First night of bachelorhood

This morning I dropped Natalie, Carsten, Mom, and Dad off at the Zurich airport. After a little confusion about where to go, and once again a trip to the special check in desk as the kiosks wouldn't let us check in, we got them where they needed to be. Right now they are still in the air but I suppose now that Natalie is gone and will be busy I have to do a little blogging.

I hadn't realized how much our daily life is regulated by Carsten - wake up, eat, play, nap, eat, play, read, eat, sing, dance, bath, put to bed (not always in that order). So dropping Natalie et al. at the airport wasn't the hardest part of my day - it was coming home to a house which was mysteriously clean and quiet. It was not hearing Natalie say "Who's home for you?" and seeing Carsten crane his neck from the high chair to see me coming in the front door. It was not caring how much noise the kids on the playground were making, or how loud my computer speakers are playing. The quiet that we cultivate while Carsten is sleeping is somehow different than the silence here now.

Still, I'm going to try to use my free time well. Tonight I studied German for the first time in a few months, and tomorrow night I am going to an organ concert at the French Church in downtown Zurich that starts at 7 -- this would be only the third time I've stayed in Zurich in the evening. I took a day off Wednesday that I am going to make up for by working on Saturday, and I am hoping to get a ton done at work. Cooking could be a problem, as I have done virtually no shopping or cooking since we got to Zurich - but Natalie and my Mom have left me a lot of homemade food in the freezer to help get me started. Maybe I'll even finish editing a video - I think I am about 6 months behind on my monthly video series.

Gaining independence :)

Mom and Dad Huisman have been helping out more and more with Carsten as their time progresses here. Carsten has gotten used to them and enjoys finding both Grandma and Grandpa around the house. They have let us go on a date, and are starting to get into Carsten's routine.

Friday night Andy and I went to a movie in Zurich after Carsten had an early bedtime thanks to a no afternoon nap day. This felt very weird to us because we have not left Egg in the evenings except for 1 dinner at Andy's boss' house, and we especially have not left without Carsten. We also have not been in Zurich in the evening when it's dark, so it definitely gives the city a different feeling. The movie was funny, and the Swiss leave most movies in their original language and then add subtitles as needed. So, we got to watch a movie in English with German and French subtitles, which was actually pretty fun :). And, get this: they have an intermission. Every movie theatre here has an intermission somewhere in the middle of the movie. It just stops all of a sudden and then you can go get more beer and popcorn :). Also, by they way, most theaters are quite small with maybe ~50 seats each and you reserve your seat when you buy your ticket! We sat in the second row, which we thought was a horrible place to sit, but the screen is so much smaller, that it really was not an issue :).

Mom put Carsten down for a nap this morning, which is a significant step forward for us. I have done all naps and bedtime for Carsten for the last three months because of our nursing schedule, so having other people get into the nap and bedtime routine is an great thing for all of us. Andy did a nap this weekend with Carsten (and I should point out that Andy always does the bedtime routine for Carsten with me, but I have ALWAYS done bedtime), which went well, and then the nap this morning went great too. So, it's nice that we have people to help out and it's nice that Carsten is cooperating and being flexible with his schedule. Also, we're hoping to achieve even more independence as we wean a bit more and as Mom and Dad will be taking care of Carsten in Zeeland while I'm in Corrie's wedding in a couple of weeks.

So, hooray for Carsten and I because we're gaining some independence from one another :). And I just want to impress upon you that this is a big deal. So huge. Especially for me. Carsten and I have basically been together for every minute of every day for the entirety of his life. When we lived in the states he was too little to be cared for by long periods of time by others, although we did get to go on some dates (so thanks family for babysitting). And when we've lived here, we don't have babysitters or friends who are close enough to watch him, so we do everything together. So, I repeat, this is big deal. And I'm excited about it :).

Here's a photo of Grandma Bonnie feeding Carsten or is it Carsten feeding Grandma Bonnie?? :)

He actually has a spoon too and is trying to feed Grandma.

So fun!

Carsten has lately really, really, really wanted his own spoon. And he seems to know that it's helps with getting food into his mouth. Which when we help, he doesn't mind feeding himself. Otherwise, he enjoying moving food around on the table while we shovel food in. We're trying to encourage coordination with the spoon because someday, maybe soon, he'll be feeding himself! :) I will say that for now, things are getting much, much, much messier though... ;)

Love.

Grandpa and Grandma Huisman in Switzerland!

On September 14, which is Andy's birthday, Mom and Dad Huisman arrived in Switzerland to help us celebrate Andy's birthday. Hooray! We have really enjoyed spending time with them, and have spent time cooking good food, playing with Carsten, going to the zoo, going to church, trying to catch up on sleep, and playing cards. Here are some photos of the last few fun days:

Grandma Bonnie showing Carsten his cousin Julia on her new ipad!

Go Hope! Go Michigan!

Grandpa, Grandma, and Carsten in Egg with the lovely flowers :).

Birthday gifts from the Claystone Court Huismans and the Koops. Thanks so much!

Riding the train into Zurich.

Sitting with Grandma!

Going to the Zurich Zoo!

Carsten LOVES the aquarium and thinks the penguins are pretty neat, which of course, they are :).

Grandma, Grandpa, and Carsten in Zurich!

Going home on the train!

Fun with Daddy :).

We're all having fun!

Carsten is very interested in learning how to use a spoon, so this results in a bit of a mess (see next photo).

He did eat some of this.

Love this kid. :)

We're having so much fun having Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Tom here. It took Carsten a few days to get used to having other people around, but now he's all smiles and enjoys playing with his grandparents :). We're planning a trip to Lucerne this week, which should be a lot of fun!

The Weaning Diaries - Week 1

As most of you are aware, Carsten stopped taking a bottle when he was 4 months old during our moving extravaganza. We still don't know how this happened, but what it has meant for me is that he can never be too far from me since he is only breastfed. My goal has been to make it a year before attempting to wean, and we have had our difficult moments, especially when traveling, but hey, we made it! And now that he's a year old, I'd like to start weaning so we can both gain some independence. We've had a really good routine the last couple of months with good naps and good feedings, so it's hard to take the first step towards possibly messing up our comfy routine. The routine goes something like this:

-Carsten wakes up sometime around 7 am +/- 30 min
-We play and eat breakfast until ~9:00-9:30
-Naptime routine: We read books ending with 'The Going to Bed Book' by Sandra Boynton. I nurse him and since him a song in his darkened nursery, and then put him to bed (awake or asleep)
-He sleeps for about 1.25 hours
-Then we give him a snack or an early lunch depending on the time of day
-We play and then start the naptime routine (see above) again around 1 pm, although in the last week, this has moved to 2 pm.
-He generally sleeps for another 1.25 hours, and then we play, have a snack, run errands, and cook supper
-Somewhere in the supper making process, he usually wants to nurse again (~5:30 pm)
-Then we eat dinner around 6 pm
-Around 7 pm we start the bedtime routine: bath, nursing, brush teeth, 'Goodnight Moon' book, sing a song, and put in bed (awake or asleep). He usually is sleeping by 7:45 - 8:00 pm, and then usually he sleeps through the night.

My goal in the beginning stages of weaning is to wean 1 feeding per week so that when we go back to the US in a couple of weeks, we're down to 2-3 feedings per day instead of 4-5. So, today (Sept 12) we've started out by eliminating nursing before naps and moving them to after naps to remove the 5:30 pm feeding. I'm very nervous about this step because he started taking longer naps when I started nursing him directly before naps, so I'd like the long naps to stay and the nursing to go. So, here's a 'diary' so I can keep track of what's going on from week to week as I attempt to wean him.

Day 1, September 12:
-1st nap (with no nursing beforehand). We read books for 10-15 minutes until Carsten was yawning and rubbing his eyes, and we finished with his naptime book. Then we went into his darkened room and sang his naptime song, and I put him in bed and gave him his blanket as I exited the room. He was pretty quiet and was asleep within 30 minutes with no crying (sleeping at 9:50 am). He slept 1 hour on the nose and nursed happily afterwards.
-2nd nap (with no nursing beforehand). Started at 1:40 pm after read books for 10 min with yawning and rubbing of eyes. I sang to him, and he was asleep in 15 min despite the cement drill across the road.

Day 2-7, September 13: Naps were pretty much the same as Day 1, which means we successfully cut out 1 (sometimes 2 feedings if we were out of the house) feeding during the day. However, nighttime has been worse with Carsten nursing during the night about every other night, so we have cut out a day feeding and added a night time feeding. This is non-ideal. To make matters more complicated, I have a suspicion that he is teething because if we give him tylenol before bed, he sleeps much better than without tylenol, so it's unclear right now if weaning, teething, or both are causing nighttime sleep to be disrupted. I think we'll see how the next couple of days go to see if we can cut out another daytime feeding without adding additional nighttime stress.

Carsten - 1 year update

Well, our baby is 1 year old. So, here's my traditional update on what he's like right now! I didn't put any pictures with this post since I had quite a few in the last couple of posts.

Eating: Carten eats pretty much everything except 'real' vegetables and nuts. We feed him pureed vegetables, so don't worry, he gets them, he just doesn't eat them straight up for the most part yet. He will eat real green beans, so I think we'll transition to real vegetables soon. Our campaign where 'he eats what we're eating' has worked out surprisingly well and he generally likes what we eat, with the major exception being the enchiladas we cooked last week - he wouldn't even try it. Some of the things that he eats are: quesadillas, eggs, cheese, meat, whole fruits like plums & pears (no pieces for him!), pizza, pasta, pickles, yogurt, bread, tomato soup, grilled cheese, etc. He really enjoys food and for the most part, he's a fantastic eater. We still give him about 1-2 jars of pureed baby food per day so he gets some other foods like apples and vegetables that are a little too hard for him to eat just yet. Carsten does a great job of feeding himself and can pick up squishy things like banana pieces, so he's doing really well! It's been nice to have him feeding himself more because now I can eat when he eats without my food getting totally cold :).

Drinking: Carsten loves to drink water out of a sippy cup or water bottle. This has been really nice because we tried for ages to get him to drink out of a sippy cup, so hooray Carsten! Next step: drink liquids other than water, specifically whole milk. We started whole milk last week, and so far, he's not a fan of it. For the most part the milk gets sucked in and then dribbles out of his mouth. We need to work on this since we are going to start weaning.

Physical Prowess: He walks, he runs. Yes, he runs and he loves to be chased (which we also love!). Carsten is pretty good on his feet and rarely takes a disastrous tumble in the house. The grass and hills outside still prove to be a little challenging for him, but he's getting better all the time. In fact, he now can start climbing up the slide outside by himself, which is a little scary. I think climbing onto furniture is a soon-to-be-mastered skill, so we've been working on 'feet first' when getting off the couch or bed and he does pretty well with it.

Listening Skills: He knows what 'no' means. And, he usually listens now :). His rules in the house are 'no fan', 'no oven', 'no pipes', 'no cords', and 'no standing up in the bathtub'. He does really well with these for the most part, and we haven't had to use discipline skills other than keeping an eye on him to tell him 'no' before he does something. This doesn't mean he's perfect, he still loves to try to touch the oven, so we've still got some things to work on. He also performs direct commands like, 'Carsten, go find Daddy' or 'Bring me the hippo book'. This is fun because we now feel like he understands us and we can interact more.

Baby signs: Carsten knows and makes the sign for 'more'. He understand the sign for 'bathtime' and 'eat', but that seems to be about it. I'm not sure how much progress we'll make with signs before it's time for him to talk.

Waving: He just learned how to wave goodbye and spent quite a while waving to his Auntie Ashley over skype recently :).

Talking: He babbles a bit with the favorite being 'Mamamamama', which is usually said when he wants something or he's frustrated. So usually the tone is not too happy :). He does not say 'Dada' yet, but we're working on it :).

Sleeping: He typically sleeps through the night, but he is a noisy sleeper with some crying during the night. Every few days these last two weeks he needs to be comforted back to sleep, but hopefully this will get less and less frequent as he grows older. He still takes two naps a day with both being about 1.25 hours long at 9 am and 1 pm.

Playing: He does a really good job playing by himself and with us. His favorite toys are his new ball ( which he kicks and throws around the house quite well), wooden spatula, new tent, wooden stacking blocks, doo-be-doo-biddy-bop toy, and exercise ball. He also loves to play with bags, especially grocery bags with food in them, which always makes it interested when trying to unload them :). Carsten can open drawers and delights in removing things like clothes from drawers. We also have been playing outside in parks more, and he really loves to swing and go down slides.

Zoo: We got a year membership to the zoo, and at first I think it was more an outing for me, but now, Carsten loves to watch animals and gets really excited when he can see something like the rhino or especially the fish aquariums. He's so cute when he gets excited because he kicks his feet and makes really sweet noises. One day the zoo was really empty, so I let him run around in the aquarium and he had so much fun running from one fish tank to the next.

Diggers: I have a theory that little boys have an inborn love of large construction equipment. We have a construction project across from our house and near the grocery store, and he just loves to sit and watch the big diggers. At home he will just stare out the window, and when we walk to the grocery store he starts getting excited a block from the construction site. He will be very sad when these are finished.

Separation anxiety: We do nursery at church regularly, and he does pretty well with us leaving. Sometimes he's sad to see us go lately, but we get reports that say it doesn't last too long, which is a relief. He also does pretty well when we make it to the gym babysitters as well.

chocolate chips

When getting stocked up on things I'd need to make chocolate cupcakes for Carsten's birthday party, I triumphantly brought these home thinking I'd found what I wanted. Do you see the problem?

1 year photos

Andy and I have been attempting to take some good photos of our 1 year old over the last couple of days. We'll have professional photos when we get back to Michigan, so for now, these will have to do! Enjoy! :)

'Mommy, it's so funny that you're trying to capture me sitting still on camera!'

Crazy baby! And yes, he was just this excited.

Get your babyface on!

'Mommy, I love playing with the shopping trolley!'

'Thanks for the new ball!'

babyface. 

I had to join in the babyface fun too :). 

Love.

My favorite :)

I can have my cake, but I wont' eat it...

Baby with his blanket. Thanks Kayt!

Too cute.

chipped tooth :(

Well, the first major injury has arrived and we have no idea when or how it happened. Yesterday morning I noticed that Carsten had a chip out of his right front tooth. The thing is, we both think that something major should have happened to cause the chip, and neither of us can remember anything happening on Saturday that would have caused it (no unconsolable baby or big bonks). So, it's a mystery. We took a photo to show Grandpa Tom for some dental advice, and it turns out it's not a big deal. So, hooray! Good thing he will get another set of teeth in a few years, and hopefully he'll treat the next set a bit better... Here's our chipped baby:

I feel that we should get a discount since he's been chipped.... :) Actually, when we discovered it we felt horrible that we had no idea how it happened. Hopefully, this will be the only teeth damage he ever has... hopefully...

Carsten's 1st Birthday Party!

Yesterday had several families from church come out to Egg to help us celebrate Carsten's 1st birthday. It was a beautifully sunny day with temperatures in the low 80s, which was great because then we just played outside in the little park outside our house. Carsten had a lot of fun playing and running around, and for about the first time in a while, he came and found me a few minutes before everyone went home and did NOT want to be put down - and he even yawned! - so I think we managed to wear him out pretty well :). Apparently balloons are a big hit with kids, so it's lucky that we happened to have quite a few on hand!

Carsten enjoyed his first cupcake, but he really wasn't that messy about eating it, probably because I elected not to make frosting from scratch. Speaking of baking, I had a few issues with making the cupcakes. First issue: German instructions that I managed to mess up for batch #1 (don't worry, batches #2-#4 were done correctly :) ). Second issue: our oven routinely seems to burn the bottom of baked goods before the top is done, and I have no idea why (we even turned down the temperature quite a bit). Perhaps it's good that I do not bake very often :). Andy was very sweet and cut off the burned bottoms before we served them to our guests. Also, just a note that if you haven't ever used silicon cupcake pans, I'd recommend them!

Another side note, we got to finally use the hook-on high chair that we brought with us when we moved from the states. We ended up getting a glass dining room table, so we couldn't use it as our regular high chair like we intended to when we asked for it. It was really nice to have for for the picnic table outside though! Carsten also seemed to enjoy it and seemed a little puzzled when we turned him around in the seat.

Allrighty, now for what you've all been waiting for, pictures!

Carsten in his nifty high chair!

Our 1 year old boy.

The spread.

We're ready to party!

Carsten enjoyed playing.

The crew!

Carsten plus chocolate cake.

balloons!

It was fun to have company!

All in all, we were thrilled to have so many people show up for Carsten's party, and we enjoyed chatting with everyone who was there. It was a great day!

Happy 1st Birthday Carsten!

Well, 1 year ago today we got to meet our baby. Andy and I are both finding ourselves a bit nostalgic and are having a good time remembering when we got to meet our baby. We did not necessarily always enjoy the sleep deprivation and 'I don't know what to do about this' moments, but seeing Carsten grow up has been amazing and wonderful for us. A lot has changed for us: continents, languages, jobs, sleeping habits, walking baby...

Here's what Carsten looked like 1 year ago (8 lbs, 3 oz and 19.5 inches):

Carsten and I

Was he really ever that little?!

Sleepy little dude.

Here's our 'baby' now. I should probably stop calling him a baby because he's a little boy now, but I can't because he'll always be my little baby. He is now 24.7 lbs and 31.1 inches (both 80th percentile), which means that in a year, he's grown quite a bit!

Walking around like a champ! 

Our happy guy :)

Our little boy...