Kara is 19 months.

I don't know if it's not having ear infections for an entire month (for the first time since July), but she is such a happy little kid!

One of my all time favorite pictures of her.

This month has been one of great growth. She's shot up in height, out grew all her shoes, and has quite a vocabulary now.

She's such a mimic - she'll copy anything you say... good or bad. Her favorite word is "Daddy." When ever Mama doesn't fall for the drama queen act, she begins a chorus of "Daddy!" She also has another favorite word, in the right company, of course. "Gapa, Gapa, Gapa." She'll say "Papa" (Jana's name for Grandpa S), but Kara has decided that he is "Gapa," and boy does she have him wrapped around her little finger!

She's getting 'the look' down. She is such a charmer. She has the look down that prompts most strangers to come over and say, "She's so cute!" But, Kara always starts it, with the coy smile and puppy-dog eyes.

Kara Mae still likes to take everything in, then proceed with the goings on around her. She spends lots of time watching her sister and cousins before joining in. After two trips to Grammy and Papa's house (Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas) with the cousins, she's starting to learn now NOT to be underfoot all the time. She lets the other three play chase with the big Tonka trucks and bus, but then takes her turn of running crazy and crashing into everything when they're busy doing other things. I'm not sure this one is going to have Mama's competitive streak.

Kara's other new love (thanks to Jana's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse obsession) is "Meenee" or Minnie to the rest of us. Any time she sees a Mickey or Minnie, she yells "Meenee" with such excitement.

Jana and Kara are starting to play together more; however, Jana has the old adage as her new philosophy on toys, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too." This makes sharing difficult and when Kara gets old enough to decide she doesn't want to give Jana the toy she has, we're going to be in trouble. They still insist on being together and now that they share a room, they hardly want to be apart. They copy each other and now Jana's starting to get into "matching sissy!"

Kara's hair is finally starting to grow; however, I think she's going to be slower to get it than Jana was. We can get a clip in and a couple of rather pathetic "piggies". She wasn't a fan of them, but loved them once they were in.

Another new obsession for Kara this month are "ats" (hats). Daddy bought her a Seahawk hat and she now LOVES all hats. Especially Daddy's.

Daddy and Kara in some Seahawk Santa hats.

Kara is still very much a climber. She finds everything and anything to climb in or on... including the ornament boxes when we were decorating the tree. She was happy sitting her for about 20 minutes.

She's still our drama queen! One minute she's fine. Next, we have the wind up.

Then the full-blown histeria!

And then it's over and we're back to smiles. What was this over? Not a clue!

I know this has been documented in many pictures, but this is Kara's 2nd most favorite thing in the world, next two her precious blankie - the fuzzy bear jacket! She can be pink cheeked and sweating, but will refuse to take this off. She has been known to scream so much when taking it off, that she's been allowed to sleep with it. I have no idea what we'll do when she out grows this. Yikes! This has also resulted in Papa's favorite nickname for her - Kara bear.

Daddy and Kara swinging.

And here's our poor little girl all bundled up for the first round of snow. She's so in between sizes right now. I think these snow pants are 2T. Poor kid could hardly walk.

Kara's new words this month:
"Ah Juice" (juice)
"o-ger" (yogurt)
"mo-mo-mo" (more)
"moke" (milk)
"chsssss" (yes, note the complete lack of vowels here - cheese)
"eeeshees" (fishies - gold fish crackers)
"I duck" (I stuck)
"cack cack" (quack, quack)
"Meeeneee" (Minnie Mouse)

and our favorite!!!

"Why -ya" (our dog Maiya) She's got the M sound down, but no, she insists on calling the dog Why - ya. And it's always a yell, calling to her, no matter how close the dog is.