New Saying

When Karsten had a stomach bug a few weeks ago, he learned the new phrase "I no feel well". He was reminded of this phrase when I was under the weather at the end of last week with a cold.

While I was getting ready this morning, he said "Mommy, I no feel well." I said "oh no, where does it hurt". I was expecting to hear 'my tummy' or 'my head' or 'my ear'....nope, he said "my toe hurts". After I kissed his toe, he said 'I all better now mommy.'

This afternoon in the car he said 'Mommy, I no feel well". He says it in such a a sad little voice that I instantly worry and try to think what the problem might be. When I asked where it hurt, he said "need big kiss from Grandma". After we called Grandma so she could blow him a kiss, he again proclaimed that he was all better now.

Tonight at dinner, again he said 'I no feel well'. We asked what was wrong and he said 'Need more noon-noles' (aka noodles). LOL we laughed and tried to see if anything hurt, but nope, seems like he just wanted some noodles.

I can't wait to hear what he's going to come up with next. :)

Happy Birthday Elam

Hard to believe that little Elam is already a year old. It seems like it was just my birthday last year and I was on the way to the hospital to meet my birthday twin!

Check out Jen's cool decorations - don't you love the signs, especially the ones on Elam's highchair?

Jen made Elam's cake - I love all of the colors. He wasn't so sure about what to do with the cake, but he eventually dug in and seemed to enjoy it.

A big fistful of cake!

Jen made me a supersize cupcake for my birthday - so sweet of her!

Karsten enjoyed perusing Elam's presents. He was a big fan of this mini four wheeler. He sat on it and quickly figured out how to make it go. It took a lot of negotiating to get him off of Elam's new toy.

Elam was checking out the tractor toy that we got him. Gail got Karsten this tractor for his first birthday and he still plays with it regularly. It's a hit!

Look at that adorable birthday boy!

Yay - they all looked at the camera! What a cute pic!

He's a talker!

Ever since Karsten was a tiny baby we would talk to him - when we were driving in the car I would talk about what I saw around us, I would sing to him, we'd talk about what we were doing when we'd eat, what we saw on a walk, etc. Luckily, Karsten picks up new words very quickly and has a very good vocabulary. We understand most of what he says; however, we still do some translating for others when he chats. :)

Sometimes it seems like he chats non-stop (Scott seems to think he gets this from me - LOL) yet we love to hear all of the funny things he comes up with. I love to hear his little voice.

He also really likes to talk on the phone and he thinks that all phone calls are video calls. I guess that's our fault since we used to do video chats on our phones. Now, if we call someone on our phone, he'll hold objects up to the phone to show the caller. It's too funny.

When we talk on the 'big phone', he HAS to hold it himself. I apologize in advance to any of you who may be on the other end because he often bangs the phone on the table, drops it, or turns it over and over. It can't be a great sounding call from the other end.

Apparently we hold the phone on our sholder like this more than I realized because each time he gets a phone in his hand, he tries to hold it like this.

Talking and looking into the screen on the phone, convinced it's a video chat even though he can't see anyone in there.

Playing with the buttons on the phone while he talks. If we try to reclaim the phone he says 'no Mommy, my phone. Me talk .

Lil Pumpkin's First Quilt

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you probably remember seeing the beautiful quilts that my mom has made Karsten. Now that there's a new baby on the way, she's hard at work to make bedding for the baby's room and somewhere found time to make this beautiful quilt. It's the baby's first quilt! The photograph doesn't really do it justice, the blue and green colors in the quilt are beautiful!

Hat Boy Hat

You might remember that Karsten saw a guy wearing a cowboy hat, and has since wanted a hat boy hat. Gaga thought Karsten 'needed' a hat boy hat as well, so she set out on a mission to find one for him.

The package from Gaga arrived in the mail today and Karsten was excited to open it. Madison was also excited to open it because she smelled that Gaga included M&M's (aka M's) in the box.

I'd say the hat boy hat is a hit - he loves it!

He has some space to grow into the hat, so he'll be able to wear it for a while! Scott and Karsten are looking at some of the other goodies like the little tablet Gaga also included in the box.

Karsten even 'wrote' Gaga a thank you note for the hat boy hat using his new tablet.

He wore the hat boy hat as he played for the rest of the evening!

Having some of the M's that Gaga sent. It's apparently a rule that you eat M's out of the bowl that Gaga sent using a baby spoon. :)

Play-doh

It's been so miserably hot here and unfortunately, Karsten always wants to play outside after dinner. When the daily highs are 105 or even 110, the temp cools down to the upper 90s after dinner. Still not weather for playing outside.

I've never been a big outdoorsy gal (shocker, I know), but being pregnant in this heat has made me dislike being outside even more. I try to go outside as little as possible.

We're playing different games each night to try to keep Karsten's mind off of going outside. Luckily, he has all sorts of fun new toys from his birthday to play with. He's enjoying making stuff with his play-doh. He's getting the hang of the scissors and is a big fan of rolling out the play doh.

Simple pleasures

When I picked Karsten up at Gail's today, I was greeted by Jayden (one of Karsten's friends) showing me his band-aid. Then Karsten walked up, holding his the leg of his shorts up and showed me HIS band-aid. He said 'daid daid on my boo boo mommy'.

Gail explained that one of the boys got a scratch on his leg and wanted a band-aid. When the other boys saw him getting a band-aid, they all wanted one too. Whatever makes them happy! Karsten was thrilled with his band-aid. On the way home he told me about how it was red with a white one car and 'mommy no touch my daid daid'. LOL.

As soon as we got home, Karsten had to show Daddy his daid daid. Cracked us up - he walked around like this holding up his shorts for a while. He even showed Madison his daid daid.