Day at the Park/Sleep Training

A couple weeks ago the weather was nice so we decided to bring Carter to the park. We thought it was time to introduce him to such things as grass and swings since he hasn't seen much of the outdoors since he was just a newborn...I blame the Seattle weather (and pregnancy). Here's a little photo journal of our outing:

Carter wasn't too impressed with the swings. He just looked bored.

I tried having him sit on the swing with me and I think he liked that a little better.

He was more interested in watching the other kids play than posing

Carter was really unsure about the grass...he refused to crawl around in it. I think it just felt pointy on his hands

He did like to eat the grass, though :)

I really like this picture because there's one of me just like this one when I was a baby and he actually looks a lot like I did in it! I get excited when he looks like me for a brief second because he looks so much like Tyler.

Even though he was pretty unsure of the whole park thing he was pretty upset when it was time to go home

Well, we finally did it. After months of dreading it, we finally sleep trained Carter. His pediatrician first told us to do it I think around 4 months, but it took us until he was 10 1/2 months old to get the courage to let our little boy cry himself to sleep. All the signs pointed to it being a long week with no sleep for anyone in our family, and let's not forget the misery of hearing such a sweet boy screaming...it still breaks my heart! But Carter did FANTASTIC! We hunkered down prepared for a rough night last Friday and Carter only cried for 45 minutes (Tyler went in and gave him a little hug and I-love-you after 20) and then fell asleep! AND he slept the entire night!!! Each subsequent night has been even better and he always puts himself back to sleep quickly if he does wake up in the middle of the night. Life has never been better and we have never felt more spoiled! I was sure Carter would resist it and would just stand up screaming in his crib for hours but I was foiled! It feels good to be wrong on this one! We're doing the same thing for naps and unfortunately it still takes him a long time to go down for those, but we're still working on it and things are slowly progressing there, too. Did I mention how lucky/relieved/amazed we are? I was so sure it wouldn't work well that I haven't gotten much sleep for worrying about him! Go figure that he sleeps better than he ever has in his life and Mom is getting less sleep than ever! Oh well, hopefully I'll get used to it soon, too.

Here's a few other pictures/videos from the past couple weeks:

Carter loves it when you turn anything into a game. One day he was raising his arms like this and I gasped and quickly raised my own arms and he thought it was soooooooo funny that he kept doing it.

It was actually warm enough for shorts one day! Well, inside anyway. He thought it was so odd that his legs weren't fully covered, but he got really excited when he discovered that he could smack his bare legs over and over. Yes, we have a funny boy.

Carter likes to hang on his pack-n-play and press up his face against it like this; it always makes me laugh!

Carter gets bored easily now that I'm pregnant, sick, and never leave the house, so I pulled out an empty diaper box for a new toy. He kept trying to shut it on himself!

Of course he started chewing on the box and the tape after a few minutes

I'm pretty sure Pampers should pay me for one of these pictures as an ad

Here's the videos:

Carter thought it was pretty funny to splash and make Mommy jump. He was laughing HYSTERICALLY but of course calmed down a bit when the camera appeared.

Carter loves to push off from the sofa...again, he was laughing hysterically until I got the camera out. Oh well.

Whenever Carter has his clothes off he gets REALLY excited and loves so smack himself in the stomach! Such a funny habit...he's a little bit of a weirdo but we love him even more for it!

Carter is 10 months!

Hello all! I'm so sorry that it's been about 2 months since I've done a real post...I do have some excuses though...*ahem*....#1: I've been busy being very very sick with baby number 2. #2: I lost my camera for about a month, but then was lucky enough to find it while searching for the remote control between the couch cushions! #3: ......I don't have a number 3. Sorry! But below are all the pictures I've taken in the last 2 months (there aren't too many...remember? lost camera?)

Things around the Wallo household have been pretty boring, honestly. I've been so sick that we haven't really done anything interesting in a while. Our biggest adventures are going to Target and Costco. It's really quite sad.

Carter, on the other hand, is growing in leaps and bounds!! He's now over 10 months old and is becoming so much fun. He loves to wave to everyone and everything (including us, the people on the TV, his high chair when I get him out, the room when we leave, the cars we drive by, etc. I caught him waving to the wine bottles at the grocery store the other day). He also loves to high five, give kisses, turn off the lights, and play with his ball popper. He loves to play games, too. He loves to stand up, crouch down, and stand up again (and expects you to say "up" "down" really excitedly). He also loves to throw his hands up in the air expecting you to do the same and then laughing hysterically. He still loves doing "the horn on the bus" and loves the itsy bitsy spider. He's also started playing with his toys the way they're meant to be played with, like rolling around his cars and trains. Carter also now understands much of what we say. When we say, "Are you hungry?" he'll smack his lips if he is. It's surprising how many things he can understand now. It's so much fun for us to see him growing and learning new things.

