The Baxter Bunch

This is one of my favorite pictures of Carson and me! It was...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:27:12 -0500

This is one of my favorite pictures of Carson and me! It was taken by Ryan’s mom (Nana) on Easter :) Love my sweet little bunny boy!

9 months!!!

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:24:06 -0500

On April 5th Carson turned 9 months old! We were on the way to Branson, MO that day, so he didn’t have his 9 month well-baby appointment until this afternoon.

At his appointment today we found out that he should be eating more table foods, so we gave him a little bit of cheese today. He seemed to love it! We also found out that he has his first ear infection. It’s a single inner ear infection in his right ear. We had no idea! He hasn’t been fussy, hasn’t pulled on his ear and hasn’t changed any habits. His eye has been a little gooey, but we were told that was just a clogged tear duct! So, Carson will have his first medication tonight. After 10 days of antibiotics it should all be better! :) He also had one shot today. After 30 seconds of crying, he was fine. Little tough guy!

Weight: 18 lbs 14 oz (32nd percentile)…he was 18 lbs 6.4 oz last month when I weighed him.

Length: 28 inches (26th percentile)

Head size: 17.3 inches (16th percentile)

40 weeks!

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:48:25 -0500

I have a lot of blog catch up to do…since last post we’ve gained a niece, celebrated Easter, traveled to Branson and met family members! But, today, I’m thinking about how last Thursday Carson turned 40 weeks old and how much he has accomplished in these 40 weeks. This means half of his existence he’s been on the outside! :) He has always been the sweetest baby, but now he’s transitioning into this amazing little baby-kid.

Some fun facts about our incredible little man:

1. Carson started clapping on Saturday (April 13th) and now applauds for everything. He especially likes to clap after taking a bite of food!

2. He has never had a fever, earache or taken medicine. He’s never been to the sick side of the doctor’s office! In 40 weeks he’s only had a few colds and a cough, but nothing that a humidifier couldn’t fix! Healthy baby!

3. Carson is 9 months old and he doesn’t have a single tooth. And he’s not teething. We have thought before that he was (months ago), but it was just him being cranky!

4. Big, open mouthed kisses are Carson’s specialty! One day he even crawled over to me and kissed my forehead ;)

5. Carson loves music and to stare at the CD spinning in his CD player.

6. Sunday was his first “swim” in a pool. He loved crawling around in the one (cold!) inch of water we put in a blow up pool.Good thing, because I signed him up for 4 weeks of swimming lessons in June.

7. Yesterday Carson said MAMA for the first time!!!! It was the best word i’ve ever heard. He squealed it while crawling toward me!

Carson's First Easter

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:10:00 -0500

Carson loved Easter and was as excited as an almost 9 month old can be that the Easter Bunny came! Grammy made a cute fabric basket for him! I hid plastic eggs around our living room that were filled with Fisher Price super heroes. He was actually really good at finding eggs! He seemed to like the eggs more than what was inside them…

The blow up rabbit that Carson is sharing a carrot with is the same blow up bunny the Easter Bunny brought me every year when I was a kid (then it would mysteriously disappear the day after Easter). The bunny is from 1982!!! It had trouble keeping its air, but it was fun to continue the tradition with Carson.

We continued our Easter fun by going over to Nana & Bear’s house where Carson spent most of the day standing at the door yelling at their dog Molly!!! We had a yummy meal, I ate way too many jelly beans, and Carson fell asleep in his high chair :)

He also had fun playing with his cousin Violet and we went for a big group walk using the double stroller. Carson had a great first Easter :)

Photo

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:04:06 -0500

Ryan took this beautiful picture of Carson at the Dallas...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:19:14 -0500

Ryan took this beautiful picture of Carson at the Dallas Arboretum last week! I’m pretty lucky to have such a talented husband and an adorable baby (who has some pretty rockin’ eyebrows!) :)

How Carson spent his first spring break- sleeping over at Nana...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:11:00 -0500

How Carson spent his first spring break- sleeping over at Nana & Bear’s, playing with Grammy, shopping at Ikea, sitting in a shopping cart like a big boy, playing with his stuffed screwdriver, visiting the Dallas Arboretum, touching grass for the first time, meeting the Easter Bunny, eating lots of puffs, and soaking in the sunshine!

bittersweet spring break.

