Introducing My As Yet Unnamed Niece

SOOOO tiny and cute! It is incredibily easy to forget how fragile and soft these little critters are when they first arrive in this world...
And yes, I am dying of curiosity about what she is going to be named!!! Any day now, peeps!

Exciting News!

I just wanted to share that I am the proud auntie to another beautiful little girl!!
My sister-in-law gave birth this evening at about 10:40 pm GMT.
No stats or pictures to share as of yet, but will post them as soon as I have them.
Hope everyone is doing well!

Little Man on a Little Island

Not that all of you don´t know this by now, but we made it to Iceland in one piece! I was terrified - and I mean losing sleep at night mortified - of flying alone with the little bugger, but he did alright. We had some rough moments wandering the aisle of the Icelandair plane in the middle of the night, but all in all, it was ok. As I told someone the other day, I have almost forgotten my fear.
And on top of the decent flight, he is sleeping pretty darn well! You have to disregard the fact that he wakes up 2-3 hours after he goes down and gets into bed with me for the rest of the night...but he is sleeping 11.5-12 hours straight! Since he is going to bed between 9:00-10:00 at night, that means I have been getting more sleep than I have basically since he was born! It is all very exciting, despite the fact that some serious sleep training is likely to take place once we return to the States.
Here are a couple of photos of him taking an extraordinarily long nap today with our favorite fat cat in the world, Stulli.

Markus Falls Asleep in his Stroller - Never Happens!

We had a busy morning today, including a trip to the gym where Markus made a b-line, on his own, to the day care for the first time (yay!). The gym was followed by a rockin' Music for Aardvrark's class where he had a very good time. I was a little curious about how quiet the little man was being in his stroller covered with plastic (rain cover, that is)...that curiosity was answered when I got home to find this scene in the Bugaboo.
Not only was he asleep - he was using the bar as a forehead rest!! Poor little dude...

Parent's Party Night!

Well, Dave and I went out with 2 other couples for a night out on the town in the city for last Friday the first time in...well, in a really long time. We went with Susan, Scott, Christine and Robert - parents of 2 of Markus' good buddies from the park (and playgroup, of course!).

We had Korean BBQ (which was awesome) and I had too much wine at dinner...followed by too much at the bar we went to afterwards...which is fairly apparent from the photos here (stolen from Christine's blog - because of course I forgot our camera!).

We stayed out until 3 am. WHAT!?!?! I know, we're crazy. And we paid dearly for it the next day. Good times were had by all, though, and we hope to do it again.

Potty Trouble Part Deux

This happened during the same bathroom "experience". He's starting to play with his potty much more these days, which is supposed to be a positive first step towards potty training, but I'm not sure he's getting the point of it...at all.

What do you think?

Things I Shouldn't Be Doing or...Potty Trouble

I wasn't quite sure which to name this entry, so I decided to go with both. I was folding laundry in the bedroom while little man got in trouble in the bathroom. Thankfully I got the camera in time to document, although I'm not quite sure I should be sharing them ;)

On some level I know Markus Kari knows that he's doing something wrong...but it really doesn't seem to phase him at all!

Judge away, ya'll!

p.s. Check out his sweet new Adidas track jacket!

I'm Cute

Totally unbiased right?

Nothing much to report on this post. Dave is away on business and unfortunately none of my mommy friends were at the park today :(

The only good to come out of it was that I actually paid enough attention to take a couple of pics of the munchkin with my i-phone!

Enjoy...

Green Bay Packers

For those of you who know us, it will come as no surprise that Packer football games are important events in our household...

Yesterday was no exception :)

In fact, I don't think that there is any other circumstance where David would find it unbelievably cool for him and his son to dress identically (thank god!).

After it was clear that the Pack were going to destroy the Vikings we decided to take a trip to the park. After a brief debate, I finally convinced the insane Packer fan that it was not a good idea to figure out a way to get Markus' Favre jersey on the OUTSIDE of his coat. Amazing.

Markus Kari Wears a Hat!

After what can only be described as a day filled with the impending dread of winter (read: I stayed in most of the day with a cranky baby that refused to nap), I finally gave in and took Markus to the park. I had yet to have success with getting him to wear a hat, so I decided to wait until we actually GOT to the park before giving it yet another try. Amazingly, the hat stayed on after the first try and for the entire time!! Kudos to those crazy Norwegians who make this awesome hat (and to my brother and sister-in-law who gave Markus his first one!). They're also pretty darn cute.

