Karl @ 16 months

Karl is growing like a weed. Erik came home last night and exclaimed that he was much bigger than when he left in the morning. Maybe not quite that extreme, but Karl is now able to grab things off of countertops and table tops.

Let's say you decide that you'll outsmart him. You'll put your important thing in the MIDDLE of the table. Wrong. Karl is a climber. All bets are off.

He has figured out how to climb up on our bed, climb into his highchair, climb onto the couch, and climb up a dining room chair onto our table. Last night he was having a great time sitting in the middle of the table. This morning I took a picture of him standing on it. Our kid is fearless. (Please ignore his little hiding place under our table for his toys)

Sleep training has started. I am always reluctant to talk about sleep on our blog because there is such a stigma attached to co-sleepers or children not sleeping through the night at 6 months. We have had no problems letting Karl nurse through the night and join us in our bed after his initial wake up. However, as my previous post relays...I am TIRED! I think this is exacerbated by Karl's nighttime nursing. Even when we cosleep he still wakes up quite frequently- about every 90 minutes- to switch sides, nurse, and go back to sleep. I haven't slept more than 5 hours in a row since October 10th, 2009. This takes quite a toll on ones body, if you can imagine.

Last night it took quite a bit of convincing to get Karl to sleep. Finally he was out. Two hours later, like normal, he woke up expecting to be nursed and brought to a bed. Sorry, little guy! Not tonight. I tried my best to get him back to sleep without nursing, but he associates me so much with night nursing that it was impossible. Erik went in there said "hush, hush, it's bed time" and 20 seconds later Karl was out. Same deal an hour later. I asked him "do you want Daddy?" and he signed 'yes'. Heart broken, I returned to bed and sent Erik in. 30 seconds later there was no more crying. He slept another 3 hours. Same thing. But then, he slept for 5 hours until 9. I couldn't believe it.

We've got another few hard nights in front of us, but I think it's for the best. I don't want Karl to get much older before I night wean him as it will just continue to get harder. I also don't want to keep up this pattern of not sleeping. I might feel differently if he were a completely baby today, but he is just as happy and sweet as usual.

Here is out sweet boy waking up from naptime

Karl also has quite a strange sense of humor. He laughs at the weirdest things. Last night we heard him playing his xylophone and then laughing. Not too weird, right? Then we looked down and saw what he was playing it with. His head. He was whacking his head with the xylophone and giggling. I took some pictures.

What a weirdo.

Karl still isn't talking much, but is signing fairly often. His favorite sign is still 'grandpa'. I am looking forward to hearing new words besides Dada and Doggy.

Here is Karl signing 'grandpa'.

Here are a few more pictures where I think he looks so much like a little boy holding on to the top of his pants. What happened to my little baby?