The Hat Craze!!!

So Curt's Aunt Tammy and Aunt Becky went to Disneyland and Tammy brought back a pirate Mickey Mouse ears hat. She sings "Yo-Ho" and then the hat always seems to fall off. Curt thinks it is the funniest thing in the world. Then he puts it on his head and dances around and when it falls off he will sit and laugh and laugh. He also loves to try and put it on Tammy's dog, Romeo who is thankfully faster than Curt.
He loves Mickey and when he sees something that is Mickey Mouse he'll say, "mi mo" which is his way of saying Mickey Mouse. The hat craze does not stop at the Mickey ears though. Miguel has a black hat he wears to dance the cueca in and Curt puts it on and walks around the house, he can barely see under the brim. It's so cute. He has turned into a little ham lately. If I laugh at something he will do it repeatedly and then laugh with me. We also have a straw cowboy hat that he is fond of wearing. What a cutie. He also loves the snow and I know he is disappointed we don't have any yet, but whenever he sees some on t.v. or in pictures he yells, "no!" I always try to figure out what is wrong and then clue in that he actually said 'snow' not 'no.'
















I just realized that with all the talk about him loving the slide by our house and playing out doors, we had never included a picture:
This is Curt going down his favorite slide with Miguel watching him. He tries to walk up the slide when he's done going down.











This is Curt's oh-so tricky handstand. Wow! He's almost ready for the summersault....












And this one is of Curt after rolling down the hill. It wasn't too big, but it is pretty steep and you can imagine with Curt's size, he got going pretty quick. But he was not afraid... He's a little too much like his dad in that way.









Sorry for the sideways picture-I'm still not so tech- savvy....
Curt is hopefully learning how to treat his dog. Lately he loves to spend time with Jackie and he has been sitting by her and holding her, gently petting her. Jackie likes this too.
Jackie had a check up and I love her doctor! The whole time he examined her he was telling her how pretty she was and what gorgeous eyes she had and then he told her her nose was a little long and asked if she had been telling some lies. I thought he was great. If he saw people, I would totally choose him for my doctor. As it is Jack was less than impressed with him. I guess she's a little harder to please than I am....


Baby Update









We had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago and we found out that I am almost 18 weeks along, so I missed a whole month of being pregnant! Or at least knowing about it.... Since I was 16 weeks at my ultrasound appointment, we found out that we are going to have a little girl! Miguel is really excited. We're thinking about names and so far we both like Isabelle or Isabella, but we're just getting started on that whole process. But for now baby Isabelle is due on May 7th.

Here's Our Favorites!

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween Curt was Frankenstein. He was not a fan of the costume because it went over his head, but after he realized that he got candy going from house to house. He was so excited. A few people let him pick out his own candy and he thought that was pretty cool. Then he got to pass out candy at Grandma's house and I think he liked that just as much as getting the candy. He would take a little bag of m&ms and place it carefully in each child's bucket. Then some teenagers came by and they had pillowcases instead of buckets and he just was not sure about putting the candy inside the pillowcases.

When we went to our ward trunk or treat everyone was giving out lots of extra candy, so they would hold the buckets out and let the kids take more than one treat. Curt quickly picked up on that and would grab as many as he could the first time.

I gave Curt a Pez dispenser that was a duck and I had him make the duck sound before I would give him a Pez. He says gack, gack. It's cute. Then he loves to hear the rooster that lives next to our church. He always does a sharp intake of breath imitating the rooster crow. Just this week he started making the sound of a monkey-ah, ah.


Miguel bought a new motorcycle and Curt absolutely loves it. He says, "Dada go. Vroom, vroom." He sits on the motorcycle and tries to rev the engine. It is really cute that he loves it so much.
We are planning to go to Chile for Christmas. I am excited for Curt to meet his family, but a little sad to not spend the holidays with mine. I can't complain though because Miguel spends every holiday with my family and is very happy and positive about it. It will be summer there, so maybe we will get to spend some time by the beach. Maybe I will finally get past the sick stage of pregnancy so that I will actually be able to enjoy the Chilean food this time. I had my first doctor appointment last Friday and the doctor thinks I may be more than 10 weeks along. He guessed somewhere between 12-14. So this week I am having an ultrasound to find out exactly how far along I am. But either way, I should be getting close to the point where I'm not so sensitive or sick. Hopefully I will have more good news soon!

