46 Years Short Years

Apparently I have been a mom for 46 1/2 years. Tyler's half Birthday was Thursday and if you ask him how old he is he will tell you 46 every time. Sometimes he adds the half. His pet deer is also 46.

We decided that the best way to celebrate a 46th Birthday was with brownies. Tyler was very excited about his half birthday party!

 

Fun facts about Tyler:

 

He loves art. If we do one art project he just keeps begging for more. He never wants to stop! He also loves climbing and is basically a world champion gymnast. He spends large amounts of time doing hand stands - hands on the floor, feet on a wall. I really need to get a picture of this. He knows all of his shapes and colors. He can count, but usually just chooses to say 3, 1, 6! He's also loves puzzles and can throw a ball like nobody's business.



 

He is also trying to give me a heart attack. Right after this picture was taken he climbed up a tall ladder to a slide. But at the top he turned around, sat down on the bar, put his hands in the air and said, "Oh nooo, I making you nervous!" I wish you could hear how he said it. It was hilarious.

Here's another good quote: "I don't like water. It's too spicy."

He makes up loves song for his deer. They usually go something like this (and at the top of his lungs): I love you, Deer, I love you so much! I love you, I love you, I love you Dear!"... and on and on.

Last night after I thought he was sleeping, I heard this loud humming coming from his room. So I went to see what he was doing and he said, "I giving my Dear Deer a hair cut!" He was making razor sounds.

Tonight I just stood outside his door laughing while he fell asleep. He sang a few of his little love songs. But he also was talking to all of his animals. "Hi Polar Bear! How you doing? I love you so much! Hi wolf! I love you so much too! Hi raccoon. (He doesn't have a raccoon.) I have raccoon! I having birthday party! Happy Birthday Deer." I can't even remember everything he said to his animals, but it was very funny.

Happy half birthday Tyler! You are pretty great. :-)

This is the Day

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24

I won't lie to you. I have been dreading this day for a long time. When Carsten was just days old we noticed that he always tilted his head one direction. Eventually we also noticed that he always slept with his head turned the same way as well. And when he was two months old we noticed a pretty significant flat spot on one side of the back of his head.

So of course we took him to the doctor right away and they referred us to a craniofacial specialist. Carsten has Toticollis - weakened muscles in one side of his neck due to how he was positioned before he was born. And that caused plagiocephaly - the fancy word for a flat head.

The specialist referred us immediately to physical therapy (and by immediately I mean his first appointment was 15 minutes later), and he's been doing that for two months now. We have seen drastic improvements! Originally the specialist told us that his flat spot was worse than most that he sees. Awesome. But it has changed a lot just from learning to turn his head the other direction. And his muscle strength has improved so much that he has actually over-corrected and now we are working on getting back to a happy medium. He's a bit of an over-achiever. :-)

They can't start helmets until babies are four months or their heads are a certain size. So two weeks ago when Carsten was four months we went in to have him fitted for one to correct his head shape. And today he had physical therapy at 8:45 and then his helmet appointment from 10-11:30. It was a busy morning. But both boys did great, thankfully.

Getting measured for his helmet.

I wish I would have tried to get a picture of him smiling, because it was adorable!

So for two months I have alternated between dreading this day and just trying not to think about it. I was worried about how he would adjust to wearing it. I worried that it might hurt him. I worried about how he will sleep with it on. I feel so bad for him. I know people will stare at him and wonder/judge. And I can't kiss his little head with a helmet on it! I'll be honest, I'm still worried about those things. But I can't pretend it's not happening anymore.

People have asked me how I feel about it all. And there are those little worries. Some are worries for him, others are selfish ones, like worrying about what people think. And I was pretty sure I would cry when I saw him wearing it the first time. (I didn't, but it was close.) It's not going to be fun. I don't want him to need a helmet. it breaks my heart a little bit to see him in it. Okay, it breaks my heart a lot. But here's the thing. I have two amazing, healthy boys. He has a flat head. He doesn't have cancer. He doesn't have any serious disability. He's not sick. He is healthy. Compared to all of the thousands of medical issues he could have, I am thankful for his flat little head!

