My Baby

My baby is 20 months old right now! It is so hard to believe how big he is getting already! Carsten is my sweet, almost always happy (but very feisty when he's not happy!), busy, and funny little boy. He makes us laugh constantly. He knows he's funny, and he likes being funny and he loves to make people laugh.

He loves being around people, and has no fear of strangers. Which is cute now, while he's in a stroller or shopping cart and can't just walk away with some one, but I do hope he learns some caution as he gets older.

Carsten's two greatest loves are balls and trains. On Wednesday on our way out of the dollar store I gave each of the boys a quarter to get a bouncy ball. He has not put it down for three days. He sleeps with it and we have to pry it out of his hand to eat meals. He has brought it to church, Menards, Target and everywhere else he's gone. He even woke up at three in the morning one night crying for his ball because he couldn't find it. And trains are his other big favorite. He calls them choo-choos and he loves them. Today he came and led me into his room pointing to his closet and saying, "Mommy, choo-choo." When I asked if he wanted me to get his trains out he just started laughing. So cute.

Over Christmas we had our Little People nativity scene out and Carsten's favorite part was the donkey. He loved walking the little donkey around and saying, "Hee-haw." And he also was constantly pretending to be a donkey. He would randomly get down on the floor and start hee-hawing all the time and it was adorable. Sometime since we put all of our Christmas stuff away, he has switched monkeys and donkeys in his head. So now he hee-haws all the time but he's being a monkey. Anytime he sees a picture of a monkey or hears about a monkey, he immediately starts saying, "Hee-haw, hee-haw." I really don't know how it happened because he used to make actual monkey noises. But I love it. It's my favorite. :-)

Carsten and Tyler are so different. But Carsten wants to do everything his brother does. Everything. If Tyler rolls his sleeves up, Carsten needs his sleeves rolled up, if Tyler wears a hooded sweatshirt, Carsten needs a hooded sweatshirt. If Tyler does anything at all, Carsten does it too. This can be good and bad. He learned to eat with a fork and spoon when he was 10 months old because that's how Tyler ate. He's been drinking out of a regular cup since November, because that's what Tyler does. Tyler has decided to potty train Carsten, and Carsten is totally up for it. Because he does anything Tyler tells him to. The problem: he wants to learn standing up because that's what he sees Tyler do. And Carsten also insists on wearing underwear - there are a lot of days around here where he is running around with underwear on over his pants. Here are a few of the other good things about a one year old who wants to be a three year old. We started a job chart for Tyler recently and there is an allowance linked to some of his chores. Carsten insists on doing all the same chores as Tyler. He clears his dishes at the table (at least the ones I let him take), he puts his dirty laundry in the basket, he helps put his clean clothes away in his dresser, sets the table, and is usually pretty good about cleaning up toys. Because if Tyler does it, Carsten does it. It's really cute. And helpful. Oh, and he doesn't know Tyler gets money, so he does it all for free. :-) Sorry, Carsten, you can get money too, when you're actually three.

He is also (surprise) a climber! Just like his big brother. I wonder where he learned it from. :-) It's frightening actually. Anyway, at the end of November he climbed out of his crib. It was pretty funny when it happened. And like so many other things he tries, a little frightening. Tyler had run into his room to say good morning when he woke up and he climbed right into his crib. They were talking and giggling and it was adorable. So I ran out of the room for 15 seconds to grab my camera and when I came back he was hanging upside down out of his crib and Tyler was holding him by his feet! No, I did not take a picture, even though the camera was in my hand. :-) I just grabbed him as fast as I possibly could before he landed on his head. I did put him back in the crib though, to see if it was him who climbed up or if he had some help from his brother. But he immediately tried to get out again head first. He tried several times, and every time it was head first.We were so thankful he didn't fall and get hurt. And we were glad it was a Saturday because Carl was home and could convert the crib to a toddler bed before nap time. We were amazed at how great he did! He slept in that bed for two months and he never once got out of his bed. If he dropped something, he cried and called for us to come and get it. He was such a little champ. I didn't think kids like that were real. Tyler's transition to a toddler bed was the exact opposite of that every day. Forever. So I was expecting the worst. And I was very, very, very pleasantly surprised. Now he has moved into Tyler's room and it's a bit of a different story, but it was a good two month run before the big move.

Excited about his big boy bed!

I just love this sweet little boy. I can't get enough of his cute little giggle, his unruly hair and his charming little personality. He brings so much joy into our house and I am so thankful for him! It's a little heart breaking how fast he is growing up. I tell both Tyler and Carsten that they will always be my baby no matter how big they get. Tyler disagrees. And every time I call Carsten my baby he either points at my tummy or says, "Nooooo," and laughs. But he is my baby. :-)

Kansas Christmas

On Christmas Eve we got up at 3:45 in the morning, tried to get the kids to the car without waking them up, and we started the trip to Kansas. They did of course wake up. And didn't go back to sleep until like 5:30, but then they did sleep until breakfast, thankfully. And the beautiful thing about leaving that early, is that we were at my parents' house before dinner, so the boys had time to run and play and see my parents for awhile before they had to go to bed. These guys are amazing travelers and I'm so thankful for that.

