Last week before baby

Our last week of March was spent with Mom and Dad Huisman patiently (or not so patiently as the week went on) waiting for our new arrival. We had a lot of fun playing with Carsten and taking a lot of walks to encourage labor. The only blemish on the week was a stomach bug that got passed from Carsten to Andy to me. Luckily, Andy and I recovered after about 24 hours and more importantly, I didn't go into labor on that day which I was praying for. Carsten took about 3 days to get over it, but for once, he actually took long naps when sick (usually his naps get shorter). Carsten was fairly sad over those few days and laid on the floor to play diggers which is extremely unusual for him. Somehow, Mom and Dad managed to miss the stomach bug that the rest of us had, so we were very thankful for that. With Mom and Dad here we managed to get a few 'last minute' things done like assembling the baby glider, organizing a few things in the house, and running errands. We really enjoyed our time with Mom and Dad and while we would have liked to see the arrival of our new baby a bit earlier, God's timing is always perfect. Here's some photos from our week:

Poor sick Carsten. First time I've seen him lay on the floor.

Race time!

Playing diggers with the last of the snow.

Yay for Grandma and Grandpa being here!

Many, many walks :).

Shenanigans :)

It's amazing how fun paper and boxes can be :).

Reading books.

Swings!

Gears!

Last day before Grady was born! Carsten simply loves the swings!

Carsten's 30 month stats

We had Carsten's 30 month check up today and everything looks great for our buddy. Here are his stats:

Weight: 37 lbs (96th percentile)
Height: 39.75 in (99th percentile)
Head: 51 cm
BMI: 57%

He's extremely tall and well-proportioned for his age. Guess that's why he's already wearing 4t clothes.... The sliver lining is this: the clothes he's passing on to his baby brother are hardly used by normal standards! :)

Carsten is 2.5 years old!

On March 8, Carsten turned 2.5 years old and he's certainly had his fair share of adventure thus far: moving internationally twice, living in a foreign country for 2 years, visiting many different countries, and getting his fair share of jet-lag. He's extremely active and happy almost all the time. We love our little boy and it's hard to believe that he's already 2.5 years old.

2 year old Carsten

2.5 year old Carsten

Sleeping: We've had our fair share of sleep issues the last 6 months, but in all fairness, we've made him do jet-lag 3 times, vacationed for a month in the US, and turned his world upside down several times during moving. We finally have our European kinderbed which is the best crib/bed for Carsten since it's actually quiet when he bounces periodically at night (he's done this every since he was little). This allows everyone to sleep better (not so noisy and he goes back to sleep after only a minute). He still doesn't sleep well like I would expect an active little boy to, but I'm beginning to think that this will never happen for him for whatever reason. He is still napping (1-2.5 hr) on a regular basis which I'm very thankful for and hope will continue for quite a while yet. We still have him sleeping in his crib because a) he hasn't climbed out yet and b) it makes for better sleep for everyone at this point.

Eating: Carsten's tastes seem to change continually and things that were hits two months ago (i.e., grilled cheese and tomato soup) are no longer favorites. In fact, the foods he'll voluntarily eat are quite a bit less varied and we usually have to meter them to get in other nutritious foods (like veggies and meats). His current favorites are: Daddy granola (Oatmeal Squares) and peanut butter bread. He also loves a small piece of chocolate after supper on occasion and I'm sure he'd eat it all the time if we'd let him :). We're still using the sippy cup on a regular basis, but we have tried mixing it up with regular cups occasionally. He still wears bibs and I honestly think he'll need bibs for a LONG time as he's just not a neat eater (see photographic evidence).

He'll definitely need bibs until he's 18.

Playing: He LOVES anything to do with construction, trains, trucks, tractors, and airplanes. You'll often find him playing with his Switzerland diggers, outside diggers, or his train set at home. He definitely loves to have playmates and if we won't play with him because we're doing house tasks he'll come and ask for other favorites: aunts, uncles, grandparents, and babysitters. He loves to play active games with both Daddy and Mommy around the house such as hide and go seek (we call it 'sneaky Daddy' because it usually involves Carsten getting chased back to Mommy) and 'the rescue game' which is essentially a daddy-chases-Carsten-back-to-Mommy game. He also loves to play puzzles and he often reads with Daddy for 45+ min in the morning after he wakes up (while I usually sleep!). Carsten also really likes drawing and craft-time and he often asks for it.

Scholarship: Carsten really enjoys learning and at this point he knows almost all his capital letters by sight so you'll often hear him say: M for Mama and D for digger (at which point Daddy says: D is also for Daddy!). We frequently do number and alphabet flashcards, puzzles, and draw them on the doodler which he really seems to enjoy. He also has an amazing vocabulary (what 2.5 year old knows what 'articulated' means?) and he is often talking in many sentences at once. Now we have to start thinking about whether or not we will send him to 3 year old preschool in the fall (how is he that age already?!).

