Karsten – 18 Months

Another milestone for this little one. 18 months! (Technically, this was back on April 6th.) I can’t even believe it. So here is what she is up to…

I’ve always felt like Karsten was my tiny little girl, and then in the last few weeks I think she hit a growth spurt and just took off!  She’s still wearing Size 3 diapers, but only until we run out of the pack we are on.  We’re about to move up to Size 4’s!  She’s wearing 18-24 month clothes and can wear some 2T, thought it’s still a little big on her.  She is in a size 5 shoe.

We went to the doctor for her 18 month well check and she is in the 77th percentile for height and 66th percentile for weight.

Karsten is a talker, for sure.  She can say more words than I can even type, and is stringing them together into phrases.  My favorites are:

“Hey baby!”

“Lion Guard!” or “Mickey Mouse”, as she points to the TV.  And then if you pick up the remote, she starts saying “That one!!”

If you ask her where something is, she will put out her hands, palms facing up and say “Ohnt know!” (i.e. – I don’t know)

If you ask her what her name is, she will proudly tell you “Kate!”.  She also knows how to spell Kate.

She can count to 10, and can say many of the numbers between 11-20, but she’s just kind of iffy on that.

She knows some of the ABC’s, but again, she’ll just say random mumbled letters. “G…R…S…M!!!”

Our church has doors that lock with a screwdriver (they are the industrial kind of doors like at a school).  We are obviously often the very last people to leave church, because Karsten has figured out how to lock the door.  We will be standing in the foyer, and Karsten will decide that it is time to leave. So she’ll walk over to where we keep the screwdriver, get it out, walk over to the door, and try to stick it in the slot.  She’ll play with it for a minute and then go put the screwdriver back up and look at us like “All ready!”  Funny girl!

A few nights ago, we were all playing outside in the driveway.  Karsten was about 1/2 way down the driveway, and Kate was at one end riding her bicycle.  Kate asked me to race, so she and I got beside each other and I said “On your mark. Get set. Go!” and off we went. I looked up to see Karsten (who had a HUGE head start on us), running as fast as she could go.  When she got to the end of the driveway, she threw her hands up in the air and started yelling “I won! I won! I won!!”.

She is still tender-hearted and gets her feelings hurt SO easily.  A simple no will put her into tears, and if you discipline her, she sticks out that bottom lip and lowers her head into the funniest pout.

She is SUPER attached to her stuffed bunny.

We stopped giving her a bottle during the day around the one-year mark, but I’ve continued giving her a bottle at night. She is most likely our last baby, and I just haven’t been ready to give it up. I made a promise to myself to stop it by 18 months… and that’s what I did.  On the night she turned 18 months (April 6th) she got her last bottle, and that’s been it.  She has asked for it a few times but I’ve easily distracted her and it’s been fine. I guess I really can put up the bottles now.

I really love our nighttime routine together.  She and I will read a Bible story and rock, and then she’ll put down the book and tell me “Pray!”. A few nights ago she said the sweetest prayer ever:
“Dear God. Tank you. Jesus. Amen.”

There’s nothing better.

We are SO very thankful that this sweet girl is a part of our family.  It’s only been 18 months but it feels like she’s been a part of our family forever.  Her personality keeps coming out, and I can’t wait to see her explore the world even more. She loves her big sister, she loves her mama and she loves her daddy.  And without a doubt, we love her too!