And so while I dreaded this day this process, I also rejoice in it. God made this day. He made my little boy. There is a treatment for his head and it started today. And so I rejoice.

My sweet little love.

As my friend Katie pointed out, he got it just in time for football season. He looks ready to play, doesn't he? I asked Tyler how he thought Carsten looked in his new helmet and without even stopping to think he said, "Fantastic!" I agree. :-)

When Crazy Explodes

We decided to replace our carpet back in July. We knew there were hardwood floors underneath but after seeing how nice they were, we decided not to get new carpet, but to refinish the floors instead. We had to wait two months before some one was able to do it for us, but we finally got it done last week. Yay! But not without a whole lot of crazy. Last Monday Carl and I had to move all of our furniture out of our upstairs. Of course that was the night that my 12 hour sleeper baby decided not to sleep at all. So while I rocked and put Carsten to bed a thousand times, Carl had to do most of the work himself. Finally at 1:30 in the morning I took Carsten for a drive to get him to sleep and then I could help Carl until 3:30 when we were finally done. Yikes! We had to be out of the house while this was all done so the next day Carl went to work and I checked into a hotel with the boys. We had a three day mini-vacation! It was actually a lot of fun, and very relaxing. We got to go swimming every night and I didn't have to worry about cooking or cleaning or laundry. And I could completely forget about the disaster zone waiting for us at home.

These two scare me.

Getting ready for his first swim!

He was born to swim.

He loved it!

Not surprising. I need a raincoat to give him a bath because loves splashing so much.

They don't look that happy, but they really were having a great time!

 

They slept like this for almost an hour. Hotel living is exhausting!

When we checked out of the hotel on Friday we had nowhere to go until bed time. So we headed to the Children's Museum in hopes that they would nap on the way to St. Paul. It worked. :-)

Tyler is really into construction right now. So operating the crane was very exciting!

He also loved the water. He was soaked!

It's funny how you can have a pretty relaxing few days and then turn into a complete stressball by walking into your own home. But that's what happens when your house looks like this!

 

All of our furniture was (is) in the garage. Everything else from our upstairs, including everything from all of the closets, was pretty much right here and in the laundry room. It started a little more organized than this, but when you have a two year old pretending all the piles of clothes and towels are horses, they don't stay in piles very long. For five days Carl and Tyler slept in the guest room and Carsten and I slept in the family room. See that blue thing buried in the middle? That was my bed. :-) Tonight we finally get to sleep in our own rooms. Hopefully tomorrow we will get the couches back into the living room!

 

But the finished product makes it all worth it. I think. :-)  They turned out beautifully!

 

Now we just need to get the trim put back on. Oh yes, and furniture. I miss sitting down. But we are almost done and that is very exciting!

Better Together

I've had a few emotional moments this summer where I've seen kids playing together on playgrounds and been a little sad for Tyler that he doesn't have anyone to play with. Now he doesn't really mind. And he is learning to go up to kids and ask to play. But watching other kids together has been making me so thankful that Carsten and Tyler have each other. Obviously they can't play together yet. But soon I'm sure they will be great friends. I'm not wishing any days away, but I am excited for when they are able to run around and play together at playgrounds! They already adore each other, so they are well on their way. This is one of the reasons I said that I love their ages right now. Carsten is big enough to respond to Tyler. And Tyler loves getting a reaction from him. He loves making Carsten smile and laugh.

At bedtime one of the cutest things is their goodnight hugs. Tyler likes it when we stand Carsten up on the floor so he can hug him standing up. And every single time Carsten reaches his arms out and puts them around Tyler's waist. It's adorable.