Media time: Lately I usually cuddle Carsten and watch a tv show with him in the morning (Sesame Street, Bob the Builder, or Thomas the Tank Engine). It's one of the only times he sits still, and I value this snuggly time with him since soon those moments will be harder to come by with a newborn around. I like to think Carsten likes it too :).

Temperament: Carsten is almost always happy which I'm very grateful for. He is rarely whiney and has never thrown what I would call a full-on temper tantrum - I'm sure this is yet to come but it is nice not to have those now. Carsten is often very rational and he usually is very happy to listen. On the occasional instance that he is not listening, we have implemented the 'loss of a priveledge' or 'you have a choice' philosophy which we have found works really well with him (timeouts are rare now). We'll see what happens as he keeps growing up.

Clothes: Carsten is currently in 4t pjs and 3t clothes, but he is transitioning into 4t shirts at the moment. Ever since he was little he has grown out of his pjs first, then shirts, and his pants last. I think this means he has a longer torso section than the average child. This 3t set of clothes is his new current record for longest set that he's been in (about 7-8 months now (hooray!)). He's wearing size 9 shoes (so big!) and I've already bought all his size 10 shoes in preparation for the next growth spurt. We have a 30 month appointment for him next week, so we'll find out how he's stacking up in the percentiles but my feeling is that he's still quite big. Most people who meet him for the first time think he's 3.5 - 4 years old. Carsten is also starting to express preferences in what he wears, and he's started to catch on to how stores work. I took him shopping to a Carter's outlet store last week and while I shopped, he would run around the store and find a digger shirt which he would then bring back to me and say 'want this one.' I usually say things like 'that's not ours, please put it back', so he by the end of our store visit (all of 20 min) he was then bringing shirts and saying 'want to buy it'. In the end, I caved and let him pick out a set of digger jammies (he was VERY excited that he got to choose his very own digger jammies). He spent the rest of the day just waiting for after bathtime so he could put them on. And the next day he did NOT want to take them off during the day. :)

How could I not buy these?! ;)

Some major changes we have to look forward to for Carsten in the next 6 months are potty training and transitioning to a big boy bed. We love our big boy and I'm so glad I've gotten to spend these 2.5 years with him. It's sometimes hard to imagine what changes our next little boy will bring to our everyday life, but I'm looking forward to seeing what life will look like as a family of 4!

Uncle Luke and Aunt Ashley come to visit!

My sister's spring break and my brother's road trip with friends to NY happened to coincide so we got to have a siblings weekend at our house. Yay! We spent most of our time playing with Carsten, talking, and getting to play Munchkin and Settlers. Ashley and Luke also spent a lot of time helping with our house (thanks for moving the cast-iron stove!) and taking care of Carsten while I did errands and got a massage as an early birthday present from them (thanks!). I thoroughly loved seeing my siblings and it was especially fun to see Carsten getting to enjoy playing with his aunt and uncle. I didn't take a lot of photos while they were here, but here's the couple that I did get:

Carsten decided to give Uncle Luke an extra 40 lbs to lift while doing push ups. My brother is buff; he could totally do it.

Uncle Luke reading to Carsten!

We found the etch-a-sketch in a Switzerland box. Luke was excited!!! :)

Love my siblings! Also, Carsten is pointing out that we had paused Bob to take a picture. Silly us.

Carsten has been asking for Uncle Luke and Aunt Ashley since they left mid-week. He really, really enjoyed playing with them :). Thanks for coming sibs! I can't wait for our next hang out time!

HAIR CUT!

I had put our hair clippers set in with our shipment from Switzerland, so Carsten went 3+ months between haircuts. Needless to say, he needed one and finally got one this week. Here are some before and after shots:

such long hair!

He was going to attempt to cut his own hair.

My long haired child.

I like his shorter hair much better :).

Some additional information to this photo: we let him watch a new episode of  'Bob the Builder' while I cut his hair. This has now translated to him asking for a hair cut so he can watch an extra Bob during the evening. Stinker. :)

Moving - Stage 6

Good news: this is our LAST stage of moving and it is pretty much complete!

Our international shipment finally arrived on Feb. 26, which was nearly 3 months to the day of when we sent it from Switzerland (much longer than the 6-8 weeks we were initially told). It took two guys about 45 min to unload our stuff into the house and then for the first time in over two years we had all of our material goods in one location :). Unfortunately, as we were unpacking we noticed significant damage to our bed (cracked bed frame and slats as well as an extremely dirty mattress because they didn't cover it well) and to Carsten's kinderbed (they did not package this well either to it's extremely scratched and will not work for a baby since they chew on the crib). These were by far the most valuable items and now we'll have to work with the insurance company to try to get these items back into working condition (or new) - sigh. It took us a solid week and a half to unpack all of the boxes because we mostly did it when we had an extra hour or two to work on it together since I'm now not in prime unpacking boxes condition thanks to being extremely pregnant. We have Carsten sleeping in his kinderbed despite the scratches since this bed does not allow him to bounce like the crib we had him in upon arriving in the US, and this has translated to us all getting much better sleep (yay!).

