12 Week Ultrasound

Just wanted to update you all on my ultrasound from Monday, everything looks great! Baby was measuring 2 days ahead and looking great and moving all over. I'll give a real update soon, but here are a few pictures and an awesome video of Carson who thinks the baby lives in our heartbeat doppler! :)

Zoo Fun

Since it was such a nice day out today we decided to venture out to the Como Zoo. It was Kate, Lydia, Dave, Carson and me. It was way busier there than I thought it would be. I originally was going to bring Carson on a week day but Kate and Dave wanted to go too. I think it will be better when you don't have to go into buildings for everything. The only animals that were really outside were the big gorillas and a couple large cats and reindeer. Otherwise everything was inside and the polar bear exhibit was under construction. That was one of my favorites as a kid!Carson was really excited about seeing animals but only if you were holding him. He was terrified in the primate exhibit when the monkeys would walk past the glass. It was pretty cute to watch him try and figure out what the heck was going on. 

We're on our 3rd night of no pacifier. I think it was harder for me to give it up than it was for him. We just cut the tip and told him it was broken and that was that. It has taken him a little longer each night to fall asleep but other than that not a big deal at all. Again, I think it was a bigger deal for me. My baby is all grown up now. But I am glad that we can be rid of that.  I worry that it will be bad on his teeth. 

I'm considering becoming a certified instructor in Turbo Kick. I spoke with an instructor at the YMCA last week and she wants me to come to an early class on Tuesday morning and meet with the Area Promotions Director for Turbo Kick and is also in charge of Group Fitness Product Development for the Greater Twin Cities YMCA. I'm a little nervous to meet him but am excited about the thought of teaching the class in the future. It's one of my favorites! The certification is in May so that will give me some time to ask questions and get a feel for if this will be something I can do. 

Carson slept for about 20 minutes in the car today and that was all the nap he had. As soon as we got home he was up and at it and ready to play again. Dave and I were exhausted! YMCA and then straight to the zoo was exhausting!! Here are a few pictures from the zoo today!

Cheese Please

Carson is so big. I want to cry! Haha, on Saturday I walked into Carson's room to get him up from his nap and he was attempting to climb out of his crib. A few hours later, we converted his crib to a toddler bed. *cries* My little boy is all grown up. I can't believe how well he has done. He has not gotten up once in the night and even when he took his nap he stayed in bed. He gets all excited to crawl into bed too. He's so big now.

He was so excited to 'cheese' while posing in his new bed. I think I want to buy him new bedding for his birthday so we can pack the 'baby' stuff away. At least for a little while.

I'm excited for Carson's birthday party. We decided to do it at the Maple Grove community center. It will be great to let the kids run around and play and get all crazy. It will be nice to let the kids get all crazy and have them not be at my house!! Haha, alternate motives. :) Can you blame me though? 

Carson has gotten really great at saying new words. He's getting much better at stringing together 2 and 3 word sentences. He gets a bit confused still though. The other day I was cutting cheese for him and he wante

d some. I prompted him to say 'cheese please' which he did quite well and kept asking so nicely. The next day he was asking for something completely different (maybe help getting up onto the couch) I asked him 'What do you say?' fully expecting him to say 'help please' which he says quite often as well...but nope, he says 'cheese please'. Haha, that's almost the default one he falls back on, cheese please!

Shave and a Haircut

Dave is on his way to go pick up Mario Kart for the Wii!! How exciting! I love it. Best Buy sold out of it right away but it sounds like the Game Stop near us will have it. Yeah baby. So Dave is on his way.

Carson got his first haircut yesterday. He looks like such a little man now! His hair isn't that long on the top but it was just long enough in back to have a mini-baby-mullet. So he got a little trim and I got my hair done as well. It was all one solid color dark brown but we added some highlights and lowlights. I wasn't planning on it but my hair lady was like come'on it's spring, you gotta do something fun! So we did!

Our guest left yesterday. On Wednesday we went to the Mall of America to shop and we went to the Underwater Adventures. It was nice because we were there at like noon on a Wednesday and there weren't too many people there. On Thursday we drove down to the Science Museum of MN, that was pretty fun. Then on Friday we went bowling with my sister. I swear we found the smallest bowling alley on the planet. There were maybe 6 or 7 lanes total. And we were the only people in there so we could make total fools of ourselves, and we did because none of us are good at bowling. But it was raining out so what else do you do? Haha, On Friday night, we went with my parents to Seafood Buffet. FANTASTIC! Then he headed out on Saturday morning.

