17 weeks

We are one day away from little man's 4 month birthday and I am just amazed with how fast time has gone. Even thinking about school, we are two weeks away from the end of the first quarter. Yikes!

By now, Karsen is smiling, laughing and showed signs of being close to rolling over. It is so much fun how he can hang out on the activity mat and swing away at the toys, or sit in the exersaucer and bat at the different noise makers. He is growing up!

He has THE BEST smiles!!!

Check out this super cute crab shirt he wore to Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster!!

Karsen wore this cute outfit to attend cousin Jake and Liz's wedding reception in Jeff City. He did a great job in the car and he was a big hit with all of the family!! Below are some more pictures from the day. 

Great-grandma could not wait to get her hands on baby Karsen! 

Great-grandpa had a lot of stories to tell. 

GREAT Aunt Traci loved seeing the little guy!

Great Uncle Joe's arm tasted good! 

All the ladies loving Karsen. 

Great-grandma Crider, Grandma Cleary, Mom and Karsen

Hanging with Uncle Jim!

Family picture!! 

Tomorrow marks Karsen's 4 month birthday which means he will be getting his 4 month shots. Let's hope mom does better this time than the last. 

15 weeks!

At what age do you start counting by months instead of weeks?! When people ask how old Karsen is, I just say "Around 3 and a half months" and they usually get the idea. I dont know why but I always laugh when people still say the age of their baby in weeks after they are 3 months old. Eh...either way.

Below are lots of fun pics I have been taking. This kid seriously makes me smile so huge every day! The looks he gives are so priceless and I cant wait until he starts talking. Soon those crazy looks will be coupled with some funny phrases, I am sure!

Tonight we are going to Royals game so I am anxious to see how he does with all the activity going on around us. It is fairly chilly outside so I have got all sorts of things to keep him warm and bundled.

Working on his tummy time and he sure has gotten good! I love this picture because he has such an inquisitive look on his face and his wrinkled forehead cracks me up!

As soon as I looked at this picture I couldnt stop laughing. Knuckle Sandwich!

I love this little outfit on him! He makes a cute police officer!

More tummy time action. Ugh...and look at those CHEEKS!

Haha...this look. We were out running errands and he doesnt care for being in the carseat for too long..............

...............Unless his mom is in the backseat with him keeping him company!

We went on a walk last week and he got promoted to the front of the stroller! To be fair, I probably promoted him a little sooner than he was ready. We went down a hill and he leaned a little too far for his own comfort. Poor guy. 

Chiefs Sunday...TERRIBLE game...so we had fun playing with Karsen instead of watching the game. Ugh...Chiefs.

He loves chewing on those fingers!

When we are getting ready for work in the morning, he enjoys sitting in the Bumbo and watching us pack lunches and eat breakfast. We are so lucky to have such a happy kid early in the morning!

I hope to post again soon about the Royals game!

MB

Almost 12 weeks

We are about to hit the 12 week mark and like I have said before...where has the time gone?! I cant believe Karsen is about to be 3 months old. I was looking through some pictures the other day of K when he was first born and it is so hard to believe how far we have come!

Sadly, he still isn't sleeping all that great at night. For my last post when I reported that he slept 8 hours through the night...yea that hasn't happened again. For a while he was going at least 6 hours before waking up but he has even gone back to the every 2-3 hour wake ups a couple of times. Lately, he has held pretty consistent at waking every 4-5 hours. Again, better than 2-3 but still, not quite where mama wants it!

We started daycare last week. It was tough dropping him off that first day, but at the same time, I felt great. I was (and still am) very comfortable with the place we are taking him and the lady there LOVES him! Each day last week got progressively better with drop off. Every time I dropped Karsen off, he had a smile on his face and he seemed happy! He has come home very tired most nights, but that still hasn't translated to longer sleeping stints. Soon enough, he will surprise us all and start sleeping through the night, but until then, thank goodness Bruce can help get up and feed him. Even though I wake up as Bruce gets up to take care of him, it has been nice to roll over and fall right back asleep. With school starting, I am starting to feel like I am getting a little more rest than before. Dont get me wrong...I'm still tired, but I feel better than before!

Today was the first day of school and as expected...the kids were nuts. I have often wished we could just skip this first week of school...with all of the procedures and new rules we talk about, the kids are crazy and I can tell that they just need some routine. They are ready to get back into the groove of academics and homework. Ugh...if I can survive this week, I can survive anything!

Although I know I am biased, I seriously think I have one of the cutest kids on the face of the planet...and he makes THE BEST faces! Here is a face I caught on camera. I need to submit some of these pictures to a "caption this" contest. I bet his goofy faces would elicit some great responses!

This next picture is of Karsen and Grandma before mass. Yes...I had my phone out before mass...so sue me. He just had such a great little smirk on his face that I couldnt pass up the chance to get a pic. 

And this last picture is of Karsen while we were out on a walk. I left my powercord for my computer at school last Friday and I needed it on Sunday to get some work done, so we walked to school to get the cord then walked home! It was a perfect, overcast morning so I think he enjoyed himself. He got a little cranky towards the end of the walk but I know it was because he was ready for a nap. Me too, buddy...me too!

I sure do miss the time I get to spend with Karsen during the day but I am so thankful that he is going to such a great daycare and I am even more thankful that the daycare is so close to the house and to school. 

He is tipping the scales at 14 pounds so he is definitely growing! Bruce and I have noticed with our increasingly sore arms that he is a growing boy. Yikes! 

9 weeks

Our little guy is over 2 months old!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! And before I even say anything else...I am happy to report he has slept 8 hours STRAIGHT the last two nights!! WOOT! Of course one of those nights I was at the JT concert so I didn't get to enjoy as much as sleep as I would have liked BUT last night I got a good solid 7 hours. Whew. About time! It has been a few weeks since the last update so I have a lot of pictures.

I know I have said it before but Bruce and I have been so blessed with all of the generosity that has surrounded us before, during and after the arrival of Karsen. We had some great baby showers before he was born, wonderful thoughts and prayers during his birth and a rotating door of great visitors after he came home from the hospital. Between all of the baby clothes, toys and meals, we have been abundantly blessed! Just as I thought things were slowing down, a close friend from Archivers offered to throw me a "meet-and-greet" so the ladies could all meet Karsen. WOW! It was a great night. The party was on a Thursday when Karsen was 8 weeks old. Tracy made some super cute decorations and did such a great job planning. I even have some fun diapers to read through while changing Karsen! The ladies wrote a lot of funny jokes on the back of the diapers. Makes the poo change feel a little less like a job.

The host (other Tracey) did a great job decorating the table for the meal. Her tri-leche cake was SUPER tasty and very refreshing. 

Below is a picture of Karsen the morning of the party. He is 8 weeks in this shot. That smile brings so much joy to me! Helps me remember that I must be doing SOMETHING right! :)

Karsen has always had good head control but I got this picture one time when he was just hanging out on the Boppy pillow. Rockin that tummy time!

Here is Karsen on his 2 month birthday! I just love this little green outfit and it is crazy how much tighter it is than when he first blew out of it at his 6 day old doctor appointment. Haha. 

Just for some laughs...here is a picture of us out grocery shopping. Clearly he isn't that excited about it because this is a gigantic yawn! 

Bahaha...the look says "Seriously, mom...are we almost done?!

Well I was really sad when I put this outfit on Karsen because he barely fit in it! Ugh. How did he grow that fast already? But he sure is a handsome guy. 

I just love this little outfit because he truly looks like a little old man! We were going to First Watch with Auntie Chick and then off to the library for Mother Goose Rhyme Time. He fit right in with all of the older men at FW. Of course he slept through the entire rhyme time but that's ok...it was more for mom's sake to get out of the house. 

Bruce and I had the chance to get out of the house for the evening thanks to my mom and Justin Timberlake! On Wednesday we headed downtown to Power and Light for some dinner at Gordon Bierch and then the concert at the Sprint Center. It was a BLAST!!

Last pic is Karsen napping after getting his 2 month shots. I cried just as much as he did, but luckily he stopped pretty quick and has been sleeping/nursing the rest of the day.

Here's hoping to continued longer sleep at night!!

