Karl- 18 months

Does it even seem possible than in 6 months Karl will turn 2? Here is a run down of some of the things Karl is now doing as an 18 month old.

1. Karl likes to feed himself with a fork & spoon now.

We usually give him a kid spoon :)

2. Karl loves being outside. If you say the word he is at the door in mere seconds. Sadly, he has figured out how to open our glass front door and if you leave it unattended he will push it open and waddle outside. It doesn't matter if he has shoes on or not!

These are pictures of our weekend in Monterey, VA. Karl loves being able to play in the yard there.

3. Karl is talking more than ever. He now likes to mimic what we say. I said "do you want to go downstairs" and Karl said "downstairs". We just taught him a few new words including: walnut ('walney'), banana ('manana'), and birthday ('birda'). I expect in a few more weeks that he is going to be copying a lot more of our speech. It's really fun to see him expand his vocabulary.

4. The love of buttons is still going strong. Karl has recently discovered that the front car seats are fantastic. He likes to sit in the drivers seat and press all the buttons. The Prius is the most fun, but Erik's new car isn't bad either. He also really loves pushing the caps lock button on our computer since a little green light comes on when you do. It's a pain when you're trying to type something and every other letter is capitalized.

5. We have hit the stage of development where Karl likes to figure out where things go. Karl loves playing with the box that has cut outs for wooden shapes to fit in. At church he runs through the aisles taking the pens an then putting them back carefully in the little drilled out holes for them. He is now sitting next to me with a wine bottle stopper as well as a candle and is taking turns putting them in the candle stick.

6. Our current worry over Karl is this strange rash he has on the bottoms of his feet, his big toes, one palm of a hand, and his forearms. It doesn't bother him at all so we are trying to rule things out before we do any testing. This week is a no gluten week for Karl. He was very upset yesterday when he couldn't have a cracker at church fellowship. Good thing he loves yogurt for a snack!

We don't have a great picture.

7. Karl is very mommy centric right now. When I drop him off at church nursery or leave him with Erik he cries and cries. If I don't distract him with other things (say a candlestick holder and wine stopper) or give 100% of my attention to him he gets very upset. He hates when I cook dinner because I can't pick him up and play. I wonder if this is a common problem for stay at home parents?

8. In the picture above you can see that he has almost all of his teeth. We are just missing his bottom canines (and his 2nd year molars which will come in the next 6 months or soqa). His bottom canines are very swollen and we can see the teeth under his gums.

9. Karl is getting more handsome each day. Here he is modeling a garment brought back from India by our next door neighbor. It's a little long, but it's perfect for this weather.

10. Overall, Karl is a very happy kid.