What's been up with the Westlakes

We have been having such a busy month. Karsten is growing like a weed! At 2 months old our little man is 12 pounds 9 ounces and 24.25 inches long, putting him in the 95th percentile for height and 80th percentile for weight! Karsten loves to play on his super soft blankets. He has been practicing grabbing toys, his favorites include his linking rings (LOVES those), his elephant, his peek-a-boo rattle, monster rattle, and of course his teddy. Recently Karsten has taken up sucking on his hand…or a few fingers, depends on his mood as well as blowing bubbles with his spit. Karsten has also mastered the social smile – so darn cute, it makes it hard to get upset with him, even when he wants to stay up until 2am! Yes, he is our little party animal and although most nights he makes it to sleep by midnight or 1am on occasion he likes to live it up until 2am…this makes for a very tired mommy. One awesome development has also been Karsten’s willingness to sleep in his bassinet…I had to cover the little mattress with a soft blanket but once I did…BAM right to sleep in the thing….amazing! So we have learned that like his mommy, Karsten loves soft blankets and is stubborn enough to not settle for anything but the softest, even if that means keeping everyone else up or annoyed.

Speaking of things that “annoy” I have decided that I hate it when babies poop and it goes out the diaper…this is so gross and I feel like hosing down my kid when this happens, granted it doesn’t happen a lot but it is still gross.

In other news, Ryan has been back to school for a few weeks now and he is settling into his study routine. He has been working on Friday nights and one Saturday a month this year in addition to interning and going to school (40 hours a week) so he has been super busy. But as the awesome daddy that he is he makes time to play with Karsten for a little while each day – which I admit is super cute. Yesterday they sat on the couch and watched college football (not the BYU game mind you…we don’t get Vs. even though we have Comcast). Ryan taught Karsten about the drugs he was studying during down time in the game…I swear our kid’s first word is going to be a drug…can you see it “Ambien, Zoloft, Nuvaring, Symbacort” ---I can see the confused faces of parents now.

Recently I have also been trying some new things. I have been teaching myself to can various things like fruits, jams, baby food, etc. I have also discovered that I like the show Desperate Housewives (I know, cheesy but it makes me like that I have DVR because it airs on Sundays) and that I really cannot function on 3 hours of sleep like I could in college and high school….gone are the days when I could stay up all night and still have a productive day. Another new thing I have recently taken up is comparison shopping and coupons. I have always known that if I took the time to look at the ads and clip coupons that I could save money and stock up on things when they are cheap but I never had the patience….well I finally decided to give it a go. Amazingly we now have food storage, our freezer is full (yes like things will fall out if you don’t put them back in their exact place), and I can make Ryan’s lunch for under $1 per day..and no he isn’t eating Ramon noodles! I have also discovered that buying cereal for less than a dollar per box is fairly easy…and can save a lot of money, not that cereal is that expensive but hey I want that extra dollar or two for something else. Lastly, I have found that if I watch the Food Network while feeding Karsten in the morning that I can learn how to cook at least one new meal each day --- this has been kind of fun and helps me to plan the following week’s menu.

Well here are some pictures of our little, not so little, man! Sadly this week he has grown out of his 0-3 month clothes pretty much…while I am excited to have him sporting his new little 3-6 month outfits it makes me sad that he is growing so fast.

So Karsten loves his burp cloths for some reason, I swear they are like a safety blanket.