Most of the time they are very sweet together. But we are already getting some glimpses of sibling rivalry. When we're reading stories Tyler complains if Carsten's foot touches him. He often says things like, "Carsten, stop crying!" or, "Carsten, move!" And we constantly see Tyler running away and yelling, "He's going to spit up on me!" Yesterday he ran away saying, "I need a paper Kleenex! He got a baby kiss on me!" He also takes toys away from the poor boy all the time, telling him, "No Carsten, don't chew on that!" I didn't know two year olds tattled already. But he tells on Carsten for putting things in his mouth all the time. The most heartbreaking "sibling" moment was a few days ago. We were sitting at lunch and Carsten was on my lap. I gave him a bunch of little kisses and Tyler (an already emotional and very tired Tyler) noticed and his little eyes filled up with tears and he said, "I want kisses too." It broke my heart to bits and almost made me cry. But here is a note to future Tyler: For the record, I give you hundreds of kisses everyday. And you wipe them off like an embarrassed 12 year old 95% of the time. And when I ask you for kisses your most common response is "I not have any kisses. They blowed away." But I give lots of them to you anyway. And you consistently wipe them off. The only time you really want kisses is when you are looking for ways to stall at bedtime and reasons to come out of your room when you should be sleeping. So if you are not getting enough kisses from me, it is not from my lack of trying. I would give you kisses all day long if you let me. :-)

Anyway, the point of this post is that these two are adorable together. And I am beyond thankful to have two such sweet little boys who love each other so much.

Carsten, he is hugging you, not strangling you. I promise.

 

Tyler loves to serenade his little brother.

He's quite the song writer. And he gets really into his performances!

 

A picture is worth a thousand words,,,

"Whoa, what is all this empty space? I don't know what to do with no one squishing me!"

 

Hey, check this out. No one is being tackled!

Here come the kisses!

 

And again with the smothering.

 

I mean really. I love these two.

 

Oh, the sweetness.

 

Apparently being such a great big brother is exhausting!

 

Oh, and they are still looking a little like brothers too!

 

Tyler

 



Carsten

My Boys

I feel like both Carsten and Tyler are at super fun ages. I usually think that, but it's especially true right now.

Carsten

Oh, what a sweetie. Carsten was four months old last week! He is my fabulous little sleeper. He sleeps 11-12 hours straight every night. He is also a little snuggler. He is very insistent on being rocked to sleep for his naps, But when he is awake he is getting much less cuddly. He wants to stand all the time. Today I was holding his hands while he stood on the floor and he actually took steps forward. Yes, that's right. My four month old is trying to walk. I though Carsten was more mellow and calm then Tyler. But I was wrong. I am realizing that my babies don't like being babies. They just want to move and go places! Active is the only way we make them. And I love that. But could you slow down a little bit Carsten? I like you little!

At his four month appointment last week Carsten was 13 lbs. 7 oz. (25 percentile). I don't have my paper in front of me so I will have to add the measurements in later. But he was 95th percentile for height and 75th for head size.

My favorite thing about Carsten is how ridiculously happy he is. He is almost always happy. No matter what. At his check-up he laughed the whole time. His doctor couldn't finish her sentences because she couldn't stop laughing at his non-stop giggling. And when they came in to give him his shots, he laughed hysterically through the first two! The third poke was less funny and he really cried on the fourth. But seriously, who laughs through shots?! When Tyler is getting too rough with Carsten and I tell him he's going to hurt him, Carsten laughs or smiles just to prove me wrong. He doesn't really help me help him.

Carsten's favorite things (besides standing - he would be content doing only that all day long) are his small little stuffed tiger, his play gym, toys that jingle or rattle, chewing on his hands, or anything else, and blankets. He loves having a blanket available to snuggle with, chew on, play with and spit up all over!

I love this boy.

