Catch up

Things have been busy, so I haven't had much time to post. Honestly, I am a little bored with the blog thing right now. I just don't have any motivation, but I would like to keep things current, so I thought I would just post a little about what's been going on lately.

Christmas was busy and I was glad to see it go. It's hard hauling a two year old around to all the festivities. It was a little much for Carsten and a little much for Danyel and I. Next year we plan to downsize our activities and family visits to make things more bearable and enjoyable. With that said, Carsten got the whole concept a lot more this year, which was a lot of fun. He LOVED getting presents, but grew tired of opening them after a few. He would get interested in his new toy and we would be rushing him on to the next thing. As usual, he got way too much. It was a good thing I donated two big trash bags of toys before the holidays. He misses Santa and talks about him still. He remembers some of his toys were from Santa and mentions it sometimes. The first few times we visited the mall after Christmas he asked where Santa was. I explained he went back to the North Pole until next year... and good ridden!


Carsten really enjoyed his birthday this year. We had a small gathering last weekend with just immediate family and Godparents... all his favorite people. His favorite part was the whole cake experience... being sung to, blowing out his candle, and, of course, eating it! He's more than a little obsessed with cake. The guests were more than generous and Carsten made out like a bandit. It's amazing to me what a difference a year makes. He was so into the whole experience this year. Last year he barely understood what was going on, if at all. Last year, he couldn't talk at all, cried when everyone sang to him, and had no interest in his cake. Now, he talks in 3 or 4 word phrases, was a total ham for all the singing, and would have eaten the whole cake if I let him.

Yesterday was his actual birthday and we took him to Chucke Cheese for dinner. We were there entirely too long and spent way too much money, but he had a blast. He really loved the whole concept of putting the tokens into the rides and games. We went through like 70 tokens. Danyel decided to save his tickets that he won, so that he can save up for a cool prize. Great. I guess that means we will be going back. Lovely. Anyway, Chucke Cheese came and sang him happy birthday and brought him an ice cream sandwich cake with a candle. Again, he ate it up.

Other than that, Danyel and I have been rearranging the house to make room for the new little one due in just 17 weeks! Boy, how time flies. We are also getting ready for our trip to Mexico in a couple of weeks... alone. We are calling it our last hurrah. We have a lot of fun things planned, like swimming with dolphins, taking a catamaran out to some island to do some snorkeling, and a day at the spa. I am really looking forward to it.

Other than that, Carsten is still going to nursery school two days a week. We went through a rough patch with crying (on his and my part) and with him being really sick. The crying has stopped and he seems to be enjoying it. His nose has been runny for six weeks now, but other than that, he seems to be feeling fine. His doctor told me I could pretty much expect him to stay congested and snotty for the next year until his immune system adjusts. Lovely. In other Carsten news, the potty training thing has gone nowhere. He has actually decided he would prefer to pee in his pants than in the potty, so we are back to square one. In all honesty, we have been really lazy with the whole thing lately and really need to get serious about it. We are planning to move him into a big bed next month, so maybe after we get over that transition, I can concentrate more on it.

As for Fetus Adolphus, things are progressing along fine. My appetite has returned and I have now gained one pound from where I was when I started. I got down to almost 8 pounds less than my normal weight, so I have made a lot of progress. My stomach is growing at a record rate, as are my boobs. We had our ultrasound a few weeks ago and it was hard to resist finding out the sex, but we managed. I have a pretty strong feeling that it is a boy, but we will see. Everything looked fine, with the exception of a small brain cyst with a really fancy name that I will not even attempt to type. Carsten had the same issue at this point in the pregnancy and more than 99% of the time they are nothing to worry about and disappear by 28 weeks, just as Carsten's did. They are seen in about 3% of ultrasounds... 100% of mine. I have a neighbor and a friend who have had the same issue, all resulting in normal healthy babies. I will have a follow up ultrasound at 28 weeks to make sure it has disappeared, but we don't have much concern over it being that we have been here before.

O.K. That's it. I am done. :-)