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

12 Months

   Wow, twelve months old already!  I'm amazed by how much can happen to a little person in just one year.  She's gone from a tiny person who didn't know how to eat or sleep by herself, to a little toddler with the biggest personality and her own opinions about what she should be eating, and when she should be sleeping.  I can't boast that I made her myself anymore, because she's so much greater and bigger than anything I could have ever accomplished.  I'm so proud to have such a big-hearted, fearless girl who loves so freely and openly.
   She has become so independent.  She crawls so fast, cruises laps around the furniture, races her wagon back and forth across the house.  She refuses to be hand fed, and has very decided opinions about which foods she will and will not eat, and "mush" is definitely out of the question.  She loves Sunday school and play-dates.  If I left her in a room full of children, she would stay happy indefinitely, and forget she ever had parents.
  She tries so hard to be grown-up.  Everyday I catch her trying to imitate me doing things, like trying to drink from a water-bottle, read a book, write with a pen, talk on the phone, push carts at the store or open and close containers.  She imitates the way David and I talk, too.  When we leave her in her high-chair for a while she starts to babble, and sometimes she sounds just like me and David when we pick on each other.
  I'm so grateful that she loves music so much.  She dances and claps whenever she hears music, or even when I sing or whistle to her.  She loves to bang on everything and gets so excited when she can make two different sounds at the same time.  Her favorite toy is is her new xylophone, she'll go straight to it and dig it out of a huge pile of toys every time she sees it.  She holds her mallet so artfully, like a tiny maestro.
  I'm pretty intimidated by the thought of raising a toddler.  Raising a baby was easy.  All I had to do was feed her, change her, love her and play with her.  Now she'll require activities, meals, and patience (I am the polar opposite of structure and graciousness).  
Here's to one year conquered, may the next be just as delightful!

Cool Stuff she can do:
Give kisses
Dance
Clap to music
Walk (10 steps is her record!)
Climb stairs
Bend over and pick stuff up

Actively play Peekaboo
Play hide-and-seek with a phone

Throw stuff overhand (usually food)
Pull her wagon backwords

Stuff she likes:
Playing chase or peekaboo with her buddy
Her toy xylophone
Digging in my purse
"swimming"
Buckets
Drawing
Animals
Bread, cheerios, pasta, as long as it's not a vegetable and it's been baked
Nibbling

Tooth Count:
Four, plus two more upper teeth on the way

Words she can sign:
More, milk, food, up, please

Words she can say:
Hi

More Pleez

She's still working on it.

11 Months

   So much has changed in the last month, I feel like I have a whole new baby!  She is a speedy little crawler, and she could get into anything if I'd let her.  Our house is officially Baby-Land, with gates, corrals, outlet covers, toys and cheerios everywhere.  She is constantly moving.  She can walk one-handed and stand up on her own.  She cruises around everything and she has even taken one step on her own (although I think she might have just lost her balance).  Her newest thrill is dancing.  Whether standing or sitting, as soon as she hears music she bobs up and down or back and forth.
   She has also started "putting away" and sharing her toys.  I have found her filling buckets, bread pans, orange cones and shoes with toys.  She loves to move things back and forth and fills my lap with toys.
  She has a growing fascination with her feet.  If she is standing, she likes to pat things with her feet or she will put her feet up when she is sitting at the table.  She loves when I play with her piggies.
   She is becoming so goofy, and I think she has her parents' strange sense of humor.  Sometimes she will laugh just because of the way I look at her.
   I can't believe that this is my last monthly post before her first birthday.  Every day I wish that I could just press Pause on her and keep her from growing just a little while longer.  Just long enough to catch up.  I don't think I'm ready for her to keep growing and I'm so afraid that I'll miss something or that I'll forget the most beautiful little moments.
   It makes me sad to know that she won't remember this time.  She won't remember all the cuddles and story times, or how she fits so neatly between my arms, pressed against my chest. 
   People might make fun of moms for being cheesy and emotional, but there is never any time that I have been more happy and fulfilled and full of love than when I'm holding my child.  I never understood that before I had her, and I never would have.  That's also why moms have ladies retreats and go to Mama Mia together.  We need to be around other people who are the same kind of crazy.

  Emotional mommy stuff: CHECK
  Up next: BRAGGING

Cool stuff she can do:
   crawl
   walk while holding one hand
   stand alone (while clapping, too)
   dance
   make monkey and elephant noises, and woof
   fill things with toys and share
   drink from a cup
   wave hello
   play peekaboo and hide and seek

Favorite things of assorted varieties:
   wheeled push toy
   blocks
   pictures of people, especially babies and people she recognizes
   tomatoes, asparagus and cheerios or any food on the floor
   emptying the dishwasher and the pantry
   kids
   being carried on our shoulders
   being tickled by feet
   streaking

Tooth count:
   Two on the bottom, two more on the way on the top
  
 

Just a Typical Day: I Eat My Carrots

We went to the National Mall to look at the cherry trees.  There were no blooms in sight, but we shall come again.  A little bit of bad timing never kept me away from pretty flowers.

We ended up eating our lunch near the National Monument.  Little got impatient with me while I was watching all the kites, and she decided to feed herself.  Cuteness later ensued.

 

 

 

Annora: 6 and 7 Months

Little turned six months old while we were away for Christmas, so month six is getting thrown in with month seven.  So much has happened in two months!

 

 

 

Little's Discoveries and New Behaviors:
Sitting.  Her best friend Adeline taught her this one
Eating Cheerios.  She invented her own sign for "more" by slapping her tray.
Banging on things with a stick.  Or a spoon, or fork, or her hand.  Just banging in general.
Screaming.  David's favorite.
Moving towards things that she wants by rolling or diving.  Next lesson: gravity.
Elephant noises.  This one kills me.
Standing while leaning or grabbing something.  Little Miss Independent picks out her own toys now.
Bouncing.  Or the Flipper flap, depending on how you look at it.
Drinking from a sippy cup.  Or holding it while milk dribbles down her neck.

In Progress:
Supporting herself on her hands and knees while doing the Flipper Flap and saying "UhUhUhUhUhUhUh."

 

  

My favorite part about seven months is how much she loves me.  She loves to cuddle and hug and chew on my face (I think that's supposed to be kissing).  Whenever anyone else is holding her she makes a Kamikaze dive into my arms.  I love having a Momma's girl.

Her favorite things:  Elephant noises, flying upside down, mirrors, Mommy, her sippy-cup, oatmeal, cheerios, her feet, empty boxes, playing Pop Goes the Weasel and dogs.

First Foods

I've been feeding Little solids since about age 4 months.  I knew all about the recommended 6 months waiting period, but I also knew that everyone in my family had been fed solids at 3 months and turned out fine.  Also, Little informed me that she wanted big girl food by trying to steal mine and eventually spilling soup all over my lap.  So I caved.

First we tried oatmeal.

Then we tried rice.  She liked that a lot better.

Then Cheerios

Sweet Potatoes

Carrots

Asparagus

Mango

Avocado.

I seriously think this kid would eat anything!  Please tell me it's always this easy.

She can even feed herself now.

Seeing it breaks my heart.

  

What's next?  Crawling?  Saying Momma?  I don't think my heart can take it.