Carter finally got the s-sound in “bus.” It has been something like “buhhht.” And he is quite the singer too. His favorite tune these days is “Take me out to the Ballgame.” He doesn’t have the words down, but he does have the tune and he fills in a lot of the blanks with good guesses. Another song he has been singing is a song about our family. It goes something like this: Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Riley, Riley, Riley. Mommy, Riley, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy.

In addition to singing, he had a lot of words. I guess we have another talker. Although this one is a talker and a mover. Here are some of his words: car, bus, truck, eat, up, down, Mommy, Daddy, Riley, cat, kitty, dog, clock, hungry, banana, pasta, cracker, poopy, diaper, Grampy, Chase (the boy he shares a sitter with), play, book, water, milk, milky (nursing), cheese, moon, airplane, drink, light, train, choo choo, hi, hello, nice, hug, thank you, beep, bless you, bye, wave, ball, hat, baseball, and that. I’m sure there are many more, but these are just the ones that immediately come to mind.

He is still very oral, but fortunately, he isn’t eating the coffee table anymore. Now he mostly loves to put Match Box cars in his mouth in an attempt to bite the wheels off. This makes big brother Riley very upset. Riley is very vigilant in letting me know when Carter is going to “choke the wheels off.” He also likes to bite books. Fortunately his oral cravings include food, which makes him a pretty good eater. He loves pasta, just like Riley.

Carter has turned out to be quite the mobile little fellow. He was not moving and then suddenly crawling, pulling up, and cruising. It all seems to have happened in the past week. And through all of this, he seems to be leaving more dents in the coffee table than our two dogs did. I have had to run my finger through his mouth to pull out pieces before they enter his digestive track.

Other than that, he has excellent teeth-growing skills. There are 13 in all. His hair-growing skills are still lacking, but he looks very cute with his wisps sticking straight up around the crown of his head. Bath-time has to be one of his favorite times of day. From the moment he gets in, his legs are kicking and splashing. It is hard to get him clean because he is moving so much. He is also quite a thumb-sucker. Oral. Hungry. Mostly-happy kid.

Carter has exhibited excellent teeth-growing skills. His second tooth popped out yesterday (12/10), just four days after the first. Now if only he could work on his hair-growing skills.

Now that Carter has a tooth, I decided it was time for him to have his first food. It was avocado and mommy milk, just like his big brother. And Carter was a big fan. He puts everything in his mouth, so I suspect that he will enjoy eating much more than Big Brother Riley, who practically refused solid food until he was more than 10 months old! I think Carter will be a treat to feed.

Carter’s mug has been published on his photographer’s web site… She blogged about him. So actually he’s there twice: once in utero and now on in his own cute glory. I guess it really is all about who you know.

Our generally happy boy has been extremely upset during the nights, waking several times. And yesterday (12/6) he revealed that he’s been grouchy because he’s been growing a tooth! Yup, that’s right. Our four-and-a-half-month-old boy has a tooth already. He’s trying to keep up with his brother, apparently. Riley, too, had a tooth at four-and-a-half months. Having his hands stuffed in his mouth constantly was not really a clue to us because he’s been stuffing his mouth as long as he’s had control over those little appendages.

Just wanted to share a picture of the animals from our farm.

Check out all of the new pictures of Carter!