Sweet 16

Today is Karterman's "Golden Month Birthday!" I am pretty sure I just made that up, but he is 16 months today...on the 16th! In honor of his golden month birthday, Karter decided to sleep until 8am this morning. This is the latest that he has ever slept in and it actually worried me a little, but hopefully this is a new phase for him! After a quick breakfast, we were out the door to his 16th month check-up. Dr. McKenzie was very impressed with Karter's development, and she said she had to keep reminding herself that he is only 16 months because he looks like a 2 1/2 year old. That isn't exactly what this mama wanted to hear, but it is true he definitely doesn't look like a baby anymore. In fact, the poor boy doesn't even have any baby fat left on him. Today he weighed in at 24.5lbs (40%) which is only 2 oz more than he weighed 3 months ago. Dr. M wasn't worried at all, she said it was completely normal because typically kids at this age don't stop moving and lose some weight. She was definitely right, Karterman never slows down! He is going to be a tall skinny kid, because today his height was 34.5 in (98%). The rest of the appointment was terrible for Karter, he had to get 5 shots today. Luckily I was thinking before we left home and I grabbed Elmo and chocolate covered raisins, the combination of the two calmed him down rather quickly. Karter was then happy to hear that he doesn't have to go back until he is 2!

Here is a list of what Karter has been up to lately:

• Despite his weight, Karter loves to eat. He eats 3 good meals, plus 1-2 snacks a day a drinks 4 sippy cups of milk and 1 juice cup. He is very independent and now feeds himself 100% of the time. I will often try to give him the first bite so he has a taste of the food, but he grunts until I just give him the spoon to do it himself.
• His favorite foods are: apples, fruit bars, mashed potatoes, any kind of pasta, pizza, french fries, kethcup, corn, yogurt, cheese, grapes, raisins and fruit snacks. Although he will eat just about anything these days, but if any of these foods are on the table he would prefer them.
• Reading books! Karter LOVES to have us read books to him. Everyday, multiple times a day, he will bring us book after book to read until we have read everyone in the cabinet. Even though I am a little sick of reading some of the books, it is so precious to have him come crawl in my lap and want to snuggle while we read! Whenever we go to change his diaper he brings a book with him and will "read" it to himself while we change him...how cute!
• Like I said before, Karter is non-stop, always on the go! He can't play with one toy for more the 10 minutes before he moves on to the next. Besides books, his favorite toys are any kind of ball, his building blocks and anything with wheels that he can pretend is a truck. He gathers all of his trucks on the coffee table and makes noises while he drives them around.
• Everyday Karter impresses me with something. Last week we were building a tower with his blocks and Karter started to only bring us blocks that matched. It was fun to watch him because you could see him searching for just the matching blocks. He also likes to match things in his books when we are reading. This example is kind of silly, but I thought it was cute...Today while I was getting ready, Karter was going through my bathroom cabinet. He loves to pull things out and have us show him what it does. One thing he pulled out today was a bottle of his baby tylenol, he handed it to me and started laughing and ran away. I didn't know where he went, but a moment later he was back and handed me another bottle of baby tylenol. He had ran into his room and got the one we keep on his dresser. How smart is he matching those to things?!!
• Karter is obsessed with cats, monkeys and dogs (especially Rascal!). He can point out any of these animals in any book or even just walking down the street...although we don't see too many monkeys just walking down the street!
• He has definitely found his first favorite character and that is Elmo! Our TV upstairs is broken, so I DVR him Sesame Street every now and then downstairs, but he isn't interested in watching it until he sees that Elmo is going to be on. He can point Elmo out anywhere too, even if it is just on his diaper. He loves that red little guy!
• Karter is such a helper and wants to do big boy things. Sometimes his willingness to help is great and other times not so much. He is great at helping unload the dishwasher and unloading the groceries from the bags. He is so patient and will hand you things one by one! He also likes to help throw things away, put his toys away, dust and vacuum, which he is getting better at helping with, but he isn't very good at helping put laundry away. I let him help, even though it usually means I have to refold everything, but how can you deny his help, he gets so proud of himself!

Our little monkey is just getting so big and is such a joy to be around!! It is hard to imagine our lives before we had Karter, he is a true blessing to our family! We love you, Karter!!