All about Karsten

During preschool, the kids made a book that was all about them. It was fun to see what they'd been working on put all together in one book. The night we took it home from Gail's, Karsten was so excited to show us all that he had done. It's so exciting to watch him learn - he's a sponge and absorbs everything.













Here are a few other projects Karsten has worked on with Gail at preschool. Our fridge has all sorts of wonderful artwork on it now. Thank you Gail!

This guy should have really been in our animal parade picture. We had lots of fun with the mouse mask.

A zoo

Gail does preschool with the kids several days a week and Karsten is always coming home with fun projects. This month they learned a lot about different animals so we had quite the zoo of animal projects.

One of Karsten's favorites that is not in the picture below is the snake. The snake has gotten to ride around in the car quite a bit because Karsten can use it to tickle us while he's in his seat - he thinks it's pretty funny. Also missing from this picture is the camel, he was introduced to the zoo after this picture was taken.

From left to right - Mr. Panda, the elephant, giraffe, tiger (RAWR) and the kangaroo (Karsten calls him the dooroo and his baby).

More learning

The other day Karsten brought a matching game home from preschool at Gail's. We had fun matching the animals and objects up with where they belonged. We would try to put them down in the wrong place and Karsten would say 'Noooooo daddy'.

Fall Fun

Today we headed to Liberty to the Fall Festival parade. One of Scott's co-workers live right on the parade route, and they always invite friends over to watch from their yard. It was the perfect place to watch the parade, so nice of them to invite us!

This bagpipe player kicked off the parade - it was a cool way to start the parade.


Karsten was enthralled with the music!


After all of the flags, they had a float with military veterans on it. They got a standing ovation and had the biggest smiles on their faces - they were having a great time.


Pointing out the firetruck to Scott - he was so excited when he heard the sirens!


A cool float - I think it was sponsored by Price Chopper.


Karsten loved the marching bands - he was all smiles and was clapping along with them.


When we got there, one of the hosts handed Karsten a plastic bag to collect all of the candy during the parade. He wasn't interested at first, but when Scott started putting candy in the bag, Karsten quickly caught on and wouldn't let the candy bag out of his sight. Should be a fun Halloween, don't you think?


I asked him what he was eating and he said 'sucker, SEE'.


He was really excited to see the giant dog in this fun looking car!

After the parade we walked down to the square (along with everyone else who was watching the parade) and checked out all of the booths. We had planned to eat lunch there but it was so crowded, we opted to go to Chic-Fil-A instead (this baby likes Chic-Fil-A).

It was the perfect way to spend a beautiful fall Saturday!

More Together

Since you already saw Karsten sing Row, Row, Row your Boat, I thought you might enjoy watching his favorite song this week - The More We Get Together. I think he learned this one during school with Gail - she mentioned that all of the boys enjoy singing this one.

Be sure to listen closely at the beginning - he always says '1, 2' before he starts singing. It's like he's giving himself the que to start. He doesn't do this with any other song.

We were singing in the car today when I recorded this. After this song I asked him if he could sing Twinkle,Twinkle. He started and said 'Twinkle, Twinkle.....me no no words, help daddy'. If I tried to sing along with him he would stop and say 'No mommy, no sing'. Guess Scott's a much better singer than I. :)

Stickers

Tonight discovered a package of pumpkin stickers and wanted to make sure that we all had at least one sticker. He started by putting one sticker on his shirt, one on my shirt, one on Scott's shirt. Then he decided that Madison needed one on her shirt (yes, Madison wears a shirt) and that his baby brother needed one on my tummy. Once we were all adorned with pumpkins, he started moving the stickers around - giving and taking a few from everyone.

Scott snapped this picture when Karsten was awarding more stickers. Note that I have at least five stickers on my shirt.

On an airplane

I only travel occasionally for work, and this week I needed to go to a conference in Santa Barbara. We told Karsten that mommy was going on an airplane and would be home in a few days. Scott said he was talking about airplanes while they were driving to Gail's one morning and Karsten said he wanted to build a 'real big airplane and chase mommy'. LOL.

The conference I went to was great - it was a good business trip; however, I missed my boys. :) This was the view in Santa Barbara from the space where lunch was served - simply gorgeous!

There was a networking reception one night and as you entered the event, you received a real flower lei. They were beautiful!


And this was the view from the networking reception. I'd have to say it was the best location of any networking reception I've ever been to. You could even see whales occasionally splash in the water - amazing.