We woke up to a little bit of snow on Saturday. Which WTF?! It's like almost May dudes. So much for global warming right? Haha, anyways my mom was totally depressed about the snow so we headed to the Mall of America AGAIN and went to Underwater Adventures. This time we brought Carson along. Of course it was icky weather and a Saturday so the place was pretty much cram packed but we still had a good time.

So Mini -Rant time. You know what I don't get at all?! Why in the EFF would you prefer to take an elevator over an escalator? I mean, if you are not in a wheel chair and do not have a stroller or 17 kids, you DO NOT need to use the elevator. Especially when in the Mall of America there are like 4 elevators and 12 zillion escalators. The escalator is SO much faster, it's right behind you and you don't have to stand here looking like a moron waiting for the elevator. It does not make sense. Can someone shed some light on this for me? Because if I remember right, using the escalator does not require you to climb stairs if you don't want to. You can just stand there. It's JUST as lazy as the elevator but takes less time and then I don't have to try and maneuver my stroller around your dumb butt. What the EFF ever.

So today brings us Brunch with Dave's family this morning and Mario Kart this afternoon if Dave can catch a copy before the video game store sells out. Talk to you all later!

How You Know You Live in The Country

Today will be a picture-less entry.  I have some to edit before the are Blog-Ready.  So...we took Carson to the park today to play and honest to goodness some girl had her pet lamb there.  For serious.  I mean at first it just looked like a Standard Poodle until it started "baa-ing".  I mean Really?!  REALLY? Is Otsego that far out there that people bring their lambs to the park?  Weird stuff.

So, the weather is starting to get so nice!  We did some outside stuff both Saturday and today.  Carson loves to be outside and gets all angry when we try and bring him in.  We just hung out in the yard on Saturday and went down to the park today for a bit.  Carson really just likes to walk around he for sure doesn't get the climbing quite yet.  He was totally indifferent to going down the slide.  It meant nothing to him.

We watched the Wild lose and get eliminated on Saturday night.  Quite depressing post-season I must say.  I think Dave will need at least the week to get over it.  

We don't have a ton of plans for the week.  Just the norm but we are having dinner at Northland with my parents on Friday. Good stuff.  I just love the seafood buffet and am totally excited to go again.  

Carson's new big thing is saying "yeah" to pretty much everything.  He will shake his head for "no" if he means it but most things get a very excited "YEAH" and hand claps.  It's pretty cute.  He also says "Hiiiiiiiiii" just like that usually.  Too cute.  Ok well I hope everyone has a great week!

It is TOO COLD

My car wanted nothing to do with starting after work today. We all ordered in so that nobody had to go out in the -1million degree weather. But that means my car sat outside in the -1million degree weather from 6:45AM-3:30PM. Ouch. She did not make a pleasant noise the first time I tried starting her up. Carson has been wearing his Babylegs under his pants so his little legs don't let any cold air in when we carry him in from the car or out to the car from daycare. They just started selling them at Target, so that's like the most awesome thing ever! They cost the same as if you buy them online, but you don't have to pay shipping which is always a bonus!

The piles on my desk are slowly dwindling. I can't believe how busy I've been...the days are just flying by. I guess that's good because it's not like my days are dragging and I'm dreading work. I'm just ready to have a little down period. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll be all caught up.

Carson now says "thank you" well actually he says "do-dooooo" with the same vocal inflections as "thank you". Haha! He says it when you hand him something. It's so flipping cute!

We're going over to my parent's house for the Superbowl. I don't even know what time the game is on but it's all about just getting together and eating too much food...well at least that's what I think! We're about to watch the Wild play the Ducks YAY! They've been off for almost a week for the All-Star game so we're excited to get back into the hockey swing of things.

Well here are some pictures of everyone's favorite kiddo! Talk to you all soon.