Carter is also a BIG boy! At his 9 month appointment he was 30" tall (95%) and 21.5 lbs (70%). The poor boy had croup a couple weeks ago, which was rough, but he was then weighing in at 23 lbs! He started crawling at 8 1/2 months and 2 days later started pulling up to standing on the furniture and cruising around while holding on. He can now stand for short periods of time without holding on to anything. He's crazy active and gets into EVERYTHING! We're constantly having to baby proof things and when he figures them out, trying to be creative to figure out another solution. He also loves to act like a comedian. He likes to make this funny breathing-in-while-making-a-rattling-noise sound and then laughs at himself because he thinks he's funny. He loves when you laugh at something he does! It's so funny that he's realizing that certain things are "funny". We're loving this phase of his life and his goofy half smile. He's such an amazing little boy!

The following pictures go in order of oldest to newest...

Playing in his exersaucer at about 8 months old

That's right, a big brother! You can see a better version of this picture in the below post...

Starting to pull up on furniture (about 1 1/2 mos ago)

Carter went through a phase of playing with his binky like it was a toy...he was never interested in what it was really meant for!

Carter figured out he can get into his toy bin all by himself

Such a happy boy

Carter LOVES to watch Wheel of Fortune

These are the most recent pictures, taken just a few days ago at 10 months old

Hanging out with Daddy

Playing with his ball popper. He can turn it on by himself and collect the balls as they pop out and put them back in. I had a video of it but it wouldn't upload...

Standing up on his own (yes, Tyler's asleep in the background)

If you haven't seen the posts below be sure to check them out, too. I got 3 out of 5 videos to upload and then the pregnancy announcement is below that. I promise to be better about posting in the future!

More videos

Well, of the 5 videos I had, 3 uploaded...not too bad I guess! These are quite old, too (well, a couple months) but there they are for your enjoyment

Carter doing "the horn on the bus..."



Carter crawling for the first time (this is like a month and a half ago...he's an old pro now ;) )

An old(er)video

Here is an old(er)video...probably from 2 months ago...of Carter laughing at his daddy. I tried downloading more videos but they wouldn't work, so I'll try on a new post.

Carter's Announcement

We know most of you already know this...but we're...

I'm due October 12th and am now 13 1/2 weeks pregnant with Carter's little sibling. We're really excited about this new addition but pretty nervous that they'll only be 16 months apart! I guess when it rains it pours! My pregnancy has been pretty rough so far. I've been really sick, just like I was with Carter, and am just waiting for things to start getting better. Some of my friends are telling me I must be this sick because I'm having a girl...we'll see! I find out in 6 weeks!

I know it's been forever since I've posted and I have TONS of pictures to update, so I promise I'll get that going in the next few days. Puking and blogging just hasn't gone well together the last couple of months... So long for now!

Salt, Teeth, and Ferries

We can't believe how big our little boy is getting!! He turned 8 months on the 4th and is more of a child than a baby now! He's officially getting into everything...including the salt shaker I sometimes forget and leave on the floor (when we eat at the couch). The other day we caught him a little late...he'd poured it all over himself, specifically his face! Apparently he likes the taste of it just as much as his mom.


Carter's still working on crawling, but is still only going backwards. That doesn't stop him from getting all over the apartment, however! He's so active and we really have to keep our eyes on him. He loves to play with non-toys, too, especially our spatula! He chats up a storm and loves being the center of attention. He's also got 7 teeth now! I keep looking into his mouth and seeing yet one more. It's crazy!

working on crawling

I'm not sure what this position did for him...but he was still trying to crawl

the beloved spatula

showing off a few teeth

I was trying to teach him to throw his arms up during the Super Bowl for "touchdown" but he didn't quite get it...although I saw him doing it while watching the Price is Right this morning (that's his favorite show, along with Wheel of Fortune). He'd throw his arms up when they were clapping and then wave at all the contestants! We think he's pretty cute.

waving hi

Last weekend we took the ferry across the Puget Sound for the first time! I don't know why we haven't done it yet, but we got an excuse when we went to visit our friends who live near Bremerton. Carter loved riding the ferry and looking at all the seagulls that went past. It's fun to do new things with him.






Carter is also enjoying playing with his friend Tiernan twice a week! This week he kept trying to stick his fingers in Tiernan's mouth...and Tiernan would then oblige and suck on them! They were too funny, although I put a stop to that pretty quick. They love to smile and talk to each other.

going for the mouth...

...trying again...he thought me pulling his hand away was a game...

Carter was holding his hand for a little while...too cute!

going for (supervised) hugs

2 cute boys! Carter @ 8 mos, Tiernan @ 4 mos

Here's a few more pictures and a video (if I can get it to download) for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!