Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A dog says GRRRR

Karsten is a huge fan of Madison and watches her all the time. Sometimes it's difficult to feed him dinner because he's watching Madison walk around the kitchen.

Lately when Karsten has been playing on the floor, he'll put one of his small toys in his mouth and growl. It's hilarious. I want to try to catch it on video but haven't had much luck yet.



Madison with her bone and Karsten putting his block in his mouth to be like Madison.


GRRRR

Happy 8 month Birthday Karsten

It's hard to believe that Karsten is already 8 months old. Where on earth did that time go? I can't believe it - we're excited for him to get to each new milestone, yet we want time to slow down so he doesn't grow up too quickly!

A few things Karsten is doing at 8 months:

*Jabbering more and using consonants alot. We hear "dada" a lot but we don't know if he realizes that dada means Dad.
*Crawling! :)
*Moving around the floor to get to the toys he wants, crawling or otherwise.
*Crying or getting upset when we walk out of the room.
*Getting impatient for dinner when he's waiting in his highchair.
*Grinding his teeth occasionally but also chomping them together like he's chewing something.
*Getting the hang of eating Puffs (baby cereal)
*Giggling when you tickle his tummy
*Feeling everything. He likes to come to the edge of his quilt when playing on the floor and feel the carpet. In his crib the other night he kept rubbing his hand across a wrinkle in his sheet to feel it.
*Watching Madison doing anything and everything. He's fascinated with her and she's being very patient with him - his quick little hands have grabbed her beard a few times!
*Enjoying different foods - we're working our way through fruits now.
*Leaning against furniture while standing up. Not pulling up yet but can stand there if we put him against furniture.
*Arching his back and moving his arms to get out of his car seat.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Finally on the move!

You might remember the post that Karsten has been 'almost' on the move for quite some time now. He had mastered moving around on the floor by alternating pivoting from a sitting position to a crawling position; however, the past few days he really seemed to get the hang of moving his hands forward - his knees just needed to come along for the ride.

Sunday night he took a couple of crawling steps then laid down - sooo close.

Tonight he did it! He would crawl right over to what he wanted, then sit up and look at us like "why are you so excited".


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Meeting friends

I was so excited to hear that our friends Jana and Craig were going to be in town this weekend. They were having a belated birthday celebration for Jana in Kansas City and their adorable girls were having a fun weekend with grandma and grandpa.
We met Jana and Craig for dinner and had a great time. It was so nice to chat and catch up - I don't think we've seen them in over a year. I know it's been a long time because I wasn't even pregnant the last time we saw them.

Karsten did so great at dinner - he sat in the highchair and played with his toys while we chatted and ate (don't worry he ate too - we fed him before we left home).







Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Exploring and Playing

Karsten is starting to really notice and get upset if we get out of his line of vision. We were playing on the floor tonight and I remembered I had a few things I needed to get done, so i brough them back into the living room and he continued to play while I did some odds and ends.

He's not crawling yet but he does a really good job moving around the floor with a combination of scooting and pivoting from a crawling position to a seated position. Tonight he moved himself over to a small basket of toys for the first time and pulled out each toy until he could dump over the basket. Then he was perfectly content to sit and play with each of the toys!










Monday, February 15, 2010

The Daily Grind

Karsten showed us a new trick late last week - grinding his six teeth together. EEK! It's a horrible sound so as soon as we hear it we try to give him a teething toy (or chew toy like Scott likes to say.)

Not sure why he's doing this - we're hoping it's just a phase. Any words of wisdom - have your kids done this? How long does it last? Should we do something besides offer him a chew toy?

Since I don't have a picture of him grinding his teeth - here is a super cute pic of him in his valentine's day shirt.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentine's Day Date

Last night Scott and I went to dinner to celebrate Valentine's day. We went to Pierpont's at Union Station and it was wonderful! Karsten had a big date night with Grandma and Grandpa and I think he had a pretty good time.

We were thinking of going to a movie but the times didn't work out and we were sleepy after a busy week so we headed back to the lil guy. I don't even think he knew we were gone!

Cheers! Hope you had a great Valentine's day!


We were hoping to get more of the background of union station but it turned out to be a cute pic of us anyway.


Loved this clock!



Saturday, February 13, 2010

Catching up

Scott got a message from his step-sister Risa that they were going to be in town this weekend! The kids had a long weekend because of conferences and President's day so they decided to come up and stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.

We met them for dinner on Friday night after they had spent all day swimming and exploring all of the cool things to do at The Great Wolf Lodge. It sounds like a pretty amazing place - I'm sure there will be many trips in our future as Karsten gets older. Trevor and Emily told us all about the slides and a scavenger hunt - sounds like they had a great time.



Emily showing Risa what she was coloring.


A little messy after enjoying some sweet potatoes. Giving the highchair cover that grandma made a workout!


Trevor and Steve having a good time

me, Risa and Emily





Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Flowers

I'm a big fan of receiving flowers, especially at work; however, on Valentine's day the price of flowers are ridiculous. Scott brough these home on Wednesday - wasn't that nice of him? I LOVE hydrangeas and this white bloom is gorgeous!



Thursday, February 4, 2010

Haircut #2

Karsten has needed a haircut for a few weeks now but I've been procrastinating. Finally I'd had enough and started to realize his hair was actually IN his eyes. oops. :)

I got a great recommendation for a stylist at Sheer Madness from Aundria - her boys always look super cute so I knew this lady must do a good job. I made an appointment and off we went. Sheer Madness looked like a pretty cool place, the kids can sit in cool cars rather than normal chairs, everything was brightly colored, definetely 100% kid!

Here is the before pic.


Checking out the car - he's not so sure he's going to like sitting in it.


Wondering what the heck she's doing with that squirt bottle - that looks like a fun toy!


This cracks me up - he looks so distraught but really he was watching the little tv.


All shaped up and cute! He had enough of the car and wouldn't look at me and smile. I'm Mom!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Valentine's Day Duds

Important note to all kids clothing manufacturers - moms of boys want cute holiday clothes for their kids too. That includes holidays like valentines day!!
I wanted to get Karsten a cute lil shirt for valentine's day and was so irritated when I went in store after store and found racks of adorable pink and red shirts for girls. Sometimes there would be an option for boys - it was usually ugly or had some silly saying on it.

SO...I called Shannon and wondered aloud of there was something that "we" (aka her) might be able to make for him. Lucky for us, she came up with some super cute things - below is one of them. More to come in the coming days.

Three little monkeys celebrating valentine's day


He often puts his little hands together like this - it's soo cute!


Always chewing on those fingers


....And we're done taking pictures. :)