It’s been a super busy last 2 months. We visited Gramps and Granny in Charleston for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Miriam experienced her first pumpkin patch at Jen’s parents’ church. She went on an all-day play date with the Tetrev family. We survived our first Halloween and Miriam trick-or-treated for about 30 minutes. We were the characters from the Lego Movie. She is still nursing, but continues to try out solid foods. She likes apples, pears, berries, graham crackers, sweet potatoes and bananas. She is slightly less fond of sweet peas, squash and pumpkin. She gags over green beans. Her Papa fed her pizza, but we’ve restricted that for awhile (same with peanut butter and chocolate cake). Miriam weighed 17 lbs. 7 oz. at her 6 month check up!

She’s become even more active and alert. She wants to grab everything and shove it in her mouth. She likes to be held upside down and practices somersaults with Daddy. She is entertained just sitting in front of a Christmas tree. She can scoot a little bit in her walker. She has zero desire to try crawling, but likes to stand up (with help) and “walk”. We think she will walk before she crawls. She knows how to “divide and conquer” (meaning, she will cry “ma-ma-maaa” and if Mama doesn’t work, then she tries “da-da-dagi” for Daddy. And even though this tactic may not always work in her future, for the present time it’s pretty stinkin’ cute 🙂 

(please note that flipping your child upside down may result in serious injury. please do not try to replicate what you see here. safety first!)

She is definitely teething, but no teeth have broken through yet. She also wakes up a few times each night, probably due to separation anxiety or teething, or growing. Her schedule is also probably messed up from daylight savings time (why do we even do that anymore….) Mommy and Daddy have missed their sleep these couple of months, but you can’t really be mad when you wake up to this:

the definition of hope (the joyful anticipation of what is to come); child-like wonder! 

Woah. Didn’t we just do one of these? Where does the time go?!? Miriam is 5 months already and may or may not have tasted chocolate frosting…but other than that, she’s still on mommy’s milk diet. She’s more alert than ever!  Her day starts off by waking us up by talking to herself. She starts off whispering (new) and then increases the volume until she has breakfast (don’t we all?) She loves to give kisses by sucking on your face. She also loves to be held while going out (it’s a lot easier than carrying her around in the car seat). She’s got to be close to 20 lbs….

She is able to get out about town more often and because Team Carter is super excited about this fall season, we have been able to go apple-picking at Windy Hill Orchard, sampled the food-truck fare at an outdoor festival, have been to a Mommy-group that meets in Fort Mill (which has been SUCH a blessing for Mommy) and been on numerous shopping outings for errands and exploring with her aunts.

at Tawba Fest

ready for church (wearing Mommy’s dress from when she was a baby)

apple picking with Daddy

Hanging out with cousin Ayda

We are working very hard to maintain consistency with her nighttime routine (usually she sleeps great, but doesn’t always want to go to sleep) so every night around 7:30pm you will find Miriam getting a shower, getting snuggled in her pjs, if she’s not “losing it” by then she will get a story read to her, then it’s big feeding time, and then she likes Daddy to rock her in the dark or sing to her until she gets sleepy.  It’s the cutest thing. She gets so excited to get into her sleep sack to go to bed.  Then its prayers and lights out (until she wakes up talking 5-8 hours later). She also (often reluctantly) will take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Praise God for a wonderful sleeper!

We are so blessed by this little girl and honored to be her parents! Her laughter and smiles are the best sunshine in the world! She is really starting to develop her personality more and more. We love you so much Miriam!

A bit late, but Miriam is growing up so fast! She loves to try to “talk” and includes plenty of noises, cooing and shrieks. She discovered her laugh. She is so close to rolling over from back to tummy (she just can’t figure out how to get that pesky arm out of the way). She went to Charleston to visit her Gramps and Granny for a week. We took lots of walks with Granny and she tried out the Splash Pad at the James Island County Park. She enjoyed her first play date with Alicia and Judah Adams and the Tetrev boys + Karen.

She also visited Daddy’s job-training site in Winston Salem, NC for a week. She rode a carousel at the mall, took a dip in a pool that was too cold, met lots of new people and accepted lots of compliments, got a sweet pair of red high-tops and experienced life in a hotel. We recently met some friends, the Bowmans, who introduced her to pink camo and The Beacon restaurant in Spartanburg, SC. Her hair is long enough to put in pony-tails but the bows won’t stay in her hair for too long. She tried the Bumbo seat again and will agree to sit in it for a little while. She still doesn’t like it if she sees someone interact with her and then try to walk away/leave the room (especially Mommy). She is fascinated by people eating and wants to be held at the dinner table to see everything. She has become so alert and loves to reach and look around. She discovered her swing has ducks above her head that move and a mirror. She discovered she has feet. She likes to twiddle her fingers together. She outgrew her 0-3 month clothes and is barely squeezing into her 3 month clothes.

At 3 months, Mommy took Miriam to a breastfeeding support group so Miriam could get weighed and she was 13 lbs and 3 oz. At her 4 month checkup, Miriam weighed 15 lbs, 6 ounces. This explains why Miriam can sleep on average 7-9 hours of sleep at night (when she’s not having a growth spurt of course). Her record has been 12.5 hours of sleep and was woken up by Mommy to eat. 🙂 We love what a great sleeper and eater she is!

Our friend, Audra Gibson, took our family photoshoot in Hampton Park and they turned out beautiful! Here are some of our favorites:

In other news, Team Carter is very excited about the fall season (we haven’t experienced a SC fall in 4 years!) so we are pumped about cooler weather, pumpkin-flavored everything, leaves changing color, apple picking, watching college football and the start of the holiday season!  We have an idea of what we want to be for Halloween (Old Town Rock Hill has safe trick-or-treating that night, so we might check it out). Otherwise, Team Carter is usually in bed with our pj’s on around 9pm.

David is enjoying his job (which still has him training every other 2 weeks in Winston-Salem). We have plugged into a church. We feel like we are starting to lay down some roots while we are living in Rock Hill and it feels really good. We know we will be living with David’s parents until the spring/summer of 2015 and continuing to pay off student loans and building up some savings. We are very grateful to them for allowing us to build up our family during this season (and we know they love having Miriam so close 🙂 ) We also love that we are able to start having fellowship and meeting new people. For the present time, we are really enjoying being a family and being parents. It’s SO sweet! Thank you for continuing to pray for us–we love you guys!

This sweet girl has captured our hearts! She is teaching us so much about unconditional love and we think she’s the best baby on the planet (sorry to everyone else’s kid in the running). Miriam loves lots of things and the first 2 months were full of firsts. She had her first bath and loves to play in the water (we have a shower not necessarily a bathtub, but she loves it). She loves music of all kinds (especially worship music at Church). She watches Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek with Daddy. She loves people and doesn’t seem to mind strangers/family/friends passing her around. She loves to coo and make noises (like “summoning her Pteradactyl friends” cry) and she will often give you smiles. She was born with a big personality. She likes to go on walks/runs in the stroller but doesn’t like tummy time. She destroyed the car seat (#2) coming home from the doctors office. She likes to practice her gymnastics skills like arching her back (almost touching her head to her back) and trying to roll over (she did it once unassisted on the couch). She’s ready to explore more things in this big world and we are so blessed to have her as our daughter. She’s funny and a little bit of a ginger sometimes (saucy!) but she’s ours 🙂 we love you Miriam!

Miriam at 9 lbs 4 oz. and 21.25 inches

Miriam at 11lbs 6 oz and 23 inches