Great, Great Uncle Charlie

On the way back from Gaga's, we stopped to visit Karsten's Great, Great Uncle Charlie. Uncle Charlie lives in an assisted living facility, and we were able to get a private dining room for our family to have dinner together. It worked out perfectly because Karsten was able to wander around when he wasn't eating, it was quiet enough that Charlie could hear us better and it gave us plenty of time to chat. Uncle Dave, my cousin Brett and Cami were also able to join us.

Uncle Charlie also got one of the popular Karsten calendars - hope he enjoys it!


Chatting with Grandma before dinner.


Karsten wasn't so sure about Uncle Charlie at first, but he quickly warmed up to him and showed him his train, Percy.


4 generations!


Family picture!


Karsten and Brett had a good time reading the elf book that Peg, Dave, Brett and Cami gave to Karsten.


Shortly after dinner we loaded up and hit the road to come home. Karsten wasn't too happy about getting back into his carseat but he fell asleep pretty quickly. He had a busy week. It was a short visit, but great to see everyone and wish them a Merry Christmas in person!

Fun at Gaga's

After a few days at Gaga's house, I was reminded that Grandma's and Great-Grandma's are 'required' to allow your child to have all sorts of goodies that you would normally not allow. Or, perhaps you would allow them, just not at the time that a Grandma would. Guess they've earned that, right? :)

Gaga was giving Karsten some 'dackers' - I thought he had enough, turns out he 'needed' a few more. :)




Karsten said 'Ma Ma' today - I was so excited. I told him it would be a good time to ask for a pony...or a car...or the moon, I would have complied with any request followed by the words Ma ma. :)


Karsten laughed and laughed as Aunt Nancy rocked him quickly in this chair. Karsten's laugh was contagious - greatest sound ever!


Aunt Nancy reading a tiny Irish book of Gaga's to Karsten.


Gaga and Karsten waiting for the dogs to come back inside.


Just chillin - have you noticed the balls in many of these pictures?


Gaga got Karsten a marshmellow santa - yum! I think he was drooling as he ate it!


Karsten wanted to play with the light that was in Papa's toolbox. It's a light that goes around you head. We started by puttingn it on his tummy - he thought that was pretty funny but he kept tugging at it.


So Papa put it on his head and Karsten walked around shining the light on things. He kept trying to look up to see where the light was coming from - hilarious! Endless entertainment for the rest of us because he wore the light for at least 10-15 minutes.


On the way home we drove past Chimney Rock. I remember seeing Chimney Rock when I was a little girl and we were visiting Gaga. Chimney Rock is wearing down over time - the chimney used to be much taller. It was pretty seeing the sun coming up over Chimney Rock.


This was as close as we got to Chimney Rock, I tried to show Karsten but he wasn't interested in things that far away!

Is this December?

Tuesday was a beautiful day so we decided to get bundled up and play outside for a bit. Karsten had been making me nervous with this ball in Gaga's house, so this was the perfect opportunity to get outside so he could kick it and throw it.

I had packed Karsten's snowpants and snow boots because I thought there would definitely be snow at Gaga's house. No such luck. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that we get enough snow that Karsten and I can go play outside.

Enjoying running around outside and kicking the ball.


He held still for several seconds for Gaga to get a picture of him. What a good boy - he never holds still that long for me, but I'm so glad she'll have a good picture.


Showing off his mittens


The real fun began when Scott started to chase him around the yard.




I love this one - they both look like they were having so much fun!


That darn tongue still makes its appearance occasionally.


He wasn't so happy when we said it was time to go inside. Luckily Papa had just returned from running a few errands so Karsten was happy to follow Papa inside.

Visiting Gaga

On Sunday after Christmas, we loaded up and hit the road to go visit Gaga. This would be Karsten's longest car ride to date, so I was prepared with a bevy of snacks and activities to keep him occupied. We had the portable DVD player and I was armed with Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street. After the first 4 hours, we had played with most of the toys and watched a few of the DVDs. I was worried for the remainder of the drive, but he was able to take a nap, which always helps the time fly, and play with all the toys one more time once he woke up.

Karsten was very excited to be out of the car once we arrived; however, he wasn't sure about all of these people. He wouldn't let Scott put him down for a few minutes, but then he started to warm up to everyone. After he had a clean diaper and a full tummy from dinner, he was in a much better mood and was ready to open presents.

I made Gaga a 2011 calendar of Karsten. Hopefully she'll keep her promise and actually use it - but I know there is no chance that she will write on it. :)


As soon as we arrived, Uncle Kevin wanted Karsten to open his present. He knew that Scott and I would love it. I have a feeling he is going to get Karsten many presents which Karsten will LOVE and Scott and I will loathe. If the toy is noisy, has lots of parts or is annoying in any fashion, Uncle Kevin will find it and get it for Karsten. :)

Check out the super cool metal tonka truck - I haven't seen a metal tonka truck in ages! I see this truck being a favorite toy for a long time! The bag of balls that Uncle Kevin is showing to Karsten contains 100 small plastic balls. They are each about 3 inches in diameter - imagine the size of ball you would find in a ball pit. LOL. Karsten thought it was the coolest - they got out a bunch of balls to put in the back of the dumptruck, then dump them out. When we left, we made sure to get all 100 of the balls, Uncle Kevin promised if we left any behind, he would be sure to send them to us...along with 100 more balls!! Kidding aside - Karsten loves balls so much, this gift will get tons of use!


