And, Finally, Sunday--The Carter Thanksgiving/Christmas Dinner!

Sunday morning we helped get things ready for the Carter Holiday Dinner at my parents' house. Even Lewis joined in the fun and helped Mamaw tear up bread for the dressing. He got to eat some toast for the first time as well.

Mamaw's Little Helper

Standing for Papaw

Dad picked up Lewis and put him on his feet to see if he would stand long enough for us to get a picture (his standing abilities have taken a sudden uptick since his playdate with the standing and walking Mathilda!). :) He can stay up for quite a while now (maybe 20 seconds??), especially if he is distracted by something in his hands.

Our dogs made the trip with us, and we played a little chess game with 1 dog (Maggie), 2 dogs (Peter and Hattie), all 3 dogs, and Lewis. Altogether, they run too much to be in the same room as Lewis. Separately, Peter and Maggie get along fine (though Maggie wants to play/run more than Peter does at times). Hattie, on the other hand, does not like Maggie. No surprise there for any who have met Hattie. :)

We baby gated them into one part of the house while Lewis was in another--at one point, Hattie jumped the 3-foot baby gate to get back to us because she is awesome like that. Maggie actually cleared it shortly thereafter, too, but took the gate down with her in the process. Eventually we figured out a way to keep the peace by putting the gate a bit higher. This video was during one of Peter and Hattie's breaks from lock-up. Lewis is harassing Hattie who is on my lap--she kept trying to scoot higher to get away from him. We need to work on teaching 'gentle' as he likes to grab handfuls of hair and likes to grab their wagging tails (ooh, a toy!?!).

We ran down to church after Lewis' nap so everyone could see Lewis, and then it was back to the house to make final preparations for the dinner. We had an amazing spread of food, as always, and it was great to see everyone! We didn't know/expect that there would be Christmas gifts for Big Lew, but there were--he received a book, an ornament, an outfit, a toy, and two sleepers! Here he is opening his first Christmas present ever, a sleeper from the Papenhauses.

I love grizzly bears! Rawr.

So that was that! We had to hit the road to get back in time for bedtime--it unfortunately was dark and rainy the.entire.way down Interstate 65, but we made it safely. Lewis couldn't tell that the drive suuuuucked. :)

Socks as Toys? Why not?!

One last video from yesterday--as I was getting the grocery list ready, I decided that cottage cheese would be one of Lewis' new foods to try this week. Then I proceeded to put down a spoonful as finger food and let him go to town--what a mess!! It was all over his highchair, on the wall, on his lap, up to his elbows, and on his face. I guess some got into his mouth, too. :) Today, I spoon fed it to him. You'll see some of the damage here--he was trying to paint with it, perhaps? Oh, boy!

I tried (and failed) to get him to wave to me and the camera--maybe next time! He is learning that and to high five.