put that baby in a cupboard

Lately whenever I cook, Carsten enjoys playing in our kitchen cabinets. They roll out and we purposely have set them aside for his use since we dont' really have that much kitchen stuff anyway. He enjoys opening and shutting them as well as putting things into them - including himself. He's really very proud of himself in this photo :). Also, you'll see that he stole my new spatula - it still has the tags on it. Spatulas really are one of the best toys.

toga party

Carsten discovered that he can get his arms out of his long sleeve onesies so that he can go in costume to a toga party. All the cool babies are doing it.

'What's in there?!'

Love this kid :)

Goofy boy!

TOGA TOGA TOGA.... :)

Sleep woes

There's been a lot of challenges with sleep since we got back from the states, so I thought I'd give an update solely devoted to sleep :).

Carsten did amazingly well with jet-lag once we were back in Switzerland, but having done both recently, I'd have to say getting over jet-lag is easier when going west. However, after a few days, Carsten was still having some sleep issues that we were convinced were no longer related to jet-lag, and we were right. He was over jet-lag, but what was bothering him was the fact that he was teething. And it was not just any regular old tooth - it was a molar. Once we figured that out, we started dosing him with Tylenol and his sleep got better for about a week. And then we figured out that he was teething a second molar while still working on the first one. His teeth usually come in pairs, so of course he had to teeth 2 molars at once. So, that makes 10 teeth for him. Bring on the tylenol! :) 

About another week by and Carsten was just waking up in the middle of the night for about 2 hour stretches where he was just happy an awake. I figured out that these nights seemed to happen more often when he had 2 nap days as opposed to 1 nap days. We had been doing 1 or 2 naps depending on his wake up time. Based on this observation, we decided that Carsten could only have 1 nap a day in the afternoon, despite the fact that he was still tired in the mornings.  To our surprise, this fixed it. Since putting him on a 1 afternoon nap schedule (we've been on it for about a week now), he has slept through the night every night and has taken a wonderful afternoon nap. And when I say wonderful, I mean 2-3 hour naps. If you're aware of how much we've struggled to get naps in with this child, you should be just as amazed as I am at this wonderful, amazing change. Having him on 1 nap a day frees up our mornings and allows us to grocery shop, go to the gym, and go into Zurich which much greater ease. Also, having a nice chunk of time to get things done in the afternoon is nice too. I'll be able to be much more productive than previously, which will be a nice change :). So, bring on the 1 nap a day schedule because it is WONDERFUL!! 

One thing I'd like to add while we're on the topic of sleep is that he LOVES his blanket. LOVES it. Sometimes he'll ask to go in his crib so he can cuddle it. I try really hard not to let him bring it out of his crib because I don't want him to get that attached, but I do love it that he cuddles it and basically hugs it all night long :). Here's Carsten cuddling his blanket (thanks to Kayt for making it!): 

Last week in Iowa

Our last week in Iowa was the first time Carsten had gotten sick with something other than a cold. Despite the fact that he was pretty sick, he was still a pretty happy kid. He likes holding thing with handles, so we had him carry around his own bucket... :)

My Dad carved Carsten his first ever pumpkin, which for the record was the only homegrown pumpkin for the year in my parent's garden - so it was pretty special for multiple reasons. He did not want to touch the pumpkin ooze, but he happily would have played with the pumpkin handle if we had let him. We put him in a tiger Halloween costume and had a lot of fun watching him try to walk in it :). Here's some photos from his first pumpkin carving:

Super excited. And super dirty.

'I don't think I want to touch that.'

Our little pumpkin :)

'A handle?! SWEET!'

Grandma, Grandpa, and Carsten :)

My little tiger.

We actually did not fly home on our intended travel date as our flights were cancelled because of a large snowstorm on the East Coast. Instead, we spent some time shopping in Sioux Falls, and were treated to some extra special family time. My Grandpa Ranschau, Grandma Hoogeveen, and Grandpa Ranschau came over that evening for supper and we play fast and dirty Uno afterwards. What fun! We very much enjoyed our extra family time.

Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen dropped us off at the airport on Monday since both of my parents had to work. Carsten did great on all three flights, and even though we did not have space for a car seat on the international flight like I was hoping, he really did terrific for me. He slept most of the way, and the lady across the isle was super helpful, which made a big difference for me. As an added bonus, we had a bulkhead seat, which meant that I didn't have to worry about Carsten hitting the seat in front of us and I got to spread out a bit more as well. He was a terrific traveler :). How about we do this all again in December?? This time we'll definitely bring Andy :).

Iowa - Pumpkinland

Mom, Carsten, and I went to Pumpkinland, which is a pumpkin farm with animals to pet and corn mazes to go through and as an extra bonus, it is only 1.5 miles from our house which makes it nice and convenient.
Carsten really enjoyed the playground equipment and tolerated us trying to get him to pet the different animals. Once again, he liked to look at the animals, but he did not need to actually touch them. I could have stayed with the kittens for quite some time as they were so tame and cuddly :). There were plenty of photo opps, so bear with me as I post a bunch of photos!

'Please don't make me touch that!'

I loved this kitten. Seriously.

Fishy pumpkin

We had so much fun! :)

Gettin' Down on the Farm

My Grandpa Ranschau owns and operates a farm about an hour from my parent's house. We were able to make it up there several times, and we got to help ferry people around during harvest and pick up sticks (Carsten enjoys this activity, don't worry :) ). It was fun to spend time with Grandpa, and I had a lot of fun watching Carsten discover things on the farm, like the kittens, bulls, and corn stalks. I lost my opal pendant from Andy while we were there, but we rented a metal detector and found it, so that was a relief :).  I also got the opportunity to take some photos of Carsten while we were there, and I loved how they turned out.

My Fav

Cheesy baby

Corn stalks are the best

Love this kid

What's even better than a corn stalk? Stirring soybeans with the corn stalk.

What's the worst thing in the world? When Grandma tries to take your corn stalk away. It's true.

We loved hanging out with you Grandpa!

Iowa - Week 1

Our flight from Grand Rapids to Sioux Falls went great - Carsten is an amazing traveler. He slept for about 30 min on our first flight, and then played happily on our second flight. One thing that I'm quickly becoming aware of are airports with nice child play areas. Minneapolis, our connecting airport, had one, which is great, but it wasn't terrific, so perhaps we'll try some other airports in the hopes of getting terrific play areas to wear Carsten out. O'Hare in Chicago for example, has an amazing child play area :).

To start off our time in Iowa, my Dad took Carsten on his very first tractor ride. Carsten just sat (which never happens anymore) and watched and loved it. So over the course of 2 weeks, my Dad took Carsten on 3-4 separate tractor rides, each lasting 30-60 min. And I think this puts Grandpa Hoogeveen firmly in the 'most cuddled with' category. I mostly walked around the first time and picked up sticks. We even did some tree pruning, Hoogeveen style :).

On the tractor with Grandpa!

Yes, Carsten the plastic piece in the middle comes out. Way to figure that out in less than 1 minute of being on the tractor :).

I don't know who's happier. :)

Pruning!

Carsten loved to chase the cats at Mom and Dad's house. However, he wasn't too sure he wanted to touch them most of the time. The cats did make entertaining Carsten a lot easier. So handy to have around!

Grandpa showing Carsten how to pet the cat.

 We were able to all have dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Hoogeveen's house, which was a ton of fun because almost the entire family was there because my Aunt and Uncle from Texas were also up for the weekend to see Carsten's cousin, Andrew.

Carsten and Grandma.

Carsten and I 

Andrew, you are caught red-handed. 

We also were able to attend Andrew's 1 year birthday party, which my cousin hosted at her new house. They have an amazing yard with fun pay equipment that far surpasses the playground Carsten gets to play on here in Egg. I didn't get a lot of photos here because I was enjoying talking to everyone. Thanks to my Mom for playing with Carsten so much so I could talk!

We also went to my Grandpa Ranschau's that week, but I'm going to post another separate post since I have so many good photos from our time on his farm. All in all, it was a wonderful week and it was so fun that we got to see so many family members. :)