Grooming and stuff

Carter loves imitating Mom and Dad these days, particularly when it involves matters of personal hygiene. He brushes his teeth regularly and we leave several toothbrushes around the house for him to use. In the morning, after I brush my hair, he takes my brush to give his own hair a thorough brushing (usually with the bristles facing away from his head). And lately, he's taken a keen interest in Dad's razor (thank goodness Daddy uses an electric one!). This morning, Daddy discovered that his razor was broken (hmmmm . . . I wonder how that happened?) and Carter inherited a new toy. I spent a lot of the day today humming 'Vvvvvvvvvv' (I had to make the sound for the razor since it was broken, you see) as he shaved his face and echoed me, laughing hysterically.

In other news, by now you've probably noticed that Carter is wearing nothing but a diaper in a lot of the pictures. Back when he was sick, we were changing his diaper so many times a day that it didn't make sense to dress him. Well, Carter got used to the carefree lifestyle, and now all but refuses to wear clothes. I wrestle him into proper outfit when we need to head out, but most of the time when we're at home, I'm lucky just to get a diaper on him. Ahhh . . . our little nudist.

Carter is making huge progress with his signing. Today, he picked up the signs for 'cereal' and 'down.' He understands so much and has so much he wants to say that it's been really frustrating for him to be so limited verbally. Signing has made a tremendous difference for him. He can finally be understood!

As for me, I'm busy with a million projects. I've been teaching myself to knit off and on for a couple of years now and just the other day I finally finished the baby blanket that I planned to make before Carter was born (I didn't actually start it until right around Christmas this past year). It turned out pretty well, and I'm really excited with how my skills are developing. I went to a knitting class in December and hopefully I'll make it to another before long. I'm also starting an organic vegetable garden in our back yard (we spent a big chunk of the weekend buying soil and compost and other important gardening materials). And I'm working on learning Spanish (though I still haven't progressed very far). Oh, yeah, and I'm still reading a lot, though I tend to read more parenting books than fiction these days. Other than that, I'm really enjoying being a mom and spending time with my amazing group of superfriends (we really call ourselves that - yeah, we're dorks)!