When I was ready to head home to my boys, it turned out that the weather had other plans for me. San Francisco had horrible fog which caused my flight into San Francisco to be delayed, but did not delay my flight to KC. Due to this delay, I missed my flight to KC and was stuck. Luckily, there was a flight to Denver, then a connection to KC. I lucked out and made it to Denver but missed the flight to KC.

After a quick overnight in Denver (thanks to my wonderful husband, i had a hotel room when I landed. I was so excited to pick Karsten up from Gail's - I had missed him so much!

I DO IT

We're hearing that phrase in our house a lot lately. Karsten has definitely gotten more independent since he turned two.

*Today we were walking into church and he had to hold the umbrella himself. I think he and Scott might have gotten a lil wet but they made it.

*He always has to climb into his chair at the dinner table by himself. If we forget and put him in it, he climbs back out and says 'NO, I do it'.

*Going up and down the steps takes quite a while because he often gets distracted and sits down to talk to or play with whatever toy he has with him.

*Washing hands, brushing teeth, getting into the car...it's all the same, I DO IT.

One time he doesn't say 'I DO IT' is when we tell him it's time to play clean up. :)

BBQ Fun

There was a BBQ competition at Chuck's work that was open to family and friends. We decided to take advantage of the early fall weather and check out the BBQ. One of Chuck's coworkers had a booth, so that was the first place we stopped - it was delish. They make and bottle their own BBQ sauce, I need to search for it at the local store!

Karsten had fun walking around and watching all the people. We brought the stroller but he decided it was more fun to walk and either hold Grandma or Grandpa's hand.

I told Karsten to say cheese and then he leaned out of the picture. Oops.

There were bounce houses for the kids to play in. Karsten was anxious to get inside and when he got in there he ran around - thought he was pretty cool. When other kids started jumping, he watched for a minute then tried to jump but it was shaking so much he kept falling down. Each time he fell down he laughed and laughed. It's impossible not to laugh when he laughs.


Having so much fun!


After we had our fill of BBQ and the bounce houses were deflated, we headed home. I can't resist shots of Karsten walking and holding hands with anyone. How cute is this pic of Karsten and Chuck.

What a fun night!

Cooking with Dad

Scott is definitely the chef in our household. My culinary repertoire is limited to baking or cooking simple things, typically out of a box. Scott is adventurous and will try almost any recipe I find online. Lately, Karsten has been interested in helping Scott cook. Doing simple things like handing Scott ingredients or holding something for him is not sufficient, he has to be actually helping prepare the food.

Karsten and Scott making chicken salad with hummus. I got the recipe from the Healthnut Foodie blog and it turned out great. We've tried several of her recipes and really enjoyed them. I made the hummus then Scott and Karsten finished out the recipe. They're stirring all of the ingredients together here.


Intently stirring.


Scott also recently made applesauce. Karsten had a great time helping him make applesauce. I think many, many slices of apple went into Karsten's mouth while he was helping Scott with that one. Oh well, at least it's a healthy snack!

Row, row, row

Karsten has been into singing songs lately - Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald and Row, Row, Row your boat.

Check out this adorable video of him singing with Scott - complete with rowing hand motions!

10 years

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since September 11, 2011 when the world as we knew it changed. I remember being at work that day and someone said a plane had hit the world trade center - we thought it must have been an accident with a small plane. As the day unfolded, my co-workers and I, like so many others, were glued to the news and internet for the latest info.

Like everyone today, we're remembering this horrible tragedy and hoping we never experience this kind of attack again. We offer our thanks and appreciation for the men and women who guard and protect our freedom.

I fly kite

It was a beautiful day here today and we spent some time playing outside before lunch. Scott and I were talking and I said - 'after lunch we should fly a k-i-t-e', and I spelled kite. Karsten looked at me and said 'YAY, fly kite'. Scott said 'did he just repeat what you spelled'...ummm, yup. Crazy - guess all that Dr. Seuss alphabet book is teaching him something!

Once we got the kite out, we realized that there actually wasn't enough wind to fly a kite. Scott tried to help the kite catch the wind, but no such luck, it came down pretty quickly.

Karsten said 'kite fell down'

Since there was no chance of the kite flying away if Karsten let go, we had him hold onto the kite and see if Scott could make it fly. He thought the tail of the kite was the most fun part, he eventually caught it and pulled it off.

He ran around with the kite like he saw Scott doing.

