Henry Peter Corsten = born

Henry Peter Corsten completed his gestation today at 7:43 a.m. Weighed in at 8 lbs, 1 oz and measured 20 1/4 inches. Mother and baby are doing great.

Harrison seems to be doing well, too.

The waning days before the arrival of out next child

But mother, I do not expect to enjoy this ride on the propane locomotive!

Greetings! Since we have last spoken much has happened in our happy household! Some weeks back, we traveled north to Green Bay. Green Bay was originally settled by the native American Winnebago Indians, but later settled by the fur-trading French, who called Green Bay Baie des Puants - or Bay of the Stinkers, a name made appropriate by the smells emanating from the marshy shores. During the course of our trip we attended a surprise retirement party! It was a surprise, indeed! Much fun was had by all! The ensuing morning we brought young Harrison to Bay Beach Amusement Park for the first time. The park is owned by the city of Green Bay and despite the smells of the neighboring bay, it was a popular swimming hole at one point! To think!

Young Harrison was not enraptured by the idea of rides costing a mere quarter - but in daguerreotypes to follow one will see Harrison became more and more pleased with his situation as time progressed!

What a wonderful invention this horse-less buggy is!

The Wright Brothers and their discovery of flight are truly gifts from the Heavens!

Upon our return to pleasant Lake Mills we took yet another ride in a propane powered locomotive! This time at the Henry Vilas Zoological Park in our highly esteemed state capital of Madison! What a fine park - and what a fine city! We did this in celebration of Father's Day, which our Serbian brothers call "Paterice."

Father? Are you pleased with this turtle I have found?

Harrison enjoyed the many fauna the park had to offer, and was particularly enamored with this Galapagos-sized testudine he wrangled. What excitement for the young man!

Harrison also had a splendid time at the children's petting area, where he had yet another splendid time ensuring the goats nutritional needs were met. What majestic - and outgoing creatures - the caprinae are!


Using our motion picture camera, mother was able to capture for your enjoyment, the glee young Harrison experienced while feeding the goats! Unfortunately, a group of howling hooligan Gibbons drown out Harrison's screams of delight in the moving pictures!

Last weekend we returned to Howards Grove to witness the wedding vows of our good friends, Kara and Justus. Craig was honored to be the best man and fulfilled his duties to the best of his ability, including reading aloud the telegrams from those who could not attend. Laura, who is with baby to the better of eight months, looked positively radiant! Harrison wore a dapper shirt with a cage-ball on it, but alas, did not attend.

We leave you with this fine family portrait - and the knowledge that the next time you hear from us our next child shall have completed his gestation! Godspeed to you and your kin!

And we're back...

One has to go all the way back to March to find our last post with pictures. We've got a new memory card reader, so there's a lot of catching up to do. We spent Easter weekend in Howards Grove with the Franz family. Here's the family with Harrison doing his best to wiggle out of the photo.

Harrison is a total ham for the camera. Craig asked him if he wanted his picture taken and this is the result of that.

We went up to Howards Grove again a few weeks after Easter when Aunt Carol and Uncle Alex were visiting from Washington, D.C. Harrison had a great time sitting and playing out in the Franz family beer garden. Unlike some other cousins of his, Harrison exhibits no fear of his Grandpa Pete.

A few weeks back Grandma and Grandpa Corsten came to visit. We went to the Milwaukee Public Market for lunch and then headed over to the Lakefront Brewery where Grandma and Grandpa were forced to drink beer with flavor.

Since we're moderately cheap we don't like turning on the air conditioning. Harrison loves running around the house in nothing but a diaper when the heat gets to be too much. Fortunately for him he can pull off the look. He's sitting in his cool new rocking chair Laura found him to match the farm decor of his new bedroom (more on that later).

Harrison no longer uses the tray on his high chair and sits at the table like a big boy. He also eats his yogurt very carefully.

Craig went to a weekend of Brewers' games in Milwaukee a few weeks ago, so Aunt Lizzie came up with Ben and Abby and the crew went to the Farmer's Market in Madison and over to the Vilas Zoo. Harrison enjoyed it even more this time as he's starting to "get it."

With a new baby on the way, we decided it was a good idea to get Harrison into his new bedroom as soon as possible. Since he loves barns and animals, Laura painted his room in a farm theme with some cute animals on the wall. He loves it.

Over Memorial Day weekend we went "camping" with the Franz family in Portage. Harrison got all scraped up from falling on the gravel and wanted nothing to do with the pool (see what I mean by "camping"). But we found out he loves squirt guns and water balloons.



While camping we took a day trip to Wisconsin Dells to ride the Ducks - those amphibious vehicles that tour the Wisconsin River. Harrison slept pretty much the whole time. He wasn't very interested.

