A Superior Weekend

We had a typical week for the first time in a couple weeks, so that was nice. It's been pretty steamy so we haven't been spending a ton of time outside. We have been getting out for some wee sessions, of course.

We spend lots of time inside where it's still pretty steamy.



This was the first week when Kasper's little teeth have been more noticeable and I LOVE it! It was my personal mission to get tons of pictures of the little guys. There are 3 completely through on the top and 1 on the bottom. There's a 4th top tooth working its way through and is really, really close.



I was in charge of a couple bedtimes this week and boy did we have a fun time!








I even got video of Kasper going through his colors. He says a couple in Spanish and a couple in English. If I would've waited a couple days to film this, maybe he would have also said "yellow". (Ano is short for anaranjado)


Kasper had his 18 month check-up on Friday. So far he's right on track in his development! We talked about various fears that keep popping up: ceiling fans, elevators, shutting doors, etc. It sounds like fears are normal around this age and we have to keep exposing Kasper to these things so he knows there's nothing wrong. We've actually had a number of ceiling fan challenges this week and things are getting better. I also had to ask about the amount of milk Kasper drinks - he can down a gallon a week!! Again, fine if it doesn't cause him to eat less food.

His stats:
Weight: 22 lbs - 6%
Length: 33.25" - 75%
Head: 18" - 5%

Exactly the same as the last appt for weight and head size and jumped 10% for length! It's pretty crazy he only gained 1 pound in the last month but he's still at 6%.

Saturday morning we loaded into the car and headed up to Duluth!


We spent the weekend at the Pearson's with friends! We did some playing and eating lunch when we got there then most of the kiddos took a nap. When everyone was fed and well rested, we headed out to the beach! It was over 90 degrees, which sounds like it's pretty rare for Duluth, and the beach was PACKED. I've never actually been in Lake Superior before but yesterday it felt refreshing!




I think all the fallen trees are from the recent flooding in Duluth. Crazy.

Kasper had to get used to walking in a life jacket. Now you see him, now you don't!



All the kids! Kasper is the youngest by 6 months. The little one in the pink life jacket lives in Norway now! She and her parents are back in the US for a few weeks this summer so it was a real treat to see them. The cutie in the strawberry hat is the closest in age to Kasper and they had a lot of fun playing together. The 3 boys in bucket hats belong to the hosts and are a total riot. I got such a kick out of those brothers.


The Pearson Boys



We hung out at the Pearson's house last night and ate, played in the yard, and sweated. Kasper got to go to bed an hour later, which was great for him! He got a nice bath and went to bed in his pack and play. The adults did more hanging out and I went to bed around 11. Come 1 am, Kasper is up and yelling. UGH. I eventually had to go get Rob who was enjoying a bonfire. Kasper was up until about 4 when he finally went back to sleep until 7. He just does NOT sleep well when he's not in his bed. It's weird because he took a nice long nap and also went down with no problem. It's just in the middle of the night that he can't do it. I sort of wonder if he sees us in his room and wants to get up. That has to be it. Regardless, it's the worst and I don't think we'll be spending the night anywhere for awhile. (I should point out that I just can't do middle of the night wake ups. It makes me over-dramatic.)

We got up this morning to a delicious breakfast and coffee. I had many cups of coffee. Somehow Kasper woke us up with giggles. Like he forgot he didn't sleep half the night.

It was so nice of Keely and Mickey to have all of us over. We really had a great time!

We decided to leave after breakfast since Kasper was not-so-subtly indicating he wanted a nap. We did stop in Canal Park to pop into Duluth Pack and Northern Waters Smokehouse for lunch to go.


Kasper slept for the first couple hours home then decided he didn't need a nap in the afternoon. He spent an hour in his crib not sleeping but being quiet so after that hour he came out and played. Wouldn't you know he was the most fun little boy!



TEETH!




Seriously so fun. I was expecting the worst with the night he had and no nap.

When Kasper decides he wants to dance, he yells "baila" (Spanish for dance), runs over to the iPod and turns it on then runs to the ottoman and dances.


Whew! Another long one but we've been keeping busy! Have a good week.

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!

I'm back from my trip to San Francisco! It was wonderful and I'll share pics soon (this will be long enough). It was my first time really being away from Kasper for a number of days but luckily the anticipation for the trip was worse than the actual time away. I was able to Facetime with him a couple times and he seemed to be doing just fine so I was able to really enjoy myself. Rob did an awesome job of sending lots of pictures so I could see what everyone was up to. Steph watched K while Rob and my Dad did the Warrior Dash and sent me this video. I watched it about a million times.


Our flight landed Tuesday evening right after dinner. It was actually perfect timing for Rob and Kasper to pick me up! I was SO excited to see him and also a little nervous! I didn't know if he'd be angry with me or anything but we picked up right where we left off.

Do you think the kids missed me?

Wednesday was the 4th so I had a day to hang out and get unpacked. We didn't really have any plans so we had a nice lazy morning complete with waffles! Grandma Sandra and Aunt Phyllis and Gill brought K a new chair. It's his new must-have accessory and he carries it EVERYWHERE all day long. He even stops and sits on it to have a read or a swig of milk.


Since it was 100 degrees or something terrible, we played outside in as much water as we could get going. We had a water table, pool and sprinkler so we were able to run around and play while keeping cool.