The Big News

I have some wonderful news....I'm pregnant! We are expecting our little miracle around the end of May or beginning of June. I'm not feeling so great, but Miguel and Curt have been angels. Miguel has been doing the dishes and any other 'too smelly' jobs. When I told Curt about us having a new baby, he pointed to the picture of him as a baby and I suppose that is as close as we can get to an explanation right now. I think he will be an awesome big brother. He will be really excited to have a little friend to play with (eventually).
Recently Curt has discovered his belly button and mine too. He is so interested in everything right now. He loves to sneak up behind me when I'm cleaning something from the floor and pull up my shirt and give me a raspberry on my side. Then we both laugh hysterically. He is pretty cute.
He loves Miguel's motorcycle. He points to it and says, "Vroom vroom." Then he'll say Dada, go, vroom vroom. It is cute to see how his language is developing. He knows that Miguel will take him to the park and let Curt climb up the slide, the wrong way, and then slide down. When Miguel walks in the door, Curt runs up to him and says, "Go, go!" and leads Miguel over to the park. They play for about 45 minutes every night. Sometimes he will go sit in his little car, which is a stroller and say, "Go, vroom vroom."
Curt heard a rooster last Sunday and since then, he has been trying to make that noise. He sucks in air and that is his closest attempt. We listen to primary music as we drive home and his favorite song is 'If You're Happy and You Know It.' One day we listened to it 5 times in a row because he would cry when it ended. He likes to blink his eyes, although he often just squints, he touches his toes and he tries to snap his fingers, but he always claps when it's over. Yesterday he did the popcorn actions to 'Popcorn Popping On the Apricot Tree." He gets just as excited as we do when he learns something new.
participant. Curt loved the whole show. He was either clapping or dancing, moving his head to the music the entire night. Miguel thinks he is really trying to show his Chilean side. Here are some pictures from that night. Miguel danced with Grace and some other lady We went to the Chilean Independence Day celebration in September and Miguel was a huge danced with Curt. He was happy to go with her though. I guess he is a bit of a showman, just like his dad. The whole night was pretty long and very loud for Tammy, Becky, Lini, Sammy, Grace and me, but Curt was having such a great time. He was not ready to go when we left.

It's been a while....

OK, so I really don't have a good excuse, but I was pretty sure the weekly thing wouldn't happen. Anyways, life is busy-as usual. School started on the 25th of August and I have 28 students in my class this year. It's really different compared to my 19 I had most of last year. They are really cute though. I do love teaching third graders. I would include a picture, but I think it is illegal or something....

This is a picture of Curt and his cousin Lini reading a book together. Curt loves reading time. He will go get a book and bring it over and then back up until he is placed in my lap...
Curt has been so adorable lately. He waves bye-bye to everything and everyone. Before he goes to bed at night he waves bye-bye to the fish, Jackie and anything else that is close to living. He knows and uses the signs for all done, more, sorry(it's not correct, but it works), and he folds his arms to pray by bringing his fists up to his chin. When I tell him to fold his arms for a prayer, he will start to say his own little prayer which I'm sure only Heavenly Father can understand. It's really sweet.

He has also taken up cleaning lately. He found the broom and dust pan and got really excited. He started sweeping the floor and then he would grab the dust pan and scrape it along the floor. It is really amazing to me what he learns. He is totally a little sponge.



We go on walks with Eli and Helena and here is Curt patiently or impatiently waiting for me to start the walk. Then after the walk he showed Eli the really cool balloon he got on our anniversary. Miguel told me he bought flowers for me, but the balloon was for Curt.










This is Curt playing with his favorite new toy. His dad put together this car track with a gas station and ticket counter.

