18 months!

Carsten is 18 months! Where does the time go?! :) Here are a couple of Carsten at 18 months:

Playing outside our apartment.

Sleeping in his stroller. So sweet!

Bouncing on his ball on top of the futon. There have been a few more spills lately due to this new adventurous stage.

Most of what he's been up to in the last month has been expanding his vocabulary. He's started really trying words when we ask, which is pretty fun :). Here's our attempt at what is probably an incomplete list:

Dada
Mama
Grandpa
Grandma
all done
more
please
drink
milk
eat
hot
trash
tractor
truck
train
crane
dump (as in dump truck :) )
digger
key
tree
giraffe
elephant
shark
turtle
clock
pickle

yessit

stroller
ball
book
blankie
bar
baby
box
bye bye!
cheese
banana (sounds more like baba, but it means banana)
apple
empty
circle (yes he correctly identifies circles)
star (and yes, he also correctly identifies stars :) )
fish
duck
dat! (his word for his beloved spatula)
up 
down
no
tic toc
block 

open

sock

uh oh

teeth

brush

stuck

help

kick

pepper

bowl

spoon

fork

sounds: 
meow
baa
moo
neigh
woof woof
elephant trumpet
roar! (like a lion)
vroom


Random accomplishments at 18 months: 


Some other major accomplishments that I'm not sure that I've mentioned before is that he can correctly do all of his wooden puzzles. He will even remove pieces that we incorrectly place and put them into the correct place. What a kid :). He also likes to stack blocks and then knock down his towers. He can identify different body parts like eyes, nose, ears, mouth, elbow, hair, head, toes, and knees. He's also very good at identifying nouns in books and elsewhere in life (like the zoo or store). Carsten's favorite toys are his spatula, laundry basket, ball, bucket, truck, and digger. He also really likes his books, and has enjoyed doing some craft time this month which is usually coloring or playing with play-doh. Carsten is also proficient with a spoon and fork, making mealtimes pretty easy lately. He is generally not a picky eater and will even eat his vegetables, and Carsten's favorite foods are bananas, apples, chocolate, pasta, bacon, and granola. Lately Carsten really enjoys attempting to brush his hair and teeth; in fact, he asks to brush his teeth multiple times a day. We have also started letting Carsten climb up and down our 3 flights of stairs by himself, which is much slower overall but is a big help in terms of carrying less weight up and down :). Climbing furniture isn't that interesting anymore, so he's added a new twist by sitting on the ball or a laundry basket on the furniture; this has caused quite a few big falls lately, which has not been a fun highlight.

Sitting on his ball on the futon - not exactly a 'safety 1st' type of situation.

Carsten spends most of his time on our train looking for construction equipment and trains, which really helps to make our 35 min train ride to feel a lot shorter :). He gets very excited and usually knows where the aforementioned vehicles are located along the train line. Here's a video of Carsten on our train ride: