Carsten is 16 months!

Carsten is 16 months plus a few days... :)

16 months!

Well, we had a great month back in the US seeing all our wonderful family and most of our friends. I'll write some separate blog posts about our time there. Right now, I'd like to write a post about Carsten because he's starting to try out words! :) Here are words that we've heard him say:

Dad
Mama
Grandpa
Grandma
all done
more
hot
trash
tractor
truck
dump truck
tree
giraffe
clock
yea (as in yes)
sit

Yesterday afternoon, he walked around the house saying 'trash' over and over again. So cute :). He's also starting to make animal noises upon request: woof woof, roar (yes, like a lion), neigh, moo, and meow. He seems to go in phases as to which ones he'll actually say. Carsten has learned a few more signs as well and now his repertoire includes more, all done, please, help, bathtime, and thank you. It's surprising what you can communicate with just these signs. For example, if there's something Carsten is not supposed to get into, I can tell him 'all done' and he understands and usually listens :).

Making the sign for 'more' indicating that he wanted more train rides :).

Carsten is also starting to interact with other kids more, and we saw him enjoy playing with his cousins quite a bit, which is fun to watch. We unfortunately caught some pretty nasty colds in the last couple of weeks, so in an attempt to not pass it along and to not catch something else while recovering from jet-lag, Carsten and I are laying low this week. I think we're getting ever so slowly better, which is a nice change.

See, he had fun ;).

We're also trying to encourage more self-feeding at meals, so yesterday I attempted to not help Carsten at all, which went great. He fed himself pasta using mostly his hands and he seemed to get more than enough to eat. He also seemed to enjoy feeding himself and made 'num' noises when he shoved a handful of pasta in his mouth. I must admit, the mess on his face was much greater than usual, but surprisingly there was very little mess on the floor indicating pretty good accuracy in my book. I couldn't resist a few photos of his pasta face.

I'm sensing some slideshow photos someday in the future :).

Love this kid.

In other Carsten news, he's now had 3 haircuts, and I'm actually enjoying cutting his hair (it doesn't look too shabby either). We also have a visual on 12 teeth (4 molars, 4 bottom, and 4 top), and hopefully we'll get a break from teething for a while. He's still climbing furniture, but he now seems to understand that he needs to sit on the furniture instead of stand. He's not climbing nearly as much as his twin cousins, but honestly, that's ok with me :). Since coming back from the US we've starting watching a few minutes of video (like veggietales) where we all have been enjoying some snuggle and relaxation time; snuggles are hard to come by with Carsten so we love the rare opportunities.

When we came back to Switzerland after being gone for 3.5 weeks, we noticed that Carsten was a lot taller than when we left because he was now able to reach the light switches with ease and now his nose is as table height instead of his eyes. It's fun to see that kind of growth and it corroborates my observation that his 24 month clothes that were quite big 2 months ago, are now the right size. He's really been growing out of clothes fast! Carsten also enjoyed his old toys again, so we put away some of the new ones for a rainy day. He also remembered the playground and wanted to play in the sandbox which we did not do since it was wet.

While we were in the US, Carsten definitely was putting names with faces because you could ask him where '_____' was and he would point or look at the correct person. He's also been doing that with objects and saying 'DA', which we translate as 'look at that!' or 'whatisthatit'ssoexciting!'. His favorite things right now are his blanket (which he asks to go into his crib during non-sleep times to snuggle it for a few minutes), trucks, tractors, construction equipment (especially diggers), most animals, the laundry basket, books, and spatulas.

Here's some more photos of Carsten:

wearing Daddy's slippers

playing

cheesy baby in the laundry basket

he fell in. :)

cheesy baby on top of the laundry basket :)

climbed on the futon to read books to himself

I think that's all for now about Carsten. Next up will be details of our holiday time in Iowa and Michigan!