Grandma Day

Since we couldn't attend my Grandma's funeral, we decided to have a family day in her honor. Andy was able to take off work yesterday, so we got on the train and headed to the Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhine. Carsten and I have been to both destinations twice before, once with my family and once with Jeff and Amanda, but Andy was not able to go either time. We went to the falls first, and Andy was amazed at how big they were. He said they were by far the biggest waterfalls he had ever seen :). Carsten spent the entire time going 'ooo ooo ooo', which is his excited noise. It was really fun to go back there with Andy and the weather was just perfect with sun and temperatures in the low 70s. We elected to leave the stroller at home since the Rhine Falls aren't particularly stroller friendly and instead Carsten spent a lot of the day in his hiking backpack. Here are some photos:

Our family at the Rhine Falls.

Carsten did great in his backpack!

Traditional Huisman self-portrait.

Rainbow!

We had lunch at the cafeteria and since Carsten is now one and is mostly eating what we are eating, he shared my chicken nuggets and fries - what a lucky guy :). He fell asleep in his backpack on the train ride to Stein am Rhine and took an extremely valuable 45 min power nap. I should add that this nap that started at 12:30 pm was the only nap he took all day and considering this fact, he did amazingly well. For reference, he normally takes two naps at home at 9 am and 1 pm for a total of 2+ hours of naps each day. Here's a photo of our sleeping baby:

Sleeping baby :)

Carsten woke up as we arrived at Stein am Rhine, which is a very cute Swiss town. We walked down to the Old Town area and then let him walk around the street for a while so he could get some exercise. He was interested in everything: shopping bins with shoes, chairs, and even other ladies' purses :). We also stopped to get gelato and both of us would say it was by far the best gelato we'd ever had. Carsten got to taste our delicious strawberry gelato, which marked his first taste of strawberries and ice cream. He seemed to be just ok with it, so we let him run around while we finished :). Here are some photos of Stein am Rhine:

Walking around the street of Stein am Rhine.

Carsten and I :). He's so happy to be exploring!

First taste of strawberry gelato. He's very unsure...

We had a bit of time before our train back home, so we went in search of a park. We found a lovely park with a lot of fun things to do, and Carsten's favorite thing was to shake the rope that went with a balance beam. Here's some photos of our time at the park:

Balance beam plus rope to shake = FUN! 

'Mommy, I could stay here all day!'

Walking around the sand pit. He looks like he's doing River Dance to me :).

Swinging on the swings. 

One last time on the balance beam before we head home. I LOVE this photo :).

Carsten trying to eat the rope.

We realized that we've done most of our traveling with other people, so it was fun to try out a trip with just us. Hopefully, we'll be making a few more day trips this fall! Carsten did really well on the train trip home. He was a little antsy and wanted to move around, but fortunately, the trains allow for some wiggling. We had a wonderful family day in honor of my Grandma.

Mary Ranschau

My Grandma Ranschau passed away on Friday morning (August 26, 2011). Andy and I spent the weekend trying to book flights, but were not able to I think primarily because of Hurricane Irene on the east coast of the US. We tried booking online (the website never let us buy a flight) as well as spending hours on hold with airlines. Long story short folks, don't waste your time trying to find out if grievance fares are cheaper because in our experience, they never are. I've spent the time when we weren't trying to figure out airplane tickets, thinking about my wonderful grandma and her life. I'd like to share what I know of her life story and other memories that I have of her so Carsten can read it later when he's older.

