18 months

Well Carter you were 20 months old on Wednesday but we just had your 18 month appointment last week. Whoops! You turned 18 months at the begining of December and with Christmas, New Years and NOLA we've just now gotten around to it.

 You are finally slowing down a little in the growth department. You have been in 75-90% since you were a month old. Now you weigh 26 pounds (50%) and are 32"(50%), but your head is still in the 90-95th%. You've had a huge head since birth. We're still waiting for you to grow into it!

I know I say this about every age it seems like, but I honestly would love to keep you this age forever. I love how you think you are so grown up, but you are still a baby when I need you to be and when I want to rock you and hold you.

You are saying so much these days and people have stopped to comment on how clear you are with your words. You have a vocabulary of over 50 words. I'm not sure I can list them all out off the top of my head, but I will try to list as many as I can.

Mama
Dada
Ro-Rose
Car 'r (carter)
Bi-bite
Bye
Hey
Bonnie
Jeremy
whaaat? (what?)
Fen fi (french fry)
Bi-men (vitamin)
duice (juice)
drink
baba
kitty
ere kitty (here kitty)
ball
sa (sock)
boots
sthoes (shoes)
choo-choo
night
pa (popsickle)
peas (please)
tan-too (thank you)
more
me mouse (micky mouse)
baabee (baby)
nonnie
pawpaw
nana
papa
maaa-maaa (Uncle Matt Matt)
Five (high five)
yes
no
fish
cheese(when taking a picture)
kenzie (our next door neighbor that I keep twice a week)
DON'T ( this is so funny!! if I start singing a song in the car and you don't want to sing along with me you will yell out "mama, mama" & when I say what? You yell "DON'T!")

You can also sing the alphabet partially (a, b, d, d, e, f, d, and then you start over at a & keep repeating yourself). You can sing "rain, rain go away" (rain rain rain rain rain over and over again to the tune of it). You can make the sounds of a cat, dog, cow, pig, rooster, duck, & horse when asked.

You LOVE the TV these days. It used to never exist to you before now but now you insist on turning it on first thing every morning and night and will yell DORA or ME MOUSE. And if neither one of those shows are on you will go and get the remote and bring it to me whining.

 You copy EVERYTHING your sister does and you have absolutely no fear.

 You LOVE your sister and your sister LOVES you. Ya'll literally are inseperable right now. If you ask MR who her best friend is she says Brooklyn & Carter. Ya'll walk around the house holding hands all the time. Sometimes ya'll will hold hands in your carseats while we are driving somewhere. I'm so proud of the way ya'll play together. Your dad and I are constantly talking about how cute ya'll are after when you're playing after your bath.

 We've officially cut the bottle! You haven't had a bottle in 2 weeks and we have limited your passie to your bed and Church only. So, pretty much nap time and bedtime (and sometimes time outs). You know you can't get out of your bed if you have your passie in your mouth so sometimes you will wake up and just lay in your bed to suck.

You are HILARIOUS!! We are constantly laughing when you're around. You LOVE your sisters shoes and you will go into her closet and get different pairs & wear them around the house all day long. You will also put on any pair of glasses/sunglasses/hats/boots.  You love to dress yourself in whatever you can find.

 This is your new camera face. You deepen your voice, put your chin down and yell out CHEESE.

And here's another "CHEESE" picture!

 You love to *love* on kitty (as you body slam her) you will soften your voice and say *awww kitty* over and over again. Pretty sure she tries as hard as possible to avoid you at all times.

You've got Auburn hair and blueish/greenish eyes with the longest, darkest and prettiest eyelashes. You are extremely fair complected. You are in a size 5.5 - 6 shoe. You think you are so old and wonder why you get treated like a baby sometimes.

You are STILL a hit or miss when it comes to sleeping through the night. Sometimes you will sleep 7 to 7 and sometimes you will sleep 10 to 6 with 2-3 wakeups in between. We never know! It seems like you have good and bad weeks. One week you sleep awesome and the next you are up every night. If you want a baby brother or sister you are going to HAVE TO start sleeping through the night buddy!

I'm sure I'm leaving off some things but this is pretty much YOU these days! I love you sooooo much and you are such a blessing to us! I couldn't imagine how boring life would be without you in it. You bring so much laughter and joy.

Organization & Such

While I'm working on Carter's 18 month post I figured I'd show you a few things we've done around the house recently. Christmas really outdid us this year and we had no option but to clean out and get rid of old toys & clothes. It feels so good to get organized and back on track again!

These letter stickers are from the Dollar Store. I thought they were really cute and figured I could use them somewhere since they were only $1.

 I used them as a border around the kids bathroom and I'd say it looks pretty cute. Plus, while MR is laying down getting the shampoo out of her hair in the bathtub, we look up and point out the letters in her name.

 I bought this pink shelf from Target for $39.99 & let me just say I could buy a million more of these things. They are so great for toys and books. Nothing like something that looks cute and hides junk/clutter.

 MR got so much Littlest Pet Shop stuff from my Inlaws for Christmas so these baskets are perfect storage for all those little pieces. It's quick and easy cleanup too because all you have to do is throw all the toys into those containers and no one knows just how junky they are!

The white shelf you see in the corner here is a smaller (actually for a desk) version of the pink shelf in the previous picture. I put them in the kids closets. It is so perfect for the kids shoes! And I bought a few containers to go in them too & in MR's room I use her containers for her tights.

 The 3 drawer plastic dresser is ALL of her dress up clothes. I had to get something else besides a laundry basket because it wouldn't all fit and I love how now it is in her closet with all the rest of her clothes/shoes. Put away and hidden, yet easy for her to get to and play with.

 Here is Carter's shoe rack. Same as MR's just turned horizontally. In his containers, I put all of his summer shoes (sandals, crocs, etc.) They are hidden so when I tell him to go and get his shoes he won't come back with his crocs on. LOL. Obviously we know what his favorite pair are! He always goes straight for the crocs, rain or shine!

 We've turned his changing table into shelves for toys.

 This is a wooden stool I bought at Michael's on clearance last year and I painted it to match his room. It's mainly used hold his door open, but sometimes he uses it to turn on his light and brush his teeth.

 I bought this shelf at a garage sale in the fall for $10. Kinda pricey but it was brand new (tags & all) and it's Pottery Barn. I actually think it's supposed to go in a bathroom for magazines but we put it out in our loft/playroom with books and dvd's. It's perfect!

 This dresser/cabinet is another yard sale item. Only $5. And I love anything that hides clutter. Have I mentioned that enough?? It was plain brown wood & I sprayed it with a few coats of krylon paint.

 You can see how bad the inside looks and Jeremy needs to put a piece of plywood on the back of it b/c if it weren't up against the wall all the toys would fall out the backside, but so far I'm enjoying the idea of hiding the toys.

 This is how our loft/playroom looks these days. Most toys are hidden in some way or another.

 These shelves were taken out of Carter's room because I thought they looked cuter than his tool bench and riding horse that used to be under his window.

 I bought frames to hang our caricature pictures we had drawn at Homestead Hollow for the past 2 years.

 And I took this picture from my parent's house. This is a portrait of me when I was in 2nd grade. I want to do some portraits of my kids and hang it next to mine!

Happy Hump Day!!