Focusing on flying the kite. He said 'I fly kite'.

This may have been right before the tail of the kite was pulled off. O well, we'll try again when there's a tad more wind.

We're bringing WHAT home with us?

Earlier this year, Scott got a butterfly plant at a local nursery. Butterfly plants supposedly attract caterpillars who become monarch butterflies. We waited and waited (patiently of course); however, it seemed that our plant was broken, it didn't attract any caterpillars or butterflies.

Linda's butterfly plants attracted all sorts of caterpillars that would or have become butterflies. They decided we needed to transplant some of the caterpillars to our plant and maybe they would help us attract our own caterpillars.

Now, if you know me well, y0u know that I was less than enthused by transporting bugs anywhere. The initial plan had the bugs being transported home with us in a plastic container that would sit in the backseat with Karsten. I had visions of Karsten holding onto the container, shaking it and caterpillars going everywhere in the car. ICK!

When additional caterpillars were added to the container, we compromised on putting it in a plastic grocery bag and safely wedging it between two bags in the trunk. I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was over-reacting and there was no way they could escape from the plastic container.

When we got home, Scott pulled two caterpillars out of the container and searched under the leaves for the third one. In a soft voice he said, 'hmmm, where's the third one'. I frantically asked where the grocery bag was - we rushed over to find it and sure enough, there was one caterpillar crawling around in the bag. If we hadn't put them in a bag, he would have been crawling around in our car...ewwwww.

The escape artist

Scott showing Karsten the caterpillar hiding in the bag.

Scott watching to see if the caterpillars were making themselves at home.

So far we haven't seen any monarch butterflies and haven't seen any additional caterpillars - perhaps I'm not being patient enough. Stay tuned. :)

Worn out

After a great weekend, we loaded up the car with one tired boy who wasn't ready to leave. After playing catch with Grandma in the driveway, we convinced him to get in the car (although he wasn't happy about it). While they were playing catch he would say 'good throw mama' or 'uh oh, no me catch it'.

We packed his new trash truck from grandma and grandpa right next to his seat so he could play with it while we drove. Good thing we thought of that, because as soon as he realized we were leaving Grandma and Grandpa's, he was not a happy camper - thankfully the trash truck calmed him down!

Then he watched a little Mickey Mouse clubhouse - his new favorite. The yellow holder was Chuck and Shannon's invention for Karsten to watch movies on our phones without touching the screen and turning off the movie. For some reason Karsten calls this his 'yellow duck'. We're not really sure why, but it works. Don't you love the shades?

We had stopped for lunch and were walking into a restaurant when Karsten tripped, fell and skinned his knees. We went back to the car and got him all cleaned up and he had calmed down a bit. We were headed back into the restaurant and he started crying again saying 'It still hurts, my leg hurts'. Poor lil guy did a number on his knee - all cut up and bruised, even the cars 'daid-daid' (band aid) didn't help make it all better. We finally managed to eat lunch then get back on the road. Thankfully he finally gave in and fell asleep - he was one tired boy!

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's

After we got back from visiting the llamas, we had fun playing in the backyard. It was SO nice outside, it felt like the miserably hot summer might finally be drawing to an end.

Karsten had a great time on the slide - there was a bump in the middle of the slide, as soon as he hit the bump, he would go flying into the air so someone had to hold his hand to help keep him on the slide.

He thought he was all grown up when he got to climb up onto the swing set on his own (with spotters of course).

Ready to slide!

He had fun with the ball and bat - the bat was typically used as a golf club, his hand/eye coordination isn't quite baseball ready yet.

And then he was onto a new toy - the croquet club made a nice sound when he connected with the ball. I think it surprised him.

Trying to decide what to play with next.

A wagon to load up all of the balls in the yard - it's hard work!

Then they got out the rakes and shovels to play in the dirt under the swing set. He had some trouble controlling where the dirt went - I'm not sure who ended up more dirty, Karsten or Linda! :)

Washing his feet in the sink once we came inside. He 'may' have been a bit dirty after having so much fun outside.

Later that night when we were putting Karsten to bed, we told him in the morning he could call Grandma when he was done sleeping. We told him to say 'Grandma, I'm done sleeping!' After he had been in bed for a little while, we all heard him talking but thought it might have just been his standard chatter before he fell asleep. When we listened more carefully, we heard him say 'MAMAAAAA, me done sleepin'. LOL - guess we didn't put enough emphasis on the 'morning' part of our previous statement.