Mary Wilder grew up in Washington State near Spokane in a rural farming area. Her family had German ancestry and she was one of a set of identical twins, however, her twin died early on. As a young girl, she contracted polio and as a result, she lost all of her teeth and was told she'd never have children. She was pen pals with my grandpa's sister, Lenny, and one year she came out to visit NW Iowa. She met my grandpa, Walter Ranschau, at this time and from what I understand, he thought she was pretty amazing. By then end of her time with the family, they were engaged, but she had to go home before he got a ring. So, he sent a ring through the mail to my grandma in Washington and went out to visit her family to gain permission. He came back to Iowa with the permission he sought and they were married about 2 months later on January 2. In the 2 months leading up to their wedding my grandma made her own wedding dress! They settled on a farm in between Inwood and Lester, Iowa, where contrary to what the doctors had told her, they started a family. Their initial house did not have running water, and they eventually built a new house with 7 bedrooms instead of only 4. My mom, Ruth, was old enough to remember the first house, and they had 9 children in this small house. My grandma tended a large vegetable and fruit garden and canned a lot of produce to provide food for their large family. She also was an excellent seamstress and crocheter and made a lot of clothes and blankets for the family. My grandpa has said that these qualities and actions enabled them to have a large family while living on a farmer's income. My grandpa and grandma both sacrificed a lot for their family, and I can't help but think that with growing all the food, cooking all the food, sewing clothes, washing clothes (especially without running water!), raising children, and cleaning house for a family of 12, that my grandma was an impossibly amazing woman. In addition to caring for her own family of 10 children, she cared for other underprivileged children in the area by providing food and clothes. I've always wondered when she managed time to find sleep. When asked later in life by my grandpa 'If we could do it over again and have less children, would you do it?', my grandma would reply 'No, I wanted every one of them.' What an outstanding lady. My Grandma's faith was always important to her and one of the stories I've her from my Grandpa was that they started out their marriage right away by praying together. Her family of 10 children inevitably grew to include 35+ grandchildren and 17+ great-grandchildren at the time of her death. No one knows the exact count - there's just too many!

Here are my memories of Grandma Ranschau:

-I always remember her crocheting, sewing, cooking, washing dishes, or tending to her flower or vegetable garden. She was rarely sitting still.

-When we would come over frequently there were about 6 pans of coffee cake just ready to be eaten. We always obliged :). I think Grandma did an amazing job of cooking on a large scale, which I definitely appreciate more as I cook for my family of three. I always wondered if she cooked way too much when it was just her and Grandpa at home.

-When I was little I used to come up from the basement where we were allowed to run amuck and ask her for candy which she kept in one of the upper cabinets in the laundry room. She almost always gave me some, but only after calling me 'A Pill' while smiling. Similarly, we used to come up from the basement and beg her to 'pop' our her dentures. She had this trick of popping her top denture in an amazing way that never failed to provide us amusement. Despite all our begging, she didn't do it too often.

-We used to play on her bus, which she kept on the yard. Grandpa did not always like us to play in his bus, but Grandma would always let us play in hers. I think she knew the value of entertaining so many children, and let me tell you, we could sit in the bus for hours...

-Grandma was always on the lookout to save money and always had clipped coupons.

-Grandma also crocheted many items which includes the brown and white blanket that now sits in our living room in Switzerland. We also have a beautiful star quilt that she made before she got Alzheimer's and my grandpa had it finished for our wedding. Both items are beautifully done and are treasured so much by us. 

Carsten is wrapped in my baby blanket, which my Grandma made.

-Grandma usually had wonderful handmade gifts for all of her grandchildren at Christmas. We all had matching red pajamas and quillows (quilt that folds into a pillow). I can't imagine how long it took her to make those for so many grandchildren! Grandpa and Grandma had a piano in their living room, and at Christmas those grandkids who could play would play while everyone else crowded into the room and listened and/or sang along. Grandpa especially loves singing and it's always a joy to hear him sing.
-I spent the day with Grandma once and she showed me how to make a pillow. I still have the navy pillow that I made with her.

-Grandma loved flowers and had an amazingly beautiful flower garden. Her favorite flowers were pansies and they will always remind me of her, especially the purple pansies. 

-She had sore knees and diabetes, but despite both of these, was still always quite active and did not complain.

-I almost always saw Grandma happy. I think having her family nearby always made her happy. She always smiled, and there's something about a smiling grandparent that is wonderful.

