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...

port-a-pack-n-play

Carsten pushed his pack 'n play out of his room and into our hallway today, which actually takes a bit of work since the doorway isn't that much larger than the actual crib. I made the mistake of telling him that I'd be really impressed if he managed to do it. Well, I'm impressed.

playing outside!

There's a play area right outside of our apartment with two swings, a slide, and a sandbox. It's nice to have something so close for Carsten to play on, but I will say that this is, sadly, the only 'park' we've found in Egg so far. We went outside and played as a family on Saturday and took the opportunity to get a few photos in. Carsten loved swinging with me, and he also enjoys moving the swing by himself. He's a big fan of the slide and once one parent catches him he immediately runs to the other parent who will put him back up on the slide again :). He's so fun to watch! Here's some photos:

I love my little boy :)

Playing with the swing.

'What's under the swing?!'

Going down the slide!

Swinging with Mommy is so fun!

Happy baby :)

'What's this chain thing?'

cute baby :)

The soft tiles are nice.

Carsten LOVES to be chased. So we oblige :).

Run run run!

'Save me Mommy!' :)

It was a fun day of playing in our little park :). It's too bad the weather is going to get colder just as Carsten is getting old enough to enjoy it. Guess we'll have to find other activities!

Fun with Carsten

Carsten has been a lot of fun all along, but he's getting to be more fun every day. He's really starting to show his wonderful personality and his likes and wants are becoming more apparent. He's also started being a bit cheesy, which is fun :). The other night we put some swing music on, and then I took photos while Andy danced with Carsten. Carsten LOVED it and when Andy put him down after 1 song, he stood by Andy with his arms up as if to say 'UP! UP! MORE! MORE!'. Here's a few photos:

Father/son swing dancing

Carsten is LOVING IT!

My handsome men :).

'This is so fun Daddy!'

What a cute baby!

 Carsten had his first hair cut in the beginning of July from his Auntie Amanda, but I think he's in need of another hair cut soon. These photos will show you why... :)

Crazy Carsten!

hahahahahaha :)

During playtime yesterday I put Carsten in one of his toy bins and he immediately started giving me this cheesy grin with very squinty eyes (I can't imagine where he gets that from...). I managed to get it on camera, which makes it that much better :). By the way, the mess in the background is all Carsten's doing, and we do clean it up every night - he's very busy during the day!

Cheesy baby

Put that baby in a box...

Normal smile :)

This morning I was sorting laundry and my stinker of a baby kept coming and stealing Andy's dirty socks which I find to be a bit gross. So I gave him a clean sock and sent him on his way. He played with Andy's sock (it was clean I promise!) for about 30 min just waving it around and having fun - what joy! I captured some happy baby with Daddy's sock moments on camera...

Couldn't be happier :)

'Mommy, I have Daddy's sock!'

Cheesy baby grin :)

Carsten is so fun to have around as nearly everything is entertaining to him and then subsequently to us. We love our baby :).