MB

7 weeks

I am updating this pretty quickly because I am guessing Karsen will wake up from his afternoon nap soon!

It has admittedly been a tough last couple of weeks. Karsen went through a growth spurt around week 5.5 and I swear he is still trying to recover from it. Prior to the spurt, he was sleeping 4-5 hours straight before waking up for a feeding, but now I am lucky if he makes it 2.5 hours...lucky. Ugh. Mama sure is tired! I am SO ready for him to magically sleep 6+ hours one night! I would rather have to wake myself up to go check on him, than be woken up by a crying baby after only 2 hours of laying my head down, since the last feeding. Oh well...it will happen someday...and while tonight might not be that someday, I know it will happen. Since I have been up so much, I have spent too much time online trying to figure out when he will finally sleep. Most places/blogs say 8-9 weeks is when things really "turn around" so needless to say...expectations are HIGH!

Moving on...

Here are some pictures of my sweet boy! Look at those cheeks!!

That smile is going to get all the ladies! And that is indeed a dimple, folks! 

I thought this was so adorable. I just feel like he is saying "oooh eeee!"

This last one is as we get ready to leave the house to go on a walk...in the middle of the day...in July...because the temperature was 70 degrees...in JULY! AUH-mazing! 

Fingers crossed that the next time I update this blog, Karsen will be sleeping longer than 2 hours at a time at night!

MB

6 weeks

This past week has been full of a lot of firsts for our little Karsen! As stressed among EVERYONE, tummy time is very important to help the neck/back muscles develop. On Karsen's 5 week "birthday" we got this great picture of him!! I will be honest...I dont spend as much time doing tummy time as I SHOULD, but lucky for me, this kid has had great head/neck control since out of the womb. Sure he is still a little wobbly, but he was holding up his head here and there from very early on. You cant see it, but his legs were moving like crazy in this picture. He will definitely be ready to crawl everywhere, when he gets strong enough. Woot!

Last Friday was the 4th of July. Our friends, Erin and Justin usually have a party to celebrate the day and they invited us to join them! They live in Salina so I was excited/nervous/anxious to get Karsen in the car and take a road trip. I spent most of the day feeding him, as I have been doing for the past 5 weeks, but it was still a great time! He even did well sleeping in the Pack N Play!

Our little firecracker definitely got his rest in when he wasnt eating! Below is a picture of me and Erin, with our boys! 

We headed back home on Saturday morning because Bruces family was coming in town for Karsen's baptism on Sunday. Below are some pictures from the baptism! 

As you can tell, Karsen did not care for the bonnet. The bonnet was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Cleary. It was purchased at the local Irish store, Sheehan's, and it came with a great back story. The bonnet is meant to be worn during the baptism, and then one string in the back of the bonnet can be cut to morph the bonnet into a handkerchief. When the boy gets married, he can give the handkerchief to his bride as her "something old" for the day. Such a cool gift and one I know he will cherish!

One of the biggest milestones we hit this week was Karsen's first smile!!! It was obvious that he was trying so hard to smile, but couldnt quite get it...but then...he did! I am SO EXCITED that he is finally smiling! Makes me feel like I am doing something right since he is at least smiling. I'd say he wouldnt be smiling if he wasnt happy. Whew! Check out this cutie!

Another big milestone (more for the parents and less for Karsen) was our first night out. Bruce and I went to a musical at Starlight Amphitheater to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat while Karsen stayed home with Grandma, Grandpa and cousin Cate! I felt so comfortable leaving Karsen in such capable hands. I enjoyed the night more than I thought I would because I knew Karsen was being fed and getting lots of love! 

Cate was a natural at holding Karsen! She did great!

Selfie at Starlight! It was a beautiful night and the show was GREAT!! 

As we begin week 6, Karsen has been going through a bit of a growth spurt. His nighttime sleeping schedule is totally out of whack. The nights of sleeping 5-6 straight hours are no more...and now we are waking up every 2-3 hours. I am hopeful this is just a short term thing...mama needs her rest! He hasnt been napping much during the day either, so I am wondering when all this sleep will finally hit. Hopefully when I update this blog again, I will report that he is sleeping through the night! Wishful thinking...

MB