Carsten very much enjoyed the arrival of his 'Switzerland diggers' and has played with them pretty much non-stop since they arrived. In fact, the day we opened them he was afraid that they would disappear after he went to bed so he was very sad and resistant to going to bed that evening. We did our best to reassure him that they would NOT be leaving, and he made sure to go straight to them the next morning to make sure they were still there. He has enjoyed his other toys and books that have arrived too, and I actually slowly took them out of the box to increase his playtime with them since the toys were 'new' again. Carsten has been very helpful overall with unpacking and he loves to help us reassemble things (Carsten the builder!).

'Carsten the Builder' helped me put together his bead maze from CH!

Andy and I spent all of last Saturday unpacking most of the remaining boxes as well as trying to get the nursery set up for baby #2, and my sister and brother helped me finish while they were here this week (thanks!). So currently our upstairs is in pretty good shape, and most of what is remaining is trying to finish organizing the kitchen and getting some more organized storage in the closets, basement, and garage. We're getting close to the end which is a good thing because baby will be arriving soon! Here's a few photos of our upstairs in its mostly completed stage.

Carsetn's room: view 1

Carsten's room: view 2

Bathroom

Baby's room: view 1 (please excuse the queen bed - it's broken :( )

Baby's room: view 2

We're getting there! Someday I'll post photos of our downstairs... :) And someday we'll also have things on the walls. Yay for being done with moving!!!!!!!!!!

Washington DC

Last weekend Andy had a conference in Washington DC, so Carsten and I tagged along so we could see friends and experience the Smithisonian museums. We left Thursday around 10 am from the Albany airport which is only 20 min from our house (so nice!) on a direct flight to DC. It was a pretty short flight and Carsten fell asleep for 15 min right after take off. This was his first time in recent flights that he has sat on the airplane seat and not the car seat. I think he was a little unsure what to think about not being in a car seat, but as long as I told him that I would "Keep him safe" and cuddled him he was happy. I was more than happy to cuddle with my normally non-cuddly boy. Carsten loves airplanes and he especially loves to watch all the activity from inside the terminal (loading baggage, taxiing airplanes, and the arrival/take-off of airplanes). On a related note, he often asks us to go to the airport (like every day), and we generally have to tell him that we do not have tickets; he was very excited when we told him that we had tickets last Thursday :). Our flight went well even though we had hoped for a longer nap for our buddy, and other than having a majorly delayed train from the airport to the hotel, everything went smoothly. Our hotel was super nice, and it was located 1 block from a metro line, so Carsten and I rode the metro train to our different destinations while we were there (Carsten has been missing taking the train since we moved to NY). Andy had conference activities starting Thursday afternoon through Saturday noon, so Carsten and I kept ourselves occupied by going to the air and space museum, the national zoo, and the natural history museum. During our three days there Carsten and I went to the air and space museum 3 times (1x per day since a little boy kept requesting to go!), the natural history museum 2 times, and the national zoo 1 time. The national zoo was the only thing that opened before 10 am, so Carsten and I went there on Friday morning. Although it was very cold, we still had a good time and got to see quite a few animals.

Carsten and the Washington monument!

Someone is excited about planes!

When he sees this picture now he says 'space toilet' because I told him at the museum about the display just under the space station (it is a space toilet). I thought he'd be more excited about the space station, but apparently I was wrong.

future pilot?!

Doing one of the demos in the kids area.

This plane has skis! Andy went with us on our 3rd visit and was very impressed that Carsten knew this (I had mentioned it to him on our previous visit). He has a good memory!

Carsten with the sleepy cheetas. 

Carsten and I also got to have lunch with our good friend Chris on Friday, and on Saturday, we got to have lunch with Chris and Heather (with their respective dates) who were the original members of our Peaslee research group where Andy and I first met. We had a lot of fun seeing them and we look forward to hopefully seeing them more since we are all 'so close' :). After we all split up for lunch, we randomly met Heather and her husband, Dan, on the metro so we convinced them to come to the air and space museum with us. I had a great time catching up with them while Andy chased Carsten around the museum (thanks Andy!). It's amazing how much ground an excited toddler can cover! We also got to see our good friend Tom from Madison and enjoying catching up with him at the natural history museum and for supper as well. It's so good to see old friends!

The White House! When we told Carsten that Barak Obama was the president, he pointed at me and said triumphantly, "Barak OMAMA!". What a kid :).

Friends! Also, everyone in DC seemed to have never seen a stroller bag before, so they thought Carsten was adorable. We got lots of comments about it :). Pretty much everyone in Europe uses one, so we were surprised that they didn't use them DC, especially since it's relatively cold.

Andy took Carsten on the carousel at the Mall, which he LOVED.

Yay for family time in DC!

This was a great last trip as a family of three, and I loved having so many activities to do with Carsten.