Yes, I really am alive and so is the rest of my happy family. I purposely didn't blog for a while because, well, when you don't do anything but lounge around the house in pj's, take care of a very demanding little boy and be the housewife, there is really nothing new. It is for those very reasons that I am looking forward to going back to work in a few weeks but also for those very same reasons that I am dreading it. Brice would love for me to be a stay at home mom but I just don't think that I could do that day in and out. I am longing to be able to be just me for at least a few hours a day even though I will be missing Karsten terribly.
Speaking of Karsten, he will be 10 weeks old tomorrow....boy does the time fly! He had a doctors appointment last week and had to get his first round of shots and he was a trooper - we didn't have to give him any Tylenol for the pain at all (hopefully he is like that next time!). We finally found out how much weight he has gained since his 2 week appointment and.....drum roll please.....13 pounds and 10 ounces! We knew he was putting on some good weight but I couldn't believe how much! Every day it seems like he is getting bigger and smarter. He does have a new "trick" that he started doing one day when we put him on his tummy to exercise. He finally figured out how to get his thumb into his mouth and suck on it. He is so content sometimes sucking his thumb that he'll fall asleep. In the past couple of days he has finally figured out how to suck on his thumb when he isn't laying on his stomach. He also can almost sit up by himself when he is reclined and he is starting to babble more when he isn't provoked. The thing that I love that he has started doing lately is finally sleeping through the night. When we took him to the doctor we were told to feed him more less often and to start training him to sleep through the night because a boy of his size doesn't need to get up and eat in the middle of the night. After a couple of nights of him crying for about an hour after waking up and not getting to eat or as much affection as he is used to and figuring out how much he needs to eat before going to bed he slept all night and I got the first 7 hour stretch of sleep without interruption since I was pregnant. It feels so good to be able to sleep that long but he now gets up for the day at 6am which is going to be an issue for Brice when he gets home from work at that time and I have to leave to go to work. One funny thing about my kid is that he will be completely asleep and I'll change his diaper one more time before putting him to bed and he will wake up and start smiling and laughing at me because he LOVES having his diaper changed!
We had a good holiday season this year. We did an early Christmas with Brice's dad's side of the family the friday before Christmas and then took the trip to my parent's house in North Dakota since we've been married. My parents hosted Christmas dinner and I got to see my cousin Lindsey and her new husband for like the first time in years so it was a lot of fun. Karsten, of course, got so spoiled for his first Christmas! He got a ton of toys and clothes that we won't have to buy him anything for a long time. Of course, after we got home from the trip it took me about 3 hours to go through all the toys, take the tags off and then figure out where in the world I was going to put them all.
Last but not least, some pictures of our happy family.
All of us on Christmas day in good ol' NoDak.
My cousin Lindsey's husband Shane with Karsten.
Grandma Koppinger with her new great grandson.
A four generation picture with my dad and Grandma.
Karsten with his Christmas treat.
Another four generation picture with my mom and grandma.
Karsten displaying his new "trick".
Daddy and baby getting in some good bonding time.
Who's the boss?
This one has a story. Karsten was being super fussy last night and I couldn't console him so I put him in his swing. After about 15 minutes of screaming he finally decided to fall asleep. Somehow he had wiggled around so much that he got his hood up on his head. He looked too cute to not take a picture.