 

 

 

Tyler

Oh, the laughter he brings us. Tyler has the biggest imagination in the whole world. I could never begin to remember all of the imaginative things he says and does. But here are a couple of the big ones. He has an imaginary deer. His deer goes with him everywhere. He used to have a goat and a wolf too, but they disappeared a few weeks ago. The deer has stuck by his side though. His deer gets him in a lot of trouble. Almost every time Tyler does something he shouldn't, he blames it on his deer. He had to go outside without asking, because his deer was out there. He can't do what I'm telling him to because his deer is hungry. He had to be getting into things in the cabinet because his deer needed a plate. He had to come out of his bed when he should be sleeping because his deer is in the living room. He had to run in the opposite direction because he had to get his deer (who is of course, running in the opposite direction). It goes on and on every hour of every day. :-)

There was one time when he went outside without asking and he blamed it on Jesus. Apparently Jesus was outside so he "just needed to go outside to check on him." I guess I can't blame him. I would want to check on Jesus too if I thought he was in my driveway.

He also has an orange car. That he parks in our driveway. He drives his orange car to work everyday. And when he's at work he works with hammers, screwdrivers, horses and pokey things. Sometimes when we're driving he points out the building that he works in.

But my very favorite thing right now is all of his secrets. He tells us lots of secrets everyday. Sometimes they become another way to stall at bedtime, but we love them anyway. It started when I told him I loved him a million m&m's awhile back. Then Carl got jealous and tried to outdo me by loving him a million dinosaurs or some such nonsense.  But now Tyler tells us secrets, and they are fabulous. He puts his face right up next to ours and whispers things like, "I love you a million, million, million, million, million... cows." Or cars. Or turtles. Or waterparks. Or hotels. Or whatever else pops into his little brain. It is the absolute best.

Last week this was his prayer at lunch one day, "Dear God, I love you a million yogurts, I love you a million plates, I love you a million Jesus', I love you a million Amens. Amen!

Oh, and he called me Super Woman today. :-)

I love this boy too. :-)

 

 

 

 

It's getting hard to find pictures of just one of them! Tyler photo bombs just about every picture I take of Carsten. And he moves so quickly it's hard to catch good ones of him!

Fair Days

The end of August means two things to me. The end of summer (sad), and the State Fair (happy). For the last couple of years we have gone with some of our good friends, Seth and Nicole and it is now tradition. This year they have a three week old, so Seth and Brooke came with us, but Nicole stayed home with little Belle because of the hot weather last week. It was fun to watch Brooke and Tyler enjoy everything this year though!

Tyler  was looking forward to seeing cows at the Fair for a week before we finally went!

 

Sweet little friends.

A couple days before the fair we were talking about what we might do and Tyler told me he wanted to eat food there. I listed a few things we might eat and when I said corn on the cob he said, "Oh, no. Not corn on the cob. That's breakfast. I want snacks." He also was very determined to get donuts. "I need donuts. I need one donut. With chocolate."

Our "almost" family picture. Carsten is there. He's just soundly sleeping in the stroller while we eat our cookies.

We bought our tickets ahead of time, along with some ride tickets for the kids, but we forgot them at home! So we went again today with Jacob and Laura. Bonus! Just in case we didn't eat enough delicious fried food on Friday, we went back for more today.

Tractor ride!

This is the cutest ride ever.

Very excited about driving his race car!

 

Tyler was also pretty excited to ride his first little roller coaster with Uncle Jacob and a flying elephant ride with Aunt Laura!



Tyler spotted these tractors and couldn't wait to get on one!

And then we found a gem. The Little Hands Farm! This was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Tyler got to wear his little apron and carry his bucket around doing farm chores. Everything was pretend - not real animals - but he got to fill his bucket with corn to feed the chickens, sheep and cow. He got to pick up an egg in the chicken coop, plant a seed and pick a pepper, ride a little tractor, milk a cow, pick apples from an orchard and then sell all of his things at the Farmer's Market. Seriously, adorable.

What a cute little farm helper.

They also had an Oliver tractor so we just had to get a picture for my mom and my uncle. Olivers are a big deal for my family. :-)

I think this boy had a little bit of fun today. He tried to get them to walk around the fair holding him like this.