Halloweenie

Carter's first Halloween was celebrated yesterday, and consisted of a borrowed monkey costume, which was so cute -it was just a little big, and trick-or-treating at my work (its a big deal at ICCU, we get at least a 100 kids and their bags are filled to the brim when they leave). We brought our little buddy Simon (aka Max) along so he could collect all the candy Carter couldn't.

Not much Halloween activity for Carter boy today. Ya know, since he is only 6 1/2 months old and all. Except for me, Mom, ran a Halloween Spooktacular 5K fun run this morning. It was very hilly (dang Idaho mountains), and the first "organized" run I've participated in since 2008. It was good to be back, timing myself, running with someone better than me, and pushing myself to never stop running (don't want to ever walk during a "run"). I actually did pretty good (for me). It was a run to support the Girls on the Run group. There were the cutest LITTLE (like ages 7+) girls there, and some of them were so fast and kicked my trash. They were amazing. Girls on the Run is an AWESOME group. We've had a fun Friday and Saturday so far! : ) And now I get to sleep an extra hour! Yeah right, I bet Carter doesn't know how to fall back. He's a good sleeper though so I guess we'll see.

Growing

At six and a half months, Carter weighs 19 lbs and is in the 68th percentile, is 28 1/4 inches tall and is in the 92nd percentile, and has a 45 1/2 cm head, which is the 87th percentile. So glad he is big, healthy, SMART, and TALL!!

Water babies, round 2

We simply love this class.

Detergent

Here ya go Trisha! : )

You need to mix equal parts washing soda and Borax. Equal parts powder mixture and grated Ivory Bar or Fels-Naptha. This can all be found in your laundry/detergent and soap aisles in the grocery store.

For example, for my first batch I used:

1 cup Borax ($3.36 for 76 oz. box at Winco)
1 cup A&H washing soda ($2.67 for 55 oz. box at Winco)
2 cups finely grated Ivory soap (~1 bar) ($1.07 for 3 bars at Winco)

Use 2 Tablespoons per load. To make the amount above costs about $1.08.

I read that the HE detergent for high efficiency washers is a low suds detergent, which this homemade detergent is supposed to be (low suds). So, hopefully what I read is true and it won't ruin my washer!

Exer-saucering

Carter loves to exer-saucer! 1-2-3 work it...work it...lift those legs, squat 1-2-3 hold it, feel the burn! He has also pooped in this thing, I'm not talking in his diap, or on the fabric or anything like that, I'm sayin' it dropped right out the side of his diap onto the bottom blue thing. Don't worry, its been thoroughly cleaned. I about fell over laughing when it happened. Glad I can still laugh about this kind of thing now, because I know someday it will make me mad when his poop gets on things it shouldn't! : )

post with no pics

Sometimes you gotta post something without pics.

I am PROCRASTINATING soooooooooo much right now! Thank goodness I have the best babe in the world and he sleeps through the night. I am supposed to be working on my group project for my class as I speak (write). We are meeting tomorrow night at 6 and of course I have to work all day tomorrow so I must be done with my part tonight. Way to go CME!

I was so excited today and told Jason, "I'm going to make my own laundry detergent!" I've seen/heard the easy recipe like a dozen times on cost saving programs on TV, and read it online as I constantly search for ways to be more green (I like to make many attempts at this). So, I told Jason I was going to buy stuff to make me own detergent, and he looked at me like I was a little crazy (probably because I was beaming with excitement as I told him my plan), and he said, "OK, Hippie." I laughed. Was kinda' surprised, but also liked being called a Hippie. I'm really probably more of a granola-ish, wanna be yuppie. But, I like the Hippie claim.

Yeah, I made my own detergent! Took like 5 minutes, cost like $7.50 for all the supplies. My first batch, which I bet will last me ~50 loads cost about $1.07. The first 4 loads of laundry turned out great (no smells, just clean...just the way I like it!) so I am SUPER DUPER excited about saving money and hope it really is good for this Planet Earth and my appliances!

Good weekend. Better get back to work. Wellcome Israel, not my Blog. : )

My water baby is 6 months old today

HAPPY half Birthday baby boy!! I cannot believe we've been blessed with you for 6 whole months! Its been amazing times.

Jason took Carter to McKees pet store this afternoon and they looked at all the animals...the fishes, doggies, kittens, and birds. I guess Carter liked the birds the most.

Then, Carter and I went to our first water babies class tonight. We had such a blast. We sang lots of songs, blew bubbles, took a ride in a floaty tube, played in the bucket of balls, splashed, kicked, met three other little boys and their mom's. Carter LOVED the pool! We were the only brave ones in the class to dunk our heads under water. Carter did it twice. He is such a champ.

Getting ready for water babies


At water babies. This is the teacher. She held Carter while I grabbed my cell to snap a photo


This is when we got home from water babies, he was tuckered

All showered/bathed and ready for bed

A quick visit with Gramma Lanna. Love your new hair cut and color!

You'll be 1 in 6 more months? Wow! I cannot believe it. Love you sweet boy.

Protection

Its been laminated so Carter can no longer pee on it. That's right, Jason's one and only precious Jonny Moseley Winter Olympics USA Today newspaper clipping from 1998 has been laminated to avoid a re-play of the two close encounters when Carter almost peed all over it.

Jason had it hanging by Carter's changing table so he could tell our boy the tale (history for the sport of skiing) of Jonny winning the Gold in Nagano in the 1998 Winter Olympics. Carter nearly damaged it a few times by peeing "big air" while getting his diap changed. I thought I'd laminate it, add some flare (colors...see the border, looks like a kid did it, nope it was me with all my cutting straight lines imperfections shining through!), and hang it back up. Its now pee-proof, yay!

Time well spent on a Saturday

Carter attended his first parade (ISU's Homecoming). As usual he looked at everything with those big blue beauties and soaked it all in. We searched and searched the few days before for a nice snow hat and mittens because it is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS cold and generally snowy or rainy on the day of the parade. It turned out to be a beautiful morning. We started out with the hat and winter coat and ended up taking the cute little hat off because it was so warm. How nice for his first experience!! We think he loved it!

Then, it was off to Gunner's first birthday party. Gunner is a co-worker of mines little boy. He is so stinking cute and Mrs. G really knows how to throw a birthday party if I do say so myself. There were 3 other kiddos there within 2, 6, and 8 months of Carter. It was such a blast.