Success!! (?)

I'm a little afraid to say this. Like if I write it on here our luck will end. But I'm going to write it anyway. I think Tyler is officially potty trained! And the reason I'm afraid to say it is because I think it's a little too good to be true. Because it was really pretty easy. I am sure that there will still be occasional accidents, but I am holding my breath, hoping that he really is trained! He has been going strong for two weeks, including naps and overnight.

I think it went so easily for two reasons. One, is that he just absolutely wants to do everything himself and be completely independent. He fully dresses and undresses himself, he loves to do things for us and for Carsten and if you accidentally help him with something it's like committing a major crime in Tyler World. So the independence of using the toilet is just one more things he was ready to do all by himself. The only problems we've had at all have been if we tried to help him with any part of the process. He absolutely must do everything himself.

The second reason I think it went well is actually Carsten. I think it was a great distraction for Tyler. He's been getting lots of attention for it, a lot of one-on-one time and a pretty sweet reward at a time where he's also getting used to sharing us with a new baby.

 

He was so ready for it, even before Carsten was born, but we didn't want to be dealing with that right before the baby came. So we waited. But he has now been completely out of diapers for two weeks and doing fantastically! He picked out Cars underwear (even though he'd never seen the movie), so we decided to watch it with him to get him excited about wearing them. Conveniently, he loved the movie and it's almost all he talks about. So we got a car transporter truck from Cars to put up in the living room where he could see it. Then everyday he stayed dry all day he earned a car to put in the truck. When he got all seven cars, he got to keep the truck. It took him nine days to earn all seven and two nights ago he got to keep his truck and cars. It was very exciting.

Carsten has had to spend a little extra time in the hallway outside the bathroom door when we had to quick race to the bathroom. 

 But he didn't seem to mind. What a good little sport.

 

Now here's hoping that Tyler keeps going strong without cars to work towards! So far, so good.  :-)

Happy One Month, Carsten!

I know I keep saying this, but this last month has flown by! Carsten was one month old yesterday. Crazy! Here are a few of his one month photos.

I couldn't keep him both awake and happy for these pictures. I choose sleeping verses crying.

 

I forgot to take the sign away after I put his onesie on. I guess I really wanted to remember he was one month old!

 

Tyler wanted in on the pictures too. 26 months!

 

People are always saying that Carsten looks just like Tyler. And to be honest, Carl and I don't usually think so. I guess we just see their unique differences instead of the similarities. :-) There are times when Carsten is wearing something Tyler wore and he reminds me of him. But most of the time I don't think they look that much alike.

 

But just for fun, I tried to recreate Tyler's one month picture with Carsten.

 







Tyler

 

Carsten

 I guess they look a little alike. :-) 

The other day I was looking back at my blog of Tyler's baby pictures and I looked down at Carsten who had the exact same expression on his face and I told Carl I think we had the same baby twice. I don't think it often, but once in awhile it is hard to deny. They are definitely brothers. I've always wanted twins. And once in a great while I think I just might have gotten them. Two years apart.



Our Staycation

I cannot believe how fast this last month has gone. Carsten is one month old today! The time my parents were here went by in a blink, but the last two weeks that Carl had off for paternity leave went in an even faster blink. He went back to work today. But we lived up every moment of his time off. I really thought we would be hanging out at home more. You know, relaxing, sleeping... And we did a little bit. But we also took advantage of the time we had together as a family and did a lot of fun things. It was kind of like we were on vacation at home. And it was awesome. I got to sleep in until 8 or 8:30 everyday while Carl got up with Tyler. And from there it just got better. We went to parks had a picnic at a beach, walked to Dairy Queen for ice cream, went to the Mall of America twice, the zoo and the Children's Museum.

We've also had some fun visitors! Aunt Emma came last week for one night. We enjoyed a lunch at Five Guys and a trip to Cupcake for dessert. Delicious!

And this weekend Uncle Matt and Aunt Janelle came. They were excited to meet Baby Carsten and to spoil Tyler a little bit. They wanted to take him somewhere fun and decided to go to Sea Life at the Mall of America. Carl and I thought that would be a great chance for us to do a little shopping without him around. So we went with but we split up for a really fun little mini date (with Carsten) when we got there. We didn't really get to the shopping part, because we saw mini golf first and got distracted. We both got Hole in Ones and Carl won a free game! We pretty much rocked it. Oh yeah, and I won. :-)

Our Dairy Queen Trip and a cool rock along the way :-)

 

At the zoo! This goose walked us from our car almost all the way to the entrance. Tyler thought it was awesome. I was afraid he was going to get bit. He kept walking right up to us and basically walked about two feet away from the stroller the whole time.

 

Cupcakes!

 

The best parts of the Children's Museum: The rock climbing wall...

 

the ant hill...

the Grocery Store...

 

 and this dog house. Of course.  :-)

 

Reading with Matt and Janelle

Surprise golf date!

And this guy. Love him!

Such a fun two weeks. Tyler is going to be so bored after four weeks full of visitors, two weeks full of time with Daddy and lots of fun adventures! I just hope I can keep up with him.  :-)