He is our thinker. Always looking ahead, planning, very deliberate, surgical in fact.  Anything that comes his way is dealt with very precisely. Nothing was too hard, everything was easy.  It's as if he's reflecting the time and circumstances when he was conceived.  I was 28 yrs old then.  He was a honeymoon baby. Within that 9 months, I turned 28, got married and got pregnant. My husband just got done with his surgical residency in Detroit the same month we got married and got pregnant. We moved to a new town, he had a new job, new friends, bought our first home, took his surgery boards and passed it, all within that year.  Yet everything seemed fluid. All the chips fell where they were supposed to and the icing on the cake that year was Parrish Karsten. We call him Parc for short. At 9 months he started walking. At 14 months he started talking. At 2 1/2 he started reading. By 4 he was reading chapter books, was in his 2nd year of preschool and was in command of that classroom according to his teacher,  even though there were older kids because it was a mixed classroom, a typical Montessori setup.  When he was 6 and in 1st grade he was more interested in splitting hydrogen and oxygen in water instead of doing what typical 1st graders do.  But with wisdom comes a degree of being infallible. And so there is a constant struggle to maintain a balance. He is always taught to achieve, set high standards for himself but in the process to have fun, to be a kid.  He is always reminded that it is okay to be wrong and that often times you learn more that way.  I notice we are very different compared to our counterparts. I hear kids in school all the time telling me they have to be a doctor when they grow up because their parents are doctors or have to be lawyers because dad is one. I on the other hand is happy when the rare occasion comes up when Parc is interested in something else other than being a doctor and scientist.  I feel that I am very singular in this, at least among this group of parents. All I want is for him to find satisfaction in what he does regardless of what he ends up pursuing. As long as he is happy that's all that matters.  But for now, I am stuck with the unending questions about the eyes. He is doing research on sight and to cap off the research that he did, his teacher ordered a sheep's eye for him to dissect all by himself.  I was a Neuro-Trauma ICU nurse and Open Heart nurse in Detroit but even I was not prepared when he handed me the container with the sheep's eye he dissected,  nonchalantly pointing out to me the retina, cornea, lens and the aqueous chamber missing the aqueous humor.  It's always a struggle not to barf at times. LOL. I feel like he is growing up too fast and just as with Aspen, I won't have him any other way either.

Hi April,
Jeth's here and I'm sorry it took me awhile to return the favor. School activities, I tell u, eats up three quarter of my time. Baseball practice is something else and we've spent half the night out in the field cheering. Anyway, u got two adorable kids there. It is nice to hear ur eldest is a genius. Believe me, there's nothing like having smart children. We are just a simple family in our town but because Josef accomplished sooo much and has been a regular face in our newspaper, people know us wherever we go. Not counted all the recognitions and solicitations from different colleges and schools across the nation. Anyway, I hope u and ur family have a meaningful Easter.......
Again I say, thnx a lot for the time u spent @ my haus.

Hi there April,

FOR UR VISIT & FOR LEAVING ME UR SWEET NOTE!!!!

Hi April,


I wish you have tons of fun with ur loving family.