-She had a fear of fire.

-Later in life, when she had Alzheimer's my sister, Ashley, would help her play fast and dirty Uno, which is the Ranschau game of choice. I loved watching my sister help my Grandma, and typically with Ashley's help, Grandma would almost always win :). Ashley on the other hand, usually ended up at the back of the pack... ;) What a loving sister I have. I think we can all learn from her amazing kindness, love, and patience. Also we used to hide the clocks and shut the blinds in order to try to keep Grandma playing cards with us longer because she wanted to go back home when it got dark outside - she was usually too smart for us though :).

-Grandma and Grandpa frequently came to our sporting events, and it was really fun to have them in the audience. Especially when Grandpa would holler and then Grandma would tell him to be quiet or say 'Oh, Walter.' It was really quite fun to watch them together :). Similarly, Grandpa loved to give Grandma kisses, and I think in general, Grandma was a bit more shy about it, but she usually allowed 1 or 2 chaste pecks. Grandpa always used to talk about Grandma's ankles. Apparently they used to be quite something :).

-I think I'll always remember the kind care my Grandpa gave my Grandma even when in the nursing home. His first thoughts were always for her, while hers were for him. They had a truly loving marriage, which is an amazing testament in a society that no longer values marriage as it once did. They both loved God and put each other and family first. We are lucky to have had such a great example of self-sacrifice and love, and hopefully we will be able to emulate them. 

-I'm so thankful that I got to see Grandma hold Carsten as a baby. Those were the arms that cared for so many children, including my mother and I imagine, me. She helped to shape my mother, who in turn, helped to make me who I am today. I am so blessed to have gotten so much time with her.

Our last Thanksgiving with Grandma. 4 generations are in this photo :).

Grandpa and Grandma at Christmas

My sweet grandparents

Stroller breakthrough!

Since Carsten has been about 6 months old, he has refused to fall asleep in his stroller. This is a little frustrating for me because if I want him to nap I have to put him in the moby wrap (it's too hot for this now) or be at home. Drumroll please: today he fell asleep in the stroller! Granted, we were almost home, but there it is, he can do it :).

We went to the pool today at about 11:00 am with another dad and his two year old daughter who we know through Andy's work. We started out playing in the kiddie pool and then after about 45 min we got some lunch at the pool restaurant. By the way, I've never paid so much for food in my life. A hamburger and fries were 14 CHF (which is ~$18). At least both the hamburger and fries were quite good :). Carsten also tried fries for the first time and really liked them as well (he kept making the sign for 'more'). After lunch Carsten was looking a little tired, but played quite nicely with me for another 30 min. He also really enjoyed the slide at the pool which connects an upper baby pool with a lower baby pool. He kept pulling me towards the stairs and so he got a lot of practice climbing up stairs today :). After about 30 min, he just wanted to be held, so we cuddled in a towel for a bit and then started getting on our way to head back up to the train. The pool is nicely located about 2 blocks from the train stop, but the one downside is that once you're nice and cooled off you have to push a 40+ lb stroller 2 blocks up a very steep hill to the train stop. Needless to say, I got quite warm :). We made our train with about 30 seconds to spare, so I'm glad I hustled up the hill. I left Carsten in his stroller on the train (usually he won't stand for it) since it was only a 15 min train ride. After a couple of minutes he started yawning and making his tired baby noises. And by the time we were 1 stop from home, he was sleeping. AMAZING! I was a little sad at that point that he was sleeping because I thought I'd have to wake him up to get him upstairs, but he kept sleeping as I got him off the train, pushed him up the hill, carried his stroller into our basement for storage, removed him from the stroller, hiked up 3 flights of stairs, opening our loud door, closed his blinds, and laid him down. This was truly amazing :). I think swimming tuckered him out, and he's already been sleeping for an hour now, so he's doing great! I'm excited if this has maybe turned over a new leaf for sleeping in his stroller because it will make things like going to the zoo a LOT easier :). Here's hoping!

socialization!

