Tuesday, March 29, 2011

PAT Visit

We had our regular Parents as Teachers visit this week and she was happy with how Karsten was doing. Luckily, he's becoming less shy lately, so he was chatting with her, showing her toys and even giving her hugs. He won her over completely! :) He showed off how he can 'draaaaaw' and how he can tell you what color of marker he's using (as long as he's using red, yellow, blue or purple), he also demonstrated his marching skills and his throwing abilities. She was impressed that he could identify some colors as she said they don't even test for that in the 2 year assessment - they just ask the kids to match two things of a like color. She told us some of the things he was doing to assert his independence are important milestones - here we just thought they were frustrating. ;) It was a good visit - she always leaves us with a couple of fun activity ideas and suggestions about how we can improve skill's he's just learning.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Our little fish!

Today was Karsten's first day of swim lessons! He had so much fun in the pool last summer, we thought it would be good to get an early start on swimming. We were inspired by the little boy across the street who took swim lessons last winter and he was doing great job swimming last summer.

Scott wanted pool shoes so Karsten had to have a pair to be just like daddy.

They worked on floating on their bag - he wasn't a big fan of it at first, but he relaxed a bit as time went on.


Learning to blow bubbles. This one was a bit tougher - he swallowed a few gulps of water this time.


It's no fun when you get water in your eyes!


More blowing bubbles and floating on his tummy.


Practice floating in the lazy river. He was all smiles while they were doing this.




He was having a lot of fun with the duck - they handed out toys to all of the kids when they got in the pool - at times he was more interested in playing with the duck!


Check out Scott and Karsten in the center of the picture. The teacher was soft spoken and when she faced away from them like she is here, they got distracted and found their own ways to entertain themselves. They got back on track when they did the hokey pokey at the end of class - who doesn't love the hokey pokey?!


Swim lessons were lots of fun - he'll enjoy doing this each week!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Visiting Friends

Kevin and Melissa were in town recently to pick up the furniture for their baby's room so they stopped by to say hi. They were in a time crunch because of bad weather and a rush to make it home to watch the the K-State basketball game, but it was great to see them again before their lil boy makes his arrival in May! Karsten can't wait to meet his new friend!

Karsten was pulling all sorts of toys out of his toy box to entertain everyone.


Karsten and Melissa


Karsten and Kevin both sporting their K-State gear.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Easter Shirts

Grandma made Karsten some adorable new Easter shirts. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of all of the shirts together, so I'll just have to share a few pics with Karsten wearing his shirts. Chek out this adorable dragon - Karsten likes to look down at it on his tummy.

Do easter eggs and a truck get any cuter?
There are two bunny shirts that still need pictures taken - stay tuned!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Outside fun

Sorry for the delayed posts, friends! My card reader died and I haven't been able to download my pictures. Once I did, I found a few more pictures from our fun afternoon playing outside in the firetruck. He actually looked at the camera! Yay!!
My attempt at a daddy/son shot. Scott is infamous for having his eyes closed in pictures, and it looks like Karsten might be following in his footsteps. I took several shots of this pose, and each of them had their eyes shot in one pic. This was the best one of the bunch - wouldn't it have been cute!
Karsten had a great time walking along the rock wall. He was concentrating so hard!
Peeking through the fence to see the dog next door who was barking at him.
Having fun running around the backyard. Have you ever seen Sid the Science Kid? We think Karsten runs a bit like Sid - waving his arms around, running erratically, looking like he might topple over. For this reason, I was holding my breath as Karsten ran through the backyard - I always fear he is going to fall and hurt himself (more than the standard bumps and bruises).
These rocks are going to provide endless fun for Karsten and angst for me. I see lots of rock climbing and tumbles off the rocks in our future.
Every so often Karsten finds his belly button - we say that it resets him.

