Trying out the camera

Scott got me a new camera for my birthday. As you can imagine, my camera gets quite the workout because it has to take a lot of pictures of an adorable lil boy. We chose what we thought would be the perfect camera - basically just the newer version of what I already had. When we got home with it and started taking pictures, I noticed that it wasn't performing much faster than my old camera.

After much debating, we took it back and exchange it for a different camera. We had done more research and decided on what we were going to replace it with - then we got there and got a well informed salesman who showed me a different camera. He explained how it had a faster sensor than the camera I just returned, showed me a few cool features then I was sold.

When We got home with the camera, Karsten was happy to be my photo subject. It was a beatiful day outside so we played on the patio.

The tree is dropping leaves and nuts, so it was endless entertainment to find them and pick them up. He tried to walk on the concrete as little as possible becuase I don't think he likes the feeling on his feet - but yet he doesn't want to wear shoes?


Here mom - have a stick


I think he was ready to be done with outside - well, maybe that was just me being ready to be done with outside. :)

Karsten's friends

On Sunday evening, Karsten hung out with Kenna, Scott, Hadley and Seville while Scott and I went to dinner theater with my parents. I knew Karsten would have a great time and Kenna had said the girls were so excited to have Karsten come over. We're so lucky to have such great friends to watch him (big thanks to Jen, Jill and Kenna!)

Kenna sent me these pictures while we were at dinner - he was having so much fun he didn't even miss us!

Karsten being one of the gang - having some grapes with the girls


Kenna said that Seville liked to feed Karsten the grapes and Karsten is on a kick of having people feed him - I think they were both happy campers!


Then they went for a walk! Kenna said that Karsten hung onto the soccer ball we brought the entire time. I think he had a wonderful evening - thanks Kenna, Scott, Hadley and Seville!

Sour Patch Kid?

When I was pregnant with Karsten I craved sour candy like Sour Patch Kids. We got some at the store the other day and since we were each having a few, we decided to let Karsten try a bite. The sourness didn' seem to phase him at all - he ate the one we gave him and wanted 'more'. We were hoping for a super cute. 'wow this is sour' face, but no such luck.

Fun Friday Night

After Karsten's first experience with a popsicle, we decided to have the smoothie popsicles that we recently made for dessert.

After his first bite, Karsten giggled. When Scott would smile and laugh at him, Karsten kept giggling.




Endless fun!

It was nice outside, so after dinner we played outside. I'm ready for fall and cooler temperatures! He was trying to slide down the slide and keep ahold of Madison's frisbee - hard work! :)

Now he prefers to climb UP the slide. A bit precarious, so it requires a spotter.

That darn tongue...still out all the time. We're not sure why - perhaps he sees Madison doing that and thinks he should do it?

Movin' on - we've had enough fun on the slide for today. The funny thing is he didn't move much further than this spot. While he is not a huge fan of wearing shoes, he also does not seem to like the feeling of concrete on his bare feet.

Ice Cream

Scott had Back to School night last night so Karsten and I went over to my parents house for dinner and to hang out. After dinner we decided to have ice cream. I went to do something while my dad got the ice cream (with his sidekick Karsten), and when I came back to find them outside, this is what I saw.

Madison looks pretty jealous, doesn't she?


It was adorable - Chuck put the ice cream bar in Karsten's mouth and I think he just sucked on it a bit. He was drooling it tasted so good.

I said something to him and he looked toward me but wouldn't stop eating the ice cream bar.

Chocolate ice cream - another first for Karsten. I think he enjoyed it...

A day with Grandma

On Wednesday, Karsten spent the day with my mom. My dad was still at home when I dropped Karsten off, so they had a few minutes to play before he had to go to work. He thought Karsten would like to play with his football - I should have knows that Karsten with a Nebraska football would be a photo opp. He sent me an email later with this picture and the subject line "A future K Stater gets the feel of a real football" ....ouch. At least Karsten will know that K Staters are loyal and aren't going to defect to some other conference on a whim. :)

Karsten had a fun day with Grandma - even learned a new word "coooo-kie". Wonder what they had a for a snack.

Hanging with Grandma and Grandpa

Daycare was closed Monday - Wednesday this week as they had a much deserved getaway, so Grandma and Grandpa came to spend Monday and Tuesday with Karsten.

One night at dinner, Karsten decided he didn't want to eat his tomatos, so he tried to hide them in the pocket in his bib. Pretty resourceful, eh?


Grandpa and Karsten had a good time reading books. Karsten LOVES books lately!


Grandma and Karsten had fun playing on his new lil slide.


Hey mom, look what I did! :)


He wouldn't put his block down while he played on the slide, so he had to fanagle getting up the steps then sitting down to slide down all while holding the block.


After they were done playing on the slide, he got excited when he saw Scott mowing the lawn!


Then we got out Karsten's blue car and he had a great time riding around while Grandma pushed him.




Grandma would run down the driveway and when they got to the bottom Karsten would giggle.


...still holding onto that block...


Having fun!