After spending most of our months in Switzerland without seeing many people except our wonderful visitors, we seem to finally be meeting people. I'm not quite sure why it's taken so long, but for my part I'm mostly going to blame our rural location and lack of German language skills. Last week I was able to go meet with other moms from church on two separate days, which was especially good since Andy was gone to Prague. On Saturday evening on our way home from the pool, neighbors from our apartment complex were having a bbq which they graciously invited us to join. It turns out that most of them speak English, which is a blessing! Hopefully this will open the door for hanging out with people in Egg a bit more too.

This week, I have a playdate at the nearby pool with another dad and his daughter who we know through Andy's work. And then on Saturday for the first time ever in Switzerland, we are having people over for lunch (woot!). It's this really nice couple we met at church and they have a beautiful daughter who's just a little younger than Carsten - so it should be a really fun afternoon. And then, to top it all off, we received an invitation from Andy's coworker and his wife to meet them at a movie theatre in Zurich to watch a movie in the evening. Since we still don't have a babysitter here in Egg, Andy graciously offered to stay home for the evening with Carsten while I go to the movie. I have never left Egg in the evening after Carsten has gone to bed, so it'll be a late but fun night! All in all, it's been fun to feel more integrated into Swiss society, and it's a nice blessing for all of us.

Switching gears... I'm not sure how Carsten knows that he's never played with object 'A' before, but he does know and it's pretty fun for me because it's one of the few times that he'll actually sit for a few minutes while he explores the new object. Yesterday I let him play with my pressed penny collection (they're in a book, don't worry) and he really enjoyed getting to open the pages. Here's a few photos:

"How does this work?"

"I must chew on it!"

"Mommy, I love your pressed penny collection!"

Prague!

Andy was at a conference in Prague last week, and from what I understand, it was a pretty good conference. He was able to take a bit of time to see the city, so I wanted to post a few photos of Andy in Prague :). I should also mention that he picked out a beautiful photo for me from a vendor on the bridge (pictured below), that I'm looking forward to framing someday. Thanks Andy!

Carsten, Andy, and I had a great weekend as a family. We went to a swimming pool that was only about 20 min from our house, which was nice a close. The pool had a great kid area and Carsten had a great time. We also found out that he doesn't mind getting his face wet and he also enjoys water slides :). It was a really hot weekend (90+ F), so we welcomed the chance to be in the cool water at the swimming pool. Carsten spent most of the weekend wandering around in his diaper or a onesie at home (no a/c :( ), so I thought I'd take a few photos :).

Love his little legs!

waiting patiently for lunch :)

not so good day

Today Carsten and I went over to a friend's house from Moms and Tots along with a couple of other moms. I had initially decided that we would not go since it would take 1.5 - 2 hrs one way by public transit. One of the other moms who lives near the middle of our train line offered to pick me up in her car to save transit time if I got myself to the stop closest to her house. This was a super nice offer and I did want to go hang out with other moms, so I accepted. I got to the appointed stop a few minutes early and waited for a little while for the other mom to pick me up (which was understandable since she has a 3.5 year old and a 8 month old). We were able to fit our car seat in the middle of her two seats and her infant took our car seat while Carsten took his since Carsten has out grown our seat. We got the two babies in their seats and the both pretty much immediately started screaming. And when I say screaming, I mean SCREAMING. I've never heard Carsten cry that hard before and he puked before we had even left the parking lot - that's how hard he was crying. Poor baby boy :(. The babies seemed to be feeding off of each other so we stopped a few minutes down the rode to get them out and cuddle them and try to calm them down. I took the opportunity to change Carsten's clothes and I felt really badly that he threw up in their car seat. We made it about 15 min and then the boys cried for about the last 10 minutes to our destination. Carsten actually fell asleep about 3 minutes to the house, which showed that he had completely exhausted himself out because the other baby was still crying right next to his head and he was still managing to sleep. Once we got there I carefully got him out of the car seat, but he still woke up relatively unhappily.

