Wordless Wednesday - brothers!

Mystery solved...

Since Liam started going to Gail's, he has been fussy and crying during the day. We initially blamed it on the fact that he liked to be held and said he would adjust in a week or two.  I texted Gail a couple times each day to check on him and was always concerned when she said he didn't nap much and was fussy.  Into the second week I tried to rack my brain and figure out what could be bothering him.  I thought of the formula; however, we had tried the sensitive formula in January to see if that helped his carseat hatred but it didn't seem to make a difference.

After two particularly bad days where I almost went to get him because he wouldn't calm down, I decided to try the formula for sensitive tummies again.  DRUMROLL.....it made a huge difference! Gail said he was like a completely different baby.  Can I tell you how relieved I am?

Now that we know it was the formula making him fussy, it all makes sense.  H wasn't as fussy at home because I was nursing him, so he wasn't getting much formula at night.  Ditto for weekends.

Poor lil guy - sorry it took me so long to figure this out.

We're a team

Karsten has learned the concept of a team and applies it to everything.  At dinner, we are team cherry (or insert other fruit), during dessert we were team cupcake, and later while playing we are team cars. We race upstairs to his room at night and it's usually Team Scott and Karsten vs Team Liam and I.

Scott told him that the four of us are a family and Karsten emphatically disagreed 'no daddy, we are a team!' Hard to argue with that, isn't it!
 

Out for a stroll

It's been so unseasonably warm here in 'winter' that we have actually been able to play outside a few times.  Karsten is still (thankfully) an afternoon napper, so he misses the fun outside afternoon playtime with his friends. Since his friends were inside by the time he got up from his nap, we compromised on a short walk after dinner.

Liam had been in the stroller before for shopping trips; however, this was his first walk.  We got everyone bundled up and off we went.


Karsten was telling Liam that we were going for a walk AND we were bringing Madison! So exciting!




Love him all bundled up - don't you just want to squish those cheeks?

Overall cute

I love a baby in overalls - they are just so stinkin' cute!



Such a great smile!






Talkiing to daddy






I have a great picture of Karsten wearing this hat, so I am going to try to get an equally good one of Liam.

Family Fun

Karsten sometimes has trouble staying quiet during naptime - he likes to talk or roar like a dinosaur (yes, I said roar like a dinosaur). Thursday was a particularly trying day during naptime, he and his little friend never ended up going to sleep.

On the way home from Gail's, we talked about how it was important to listen to Gail and NOT roar like a dinosaur when it was naptime and others were trying to sleep. Kelli and family were planning to visit on Friday night, so we used that to our advantage and told Karsten if he was good during naptime then Trent and Taylor would come visit.  Thankfully, he was good during naptime because I didn't have a backup plan since Trent and Taylor were coming regardless. :)

Trent, Taylor and Karsten started to play as soon as they walked in the door.  After the noise reached the uber loud level, we sent them outside to play.  They were reluctant to come back in because they were having so much fun!


Karsten and Taylor had fun painting,




Liam was all smiles for Kelli and David.  He didn't want to eat his bottle because he wanted to smile and talk to Kelli.
'

Uncle David held Liam for the first time!


What a fun night! Thanks for coming over Kelli and David!

Wordless Wednesday - Hey there cutie

3 months

On February 14th, Liam was 3 months old.  He's slowly adjusting to his new daily routine at Gail's.  I hope I haven't made it too tough on Gail by holding Liam so much while on maternity leave.  I just love cuddling with him.

He's smiling and talking to us alot. And - I almost hate to type this and jinx myself - but he seems to be outgrowing his hatred of the carseat.  Sure he still cries on occasion in the careat, but for the most part he tolerates it.  As soon as we arrive at our destination he wants out, but thats fine - I can work with that.

He likes to lay on his back and kick his little legs and he has discovered his hands and likes to suck on his fist.

His hair is getting longer and has reached a point where it can't fauxhawk because it falls over.  We thought he was loosing hair; however, it's growing in much lighter so it can be deceptive.

He sleeps in his crib and sleeps like a champ all night.

