Carter's blessing

We spent last week in Temecula since I needed a vacation and that was about as far as Carter would let us go, and even then he fussed most of the way there. They say babies like cars, but Carter is not a fan. Although, he did do well in my dad's car. Maybe it takes a BMW.

Our real reason for going down was because we wanted to give Carter his baby blessing at a small family gathering instead of at church. It went really well except that Lorein forgot the outfit she wanted him to wear. She forgot even though I specifically asked her if she had the outfit before we left the apartment and she said yes. Of course, she says she doesn't remember this, so it seems we'll just have to chalk it up once again to Lorein's penchant for tuning me out. It makes it hard on me because I always turn and lovingly pay attention whenever she speaks to me, even if it's in the middle of the Dodgers game, but she ignores me and then gets mad when I pester her to get her attention. It's really unfair.
Anyway, it was a fun trip and Carter enjoyed all the attention his relatives lavished on him. In fact, it was so busy and Carter got so much exercise that he suddenly developed massive muscles on his arms (at least we're calling them muscles) as documented here:

In addition to pumping iron, he also experienced other new things. For example . . .

His first excursion with sweet kicks;

His first bottle -- Lorein wants it noted that she was still a part of the feeding effort since she worked hard to pump the milk -- which he gulped down so fast I had to refill it with Dr. Pepper
(just kidding! It was Sprite); and

His first encounter with his namesake, who he seemed to really take a liking to.