Harrison spent most of the camping weekend following around and imitating his cousin, Ben. Ben was pretty much oblivious to it. Ben's a pretty good kid, so we suppose Harrison could do a lot worse than imitating him.

Finally, Memorial Day marked Harrison's first night in his big boy bed. He went right to sleep and slept through the night, save for two falls out of the bed. We're working on finding a rail that will fit his strange bed, but it's a pretty small fall to the floor. So it makes a pretty loud bang when he falls out, but the bark is worse than the bit.

A quick update

We have a great reason for not updating this in quite some time - no pictures! Or at least no access to them. We've run into a couple of camera issues in the last few months, including the loss of our memory card adapter. So no photos = no blog posts.

The blog has NOT been abandoned.

We're sure everyone who reads this knows this already, but Laura is pregnant with another little boy who will be joining us sometime in mid to late July. We're very excited and Harrison is totally clueless as to what's about to transpire. We've tried to warn him - but to no avail.

A chronologically reversed post

We'll start this post in the current day, and then work our way backwards into February. How edgy!
Last weekend we went and visited Craig's parents for Grandpa Corsten's birthday. Aunt Jessica helped out with Harrison, but only on the condition that she was able to lead him around on a leash. Harrison, of course, loved it.


On the way up we heard Holy Diver by DIO on the radio. Craig loves the song for its' kitsch factor (watch for a second use of kitsch later in this post!). Harrison loves the song just for the rocking out factor.

The weekend before that, Craig and Laura took Harrison to the Vilas Zoo in Madison to take advantage of the beautiful weather. Harrison enjoyed it much more the second time around. His favorite animals? The river otters - which seem to personify his playfulness, and the flamingos - which personify his love of kitsch? Who knows?

Harrison also loves, nay, LOVES, spaghetti. These two photos show his love of one of his dad's favorite dishes. Craig and Harrison usually have spaghetti club when Laura's working late, since she doesn't really care for spaghetti. How bizarre!



Harrison also loves Laura's iphone, which we have stocked with games for him. He also loves watching old school Sesame Street videos on youtube on the phone.

No, no, no! This hairstyle is all wrong for you! I must fix it!

We also went to Green Bay two weeks previous to our last visit. As the weather was nice, Craig, Laura, Grandpa and Harrison went to the wildlife sanctuary to feed the ducks and geese. Harrison wasn't much interested in feeding the waterfowl. He was more interested in chasing them.

Handsome fellow

Craig recently began brewing beer. Harrison can't really help with that yet, but he really enjoys watching. Here Harrison watches the beer ferment, which makes lots of fun glugging and bubbling noises.

A Plethora of Pictures

Sometimes there really isn't a lot to report, but we like to update this at least semi-regularly, so here are a bunch of photos of Harrison with text scattered throughout.

This picture really captures the essence of Harrison. He's very mischievous.

Harrison's shirt says it all.

Let mom sleep? No way. She needs milk.

Reading is fundamental.

Getting Harrison to pose with the enormous toy box
Grandpa Franz made him for Christmas is difficult. We tried.

Laura left Craig and Harrison alone for a weekend, so Craig gave Harrison a sheet of plastic and foam wrapping and Harrison entertained himself with that the whole weekend.

Doesn't that look like the coziest outfit ever?

Finally, anyone wondering why Craig turned out the way he did
should look no further than this video of Harrison and his Grandpa Corsten.

Christmas, Episode Two - The Franz Family and the Muppets: A Christmas Together

The week after Christmas we headed up to Howards Grove for Christmas with the Franz family. After everybody but Alex trickled in on New Years Eve, we opened up Christmas presents. Harrison was quite fond of the bow he got to wear in his hair.


Harrison was also quite fond of the cardboard box Liz gave him. The box was filled with bath toys, but at that moment Harrison cared only about the box. In the time since, Harrison has completely given up on the box and has grown quite attached to his bath toys.

One of the highlights at Franz family Christmas is Grandpa Pete's Potato Pancakes. Kind of sounds like a brand name, doesn't it? Pete shreds up massive quantities of potatoes, fries them up and serves them with apple sauce, sour cream, sugar and ketchup. It's one of Craig's favorite meals of the whole year.





One of Harrison's favorite things now is posing for pictures. He points at the camera and goes "ugh, ugh, ugh," until we pick it up and take a picture. One of his latest quirks is smiling without showing his teeth, like above. Must've picked it up at daycare.


Harrison is still completely and totally obsessed with books. As soon as he gets out of his crib after bed or naps, the first thing he does is grab a book off his pile and bring it out to the living room. This is done without fail, and our house is completely littered with books. Harrison not only enjoys carrying books around, he also loves it when Craig and Laura read to him. Like really, really likes it.

Bonus video of Harrison playing with the barn he got for Christmas