He has started to spit up more - after Karsten being such a spitter that he always wore a bib, we were enjoying a baby who didn't spit up.  Maybe he will grow out of it - if not, we'll have the bibs ready.

He's started to outgrow clothes - he's already growing up too fast for me!

Welcome home mama and papa!

My parents just got back from a two week vacation without much cell phone access.  We all missed being able to pick up the phone and call or text them whenever we want. Karsten talked to them on the phone once while they were gone and when we hung up he said (while starting to cry) 'I just want mama and papa to come back to their house.'

I texted that to Shannon and Chuck said he thought she was going to try to walk home from Hawaii to him.  :)

So when they got back, we were all excited to see them! Karsten had so much to tell them!

They said Liam had grown so much!


 Looking at all of the fish they saw at the aquarium. Karsten would have loved that!

 Karsten showed mama what he learned during school at Gail's.

Photo aftermath

It's no secret I love pictures - especially of my two boys.  We had Liam's three month pictures here on Saturday and after an hour or two of us in his face making funny faces and noises in an attempt to get him to smile, he was worn out and fell asleep on the floor in the last pose we had him in.



 After the photographer Ashley left, we ran around and picked up the chaos we always create when we take pictures. All of the props and clothes and blankets are strewn about and furniture is in odd places as we used it to hold or prop backdrops. When I walked by to check on Liam, this is what I saw. He was awake and ready to smile. He hadn't smiled all morning despite all of our (desperate) attempts. 



I'll take this smile anytime.
 





Luckily Karsten was willing to sit down and take a few pics.




 And again with the silly cheese face.
 

Big Bird

This Big Bird chair was mine when I was a little girl. My uncle Kevin gave it to me and I always had fun playing with it. The first time Karsten sat in it he turned around, saw Big Bird's face and burst into tears.  Now he enjoys sitting on him and Big Bird is the perfect height to play games at the table. Big Bird gets carried around the house for Karsten to sit in it.

 

Stickers!

Grandma and Grandpa sent Karsten some Mickey Mouse stickers and he was so excited! He quickly adorned his shirt and Liam's shirt with Mickey Stickers.  The Mickey stickers also watched us eat dinner (that's how we get him to come to the table when he won't stop playing).

The a few days later, Gaga sent some dinosaur stickers.  He was in sticker heaven - what a lucky guy! Stickers in our house don't last too long, they aren't something you play with then come back to - they must be used up right away.

Play ball

Karsten said "play me daddy" and wanted to play ball. Liam was in the bouncy seat and Scott decided Liam could play too. Karsten thought it was pretty funny that Liam was going to play too.

Rolling the ball to Liam and Daddy


Asking Liam if he was having fun playing ball.  The response was a smile and leg kicks.  



This is his new 'cheese' face.  I'm going to have to stop saying cheese!!

Wordless Wednesday - soo big!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful Valentine's day  - didn't do anything too exciting, just an evening celebrating at home. Scott made a yummy dinner and we lit the candles which Karsten always gets excited about!

Karsten liked the dinosaur card we made for him.  I'm a huge fan of Tiny Prints and Shutterfly for personalized cards.  This little card had his name on the front and his picture on the inside.


Scott brought us chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels from a yummy chocolate shop. At first, Karsten didn't believe it was a strawberry because he couldn't see any red, only chocolate.  When we bit into ours and showed him the inside, he was ready to try his.


He eventually ate all of the chocolate off of the strawberry and moved onto the pretzel.


Liam hung out in the highchair and kept us company during dinner.  He must have had a busy day at Gail's because he looks sleepy!


Our little valentines.  Karsten loved his Cars balloon from Gail - it was close by him all night!


At dinner, Karsten likes to get Liam's highchair as close to his chair as possible.  When I try to pull him a different direction, he says 'no mommy, Liam wants to sit closer to ME'.


Opening a present from Gaga!


A dinosaur shirt - you should have heard the gasp of excitement as he exclaimed A DINOSAUR!


I'm a lucky gal with three sweet valentines!