We made up into the house where I fed Carsten and he seemed to calm down pretty nicely (which was a relief). He played outside in the yard (yes, a yard which had grass!) for a while and really enjoyed sticking his hand in the kiddie pool (he couldn't get into the pool which was nice :) ). Carsten even played nicely while I ate lunch - usually when I eat he feels that he needs to eat. It was a pretty warm day with a pretty strong sun, so I pulled him under the awning to play. Despite the fact that he had a horrible trip over and it was way past his afternoon nap time, Carsten was happy and engaged the entire time, which was a nice blessing. My only complaint is that the house really wasn't Carsten-safe (open dishwasher and trash, nice big TV at his height, etc.), so I pretty much had to follow him around for most of the afternoon which meant that I couldn't converse with the other moms very much.

We started heading back to our respective homes around 3:30 pm and both babies fell asleep within about two minutes of getting the car in motion which was such a blessing :). Carsten fell asleep with a rice cake in his mouth (so cute!) which stayed there for the duration of his nap (~30 min). I actually got to talk to the other mom on the way back, which was nice :). Carsten woke up when we arrived at our train station and was a little unhappy to be awake, which was understandable. We left our carseat in the car so the other mom didn't have to switch her sleepy baby into another car seat, and then I didn't have to take it back with me on the train. I missed the train by about 1 minute, which meant that I had to wait about 15 minutes until the next train. It was HOT, so it really wasn't a fun wait or train ride back (unairconditioned train cars). We got back home at 5 pm, and let me tell you,  I was wiped. I carried Carsten, a heavy diaper bag, and food items back up to our apartment from the train which is about 2 blocks uphill, which made me realize that I really enjoy having a stroller to carry most of these items :).

This day made me realize a few things. 1) It could be an interesting time in the US where Carsten has to be in a car seat all the time since he's really not used to that. 2) If Carsten really is a sympathetic crier, things could get really interesting when with his cousins. 3) Even with the really nice mom who went out of her way to pick us up at the train station, we didn't save time compared to public transit, which is sad. 4) I really don't want to hear Carsten cry that hard again. 5) Even though Carsten really didn't get a great nap in today he did great at the other mom's house and at home, which proves once again that he really is a trooper. 6) It's hard for me to have a conversation with other moms when I have a toddler that likes to get into everything (this really isn't a problem at our home since we've pretty well baby proofed everything). 7) At the end of a day like this, I'm exhausted.

Food adventures

Last week marked our concerted effort to transition to 'Carsten's having what we're having' so we could start paying less in baby food. He did a pretty good job and ate things like curry, mushroom pasta, and stir fry meatballs. He seems to really enjoy the different flavors and textures, although I can say that the curry didn't seem to sit the best in his tummy (despite the eager tastebuds). We started out cold turkey at the beginning of the week (so only finger foods), however, we were uncertain that he was getting enough food because he woke up in the middle of the night several times last week. So in order to ensure that we wouldn't see him in the middle of the night we took a more hybrid approach later in the week which seemed to take care of the night wakings (we gave him table food plus a small jar of baby food that we fed him in between finger food bites). This is still making a lot of progress towards eliminating jars of food that we were buying, so instead of 5-6 jars of food per day (~15 CHF) we're down to 1-2 jars per day, which are the cheaper fruit or veggie jars. He's doing a great job of feeding himself with most of his self-feeding enthusiasm going towards trying to eat plums, peaches, nectarines, and melon. I should mention that he really doesn't care too much for feeding himself bite sized pieces of fruit that we meticulously cut up; instead, he would rather eat the fruit straight up and take his own bites, skin and all (except for the melon of course). We find this to be pretty convenient for us, and to be honest, it's pretty great entertainment :). So currently, snack time usually results in him eating 1-2 pieces of fruit all by his onesies (good thing it's summer!). Another change in Carsten's diet is the addition of egg, which we started a week ago. He generally has 1-3 egg yolks with cheese plus fruit for breakfast in the morning, and I think breakfast is his favorite meal of the day. Here's a photo of Carsten eating salmon asparagus spaghetti and another photo of him chowing down on a nectarine:

