18 mos, pics, trip to Austin and wordpalooza

Carter turned 18 months old this past Wednesday and to celebrate we took some photos and a trip to Austin. The photo session coincided nicely with the fact that I am now HUGE so in actuality it was a maternity session, but I couldn't help but schedule it on the munchkin's 1.5 year birthday in order to kill two birds with one stone. Mackenzie Wheatley of chubby foot photography once again did a great job, and we braved mosquitoes and some chilly morning weather to get these among other cute shots.












As soon as we wrapped the photo shoot, Carter and I headed off to Austin to see Mr. C's grandparents. The visit was brief, but well worth the trip. Unfortunately the munchkin had been fighting off something that came to a head Thursday morning and our trip was cut short just before we got to see our favorite Aunt Bethany :(.

Despite the seemingly constant run of little viral bugs the munchkin has been fighting off this fall, his talking has really taken off. His vocabulary is quite expansive these days, considering just one month ago I couldn't even imagine him hitting the '10 words with meaning' milestone most 18 month olds hit. I figured I had to get a list together now, before I forgot and before the list gets so big I can't think of all of his words (which it may already be too late for that, since it took both Stephen and I a good hour to come up with this list which we were still adding to as I typed it up!).

Carter's words at 18 months (and his pronunciation)

Cheese
Please (pees)
Pray (pay)
Amen (uh-men)
Cat/Kitty (ca/kee-kee)
Daddy (sadly still no mommy!)
Baby
Water (wa)
Milk (ma)
Banana (ba...long pause...na-na or just na-na)
Cookie (coo....long pause...key)
Eat (ee)
Food (foo)
Bath (ba)
Bottle (Ba-ba)
Teeth (tee)
Tree (tee)
Stick (tik)
Park (pa)
Play (pay)
More (mo)
Video (bee)
TV (tee bee)
Texas (exshas)
Night night (nigh-nigh)
There (dare)
Light (yite)
No (nah nah nah nah said while vigorously shaking his head 'no')
Paci (pa)
Moon (moo)
Car (ca)
Blue (boo)
Cow (ca)
Keys (tchees)
Bye-bye (buh-bye)
Poop
All done/all gone (gon-ga)
Apple (appa)
Happy (appy)
Cold (co)
Ball (ba)
Kick (kik)
Kix, as in the cereal (kik)
Sit (tschit)
Outside (oushide)
Shoe (schoo)
Balloon (boon)
Cup
Hat (ha)
Bib (beebp)

He's also gotten very good with sounds like "beep-beep, moo, woof, meow, etc." and with repeating the sounds of letters when we're playing with the alphabet magnets, tub toys, books, etc, but he can't really identify them yet.

Sweet reminder

Since Carter started eating solids, we've always tried to make a table prayer part of our meal time routines. Doesn't always happen and when it does, it's usually about halfway through his meal since we tend to get him going while I finish getting the food on the table. But, all that aside, the munchkin has definitely picked up on the praying, and we had a really memorable moment the other day.

We were all having lunch together, and as usual he was well into his meal by the time Mr. C and I sat down with our food. Once we were all seated, Carter stopped eating and looked at us with hands folded and said, "pay??". We both (mid-bite) realized we hadn't said our table prayer yet, so we put our forks down to pray and when we were finished, Little C enthusiastically echoed us with a cheerful, "uh-men!" before returning to his lunch.

I know he does not fully grasp the concept of our table prayer just yet, but it was so sweet to be reminded by our toddler to say our prayers. :)

Cream Cheese and Crecent Roll Dessert

Took this to a breakfast meeting I helped host and it was so good I may or may not have eaten almost half the pan over a period of two days. Definitely serve it with a STRONG cup of coffee though because it's super sweet and super rich.

• 2 cans original crescent rolls
  
• 2 (8 oz.) cream cheese (softened)
  
• 1 c. sugar
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla
  
• 1 lg egg (separated)
  
• 1 c. brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
  
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll 1 can of crescent roll and place in bottom of greased 9 x 13 inch pan pressing the seams together (or you can buy the crescent roll sheets). In separate bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and beaten egg yolk until smooth. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the crescent rolls sheet in the baking dish. Top the cream cheese mixture with the other can of crescent rolls, press seams together. Brush with beaten egg white. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped pecans and sprinkle over crescent rolls brushed with egg white. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly and the bottom crust is slightly brown. Allow to cool then slice and serve.

Alternate recipe:

• Eliminate egg
  
• Add 1 stick butter (melted)
  
• Swap 1/2 c. granulated sugar for 1 c. brown sugar
  
• Eliminate nuts

Prep as above. In a separate bowl beat together the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the crescent rolls sheet in the baking dish. Top the cream cheese mixture with the other can of crescent rolls, press seams together. Pour melted butter over the top layer of crescents. Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 t cinnamon and sprinkle on top of butter. You can add more or less of the cinnamon sugar depending on your taste. Bake as above.