Friday, August 12, 2011

Thirteen Months





   My-oh-my, what a little mover!  Photographing a 13 month baby is so much harder than photographing a 12 1/2 month baby.  She has completely given up crawling and is walking everywhere.  It seems like walking has doubled her energy.  She can't sit still any longer, which means no reading, no cuddling and no high-chairs.  She's fearless and indestructible.  She wants to run, but doesn't quite have walking down, so she takes a lot of tumbles, but she never cries.  She always gets back up to try it again.  She loves slides, swings and stairs.  I'm already having a hard time catching her at this pace, I fear a little for the time when she learns to run.
   Despite not cuddling, she seems to have become more affectionate.  She's learned how to make kissing noises, give hugs and blow kisses, and she hands them out like candy on the Fourth of July.  She usually gives kisses when you ask for them, and she loves to give her animals hugs and kisses, too.  Sometimes she'll even offer up a few kisses, completely unsolicited.

   She loves to play games and invent new ones.  Some of her favorites are hiding in boxes, playing peekaboo and getting squished between me and the couch.
   David and I seem to have worked out a good bedtime routine.  We give her a bath, read her The Big Red Barn (with David cleverly executing every animal noise),  put on her jammies, sing a song, lay her down, say her prayers and leave her with a lullaby playing.  This was working well enough that we could get her to sleep without a single tear, so we decided to start taking her pacifier away at night.  Now she absolutely loathes bedtime.  The moment she sees one of us holding her book, she throws a royal fit, so we have to skip all the fun stuff and just leave her in her crib until she cries herself to sleep.  It breaks my heart, because singing to her before bed is my favorite time of the day, but I'm afraid if I give her paci back at this point, she will just depend on it more.  Eventually, when she gets used to sleeping without it, we will take it away at nap-time, then in the car, too.  Here's praying that she comes to terms with it soon...
  She's still as social as ever.  She loves Sundays when she gets to see her Sunday-school friends, and lights up whenever she sees her buddy in the morning.  It's so much fun to watch them play peekaboo together and share their toys with one another.  She still loves to go on walks, go shopping, watch us when we play Ultimate Frisbee, and visit the Alexandria boardwalk.
  I'm really looking forward to being able to introduce her to more activities.   Finger-painting and Simon-says are the big ones.  I'm not sure if she's quite there yet, but there's no harm in trying until she gets it.

Cool stuff she can do:
stack 2 blocks
stack rings
walk
climb up and down stairs
go down slides
roll a ball
blow kisses
draw with chalk
pull on hats, necklaces, shirts and bracelets

Favorites:
tomatoes of every variety
eating grape tomatoes straight off the vine
cottage cheese
playing Squish
doggies
musical pull-horse
classical and alternative music
playgrounds

Tooth Count:
still working on #5 + 6 (slowly)

Words she can say (and mean it):
Hi
Mama

5 comments:

  1. Hey hun if you want to try finger painting with her try vanilla pubbing or frosting with different color food coloring can really keep it forever but just let her make a mess on her highchair tray or on paper then take a pic of it blow it up and print it out and hang it up :)

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  2. She can xoxo? I want one!

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  3. She's growing up so fast!  You'll have to try fingerpainted with pudding!  Messy, edible and fun!

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  4. Its the 4th of july I want some of them kisses. Grammpa misses that little Peanut. And you guys too, can I come out yet? LOVE TO. POPS!

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