Spaghetti face :)

'Mommy, I want to eat it all by myself'

We had a great weekend as a family, and spent most of our time in Egg at home (you know, cooking, cleaning, groceries, and playing with Carsten :) ). Andy is leaving today for a conference in Prague (no jet lag, yay!), and won't be back until Friday night. I'm excited that he's only gone for business days, which means we still get to have our weekends with him :). I've made tentative plans with another mom from church, so hopefully we'll have some company this week as well :). Here's a photo of Andy putting Carsten in our shopping trolley, which was pretty funny :):

Best stroller ever! :)

Here's a photo of Carsten and I since we haven't posted one of those for a while:

Carsten and I :)

Happy 11 months Carsten!

Carsten is 11 months old today. Where has the time gone? I know it's cliche to say that, but seriously, he's always been changing and growing faster than we can keep up with. It's been a wonderful 11 months with Carsten, and this month has been a lot of fun. Here's the month in review:

Happy 11 months Carsten! :)

Physical Prowess: He now walks! He's been walking for 2 weeks now, and he's improved such that this morning he followed me all the way from the living room to our bedroom which means that he successfully navigated 2 corners and went quite a distance. In the past couple of days he's also started standing up on his own in the middle of the room, so I'm sure this skill will come along quickly as well. In the last week he's also been trying to perfect walking with objects in his hands (see photo below). Walking has also meant an increase in falling which has been associated with various head bonks, so we've had our share of crying and cuddling with Mommy time. With his newfound walking skills, it's getting even harder to take photos of him because by the time my camera is ready to flash, he's already made it to me, which means that he's no longer in focus and has just been blinded by the flash :).

Walking with objects. 

Baby on the move!

Something really adorable about your baby walking to you :).

Disposition: Carsten continues to be a happy baby with the over-riding comment that he's very 'busy' - which is true because he's rarely sitting still. For those of you who knew Andy and I as children, this is unsurprising :). He's pretty quiet around other people at first, but he does a generally does a good job of playing with other kids at church and the gym, which has been really nice for all of us. And for now, he doesn't seem to have a lot of stranger anxiety, which is a blessing. He still is making his 'baby face' and he is starting to make his wishes known more clearly. So far though, the only baby sign that he's doing is 'more', which I have found usually means 'Cheerios.' :)

Full smile (hard to capture!)

baby face :)

Playtime: Carsten does a pretty good job of entertaining himself, and lately, the construction project across the way has been really interesting for him to watch because they have big construction equipment out demolishing a building across the street. So in order for him to be able to watch it better, we moved our futon so he has full access to the window (see photo below). We've been trying to play outside, go to the gym, go to the zoo, and go swimming in order to change up playtime for him - I think he's really enjoyed the change of pace. It's actually been more difficult that I would have thought to go somewhere in July because for the most part it's been 60 and rainy for the entire month. This makes it by far the coldest July I've ever encountered, which has been nice because we dont' have a/c, but it's been a challenge to get out and do things with Carsten when the weather isn't great. We're working on finding out indoor activities, which will be useful for winter as well. His favorite toys have been the exercise ball (he chases it around while walking, which is fairly impressive), little red block which he carries around almost continuously, and books (caterpillar and hippos go berserk). We've also gotten to enjoy Carsten dancing to music this month, which has been really fun to watch :). He also will come and find you when you're 'hiding', and he really enjoys being chased, so he's at a really fun age :).