We were there for about a week, and all of my siblings were able to be there for some of that time. We all came and went on different days, but we overlapped by a few. It was such a fun week!

There was lots of Foosball.

There was lots of Play Mobil playing.

There was cookie decorating!

And eating.

There was piano playing.

 

And a couple of Duck Dynasty guys even showed up. :-)

I've never spent Christmas Day like this before. I usually like a white Christmas, but you really can't complain about spending December 25 outside at a playground. Wow. Such a beautiful day!

Christmas is exhausting! Samson fell asleep while opening presents.

And Carsten did right after!

Christmas dinner Bernardy style - no plates and lots of mess. So fun!

I was really hoping one of the guys would get my white elephant gift. It couldn't have gone to a better person. :-)

And here we all are! 

Carl went home a couple days early with Jeff, Emma and Kyle. So I did the trip home with the boys. They were seriously amazing! They didn't even ask for toys to play with until we were most of the way home. They were so content to just sit there talking to each other and look at books. It was fantastic. Such a blessing when it's a ten hour trip!

As always, it was a great week. We always love our Kansas trips. Tyler has been begging to go back again ever since we got home.

One Month Later...

So the day after I wrote my last post I came on to finish writing about our Christmas and guess what? My computer didn't work again. This time the power cord was broken so I couldn't charge it. Which meant I couldn't use it. Seriously, don't let me touch your electronics. Carl didn't even let me borrow his computer while I waited for my new cord. All I do is look at computers and they break.

So anyway, even though it's a whole month past Christmas, here's one last bit of Christmas cheer for you.

We had Christmas a couple days early at our house. We started the morning off with Crepes again. Somehow I was talked into making Crepes for both setting up our tree and our actual Christmas. And of course the boys loved it. Breakfast was followed by opening stockings, and then the rest of the gifts. It was so fun watching their excitement over everything!

They also each got their own new suitcase that they were so excited to pack up later that day! And on Christmas Eve we headed off to Kansas!

I love making all these fun memories with my family. I think two of my favorite parts of the day were watching how excited Tyler was not just to get gifts, but to give them, and listening to him share the wordless book with Christmas ornaments. Precious. I just love these guys. :-)

Up to Christmas

Christmas was very much looked forward to at our house this year. Tyler and Carsten have been singing Christmas songs forever. My favorite thing. :-) And we loved doing all of our fun advent activities. We did a lot of things, but some of our favorites were our advent calendar with verses and treats each day, lighting advent candles during our Bible story each night, and drawing fun activities from our Christmas jar each day. We drew things like watch a Christmas movie, have a dance party to Christmas music, play a family game and decorate a gingerbread house. Tyler told me his favorite was going to Caribou for Christmas coffee (mint hot chocolate). Although that was before we did the gingerbread house.

Our Christmas started on Thanksgiving Day. My family was here for Thanksgiving but we celebrated on Saturday. On actual Thanksgiving my parents went to New Ulm and we spent most of the day with just us at home. So we set up our Christmas tree! (Yay! :-))

We started with a breakfast of crepes. Do you see the excitement?

Eating around the island was an extra special treat. :-)

Tyler had fun unpacking the boxes.

He was also very sweet about teaching his brother to hang up ornaments!

They had so much fun decorating their little tree downstairs!

Here are a few other fun things we did in the days leading up to Christmas.

Christmas crafts!

They loved painting canvases for Christmas gifts this year. And they turned out really cute!

Opening early Christmas presents from Uncle Matt and Aunt Janelle.

Decorating our gingerbread house was a lot of fun! And surprisingly we managed to get a lot of candy on the house and not just in the mouths.

Family Candyland night!

We have lots of fun memories from Christmas this year and I'm so thankful for all the time we were able to spend as a family. December was a fun month around our house!

Mr. Dangerous

Tyler. Such a funny little boy, I have a lot of his quotes written on random pieces of paper and in my phone right now, so it's time to get them on here.

Tyler has named our baby and is 100% sure that her name is Polly. He calls her that whenever he talks about our family. Daddy, Mommy, Tyler, Carseten and Polly. I was trying to tell him that Carl and I would think of a bunch of choices that we like and then choose our favorite. I was trying to prepare him for when he finds out what her name really is. So he said, "Ok, here are your choices. Window, kitchen, block, watermelon, Goliath, link, frisbee, pumpkin, Cubbie Bear, farm, turkey, lion, phone, or Polly." He's a smart boy. Polly sounds pretty good at the end of that list. Actually, to be honest, Polly is starting to grow on me. It's so cute when he calls her that. I told him it could be his nickname for her.