Karsten was giving his other present from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Nancy a spin. This police car has a variety of real (loud) sounding sirens you can play with a push of a button.


Karsten loved everything! Even after the long car ride, we were excited to be celebrating Christmas with Gaga, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Nancy and my cousin Michael.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas eve tradition used to involve dinner, then midnight mass at the church I grew up going to. Since Karsten's bedtime is WAY before midnight, we decided to try out the 6pm service this year.

I wanted to get a pic of my boys in their matching ties before we left for church, just in case Karsten's bowtie came off before we got to my parents house for pictures. He wasn't too happy when we put it on, so it's not quite as tight as it should be, but I think it still looks pretty darn cute. :)

Huge thanks to my mom for making his bowtie! I thought it would have been cute to have both of them wearing matching bowties, but Scott quickly shot that one down. I settled for this adorable duo of Scott wearing the tie and Karsten wearing the bowtie.


Since mass on Christmas eve fills up very quickly, you have to get there very early to get a seat. We showed up at 5:15 for mass at 6pm. I had packed a variety of snacks and toys as distractions for Karsten, but I fully expected that we would have to take him out at least once as he got tired of being confined and being quiet.

Boy, was I wrong. My mom brought a new book for him that kept him entertained for at least 30 minutes before mass started. He would sit on her lap and read the book with her, then hop down and walk past Scott and I with the book and sit on 'Papa's' lap for him to read the book to Karsten. If Scott or I tried to look at the book as Karsten walked by us, he would move it away.


The church was decorated beautifully for Christmas. Hard to believe we were married here almost 10 years ago.


Finally, mass was starting. Karsten stayed occupied for the beginning by hanging out with Papa.


In the middle of mass, he enjoyed a snack of white chocolate chex mix that grandma brought. We all quickly realized that the white chocolate mix was a bad idea as we had little white fingerprints all over my black skirt, Scott's black shirt and my mom's black pants. Luckily it wiped off with a wet wipe, but lesson learned - white chocolate chex mix is NOT a snack for church.

After a major meltdown in the church parking lot, we made it to my parents house. The meltdown was the result of Karsten realizing that Grandma and Papa were going in their own car, not with us. He wanted to go with them. He was UNhappy when Scott and I put him in the carseat. It also didn't help that it was now 7:15 and he had only had snacks to eat, not dinner. We tried to feed him around 4, but he was very confused why we were trying to get him to eat spagetti at such an early time and he was having NONE of it.

When we got to their house, he ran to se "Ho Ho Ho" and listen to the music.


Dancing to Ho Ho Ho


Then Papa showed him the bears that talked - the Mama bear read 'The Night Before Christmas'. He liked listening to the bears for a few minutes, then he would hand them to you and say 'away'.


Can you tell someone is sleepy?


We managed to get in a few pictures before Karsten called it a night. We couldn't get him to smile but at least he was looking at the camera!

Karsten with Grandma and Papa.


Our happy family.


Karsten and Papa had some snacks while we were waiting for dinner to be ready. Karsten was a fan of the veggie dip, he liked to dip his 'dacker' (aka cracker) in it and lick off the dip. Repeat, repeat, repeat. :)


Merry Christmas everyone - hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning started bright and early for us. Karsten never seems to sleep as well when we're all sleeping in the same room - or perhaps he just gets up early because he wakes up and when he looks around he sees us and knows we can't ignore a few cries and hope he will go back to sleep if we are in the same room. As soon as he was up, he wanted to go see 'Papa'. Unfortunately, it was only 6:15 and Papa was still sleeping. We tried to distract him but he was having none of it - he knew he was at Papa's house and he wanted to see Papa - and he wasn't going to be happy until he saw Papa.

Finally we gave up on trying to distract him and took him down to open his presents from Santa. Grandma and Papa heard us up and around and luckily came downstairs shortly after we did. All was right with Christmas once Papa was awake.

Scott and Karsten playing with Karsten's new toolbench from Santa.


Grandma was showing Karsten that there were goodies inside his stocking! He got so excited, it was adorable!


Papa got a new watch from Grandma and Karsten was modeling it for us. He had such a good time wearing the watch we had to switch it out with a different watch so Papa could have his new watch back.


Karsten and I were 'eating' his new wooden food. He'll cook us up all sorts of yummy things now!


Did you know wooden puzzle pieces made wonderful cymbals?


Driving around one of the new wooden cars that Papa made him.


Everyone got to help Karsten open his presents. Here Papa was helping him open a cool new garage for some of his cars.


Grandma helped Karsten open the Brown Bear, Brown Bear quilt she made him. He loves the Brown Bear book - as soon as they opened it, he started pointing out animals and telling us what they say. He even learned a new animal - frog.




We enjoyed watching Christmas unfold through Karsten's eyes. He saw everything with such wonder and excitement. I wish that for all of you as you continue with your holiday celebrations.