Carsten stands!

This past week Carsten has been perfecting his standing up skills both in his crib and around the house. He's amazingly good in his crib, which I attribute to the many handholds. Around the house, he's not quite as good because he's still learning what things he needs to grab and how his body needs to be positioned. However, that being said, he's good enough that I cannot leave him alone in the room if my computer is on the coffee table. This means that I need to find a new place for my computer. Hopefully the dining room table will work for a while (you know, until he starts climbing). I should mention that now my dreams are involving Carsten getting out of his crib which results with my dream self feeling fairly disoriented and confused. Hopefully this won't happen for a while yet :). Here's some photos of Carsten standing:

Lately he's also been interacting with us more intentionally. For example, he'll say 'ooo' and wait for Andy to say it, and then he'll try out another sound. It's pretty cute and he'll actually do it for about 5 min at a time, which I think is a pretty good attention span. This morning he yawned while I was changing his diaper on the changing table, so I mimicked him and opened my mouth. He saw me do it, and then opened his mouth. We did this a few times and then he started doing it so I could mimick him. Amazing! This reinforced the 'lead by example' nature of parenting that we'll have to practice for the rest of our lives... :).

I put away Carsten's playmat that he's had and done a great job of playing with up until a few weeks ago. This is a little sad for me because a) it's adorable, b) it's been a fixture in our home (wherever that has been) since Carsten has been born, and c) it means he's growing up... Two things that have taken the place of the playmat are books and the walker. He LOVES both and occasionally I have to hide them so he'll play with his other toys and be a bit less crazy because they get him really, really excited. Here's a photo of Carsten playing in his walker:

We had a great weekend. On Saturday we went to one of Andy's coworker's house to have lunch and hang out with her, her husband, and their 2 year old daughter. They served us rice and curry sauce with hard-boiled eggs in it. It was not my favorite, but better than I thought it would be. We talked, and I think Carsten enjoyed playing with new toys in another environment. He didn't even care when the two year old occupied my lap :). We stayed long enough to put Carsten down for a nap there and he slept in his travel bed (so glad we have this!). All in all, it was a fun time for all of us. Right before we left we walked up a tall observation tower and took some photos:

On Sunday we went to church and spent most of the day relaxing, which was quite nice. We spend our evening making travel plans and finding flights for my family because we get to see my parents and siblings soon since they are all coming to Switzerland! :) This will be our first whole family vacation since Andy and I got married, and it will be a great celebration for my parents 30th anniversary.