Karsten is now FIVE months old. Craziness, I tell ya! I feel like our lives are so much more FULL than they have ever been before. And I mean FULL in so many different ways. We are busy. Things are hectic. We are exhausted. But we wouldn't change a thing.
Well... maybe we would sleep a bit more. :) This girl is still not quite sleeping through the night. No matter if we feed her at 7pm or wait and feed her at 9pm (or even 10 or 11), she's gonna wake up sometime between 3-5ish to eat. Sometimes, she doesn't even wake up to eat. She just wants to wake up to tell us "hey" and then she will go back to sleep. Now, I will say, her sleep is so much better than it was even a month ago. So hopefully in the next month we will start making it until about 6 am. Then Mama and Dada will feel rested again.
We are loving all of her new expressions and sounds. It is so fun watching a little personality emerge. I can definitely tell differences and similarities in Karsten and Kate.
Kate was my independent, outgoing, extroverted, DRAMATIC baby/toddler/girl.
Karsten has a bit of the dramatic flair going on, but she is more reserved than Kate. Even at the baby stage, Kate would go to just about any person. She didn't care who held her, though she did go through a phase where she was not fond of men with beards. Karsten is a bit more timid. She is definitely not shy, but she has to check out the scene before she is comfortable enough to get handed around. We've noticed this lately, especially when we go to small group. When we go somewhere where there are lots of people around, Karsten likes for either Kevin and I to hold her for at least the first few minutes after we get there. If we hand her off to someone immediately after we get there (even if it is someone she knows really well), she will often break out in tears.
I kind of love this. At least I know she loves her Mama! :)
Karsten also makes you EARN those smiles. She is generally a happy baby, but she does make you earn the smiles and the laughs! And we love to see them.
I was telling Kevin the other day that I think she is similar to Kate in that when she gets REALLY tired, later at night, she gets almost deliriously happy. This is when we get the biggest giggles!
She is growing so quickly and getting to be such a big girl. Right now she is wearing Size 2 diapers, but when this last package runs out, we're going to be bumping her up to Size 3. She is wearing 6 month clothes, and they seem to fit her pretty well. I also stick her in some 9 month stuff and roll up the sleeves, since we have a good many winterish 9 month clothes from Kate.
I think Karsten will be wearing 9 month stuff in the spring/summer which means we will probably have to buy some of those sizes, since Kate was in 12-18 months by summertime. We'll just see how it all works out. I'm sure some of Kate's old clothes will work well with the way the sizes and seasons fall, and some probably won't end up working at all. We'll take whatever we can get!
We don't see any teeth yet but we have PLENTY of drool. Karsten pretty much wears a bib most of the time when we are home. If she doesn't, she ends up soaking wet. And of course, her hands are in her mouth about 90% of the time. She can pretty much fit her entire fist in her mouth. Not sure why that's so appealing to her, but it is!
We gave Karsten a little rice cereal about a week ago. She was not a fan. And I'm not convinced that it didn't hurt her tummy a little bit, because she woke up screaming around midnight, when she normally makes it until at least 3am. So we haven't given that to her again.
We tried bananas a few nights ago. I'm not really sure if she liked it or not. She's still in that "what in the world is in my mouth" phase. So I'd spoon a little bit in her mouth, and she'd promptly spit it back out. We'll try again in a day or two. I'm not in a rush to start solids, so if she's not ready, we'll just try again later.
This is my "I-attempted-to-take-a-picture-of-both-kids-but-after-28-shots-I-gave-up" picture. It really is amusing for me to see the progression of pictures. When I FINALLY get a good one of one kid, the other kid is either not looking, eyes are closed, is falling over, or something. I figured I'd try again at bedtime.
And this was the best I could get after about 30 attempts. I really give up. :) But hey, at least they're both looking!
Karsten probably loves Kate best of anybody. She loves, loves, LOVES her sister. Remember I said that she makes us earn those smiles? Well, that doesn't apply to Kate. Kate gets ALL the smiles.
And my favorite part of these monthly updates. I just love looking back at the monthly pictures to see how much Karsten has changed in such a short period of time.
Happy FIVE months, sweet girl. We can't imagine our family without you in it! God sure knew exactly what He was doing when He created you! We are so very thankful for your life.
She is just the cutest little thing. The pic of her and Kate is just precious. My JP is just 3 months and he's the king of drool. His 3 siblings never drooled this much!
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