Holy crap he's so cute!

Carter is a lot of fun, especially now that he's crawling. He absolutely loves it when we get down on the floor; I guess there's just something about people being on his level. The best part is that he'll follow us all around the house.

Unfortunately, crawling around on our industrial-strength carpet has taken a toll on Carter's poor little nose, but we think he's no worse for the wear.

Finally living up to his name....

Carter took off crawling over the weekend. He's moving all over and pulling himself up on all the furniture. This stage is lots of fun but a little more hazardous. He already has more bumps and bruises since he started than his entire life combined.

Lucky in Love

As evidenced by his receipt of multiple Valentines, Carter is pretty lucky in love.

Grandma and Grandpa Diether sent him some great Valentines. One of them was even a sticker. He was definitely excited about them.

He also received a Valentine from his future girlfriend Nora which he holds close to his heart.

He yelled at me when I tried to turn the Valentine around. I didn't think he would already be so territorial.

He was also lucky enough to have his Grandma and Grandpa Crall and his Aunt Mary Ann come up to see him on Valentine's Day. We had an early birthday celebration for Christopher's birthday and Carter was the life of the party. He was really glad they came and so were we. All in all it was a pretty great first Valentine's Day.

Because I'm a slacker...

My beautiful and amazing sister Driel had a baby and I meant to post about it right when it happened, but, as often happens, life seemed to get in the way of my good intentions. Not a good excuse -- I know -- but here she is:

Carter's newest cousin Baby Fi (as I like to call her) but better known as Fiona Andersen.
Born on Tuesday, January 27th at 1:08 PM
6 pounds, 15 ounces, 18 inches long

Welcome to the world gorgeous girl!

A couple updates

Lorein's brother Ammon had some good rebuttal arguments to my post about squeezing from the middle. Specifically, he said his wife, Kathy, timed him to determine how long it took to "convert a middle squozen tube into a bottom squozen tube" and it came out to be 3 seconds. His comment implied that such a time length is trivial and I should not get all worked up over such insignificance. I admit that at first this argument was quite persuasive to me, but then I got to thinking . . . 3 seconds a day is 18 minutes and 15 seconds a year. Assuming an average 72 year lifespan, that's 49,275 seconds I will spend from the moment I turn 27 (which is next Friday!) repairing the toothpaste tube. For those of you who cannot quickly convert seconds into minutes and hours in your head, that's 821 minutes and 15 seconds, or 13 hours and 40-something minutes. With those 13+ hours, I could be feeding the poor in South America or reading "Where the Wild Things Are" to inner-city kids. But instead, I'm stuck in the bathroom fixing the toothpaste. In other words, middle squeezers keep us bottom squeezers from making the world a better place. Does that seem trivial to you? Is that insignificant?
On another note, the pizzeria opened! I saw on Friday they had taken the plastic down from the windows, and then when we walked by Saturday night, the lights were on and there were people inside! I'm pretty stoked and definitely planning to hit it up in the next week or so. Nearly three years, and finally no longer "Coming Soon".

8.1 pts, 6.3 rbds, .7 assists per game

Carter had his 6-month checkup on Thursday even though he's 7-months today. It was a disheartening day since we found out he's only 60th percentile for weight, which means his dreams of becoming an NFL linebacker are already dashed. On the bright side, he was 90th percentile for height, so maybe he's destined to accomplish great feats as an NBA center along the lines of Shawn Bradley and Detlef Shrempf!

Trying to bite his way out of his Pack 'N Play prison

I think it's in the Bible somewhere

After Lorein and I married, I found to my dismay she's a middle squeezer. I, on the other hand, am more civilized and so squeeze the toothpaste tube from the bottom. It's quite obvious that squeezing from the bottom is better since it eases toothpaste retrieval near the end of the supply. There is also a direct correlation between squeeze placement and cap filthiness. Tubes that have been middle squeezed tend to have their caps covered with old, crusty paste, often precluding the tube from being closed, which of course leads to further crustiness and general hygiene erosion. On the other hand, bottom squeezed tubes are clean, orderly, and are well-known to lead to a higher level of happiness. Since all intelligent people understand this principle, however, I do not feel the need to elaborate further.
Anyway, even though I was a witness to Lorein's shame, I approached the problem as any loving husband would and bought my own toothpaste tube. After a short while, I was able to train Lorein in the ways of enlightened people everywhere, and we discarded the extra tube. Imagine my dismay, then, when I entered the bathroom and saw this:

Ahhhhh!! What fiendish ghoul entered my sanctuary to disrupt and sully?! After some investigation, it turned out it was Lorein! I was mystified -- why had she suddenly returned to her brutish ways? Was she mad at me? Had I angered her in some unknown way? I asked her, but she responded in the negative. Actually, she said "at least the cap isn't dirty". Again, as a loving husband, I felt I could live with that. I mean, Lorein has a baby to care for and is working part-time; I could adjust to a middle-squeezed tube so long as the cap wasn't dirty.
So again imagine my dismay when a few days later I went to brush my teeth and found the cap covered in old, crusty paste. And lo and behold, the crust was so thick it was impossible to close the cap. I didn't know what to do. I again asked Lorein what I had done to deserve such treatment, but she still kept her secret close. And so I ask you who know Lorein as your friend: has she deposited her secret with you? Do you know the true purpose behind this nefarious deed? Please inform me and you can quite possibly take credit for saving our marriage!
Oh, and another thing. We bought the six toothbrush pack at Costco. Under California community property law, three of those toothbrushes were rightfully mine, yet Lorein used four leaving me with only two! Why did she hork my toothbrush? Was it merely because it was pink? Did she think I would not want a pink toothbrush? If so, she's probably right, but she could've at least asked me. Oh, I am to be so pitied.