hit a home run off him. I think Uncle Ryan said some very bad words about Farnsworth. Mommy took this picture of Uncle Ryan after the home run.

The Rays came back and beat the Tigers. I don't know the score because I didn't care. I just wanted to crawl around and no one would let me! We finally left that baseball game almost four hours later. Mommy said I had only slept an hour that day, which was fine with me! I got to see so much stuff! I had a lot of fun with everyone who went to the game.

Look at Me! I'm Brushing My Teeth!

2008-08-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

So, since Carter got his first two bottom teeth, Steve and I have been meaning to begin brushing his teeth. However, I kept forgetting to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste for him. Every once in awhile, I would remember to wipe his teeth down with a cloth or gauze pad, but not very often. It took Carter getting three more teeth on the top, at the same time (of course) for us to get on the ball and buy a toothbrush.

I have heard many stories about little ones hating their teeth being brushed. Carter definitely has an opinion of his own, and if he doesn't want to do something, he will make if very difficult to make it happen. So, I was very curious how he would react to having someone stick something in this mouth, move it around, and expect him to sit still (which doesn't happen at all these days).

At first, I let Carter explore the toothbrush and play with it. Then, once the toothpaste was on the toothbrush, I told him to "open" (a word used to get him to try something new, like food) and he opened his mouth right up. He sat there for at least 30 seconds, a miracle, and let me brush all his teeth! He actually enjoyed it! Lastly, I let him brush his teeth on his own. Of course, he just chews on the toothbrush for a little bit. When he was done, he handed the toothbrush back to me. We have no problems at all brushing his teeth every night.

He has always loved watching Steve and I brush our teeth. Maybe he was so excited he got to do it on his own that he didn't mind. Whatever the reason, I hope this love of brushing teeth continues...

Infant Swim Research Lesson

2008-08-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Over the summer, Carter took survival swim lessons. Steve and I thought these lessons were important because of all the water in Florida, and my parents live on a boat in a marina surrounded by water. Carter took lessons Monday through Friday for 10 minutes each day for four weeks.

Carter started swim lessons at the end of June. Within the first week, we was able to float on his back alone. It was amazing! I couldn't believe that a little boy could learn and retain this concept so quickly.

Here is Carter during his first week of lessons. Michelle, his instructor, is supporting him very little in his back float. I didn't get in the water with him until the last lesson. Carter would whimper through lessons, but he never screamed.

In swim lessons, he learned how to get to air by floating in his back. He can get on his back if he fell straight up and down into water, fell forward into water, or flipped into the water. I can't tell you enough how amazing it is to see this little guy rolling over and floating all by himself. This was one of the best things we have done for him.

This is toward his last lessons. Again, he has very little to no support in his back float. We also wised up and put him in a regular swim suit instead of the Speedo that was sent with the ISR welcome kit. We don't want to start THAT habit.

My New Blogging Space

2008-08-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I decided to join the others and start a page to share the happenings of the Wagganer household. Although I don't necessarily find our lives very interesting, other people might :) It is named the Wagganer zoo because we practically live in one. We have three dogs--Chance, Chewy, and Wrigley--some pigeons moving in soon, and Carter has some fish.

So...Carter is now 10 months old and is forming one interesting personality. His new thing is to whine when he wants something, usually food that Steve and I are eating. This is a really fun stage, especially in restaurants, because he can't whine quietly. He has to whine, then yell really loud. Maybe we won't frequent restaurants very often anymore. His music teacher this summer called it "vocalizing". Sometimes, I wish he would vocalize a little quieter.

He has also learned how to climb up on our fireplace. However, when we tell him no, he smiles at us and crawls faster to his objective. I think we have our hands full with him. He is definitely all boy!

I will try to update this as much as possible, but I am not promising anything since I go back to school soon.