Holly It Is

We finally decided on a name for the new puppy. She will be Holly. I think it's a nice compromise since I was loving Polly. Holly works just perfectly! I think we'll be bringing her home on the 8th of February...that weekend anyways. I was hoping for next weekend but it sounds like the puppies are still nursing some and you want them to be fully weaned before you take them home. So we can wait. We have all the necessary puppy supplies at home now. I bought a grooming kit with clippers and a "how-to" DVD. I want to start clipping her myself right away so she's accustomed to it. I really don't want to have to pay for haircuts...so if we can avoid that cost, that would be so nice!

I haven't had much time to have my camera out lately. I really need to focus on that. It's so hard because I really can only take pictures of Carson and he's so GO GO GO all the time that it's hard to catch any good pictures lately. I guess it's really good practice for me and all but I just haven't had much time lately.

Carson is pretty much walking now. He still can't get to standing without pulling up on something so he does crawl a lot but if he can walk, he will. My mom and sister were out visiting for a bit last night and he was showing off for them. He really is a little ham. He knows that walking is a big deal and he's so proud of himself and so excited to show people. It's so neat! He's still going to bed around 7:00PM and waking up at 7:30ish in the morning. On the weekends if nobody else is up, he'll sleep until 8:00 or 8:30 sometimes. It's so fantastic to have such a great sleeper. I totally give credit to routine. I feel so lame sometimes telling people that we can't stay out late or not coming to things because we'd keep him out past his bedtime...but I think that's a big part of the reason he's such a good sleeper. We do keep him out every once in a while but that's definitely the exception to the rule!

We had our friends Erica and Brent over on Saturday night with their little daughter Gabs. We had enchiladas for dinner and I made some super yummy chip dip. It was one of those addictive type dips that once you started eating it, you couldn't stop. I plan to make it when we go over to my parents for the Superbowl! YUM! That way I can eat it again but I don't have it sitting in my fridge tempting me! Haha!

Work has been so incredibly busy. I haven't had much time to write. But, today is one of those Mondays that I can't throw myself into work quite yet. But I do need to get going. Talk to you all soon!

Holy Sad Story

So, saddest story ever...Tater died. I got a call from the girl I work with that we were buying him from and I guess he had a genetic liver thing and died at the vet's office. So terribly sad but we're very grateful that this happened before we brought him home. That would've been the worst. Luckily the girl that is selling the puppies, has a very generous sister-in-law who is willing to give up the "pick of the litter" so we will still get a puppy. She has several dogs already I guess so it's not a make-or-break thing for her I guess. So, I'm bummed that I just got my way with the name Tater and now we have to come up with a girl puppy name. I'm partial to Polly and I also thought Nixie was kind of cool, we'll see what Dave thinks! He's already veto'd Polly but we'll see :)

Here's a picture of the cutie-pa-tootie:

Carson was a walking maniac today! He took probably 6 or 7 un-assisted steps earlier and then he spent about 45 minutes walking back and forth between me and the couch (4 or 5 steps each way) and then when Dave was home it was between me and him. He's very excited about walking and I make sure to praise, praise, praise! I just can't believe how quickly he picks up on stuff. I showed him "high-5" and it only took about 2 times for him to pick it up. Also, while eating I showed him the sign for "more" as he was whining for more food. It took about 2 or 3 times of showing him the sign while saying "more" and giving him more food and he started doing the sign...well at least mostly. I knew that was what he was doing...so it was definitely close enough and seriously impressive it will only get better.

I'm stuck in American Idol hell tonight...lol. I try and avoid the obsession but usually get sucked in around the Top 12ish. But, it is the first episode so it's a requisite. I'd rather be watching The Biggest Loser haha!

Dave and I stayed up too late last night and watched Blood Diamond. I wasn't thinking that I would even enjoy it but by the time it was getting late and Dave suggested we finish it the next day, I was hooked and made myself stay awake to finish. Seriously interesting and movie...the ending left it saying that blood diamonds are still smuggled into the diamond trade and it is up to the consumer to make sure that the diamonds they buy are "conflict free". How does one figure this out? Do I just call the jewelry store? I can imagine it would go something like this:

Me: I'm wondering how I can find out and assure that my diamond is "conflict-free"

Jewelry Store: *yells in back* "hey Bill, we got another douche-nozzle on the phone who just watched Blood Diamond"

I don't think it would go so well. But actually kind of funny to think about.