Then Grandpa came to the bottom of the driveway and would check under the hood of Karsten's car each time they ran to the bottom.




At first he didnt seem to like him having him check under the hood, but if Grandma tried to go back up the drivewaywithout having the check done under the hood, he wasn't happy!




This is the last picture I have before the evening came to a screetching halt. Scott was pushing Karsten up the driveway, changing directions, going fast and making him laugh - then all of a sudden Sctt was on the ground clutching his foot. He's been having problems with his foot for a while, and he said when he fell he heard something pop in his foot. Uh oh....

The good news is that he went to the doctor the next day and the doctor said that he had torn a tendon, but it was actually a good thing, because that tendon was part of the problem causing Scott all of the pain. So, now he just has to take it easy on that foot and let it heal on its own.

Busy Boy

Karsten is a very busy boy these days - he's always on the move. He's doing a bunch of fun new stuff lately.

• He can walk backwards...at least for a few steps. He will walk to a place he wants to be and slowly back up.
• He knows that he goes down the stairs on his tummy. We haven't tested this skill on a flight of stairs, just a small set of two stairs.
• He knows that he gets down from a chair on his tummy. Sometimes he forgets this one and either just leans forward or counts on someone else lifting him off.
• He says "daaa deee" when he sees Scott. It was previously just "Dada"
• We are done with bottles! I had been holding onto this last bottle(with an iron grip) because I really enjoyed the cuddle time with Karsten before bed. Having him drink the bottle guaranteed 5-10 minutes of a captive audience for cuddling. He decided on his own that the time was up - after drinking out of a straw all day, I think he was forgeting how to drink out of a bottle. Sigh-- Iget cuddle time while he drinks some milk and we read books.
• He's really into books. He will brink you a book then try to climb up on your lap to read it. If you start reading and he decides he's not into that book, he's off and running again.
• He likes to read a book in the car.
• He has a lil cough and when he coughs he covers his mouth! I think we have Mrs. Gail to thank for this great habit! Thanks Gail!
• We think he says "dink" occasionally when he wants a drink.
• When he plays with his truck he will say "MMMMMMM", "MMMMM" - think of it sounding like VROOM.
• He will selectively say Thanks...except it sounds like "tssss". He has focused on the last sound of the word thanks. :)
• 
  

Farm Fresh

Satuday morning we headed to the Farmer's Market to get some fresh fruit and veggies. Since it was so sunny out, I thought Karsten might want to wear a hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. We had fun trying to get him to leave the hat on - but no such luck, he was having none of it. I thought he looked SO cute with the hat on - hopefully he will learn to like hats!

We thought if Scott wore the hat, Karsten might keep it on. No such luck.

Maybe he will wear it backwards...nope.

Then we stopped for lunch at Habashi House. Karsten enjoyed his gyro meat and pita. He also had some hummus....yum! He's such a good eater!

We walked up to go to Planter's Seeds to get some pine nuts for our pesto and stopped at the entrance to the market for a photo opp.

Slow week

Sorry for the lack of posts this week - this darn tooth continues to plague me. I didn't take too many pictures this week. After I got the filling removed on Tuesday and the numbness wore off, the tooth still hurt...it actually hurt more. I called the dentist on Thursday and they thought I was going to need a root canal - before I did that, I decided to get a second opinion. Unfortunately, the second dentist agreed with my dentist - a root canal was in my future. He prescribed an antibiotic because he thought my tooth might hurt so much because it was infected. He also prescribed pain medicine so I could survive until Monday. So - wish me luck on Monday as I get my very first root canal. If all goes well, this means blogging should be back to normal this week. :)

It's been a while

Sorry friends - I've been the absentee blogger lately! Last week was a busy week - I got a filling in a tooth, Scott was getting ready for school to start, it was my birthday, lil Elam was born...I'm sure I forgot something. :) Don't worry - I'm going to catch up on all of those things, I have lots of pics to share!

This darn filling in my tooth has set me back - for some reason my teeth are uber sensitive and are NOT taking well to the filling. It's been hurting a lot but today it was taken out and a temporary filling put in - I'm already feeling better (could be because half my face is still numb), so it's time to catch up on blogging!

Birthday Date

Last night, Scott and I had a date to celebrate my birthday! He made dinner reservations and I didn't know where we were going until we got there!

Karsten spent the evening with grandma and grandpa and had a great time. On the way to their house, Karsten 'read' his book. It was adorable, he sat there turning the pages for most of the drive.

We had dinner at The Melting Pot. We hadn't been there in ages - it is a fun restaurant to go to for a special occasion. We were seated in a private booth - it was very cool.




After dinner we stopped by the hospital to visit Elam and Jenn. We were going to the movies for Eat, Pray, Love a little later, but luckily we had some time to see them first. He is SUCH a cutie - love all that dark hair. I can't wait to see those eyes, he's been sleeping every time I've seen him!


After the movie we went to my parents house to pick up Madison and Karsten. Luckily, Karsten slept in the car on the way home and went back to sleep as soon as we put him in his crib! It was a great birthday date - thanks Scott!