18 Months Old!

Last week Kirsten had her half-birthday! My baby is 18 months old!!!I used to do these Kirsten updates every month but I missed the last couple of months, so here's the lowdown on some of the new things she can do:

*Running and CLIMBING. She climbs up on absolutely everything she possibly can!
*She can slither backwards down the stairs now! That just started recently.
*She's understanding so much more of what I say! She knows what I mean when I say we're going to leave or when we should go upstairs or downstairs, and lots of other things too!
*She goes to nursery during church! She does pretty well in there too so far!
*Words! She doesn't like to talk on command very much, but she will repeat us when she wants to and says random words when she wants to too.

The words we hear most often from her are:
*Hi and Bye! Bye is one of her favorites, and she lets me know when she wants to leave someplace because she just starts saying "Bye!" She says bye to objects and rooms as often as she says bye to people too. :) It's cute!
*Daddy and Mommy, but it must be more fun to say Daddy because she says that much more often than Mommy.
*Boo! She also likes to say something that sounds exactly like buoy. I have no idea what it's supposed to mean!
*She says a few animal names, mostly Kitty, Doggy, Giraffe, and Fish. She can also say "Bock-bock" for a chicken, "Moo" for a cow, "Woof-woof" for dog, and "Roar!" for bear.
*Baby
*Gone
*Off
*No
*Bath
*Light
*What's that?
*Whoa and Wow!
*Uh-oh!
*Ho-ho-ho! That's the most recent one I taught her. I say "Santa says Ho-ho-ho" and she laughs and repeats it.

Here she is at the park with her little friend Saide!

Things Kirsten is obsessed with right now:
*Lights! She says "light" when she sees them and constantly wants to turn the switches off and on. It's like her greatest joy in life right now!
*Our fireplace. She gets SO excited when we turn it on (we have a gas kind that can turn on with a light switch) and immediately she tries to climb up on our end table so she can turn it off. Every time we go downstairs she sees it and starts babbling about it, even if it's not turned on. She calls it "off" for some reason and will point at the fireplace and just say "Off" and want us to make the fire come back.
*Toothbrushes! She likes to brush her teeth every night and doesn't usually want to let go of her toothbrush.
*Carrying random things around the house and putting them in strange places. She especially loves to carry anything with liquid in it that she can shake, like a bottle of hairspray.
*Her sippy cups. They have to always have ice in them, and if the ice all melts she immediately brings it to me so I can put new ice in it.
*Sesame Street and Blue's Clues! She also starts laughing whenever I turn on 'I Love Lucy.' I didn't expect a toddler to find humor in that show yet!
*Hats, or anything she can wear on her head that resembles a hat! She also loves it when I wear a hat and she can take it off me.
*Climbing up everything. It's pretty scary to have a kid who's willing to endanger their life at any point by climbing up things. It's hard to take her to the playground too. She spends all her time there wanting to climb UP the slide and climb on other things, and I have to be right next to her to help her and make sure she doesn't fall.

Her least favorite things right now:
*Not being allowed to climb something.
*Getting her hair combed (always has hated that!) She even cries when I put it in a ponytail or really try to do Anything with it at all!
*Getting her diaper changed. She gets so impatient!
*Books. She very rarely brings books to me anymore, and just doesn't have the attention span to sit through one, much to my disappointment!

Things she still can't quite do:
*Feed herself very well with a spoon. She can try, but it's not too successful!
*Color. I don't know why she won't color, but crayons just go straight into her mouth and she tries to chew on them! Kirsten goes to nursery now, and all the other little kids color. Why can't Kirsten color???
*Go to sleep without her binky in her mouth.

Kirsten really is a great 18 month-old! She sleeps for very long stretches through the night, actually LIKES going to bed, and she's sweet and happy and very busy most of the time!
We love her so much!!!