Halloween

Halloween has come and gone and I think, all in all, that it was a success. Markus dressed as a monkey and considering that he's not a big fan of being dressed in a lot of clothes, he did very well. At 3:00 we met up with his partners in crime Deville, Luis, Oscar and Stella to participate in the Hoboken Halloween Parade. Markus did ok in his stroller for a while, but as is usually the case these days, after a while he became very restless. Thankfully, Dave had come home early to join us, so I had some help dealing with the squirmy dude. His father's strategy tends to be buying toys (an inflatable Spider man in this instance) or bribing him with sweets (his first Twix bar). Neither one worked for very long, but it was a beautiful day and once we returned to the park to play after the parade, all was well.

p.s. Just so his father doesn't get to pissed at me - I also use the "sweets strategy" quite often to tame the beast :)

I Really Love Grover and My Stroller

So, it was about a month a go when I came to realize that Markus had fallen in

love with the doll strollers that were running ramapant at the park

When Dave came home that night I told him the news - we were going to have to buy his son a doll stroller. He was surprisingly amenable to the idea, his only caveat being that it had to be blue - NOT pink. I thought that was fair. In any case, Markus absolutely adores his blue stroller and puts whatever toy he is feeling particularly close with in it every day.

The other day, his father had the brilliant idea of actually putting Markus himself in the stroller and pushing him around....not a good idea. Markus isn't a particularly large toddler, but doesn't he look huge!?

Grandma and Grandpa at the Central Park Zoo

Afer an eventful day at IKEA on Saturday we decided that it would be unforgivable not to take Grandma and Grandpa into the big city for a proper outing. Markus, not being a car baby anymore, wasn't too please with the ride through the Lincoln Tunnel, but once we arrived at the Hudson Hotel for brunch his mood improved markedly.Again, he was surrounded by people eager to give in to his every whim. Everyone took turns walking him around the halls to keep him entertained (well, everyone but me, that is!).
Once we finished our meals we were off to the Central Park Zoo to check out the Children's Zoo - Markus' favorite. Other than an incredibly LOUD wipeout on the concrete outside the gates of the zoo (loud enough to warrent the attention of some random do-gooder man who came running over to pick Markus up - which was kind, but weird) all went extremely well. Basically, Markus adores the zoo. And he is completely unafraid of the animals. And when I say completely, I mean completely. Which I think is phenomenal. Needless to say we became members and plan on going again and again and again....not to mention because of the special relationship grandma fostered with a gianormous white goat!

IKEA

Who knew going to IKEA would be akin to traveling to playland and spending a blissful afternoon frolicking amongst the little people!?!? We decided, as a result of inclimate weather, that we would make a trip to IKEA with grandma and grandpa to pick up a few things. Once we entered the children's area, we soon realized that Markus would not - under any circumstances - remain calm in his cart. So, we decided to let the monster loose. Fortunately, grandma and grandpa are inclined to do anything for the little guy, so they allowed his father and I to go check out the items we intended to buy.


He had a WONDERFUL time playing with toys and furniture and taking umpteen rides on the slide that those IKEA folks ingeniously installed in their showroom.


The highlight of the trip, however, was our stop at the cafeteria. For some reason (I think it might have something to do with the gravy), Markus absolutely adores the Swedish meatballs. After eating a few of those (which I must stress - is a lot for his tiny belly to handle) and using a french fry as a conduit for ketchup (and I'm serious here - the french fry was never eaten, but a lot of ketchup was consumed), the little man did something that he never done before: had chocolate milk. As he sucked this nectar of the gods through his straw, he had no idea what was coming....


Once he realized, however, it quickly became clear that this was something serious. He was not even going to spare a moment to breathe as he inhaled a third of the carton down in one fell swoop. This was one - happy - baby.


All in all, this was a very successful venture on a rainy day. Ask Markus and he would say it was the best!

I Like Almond Butter

'Nuff said.

Some Videos We Have Neglected to Post

These videos were taken in the last month or so, but we hadn't posted them to YouTube. Enjoy!

Welcome to Markus Kari's Life!

Well, my Hoboken mommy friends have inspired me to start a blog for the little man. It seems like a smart and fun way to keep everyone posted of things going on in our lives :)

Grandma and Grandpa Merriam are visiting this weekend and, while the weather is not really cooperating, we're looking forward to a nice weekend filled with attention!