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:47:00 -0500

I was trying to think of a word to describe the last 7 days and the best one I could think of was bittersweet. Bittersweet means pleasant but including or marked by elements of suffering or pain. Nothing is closer to how this past week has been…

Last Sunday morning we received the heartbreaking news that Ryan’s Uncle Mike died in a motorcycle accident. It still seems surreal. Ryan has been in North Carolina with his family since Wednesday. I remember the exact moment I met Uncle Mike. It was at Jess and Jared’s wedding. Ryan had told me how cool his uncles are, so I was super nervous about meeting them. My nervousness was quickly swept away though. Uncle Mike immediately made me feel like a part of the family. Although I only got to meet him a couple of times, I got to know him through talking on facebook and his sweet cards and gifts to Carson. He loved our baby! He was such a fun, joyful and kind person. Although Carson and I miss Ryan like crazy, I am so so glad that he has gotten the chance to say goodbye and to celebrate the life of his sweet Uncle.

The pleasant part of this week was my mom being here. She sure does know how to take care of our little family in the best and worst of times. She was my saving grace this week. I cannot thank her enough for staying a few extra days to help me out and for all she did for us while she was here. She even helped me grade some papers and took my cold away from me :) And I got to sneak in a few extra hours of sleep- thank you mom!

8 months!!!

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:19:00 -0500

On March 5th Carson turned 8 months old! I am a little behind on posts and measurements, and Carson has hit new milestones just since his 8 month birthday last week! This kid is growing up way to fast!

Carson’s big milestone this month was learning how to crawl!!! He is all over the place now. He will crawl across the entire house without stopping and is always very determined in reaching his destination. His new big thing is pulling up on furniture, including when he is in his crib. My mom and I lowered the crib yesterday because of this! In fact, Carson is peering at me from over his crib as I type this :) He can also “walk” around furniture when holding onto it. My mom thinks he’ll be walking by the time her and my dad visit in mid-May. Slow down Carson!!!! (I do take solace in the fact that Carson will still cuddle up with me and fall asleep in my arms, so he still has sweet baby qualities).

Carson did not have a doctor’s appointment this month, so we had to once again do our own measurements. His next appointment isn’t until April 19th (we’ll be out of town on his 9 month birthday). I can’t wait to know his actual measurements since mine are always way off!!!

Weight: 18 lbs 6.4 oz (10-25th percentile)…he was 17 lbs 12 oz last month. I think all that crawling has made him lose some baby chub!

Length: 27 inches (10-25th percentile)…he grew half an inch!

Head size: No head measurement this month.

Here are some pics of the super cute ~~baby~~ kid!

A week of ups & downs!

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:27:00 -0600

This week has been a mix of good and bad! It started off with me being sick and then passing my sickness on to Carson and Ryan. I have now been sick for almost 8 days straight!!! YUCK. I think (and hope) that our little family is on the mend. Carson has been the best through it all. He still smiles and plays even when his nose is running all over his little face. The week came with great news Wednesday (which i’ll share once it’s official) and we got our new couch Thursday which was fun! We were all pretty sick feeling again Friday though :( Luckily we all woke up this morning feeling a bit better! Here’s Carson playing on the new couch…

Carson will have his first slumber party tonight at Nana and Bear’s while I’m celebrating my friend Katie’s bachelorette party and Ryan enjoys a much needed night off. I know Carson will have a blast…but, I’ve already teared up a little thinking about not getting to rock my sweet baby to sleep or be there in the morning when he wakes up. It will be very strange not peeking at my phone in the middle of the night to watch him sleep (and hear him cry). He will have fun though and that’s all that matters! And tomorrow Grammy comes in town for a few days and I cannot wait!!! Did I mention that it’s SPRING BREAK!?!?! 9 days straight of cuddling with my boys and my new couch :) As long as we can beat this nasty cold we’ve all had, i’d say this is shaping up to be an awesome weekend and week!

Whales whales everywhere!

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 09:54:28 -0600

I love whales. Carson’s nursery is filled with all things whale and his newborn wardrobe was filled with any whale outfit we could find, which last spring/summer amounted to only a couple of outfits. Although I am fighting a cold, I ventured out to Carter’s yesterday and it is filled with whale outfits. There are at least 15 whale outfits there!!! I want them all, but I settled for a 3 pack of whale onesies, whale socks and a whale bucket hat :) I am sure i’ll go back and get more as it warms up…this kid wants to match his nursery!