We had a turkey hanging up in our kitchen in the week leading up to Thanksgiving and every night we all wrote what we were thankful for. Carsten just colored them for this year. Tyler wrote on his and then told us what they said. I just loved the things he came up with.

1. Our house
2. For our new baby coming
3. People who are shouting for joy
4. The coffee shop and my kids coffee
5. Sparkly cookies
6. Real turkeys
7. My mom and dad

Tyler is literally a monkey. Truly. I made the mistake of telling him he belongs in a jungle the other day and it only encouraged his constant climbing. Anyway, he has decided that his name is Mr. Dangerous. Whenever he's playing and it gets quiet, I ask him what he's doing. And when he says he's being Mr. Dangerous, I know I need to run.

I asked Tyler to go get dressed. A few minutes later he came out of his room shouting, "Mommy, look! I have a big butt!" And he did. He was wearing not one, not two, but seven pairs of underwear and three pairs of socks. And nothing else. We had to run to the grocery store and I convinced him that he was going to be uncomfortable sitting in his car seat and a cart. So he took them off, but the second we got home he ran into his room and put them back on, plus two more. He wore nine pairs of underwear the rest of the day. And he kept taking his pants off to show people who were at our house. He did this for several days. He kept running out of underwear.

He has a bunk bed in his room and soon Carsten will be moving in with him. For now Tyler still sleeps on the bottom, but for nap one day I let him try sleeping on top. The only thing was that the ladder wasn't up yet. So I told him he needed to stay in bed and that if he needed anything to call me and I would come in. I told him multiple times, very intensely and I really thought he would listen. I mean, he's a climber, but he's smart about it and usually knows when to show caution. But about ten minutes later his door opened and he walked out.
Me: Tyler, you were not supposed to get out of bed! That was so dangerous.
Tyler: Well, I did it! I climbed down all by myself and I didn't die!

This one was when he was going to bed the other night. I was saying goodnight to him and he grabbed on to my arm and told me he was going to keep me in there with him forever.
Me: I want to keep you forever!
Tyler: Well, I'm going to get married someday, so you can't keep me forever.
Me: Well that's true. Can I keep you until you get married?
Tyler: But I'm going to go to college. And you can't keep me when I go to college school.
Me: Well can I keep you until you go to college?
Tyler: Yeah. But you certainly can't keep me when I go to college.

This is how I found him when I checked on him during nap: He put his touch light under his orange blanket to make a campfire and had all of his animals sitting around it.

I just love this boy. He is so sweet, and loving. He loves to use words like certainly, surely and absolutely when he's talking. He sings continually. There are few things I love more than hearing my boys singing. Especially when they do it together. Their favorite time for duets is in the grocery store at the very, very top of their lungs. It's hilarious. And loud. And most people love it. :-)

One of the sweetest things he does is put Carsten to bed. He would prefer to just do it himself and not even let us come in. He goes in there and turns on his lamp and sound machine, tells him a story and then prays with him and sings him a song. Then he gives him a hug and kiss and tells him, "Goodnight Carsten. I love you so much in the whole wide world!" It's completely adorable. And Carsten just lets him do it. So sweet.

I am so thankful that I get to spend my days at home with this guy. He brings us so much joy and laughter!

Fall Catch Up

So my computer broke. As you have probably figured out if you read this often, technology and I often don't get along. I can't tell you how many times I've told Carl something is broken and his response has been, "Seriously, what do you do to your computer/phone/anything electronic?" Yesterday when he came home I told him my phone only works on speaker phone now. Because I dropped it in the sink while talking and washing dishes. So there you have it. These things just happen to me. Anyway, my computer is fixed now and I'm back.

Unfortunately, we've had a really fun fall and I've completely missed it on here. So I'm just going to do a quick little photo catch up here. Watch out, I narrowed them down and skipped a lot, but there are still a lot. :-)

Watching our giant tree getting cut down. Two days of entertainment and a new career ambition for Tyler. He got one of his toy saws and everything in our house became a tree to be cut down for at least a week.

Cousins!

They loved every moment they got of raking this fall!

A really fun day at the corn maze!

Watch out for these two!

Ever since Halloween face paint has been the cool thing to do at our house. :-)

We went to a wedding in Milwaukee and had a great time!

This was after the reception. When they should have been sleeping. But instead were completely, 100% wound up and hilarious. And a little on the dangerous side.

Followed by this sweetness.

And then we headed to Appleton for a night with Great Grandpa Dave and Great Grandma Gerda. Tyler is still talking about them. They loved visiting them!

Putting up the first Thankful Feather!

They are pretty excited to start sharing a room next month!

Cousins again! They don't sit well for pictures together.

Loving their time with Papa Joe!

We've spent lots of time with family over the past couple of months and have really enjoyed it! And we are excited for more fun family time next week already for Christmas!