Karsten: Eight Months

Another month down.  Let's see... we have 2 more months until Kate turns FOUR and 4 more months until Karsten turns ONE.  Guess we better figure out the party plan and situation pretty quickly, huh?

Anyway, Karsten is now eight months old and I'm just choosing to ignore it and pretend she's still 7 months. :)  This month she has grown so much and has so many new "skills".  It is crazy how fast kids grow and pick up on things.  I think that all the time with Kate, and Karsten is no different.  So, here's what this baby has been up to...

Karsten is growing like a weed!  We've been putting her in 9 month clothes for the past month or so, even though they were a tad big.  She is starting to fill them out a little better, but still has some room.

She's still wearing Size 3 diapers and fits into them well. Huggies seem to fit her the best, though we bought a pack of Target diapers for the first time yesterday and those seem to do well too.  Target diapers ended up working the best for Kate's size/shape, so that's pretty much all we bought for nearly 3 years.  I got pretty familiar with those blue and green polka dots.  Between Kate being potty trained about a year ago, and Karsten joining our family, Target must have redesigned their diapers.  They still have the same polka dots, but they are so much thinner than they used to be!  Maybe I'm just going crazy.  They work though, so I don't really care!   

She started sleeping through the night last month, and so far it has continued. She woke up super early a few times this past month, and she also had a few really fussy days the past week, but Kate has been sick with a cold, that she sweetly shared with Karsten, so we think that probably had something to do with the fussiness.

However, we also think the fussiness might have to do with teething!  So far, this sweet girl has ZERO teeth, and we don't see any signs of them.  I have a feeling that when the first one pops through, the rest will come in like crazy.  So if that is what happens, I feel like she's gonna have some serious teething pain.

See this little face? 

She LOVES to suck on her bottom lip.  She also sucks it in and pops it back out.

And her latest milestone?  Crawling!  Well, sort of!  Karsten hasn't quite gotten down the whole left arm, right leg, right arm, left leg thing down, but she gets where she is going!  She is like an inchworm. She raises up and looks like she is about to crawl, then pushes forward, lays down, slides a little bit, and starts over again. It's pretty amusing. I guess both of my kids decided to just skip the normal crawl and create their own way of moving.

And as soon as she learned how to "crawl", she learned how to climb. She has climbed onto our fireplace hearth, climbed to the foot section of her exersaucer, climbed on top of Kate, and so much more.  In anticipation of the next phase (pulling up), we moved her crib down another notch.

And another big milestone - talking!  So far, she only says Dada.  Tear.  No "Mama" yet.  I will say, I've heard Mama come out, but only at random times and she doesn't know what she's saying. She is pretty consistent with Dada though and will say it when she is looking at Kevin so I'm going to give her credit on this one.

I sure do love this sweet smile!  Oh, and check out how long her hair has gotten!  This doesn't really show it, but the back and sides are finally growing out a bit.  For the past 8 months, she's had curly hair on top, but the sides and back have been so short, there weren't any curls. It's definitely starting to curl now. I love it!

And that's the past month. It's flown by.  We've been on-the-go for sure, which I'm sure made time feel like it was flying by even faster.  And even though it flew by, Karsten made so many changes this month.  It makes me wonder what I'll be writing next month when she turns NINE months old??