Here’s a photo of Carson’s first whale outfit. He wore it coming home from the hospital when he was 2 days old!

We finally took Carson’s 7 month picture today :)...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:09:29 -0600

We finally took Carson’s 7 month picture today :) We’ll take his 8 month picture next weekend…i’m sure he’ll look very different- ha! You may notice that the sticker is not on his onesie and that there is a different background. Carson was relentless about pulling the sticker off and trying to eat it and it was really difficult to get the blue blanket to stay now that he’s so active. So, introducing our new monthly photo backdrop! :)

On the move!

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:53:51 -0600

I’m typing this as I chase Carson around the house! On February 21 he began to crawl and he is now very FAST. He has been crawling everywhere and isn’t scared of getting as far from us as possible. Today I made him some “leg warmers” out of old socks because he’s getting little strawberries on his knees.

This is him demonstrating how he can even crawl off his knees like a bear! Looks like today we’ll be shopping for some baby-proofing stuff!

Mayor Carson

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:00:00 -0600

Nana (Ryan’s mom) has been working really hard for many months on a promotional video for the city of The Colony. Tonight the finished video was revealed and it turned out so great!!! Carson loved watching it and celebrating his Nana :) After the party Carson had fun pretending he was the mayor!

Carson said “dada” today!!! Ryan was really excited...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:43:37 -0600

Carson said “dada” today!!! Ryan was really excited :)

I am pretty proud of Carson’s baby book. I’m really...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:27:57 -0600

I am pretty proud of Carson’s baby book. I’m really consistent in keeping up with it & I hope that one day he loves it as much as I do! There’s also a page for each month that’s completely filled out, but this is my favorite page (and yes he probably grew between 5 and 6 months, I just didn’t weight him correctly!). :)

iphone pictures from January and February!

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 09:58:03 -0600

iphone pictures from January and February!

It's a Boy!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Exactly a year ago today we found out that we were having a BOY! I was convinced that our baby would be a girl, but having a boy has been so much fun (and affordable). I am really excited for soccer and baseball games and dirt and superheroes and all the other boy stuff Carson will be interested in. I’m also looking forward to him indulging my frequent request to play Mario Kart :) For now, however, he’ll remain my mall buddy. Maybe he’ll still like that in a few years, but i’m guessing not!

Today is also my Grandma Dee’s Birthday! Happy Birthday! We love you!

Happy Valentine’s Day! xoxo, Carson (We had a great first...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Happy Valentine’s Day!

xoxo, Carson

(We had a great first Valentine’s as a family of 3! We went to Manny’s in Frisco and had yummy Mexican food. Carson sat in a highchair and banged on the table and made friends with waitresses and other kids. He’s so good at restaurants- yay!)

7 Months!!!

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:28:00 -0600

Today Carson turned 7 months old!

Carson’s big milestone this month has been trying to crawl. He is definitely doing some sort of scooting thing and we wouldn’t be surprised if he was crawling by March! Carson’s mobility is fun to watch, but i’m suddenly realizing that we haven’t done any baby-proofing. Guess i’ll be adding that to our to-do list VERY soon!

He also LOVES to play with his toys and tries to climb over us when being held. He can also feed himself a bottle and prefers to spoon his own food into his mouth (we’re working on it actually going in his mouth). As independent as he seems, he’s actually more interested in being in our arms and won’t let us get too far away. He begs to be held by flapping his arms, holds our hand when we feed him, falls asleep in my arms at night and lays on Ryan’s chest and falls back asleep on Friday and weekend mornings. He’s a perfect blend of cuddly baby and explorer :)

Carson did not have a doctor’s appointment this month, so we had to once again do our own measurements. His next appointment isn’t until April 5th.

Weight: 17 lbs 12 oz (25-50th percentile)…he’s gained a pound and 2 ounces since last month!

Length: 26.5 inches (10-25th percentile)…he grew half an inch!

Head size: No head measurement this month.

Although 7 months seems like a pretty long time, Ryan and I agree that it’s still surreal that we’re parents and this funny, sweet, energetic baby is ours!

(i’ve been having some blog issues…user error…so it’s taken me a while to post this!)