Sleep update...

I guess since I'm taking advantage of it right now I should update about it... Carsten is doing really well in his own crib at night. He doesn't cry at all now and willingly goes down for the night. He wakes up maybe once a night and cries a little, but stays in his crib. He then doesn't wake up to nurse until around 6ish... then he sleeps with me for another hour or two. Today I've started putting him in his crib for nap. He has been up there for an hour and a half now so my fingers are crossed that this will go well. He was of course super tired today and he nursed to sleep, but he noticed where he was when I laid him in his crib...

Kids...

On our Saturday Thanksgiving we got treated to a John Denver concert... Jim's mom loves John Denver so some relatives organized a little concert for her. Maybe I shouldn't say little--10 people and they played/sang for two hours! It was really nice. Above is Jim's cousin, Thomas, who played with them.

So, we've decided there is no easy way around it... Carsten IS going to cost us money. Friday night was quite cold here so we turned on our gas fireplace as nice as you please. Jim went upstairs to work out on the elliptical and I was on the computer downstairs with both boys. I noticed that it smelled like burning plastic so I got up and moved the plastic fence we had put in front of the fireplace... went back to the computer. A few minutes later I looked over and there seemed to be smoke. Now this is a gas fireplace with fake logs, you can't get into it, it shouldn't smoke. I quickly turned it off and told Reese to go tell daddy that the fireplace was smoking. I opened a couple of windows and waited for Jim. He came rushing down and we racked our brains for what could be wrong. Well, lo and behold if Carsten hadn't put four plastic spoons in the top of the fireplace! Lovely day... we had four plastic puddles of goo oozing and smoking toxic plastic smoke into our house... Nice. Jim started taking the thing apart and scraping off as much plastic as he could. We opened ALL the windows (mind you we had turned on the fireplace because it was so cold out in the first place) and let in the 29 degree, um cold. I bundled the kids in coats and we froze while Jim worked. We are still not sure if we'll ever turn on the fireplace again.

Thanksgiving Fun

A little fun with wigs... Ivy and Justin. The other kids wouldn't leave them on long enough for a picture.

Stella celebrated her 3rd birthday...

We spent Thanksgiving with Jim's family out at his folks. There weren't many of us, which was nice and relaxing. I'm sure it was true for all you, but our food was really good! Now on Saturday we are going to do it all over again with Jim's other side of the family...

Heard of Olivia?

Reese decided to form his own band, similar to Olivia in Olivia Forms a Band... notice the bells on the feet. Since the picture we've added more instruments to his band.

On another note... One of those days. Carsten is somewhat congested so he slept for a half and hour at naptime. This means we all got up and continued on our day, no nap for mommy or Reese. Today I NEEDED the time alone, quiet, peaceful, without kids pulling on me... not to be. Earlier in the day we headed out to do errands and Reese had a meltdown about wearing a jacket in his carseat--I couldn't take it anymore and turned around and headed home. We ventured out after the failed naps instead. I wonder if it is the winter time weather, attitude, stuck inside business setting in, or what??? The kids have been on my last little thread of a nerve lately and I'm really trying to be nice. Hopefully the holiday gaiety will set into my hard heart and I'll turn back into a good mommy... we'll see.

First cavity...

How does it happen? We brush our kids teeth morning and night--could it be the few times we've skipped??? Do we not know how to brush teeth???
Reese had a discolored spot on his tooth and when we would brush his teeth he said it hurt. We called the dentist and then went to see them today. The dentist thought it was just discolored, but when he looked more he decided it was a cavity! He luckily had time to just fix it right then. Reese was such a trooper!!! He did so great. He had to have a shot, and endure the drilling, etc... Of course Reese didn't say one word the whole time and Carsten cried as he thought he was going to get an x-ray or something--looked too medical for Carsten...

We went to the coast this last weekend with Jim's parents for dinner... It was just in time for the sunset... I had Reese's camera, so here are a few pictures.

Boys and the Great Outdoors...

The boys were getting a little antsy to go outside, so I finally consented. Here they are loving every minute. At the moment they are using an upside down wheelbarrow for a jungle gym. I hesitate to call them in for lunch...

Visit from Oma...

Well, another wonderful visit from Oma is over (and I don't have any pictures to prove it)... she is on her way home and we are left with an empty quiet house. After we dropped her off with Auntie Alicia for the ride home we had to treat ourselves to treats (caramel latte for me, warm soy milk for Reese with chocolate and caramel). As we pulled up to our house Reese said, "Why isn't Oma here?". We are all kind of quiet and sad, but looking forward to our next visit from Oma!

Sleep update: Last night Reese was put back in his room to sleep with his brother... It went well. Carsten cried for about 2 minutes and Reese cried for 3 seconds before I had a talk with him that it would soon be over and I wouldn't let it go on too long. Carsten woke up at 3:00am, and then I took him to our bed so he wouldn't wake Reese, but we are on a roll... Carsten is doing really well at night. He doesn't cry for more than a couple of minutes. Naps are a different story, so for now we've decided to leave him in our bed for naps and just conquer the nights.

Working on Sleeping...

For the record... Carsten cried for about 20 minutes last night and then slept until 4:30am! We are really making progress... Hopefully tonight will be even better!
Now for naps--today when I laid him carefully in his crib he woke right up. He then commenced to crying for an hour. After an hour I decided that it wasn't worth it. We had to leave in 45 minutes and if he fell asleep at that point we'd then have to wake him up... Hopefully he is going to get the idea that the crib is not going away soon.

Mosaic...

My dad found this neat program that makes a picture out of a bunch of pictures. He used all the pictures off of our blog. If you click on it you'll see all the little pictures...

Sleeping...

This is mainly for me as I need a place to write down Carsten's events until I get them in his baby book (of which I'm sad to say is not complete... I wasn't going to do that to my second child). The blog seems a better spot than a scrap of paper shoved into a nearly empty book...

Monday night we tried Carsten in his crib for the first time. He has been sleeping for naps in his crib for a week, but I have to admit that he nurses to sleep and then I lay him down... So, the night. He cried for 20 minutes and then we had all had it. The crib is in Reese's room and after 10 minutes of Carsten crying they switched and Reese started crying saying, "I just want to go to sleep, I just want to go to sleep". When we checked on Reese he was biting his nails and looking wide eyed.
Last night, Friday night, we decided to give it another go. Jim slept downstairs with Reese to minimize the stress on Reese. Carsten cried on and off for 30 minutes and then fell asleep. I went in after 5 minutes to reassure him I still existed and cared... then in another 10 minutes... Then I just waited. He slept until 3:30am in his crib! Progress.

Sleeping in our bed hasn't really been an issue... I love it. He sleeps 9-10 hours solid and then he is right there when he needs to nurse in the morning. The problem is that he is growing. For some reason kids don't get the *head* of the bed, *foot* of the bed concept. Carsten insists on sleeping with his feet in one of our faces and his head in the other person's face. We have a king sized bed (just because we knew we'd have kids in it at some point) and that is not big enough... Jim and I hang on to the edges while Carsten SPREADS out! The other problem is that we could just see that the longer we waited the harder it would get, although we did discuss that if he made it in our bed until age 5 we'd be able to reason with him at least...
So, thus starts another child rearing journey...

More fun...

Fun with Fall...