We grilled brats for dinner and Kasper went to bed. Our neighbors decided to set off BIG fireworks until 11:30 pm right over our house. Ugh. It was rough until things quieted down. Kasper was actually terrified of the sound. He would cry, we would go in and he would be cowering in his crib. I'd pick him up and he would just cling to me. Poor kid. Once it quieted down he went to sleep. I think it'll be better when he can stay up to see the fireworks - and the good news is it sounded like one of the towns around us has an AWESOME fireworks display.

One night Rob got home and Kasper and I were on the "weeeeee!". (Kasper says weeeee! when he swings, so he just calls it that) This is where you'll find us from 4:50-5:15 most nights. He swings and swings and swings. We have awesome conversations on the weeeeee!


Kasper had just been saying his name over and over but when I got the camera out he stopped. Typical. It's still cute. AND - it's a video of someone swinging so you may not want to watch if you get motion sick.


Here's another video of the boy swinging while giving me kisses. I die.

He's been super liberal with kisses lately! He gives them voluntarily and sometimes with hugs!! And many! It's awesome.

Playing in the rain!




Saturday morning we woke up, got dressed and headed out for doughnuts and a bike ride!



(The shirt is from the Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa, CA. Believe it or not there was a got at the doughnut shop with his own Pliny the Elder shirt on. TOTALLY random! You can't even by Russian River beer here. We showed him K's shirt and we all got a big kick out of it)

We rode our bikes on a nice trail along Lake Minnetonka out to Excelsior. The day was PERFECT.



We came home for snacks before naps.




(Again with the chair)


After his nap, Kasper got a haircut. No, not at home (although the hack job suggests otherwise). See below.

I met a couple girlfriends (Hi Hillari and Erin!) for dinner at Psycho Suzi's for dinner and drinks. It was a beautiful night and we sat on the patio chatting past my bedtime. Love those girls. And love my husband for letting me have so much time to spend with my girlfriends this past week and a half.

We had a light breakfast this morning and played on the deck. I tried to get pics of Kasper's new teeth. Umm, he's getting FIVE teeth right now. Except for the hand gnawing he's doing awesome with it.




See them?




We went to our friends Anna and Pete's for brunch this afternoon. It was DELICIOUS food and it's always fun to hang out with them. We didn't get to see their little guy Jack until we were leaving because he had an epic nap! Kasper had endless energy but he didn't break or spill anything so I'll count it a success.

We stopped for groceries before heading home for a nap. I have to include this pic because we were laughing so hard when Kasper woke up.

It was a sticker from a lime that started on his shirt and ended up on his face while he slept. It was really stuck on there!! It still cracks me up.

Ok! Have a good week! And I'll be back with CA pics later.

Kasper: 18 months

Kasper -



You are a year and a half old. You are no longer a baby, that's for sure! I'll miss celebrating your half birthday with you this year and I'm sure I'll be shocked by how much you've grown while I was away.



Your little personality is BURSTING out. You talk, talk, talk all the time and have very important things to say. You love to ask about an item over and over and over then a week later you can name it. You're working on your "s" sounds right now and it about kills me dead. Keys, cheese, Sissy said with a baby lisp is the cutest. You have a huge vocabulary.



I can't even attempt to count the words you say. You can name a handful of shapes - circle, diamond, moon, star - as well as a hand full of colors - amarillo (yellow and you say amayo), pink, purple, and blue. You can point to almost all moving vehicles but only say car and truck.



You can name most of your classmates and even say hi and bye bye to them at school. In fact, I picked you up last week and as I was on my way in a parent was all flustered, stopped me and said "I think Kasper just said Bye Bye Oliver!!" Such a polite boy.



You love to read and have books read to you. You are so eager to learn and I love it. You love playing with your cars and driving them around the room. You still love to drag a broom, stick or shovel around the yard.




You and Lois play all the time and she is so gentle with you. Your latest game is "ni ni". You also LOVE to climb. You climb on your step stool, on the couch, on your chair, up my legs, any way you can! You climb up then down, up then down, over and over. In fact getting down in new and unusual ways is part of the fun. You almost never walk anywhere anymore, you RUN.



You are 100% boy and it's hilarious. You go through phases with your eating where you eat awesome for a few days then you don't want to eat anything. I'm trying to go with the flow and not make food a huge issue but I still haven't shaken my neuroses with trying to get you to gain weight. You DO drink a half gallon of whole milk in less than a week. You love milk just like your papa.




I'm happy to report that since last month, you've had 4 teeth break through. The first was a lateral incisor which is hilarious because the side tooth was coming in before the front ones. So far they're just peeking out of the gums, but you'll look like such a big boy with your top front teeth!



You are still a wonderful sleeper. You'd think with 5 teeth coming through at once you'd fuss about them but you really haven't. Maybe it's the amber necklace??? You still get a paci at night but I'm not going to worry about it at this point. It usually falls out right away and you are able to sleep all night so I don't think you really need it to soothe yourself overnight so I'm hoping taking it away isn't so traumatic.




One not so cool new thing are the fears you've acquired. You seemed to go through a spell where you got terrified easily by things that you see and hear every day. For awhile it was the ceiling fan, the doorbell, the dog barking. You scream and bury your little face in my neck. Now, I'm not one to turn away a snuggle but I'd rather you didn't have to be terrified to get one. You're also getting a bit more clingy with me when I drop you off at daycare. I'm thinking it's just a phase. That is, I'm hoping it's just a phase



You are such a wonderful little boy. I love you so much.

Love, Mama