I don't remember what caused him to make this expression but it makes me smile each time I see it.
He found something he thought was exciting on the wall.
Then Scott found something I did not think was exciting hiding between the rocks. A SNAKE! Actually two small snakes wound together. Ewwwww!! Scott says they're gartner snakes and they're supposedly 'good' because they eat bugs and stuff. I guess if they stay hidden in the rocks and away from us, I can agree that they're 'good', but if they come out and bother any of us, my opinion will quickly change!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Our lil fireman

I picked up this firetruck at a consignment sale last spring. It's been sitting in our garage waiting for Karsten to be big enough and for the weather to be good!
When we brought it out this weekend, Karsten was so excited! I don't think he even knew why he was excited, but he saw wheels and thought it had to be cool! :)


So excited to be riding around the backyard!


He honked the horn on the firetruck and this is his surprised face.


This was Karsten's favorite way to get around - he didn't get the hang of walking his feet to move. He could push himself backwards, but forwards was a challenge. That just means more 'practicing'.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Walk like a snake

Since Madison had surgery this week, she has to go outside on a leash. If something in the backyard made her take off running, she could tear the repair on her ACL and the surgery would have been for nothing. We definetely don't want that to happen!

Scott put Madison's leash on this stuffed snake and Karsten walked it all over the house. You would ask him what the snake says and he would say "Sssssss".



Friday, March 18, 2011

Zoo day!

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and made a trip to the zoo. It was nice but a little chilly so we all had jackets on and Karsten had to wear a hat. Our first stop at the zoo was the polar bear. Karsten was so excited to see the bear.

Our first trip to the polar bear, he was just walking around his 'haus'.


After the polar bear, we set off to see other animals but Karsten got excited to see the elephant statue. He calls the elephant a 'payant'.


Then we went into the Lorakeet's cage. They were just finishing feeding time so the birds were flying all around and getting really close to us. What we don't have a picture of is the zookeeper taking one of these birds and setting in on my head. It took all of my willpower not to try to bat it off my head - that was my first reflex. Ewwww. Karsten was just watching with wide eyes!


We visited the deer in the petting zoo part and it was a huge hit. Karsten was tentative at first, but then he had so much fun feeding the deer.


He got such a kick out of the deer taking food from him - so cute.


So excited!


Then it was time for our picnic lunch. Since it was a bit chilly outside we headed into the main building to enjoy our lunch. Once Karsten saw all the other kids sitting on chairs, he didn't want to sit in his stroller, he had to sit on a chair like the other kids.


Since we were near the polar bear again we had to have another visit. This time he was swimming - it was mesmerizing to watch him swim around and around. I wonder if he's lonely. Seems like it would be nice if he could have a polar bear friend to hang out with and play polar bear games. :)


Karsten watched him with such wonder in his eyes - it was so fun to watch his expressions.






We had to take a few pics on the polar bear statue. I obviously didn't plan his outfit very well - he looks like he's wearing a khaki uniform. Oops!


And then another look at the polar bears - told you he was a fan!


Check out how big his paws are!


Oh wow!


Then he decided he wanted to walk everywhere we went - he would just meander along watching people and everything going on around him.


What a fun day at the zoo!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Hangin' at the Park

After Karsten's nap on Thursday, we headed to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather. He was so excited to go down the slide, he made a beeline for it when we got to the park.

Ready to slide!


At the top again for another trip down the slide!


And another! He got good at taking turns with the other kids. Most of them were older and got impatient that Karsten took so long to get in position and go down the slide but they all did a great job taking turns!


He told us he was taaaaalllll


He thought it would be fun to roll his ball (from the dentist) down the slide. He was delighted when it hit the bottom and took a big bounce into the grass. That cracked him up. :)


Last time we were at the park with Kenna for pictures, she pointed out the cool paint job on this little shack. I wanted to try to get a picture of Karsten in front of it. He thought it was more fun to poke a stick into the knot holes. Really - his game probably was more fun. :)


Luckily we did manage to get a good picture of Karsten and Scott.


Then it was time to head home. Scott pointed out the squirrel in the trees to Karsten.


Then Karsten decided he didn't want to ride in the stroller, he wanted to 'waaaalk'. How cute are my boys.


Karsten was walking up the hill to our house so slowly that Scott turned around and started to walk backwards while he talked to us. Karsten watched him for a minute, then he turned around and tried to walk backwards like Scott. Monkey see, monkey do!


We had a great day - we're ready for more spring weather!