To sum it all up, life is great for us, busy, but great. Curt is the cutest person I have ever met. It makes me sad to leave him in the morning to go to work. Especially now that he will come out and wave at me and want a few more hugs before I go. I think this is my favorite age of Curt so far. He is just so much fun to watch and be around. Today we went to a barbeque with Miguel's friend and some cats wandered into his house and Curt was in heaven. We spent the evening chasing the cats, one at a cricket while we were following it, the other climbed a tree. There were dandilions in the yard that were big and white and seedy. I taught Curt how to blow the seeds to make more dandylions, I think he may have actually put the dandylion in his mouth before he blew, but it was a learning experience for both of us.
I will attempt to update this blog more often-notice how there are no promises, but I will do my best. Love you all!
Shannon

Curt's Update

Last time I added a picture of Miguel's family to the blog, so this time I decided to show off my family. This was taken at our Folkersen family reunion this summer. My sisters are totally awesome. I love to spend time with my family playing games, rock band, making salsa or chocolate, whatever, they are my best friends.










So Curt is doing lots of cute things now. He waves bye-bye like it's going out of style and he blows kisses, but doesn't take his hand off his mouth so he really just blows on his hand. Here's a picture.









It also really cracks me up how he loves to stop and smell the flowers. Sometimes it slows us down, but it is really, really cute. My sister Kirsten took this picture and has it hanging in her bathroom.


















Curt and I went to Gardener Village last week with our friends Eli and Helena. The boys love playing together. Especially when there are animals involved. We saw some geese and Curt obviously opted to climb on top of the wall. He seems to always be drawn to the dangerous situations... I think he gets that from his dad. I have always been such a fraidy cat. I think Curt's favorite animals right now are our turtles. He opens their cage and takes them out. I think the pull their bodies inside their shells when they hear his voice. He also loves to feed the fish. All day, everyday he tries to feed the fish. He grabs the fish food and carries it around the house trying to get me to help him feed the fish. He is so stinking cute. He is also babbling a lot. He always ends his babble with an inflection like he's asking a question.


Curt just loves to read. He found this book at Sam's Club and when I tried to put it back he was heartbroken. He just wouldn't stop crying, so his Aunt Kirsten bought it for him. He has played with the book everyday. It stresses him out because the pages have pieces that pop out and he needs to have them all out. I usually end up giving the book a 'time out' or losing it somewhere so that he will stop stressing out about it. He really does love it though.

I am also going to add a little about Miguel and I.

We realized that it is going to be our 4th anniversary on the 14th. It doesn't seem like we've been married that long, but then again it also seems like we've always been together. I am so lucky to have a supportive husband. I think he feels the panic I have as summer comes to a close. I know I am running out of time to get all of my projects finished, so I just keep pushing. He just built a shelf in our storage room for me (it took us both all day yesterday) and a few weeks ago he tiled our bathroom. It looks pretty good.

Just Getting Started

This is my first attempt at blogging. I am going to try and update the blog every week. We'll see how that goes.

I wanted to add some of my favorite pictures of Curt. I am starting with our first family photo. This was taken when we got home from the hospital. Notice how Jackie made sure she wasn't left out....













This is Miguel's family that we went to visit in 2006. It was really nice to finally meet everyone! Chile was amazing... except for the sea lion bite!








I can't believe how fast he is growing! This other picture is his 2 month old photo.





My friend Heidi took this and it is one of my favorite pictures of Curt.

















He is running everywhere now. He tries so hard to make people laugh. He has a funny, super cheesy grin he likes to share when he's eating. He likes to do lots of silly things to make us laugh. I think when he grows up he will be the class clown. This picture (above) is of Curt and Miguel at the Vancouver Aquarium. It was pretty cool. We got to see the new baby whale that was only 30 days old. Curt just loved running in front of people and then when he would fall down they would have to try not to trip over him. It was really exciting....Except for the looks the other people gave us. They must not have a one year old who recently discovered his new freedom through walking.
His favorite food is black beans. Here's a picture of him after he's had some.

As you can imagine, we do plenty of laundry...









This is a great picture of our two party animals at Curt's first birthday party. I think the hat was Jackie's favorite part of the night.














Curt loves going to the park. He likes to climb up to the top of the playground and go down the slide head first. He's totally fearless. I'm pretty sure we'll end up in the emergency room eventually.... When we went to the park with Miguel he showed him the water fountain and Curt just loved it. I don't think he got much to drink, but he was soaked by the time we left.

O.K., so it was a really long first blog, but hopefully I can give more details on fewer things next time...