13 months!

Happy 13 months, baby girl! I can't believe you are already a month into your toddler years. Time sure does fly when you are having fun!

I now see why people forget about the really hard early months with a newborn/infant. It's because toddlers are so much fun! It is amazing to see you learn and grow every day. This is a fun age, because you really do discover something new every single day, it seems.

In the past month or two, you have discovered how to use your two hands together to turn pages in books. It is so cute to see you sitting in a pile of (thrown) books, looking at the pages. You especially love the animal books and you RAAAAAR! at every picture. (Even the fish!) We recently got you one of those annoying books with the sound buttons on the side because it was on clearance for $2. And YOU LOVE IT. You love to go and push the buttons, and you will cross the room to do so if I tell you to "push the button!"

You are so smart and it is amazing to see all of the things you understand. You will do so many things on cue, it is becoming frightening: push the button, put it in the bucket, put it in the wagon, put it on top, put on your shoe, say 'hello' (toy phone), say hi/bye, get the _______, etc. You constantly surprise us with how much you understand.

You are really developing your hand/eye coordination. You stacked one block on top of another the other day, and yesterday at a friend's house, you placed a peg in a pegboard - you held that peg so carefully in your fingers! Today you showed us how you can put the gears in your gear board (previously you only took them out). You try to put your shapes in your shape sorter. You are beginning to realize that crayons are for more than eating, and we can't wait until our fridge is covered with your handiwork. You can be so careful with your toys, but also so destructive, too.

Things you are currently in love with: balls and balloons. You can spot a balloon a mile away in a store, and we have to be very careful to steer clear of the florist section of the grocery store because you go crazy! We hung some balloons on our mailbox nearly a month ago for your birthday party, but to this day if we say the word 'balloon' in the house, you go over to the big bay window to try to catch balloons on the mailbox.

That just goes to show that you don't forget A THING. The other day you threw your sippy cup and it went under the TV stand. A couple of hours later I asked you, "Where is your cup?" and you crouched down and looked under the TV stand! What a cute little smarty pants you are! (I'd like to think you got that from me.)

You continue to eat pretty much any food we put in front of you, though your favorites are pastas and dairy items. You still love broccoli but aren't as thrilled with green beans anymore. You have moved entirely to whole milk and haven't had any more dairy reactions - hooray! You LOVE yogurt, and the other day you had your first taste of ice cream (strawberry). You were so excited and kept signing for 'more' - and you haven't done that sign in months!!!

Current signs you know: more, milk, all done. Current words you occasionally say: ball (ba), bye bye (bah bah), baby (bah beh), all done (ah dah), yucky (ya ya), mama, bottle (baba). You love to laugh and say "ya ya" when Mama tells you that you're using "yucky manners" at dinner time. And then you throw the food all over again, saying "ya ya!" You are going to be quite a handful!

You are still cruising everywhere with no sign of independent walking or standing in sight, although you are getting a wee bit more interested. You will occasionally let go for a couple of seconds if you are distracted, and yesterday you actually turned around and lowered yourself to the ground with nothing to hold on to! You will walk with two hands held for a little while (until you want to go faster) and with one hand held for a couple of steps. We got you some good supportive shoes at the PT's suggestion to help with your tight heel cords and you love to put on your shoes and strut around. And you love to hold your shoe up to your ear like a phone! You silly goose!

This has been such a fun month for us, Punkin. You are learning so much and exploring your personality and sense of humor. You love learning about your world and becoming a part of it, and you're really diving in to everything head first. Though there have been some rough spots (teething molars, having more sleep troubles due to increasing separation anxiety, your developing temper), I have to say that Month 13 has been my favorite month so far, and they just keep getting better and better and better.

Thank you for letting me be your Mama. (And thank you for napping nicely so I could write this out for you.)

Love,
Mama