Ok here's a recent picture of Carson

PS Dave loves Paula Abdul

Rock On Yo

I know it wasn't Carson's first Christmas this year but my sister made him this last year and I just liked the way this picture turned out...plus it was the only clear bulb that I could play around with! I got Dave a Wii for Christmas. It FINALLY came yesterday. We spent some time last night playing around with it. It's actually really fun. I rocked Guitar Hero....Haha. My parents are out of town this week so I think my sister is going to come over and hang out with us on Sunday and give it a try. She'll have fun!

How about a Carson update? I can't believe how big he's getting.

• Has 6 teeth
• Will say "momma" "dadda" "bye-bye" and "santa"
• Can take 3 steps un-assisted
• Knows to put a phone to his ear and "talk" (he gets close, puts it to his shoulder)
• Knows to use the brush on his hair, will "brush" our hair
• Points to EVERYTHING
• Gives "hugs" to his stuffed animals. He'll hug them and pat their backs. It's soooo cute!
• Is only drinking whole milk, no more formula and only 1 bottle a day now
• Ate 3 pieces of pizza last weekend!!

I just can't believe how quickly he picks up on things now. If you show him something once, he's got it down for good. He's still sleeping really well. He goes down around 7:00PM still and will sleep until 8:00AM most mornings (if we let him). During the week we have to get him up earlier than 8:00 to get him to daycare on time. He's always been a fantastic sleeper.

So my parents are off having fun in the sun. Jealous. Totally. They come back on the 12th. Dave and I have my work's holiday party on the 11th. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do with Carson or if we're even gonna go. I haven't gone to the last 2 for various reasons and I feel like I "should" go to this one. We'll see. I literally just realized yesterday that my parents won't be in town to watch Carson. Our daycare lady offered to watch him...so that might work. It would be nice since they're so close to us.

Work has been busy. It will be for a while too. I actually really enjoy when things are crazy around here. It makes my day go by pretty quickly. But, I can't waste anymore time this morning so I'll be back another day!

Well actually, I cannot leave without showing you the newest member of the Walgrave household. Here he isWe haven't figured out a name yet...we keep arguing. I'm fighting for Tater (like tater-tot) but Dave doesn't want to seem to budge. HOW CUTE THOUGH?! He's still only about 4 weeks old, we won't get him until Februaryish. We're going out to visit this weekend though and then hopefully we can pick a name. Ok, now I've really gotta go!

Movin On

Carson went to bed tonight without a "bed-time" bottle. *GASPS* He ate a ridiculous amount of food for dinner and I gave him a sippy with milk in it after dinner and then instead of a bottle, we just read books before bed and he laid down really with way less issues than I thought he would. He was a little pissed off but once he had his pacifier he was ok. That will be the next to go, but not quite yet. I'm hoping by 18months.

Dave bought me lights for Christmas. We picked them up last night since I'm doing some family photos for my friend Kate and then a co-worker of hers. I need a little practice before I can feel confident to take them with me. It's a little harder to coordinate than I thought it would be. Using studio lighting forces you to take the camera out of any pre-set or auto modes and do everything in manual. I know what the settings do for the most part but I've never had to rely only on myself to get them right! So I'm really going to learn my camera. I'm really glad. I took some pictures of Carson in the bath tonight...just to practice some of the other settings and I'm really proud of the progress I've made. Here is an example...

Here is a few bathroom shots that I took with pre-set settings on auto-mode with flash:

Yes, the water looks super cool but Carson looks like a ghost-baby! His natural skin-tones and colors are so washed out from the flash. This was taken in August.

Here is tonight's bath:

I love the 2nd picture...he was "yelling" at me but there's so much personality in his little face! They're not perfect or anything but I'm making definite progress. I love how I can really compare the differences. By the way, anyone notice how much skinnier Carson is getting? Haha, he's losing so much of that baby weight and looking so much like a little kid.

Dave's working late tonight which is a bummer. I'll be in bed long before he gets home. Hopefully that means this weekend he'll get some time off. Who knows, his job is so up and down that it's hard to count on anything most times. I know Dave doesn't like missing being home with Carson in the evenings.