Sleeping: Carsten has been an amazing sleeper this month with him only waking up in the middle of the night a handful of times. He typically is in bed around 7:30 pm and is up around 6:30 am. This has meant more rest for all of us, which has been really nice. His naps have consistently been good, with his morning nap usually about 1.5 hours long at 9 am and his afternoon nap lasting about 1 hour at 1 pm. Yay sleep! :) We've also switched him to sleeping in his pack n play full time because for whatever reason, he was getting blisters on his mouth from chewing on his crib.

Baby in Training: We've begun behavior modification training which has meant using the word 'NO' quite a few times. We're trying to teach him to leave a few things alone in the house, such as the oven, and to sit down while in the bathtub and on the train. We've had reasonable success with everything except the oven. When our oven is on, the light inside the oven is on, and this really seems to attract Carsten. We've looked for baby gate options, but with our house layout, it just is not possible - so he must learn!

Eating: Well, Carsten has now had eggs, so we're moving on to eating all foods that Andy and I are eating. We've figured out that we're spending a small fortune on baby food for the last two months since I had switched from making baby food to buying it in jars from the store. Now that he's pretty adept at picking up food and can have pretty much everything we're having (no nuts yet), we're going to push to have him eat our food full time. This will require a bit better meal planning on my part and most likely we'll be eating even healthier as a result :). In other news we can also see 2 more teeth coming in on top, so that brings his total up to 6! So, I think we're going to expect more mess at dinner time with Carsten (please refer to the curry face photo that I posted before :) ).

Skype: Andy was gone for a week this month to the US for a conference, and he was able to skype us every day. Skype is not new for Carsten because we've used it to keep in touch with friends and family, but what was new was that he was SUPER excited to see Andy, which I'm pretty sure meant that he recognized Andy. Also, Andy and I both got to see Carsten walk for the first time because he did it when I was talking to Andy over skype (yay technology!).

Also, my blog is telling me that this is my 100th post. Who knew I had that much to say? Well, having a baby to talk about helps :).

The unassisted stand up is here!

Carsten just stood up by himself in the middle of the room! He's been standing by furniture, walls, and other objects for quite some time as well as walking now, but the unassisted stand has not emerged until now. Here we go!

Swiss National Day!

Andy came home around 9 pm on Saturday night and thankfully, he was able to have Monday (Aug 1) off of work because it was Swiss National Day. Swiss National Day is similar to our 4th of July and people were shooting off fireworks (really impressive ones really) all day. It would have been really fun to fly over the country at about 10:30 pm when many sets were going at once (we think most of these were private ones?). We spent the day spending time as a family, cleaning the house, and getting some to-do items off our house list (a bit of baby proofing and hanging a few things up on the walls). The highlight of my day was when Andy took Carsten outside so I could clean the bedrooms in peace (having a baby who moves really makes sweeping hard :) ). Carsten really enjoyed his new outdoor toys (gardening set) and basically just sat in the grass and played, which is astonishing because he's usually ALWAYS on the move. It was the nicest day we've had in a few weeks since the last few weeks have been rain and 60 deg F, and is without a doubt the coldest July I've ever experienced. We tried to get Carsten to walk to me as I was talking photos, but he was having trouble keeping his balance in the grass with sandals on, so here's a few humorous photos:

Happy Baby :)

Walk to Mommy!

'I'm walking!'

Please notice his hair and face in this falling action shot... :)

Try again!

Again, please notice his beautiful hair :).

Try #3, you can do it Carsten!

Just kidding - this is mid-fall :).

And, he bonked his head and is sad.... (poor guy).

We put Cartsen in the sandbox outside our apartment for the first time (it's been too wet the last few weeks to do this). He seemed to like it pretty well. Here's some photos:

Carsten exploring the sand :).

Of course, you must roll around in the sand to really get it in your overalls.

Dirty baby feet!

All in all, he enjoyed the sand box. :)

Also, August 1st marked 8 years since Andy and I started dating! Woohooo! I'd like to note that about 5 days after we started dating, I went to Switzerland for 10 days on a volleyball trip, and now, 8 years later, we find ourselves living in Switzerland.... It's crazy how things work out :).