In AWESOME news, my work just figured out where our new headquarters is going to be. It's an under-construction site so we won't be able to move in until 12/2008 so a whole FULL year but it's still exciting. We out-grew our first building and my department got moved to this horrible pit of a building and just knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel is making it all worth it! Here's a link: NEW AWESOME BUILDING

Ok, before it gets too late I've gotta get some practicing in! Have a great night everyone!

Rawr!

Ok, I tried to write below the video and for some reason it kept screwing the whole entry up so I'll write above!! Anyways, I'm so excited I caught Carson standing this afternoon and that he repeated it for the camera! SQUEEE! I do love how he's randomly hitting the wall entertaining himself...yes that is my bizarre kid!

Carson is having a tough time with they daylight savings adjustment. I really didn't realize how much an hour could make a difference. He's on a pretty solid schedule for the most part though so shifting an hour has proved a little difficult. Last night he was in bed, out cold no questions by 5:30!! Eeeep! So instead of waking up at 7:15-7:30 he was up at about 6:15. Still not bad because he's getting his solid nights sleep but it's just different than usual. I kept him awake until 6:15 tonight but man, he was a CRABBY baby. He was out before his bed-time bottle was done and I have yet to hear a peep out of him!

I'm feeling better today...I was asleep last night by 8:00PM!! Crazy I know but I totally needed it. Today was a much better day at work. I had such a hard time focusing yesterday. Well, Dave will be home shortly and I want to get some dinner started but I wanted to make sure and share the video. Talk to you all soon!

Milestones!

Can You Believe It?!

My god, it's October. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Time has been flying by like nothing else and my "little" baby will be 10 months old tomorrow. We are so close to one year it's scary! He is officially crawling, and crawling all over the place. So much for the days when I could attempt to multi-task in the afternoons. Not so much anymore. Once he started moving around more, he's been trying to pull up on things. He only gets to about his knees before he gives up. It won't be long though.


We had quite a busy weekend. We did the pumpkin patch/petting zoo extravaganza on Saturday with my mom and Karen. Kate, Austin and Lydia came with. It was a good time, but a little cool out for the little ones. Austin seemed to have a blast feeding the sheep and goats. We all picked out pumpkins and squash and headed home after a few hours.

Dave and I had dinner at some friends of ours on Saturday night. They are the ones who had a baby just a few days before Kate. I made fruit salad and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. We had a good time, and left around 9:00 when Carson started getting crabby.


Dave got up at 3:00AM on Sunday morning to go duck hunting with Kate's husband Erik. Dave shot 2 ducks and now I've got some duck meat I have to try and cook...does anyone know how to prepare duck? I'm open to trying it but I need to know how to cook it so I'm not scared of it! Haha. Dave got home around 10:30 and the rest of Sunday was a lazy bones day. Our prediction for the Vikings: 1-15 Don't lie, you all have thought it too!


Ok...here's a little awesome thing I discovered: Tank Goodness http://www.tankgoodness.com/ Honestly the BEST cookies I have ever had in my life. Plus they're this adorable little Minnesota couple who work out of their home to deliver fresh baked cookies. Can it get better than that? One of my bosses ordered from them last week and offered me a cookie. I even ate it after it was cooled off and it was the best cookie of my life. I attempted to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this weekend hoping to get something that tasted sorta the same...it didn't work. So, now I need an excuse to order more! Anyone have any ideas?!


Carson and I went on a walk with a gal that I used to work with years ago. She lives about 15 minutes from us but takes her dogs for walks in the off-leash parks in St. Michael and Otsego. So Carson and I tagged along and we spent about an hour walking in the woods and had a great time. Carson got quite a few random doggy kisses from people passing by. Every one's dogs were really friendly which I was glad about. It's always kind of nerve wracking when a random dog approaches your baby! After our walk I stopped at a nursery in St. Michael and bought 50 tulip bulbs to plant this week so we have some fun flowers in the spring. The only problem is the directions don't specify which end is up...so I've got a little research to do so I don't plant them upside down! Haha...I would totally be the one to do that too!


Well I'm really swamped at work today and should be doing some work right now so I'm going to do that instead of rambling on and on!