13 Months Old

Dear big girl,

You may as well be thirteen YEARS old because you sure act like it sometimes. Not just your ramped up attitude but you seem well beyond your years functionally. As your babysitter said: “she climbs like a monkey and eats like a horse.” Most days I can’t keep up with you. You have a zest for life and exploration with a side of ornery. You aren’t one to sit back and take it your surroundings. Nope, you are smack dab in the middle of the action. I get an overwhelming pleasure out of watching you explore your little world. Here’s a peek at your action packed life over the past month….

Food. It’s always the way to start. You have toned down your appetite a bit. Don’t get me wrong though…your love for food is still over the top but you are now figuring out that not all foods suit your tastebuds. You are now eating dinner with us…well not necessarily with us, but you eat the same food that we eat. You aren’t ready for restaurant food yet…your belly did not agree with some Mexican rice and beans the other day. In fact, you had your first legitimate “grown up throw up.” After your first day at your new daycare I was told that you ate so fast that Paula was scared you were going to choke. I assured her that it was actually just your style of eating…shovel it in as fast as possibly style, that is. The comment we get most often while out in public is “your momma must starve you huh?” or “I bet she doesn’t miss a meal.” You want no part of being fed. In fact, you normally won't eat lunch or dinner if I'm trying to feed you something. We've had to start eating all meals that are not too messy so that you can self-feed. Come breakfast time you are usually so hungry that you don't care if someone feeds you your oatmeal. :) You want control of the spoon unless I can distract you with buzzing bee or loud truck noises as the food makes it's way to your mouth.

"I've got this mom"

No drawer is left unopened and no door left closed. You have become very curious lately. You not only want to open drawers, doors, closets and cabinets, but you are very interested in what’s inside. When you do hit the storage jackpot you tend to empty its contents faster than anyone can stop you. You love to put your cups and binkies inside of drawers, boxes and cabinets. You then close the door just to open it right back up again and then seem surprised when you find your binky sitting there. Ah hah!!! You love to open my top drawer in the bathroom and empty everything onto the floor. And sometimes you are creative enough to open the toilet lid and drop a few objects in. So nice of you sweet pea. ;) You love to hide in small spaces throughout the house. The night that we first moved into the rent house I was doing dishes and looked down and couldn't figure out where you'd disappeared to. This is where I eventually found you......

"I swear, I didn't do it and I have no idea what you are talking about"

You also can be found hiding objects and climbing in to rest in the tv cabinet.....

"Hmmm, this looks just right"

"Ah ha! That's where I left my toothpaste"

You don’t hide your favoritism when it comes to your toys. Your pink car, barn and farm animals and gumball machine get the most attention. You tend to get frustrated when we are playing and you lose your gumballs to put in the machine. We then go on a scavenger hunt together for them. You place them up in the machine and press the lever to make them come down. Each time is like the first time all over again and you look at me like “hey mom, look what I did.” One toy that is definitely a rarity in most toy boxes is the old SLR that you drowned in the pool.....

"I thought we were past this mom?!"

You love to take your puzzle pieces apart and your OCD mom loves to put them back together immediately....

You were having a very royal time in your princess castle ball pit...that is until Emmi decided to chew up each ball one by one.

Your vocabulary is expanding steadily. You now say mama on a fairly regular basis. Dada has always been a favorite and it remains the same. Anytime he leaves our sight you start asking me where he is. It’s probably one of the cutest things you do. You tilt your head and give me an inquisitive look and say “dada? dada?” We usually have to go find him and show him your big ol’ grin that you flash as if you hadn’t seen him in days. You can say “duck” when shown a duck. Of course “nana” still rolls of your tongue when you spot a banana. You love to repeat after me. Simple phrases like “yuck, yuck, yuck” and “uh, huh.” I just know there are so many words that are right there on the tip of your tongue. We’ve been practicing words and instead of making a noise you will position your lips like you are going to make the right sound. No sound comes out but instead you mouth the word. Silly girl! Use that voice that you use so often when you aren’t happy with us. You like to chatter when we are out in public and point to the items on the shelves. I can't wait til we are at the "what's that" phase!

"Just because I can't say it doesn't mean I'm not thinkin' it....what's that Mom?"

Well we’ve established that you climb like a monkey and eat like a horse…but I haven’t mentioned that you are silly as a goose. You have started making an assortment of funny noises with your tongue and lips. You are either making a tooting sound, clicking your tongue or making bird noises. This is usually your way of entertaining yourself in the car. You want to do everything momma does in the morning. We brush our teeth together, brush our hair together and put on pretend makeup. You have the right idea but still need a little bit of help getting all of the your teeth. You can talk on the phone which cracks me up everytime I see you put it up to your ear.....

"You're cutting out"

The sillyness never ends.....

Your toothy grin must be ready to get even brighter because the doc passed along word that he could see the beginnings of some new teefers. He wasn’t lying either because you have been teething on anything and everything. Random objects this time…..such a your teething gel bottle (which I find very ironic), your foot, spoons, shoes and ME. Yes, you have started using my shoulder and leg to munch on when you are hurting. That makes two of us sweetheart! No more of that please! No friends have been bitten in the process so that is my main concern. Speaking of friends, you have recently multiplied this number! We have moved you to a larger home daycare that will work better for all of us. Miss Paula watches twelve kiddos with a full-time helper. Cousin Carmen will also start going there in a month too!

Nighttime sleeping is a pretty steady thing for you these days. Naptime is a different story though. You usually hit the hay between 7:45 and 9:00 and wakeup on the dot at 6:45 every morning. There is the occasional morning when you don’t make a peep until 7:30 but that’s rare and very much appreciated when it happens. ;) These long nights of sleep may have something to do with the fact that we brought your crib to Woodward after only eight months. I have no idea why it took this long other than my thought that if we didn't leave your crib staged in the house that the room would look crazy with all of the stripes on the wall. Anyhow, I'm sorry that we've been making you sleep in this........

"Let's get this thing outta here"

It was so good to see you back in your crib with all of your matching nursery stuff....

"Now this is what I'm talkin' about"

You are not happy when bedtime arrives though because I’m sure you have other, more exciting plans like emptying cabinets and pushing your car around. We’ve regressed back to using a cuppy to fall asleep. It usually has just water in it but every now and then when you really need sleep I’ll put half milk half water to calm you down faster. What is it about milk? It’s like magic sleepy juice. Your naps vary from day to day. You sometimes choose to ditch your morning nap or sometimes even your afternoon nap in exchange for a late evening nap. Your nap nonsense usually doesn’t affect your sleeping at night. I hate to be the one to tell you but you aren’t very good at hiding the fact that you need a nap.

You climb on everything! Fireplaces, slides, ottomans, chairs, stairs and anything else that’s short enough for you to reach. How on earth you do this with those stubby legs I’ll never know! You also attempt to get down from surfaces of any height whether it be the bed or the changing table…still no idea of depth perception or how far you’ll fall. Good thing I’m always there to catch you. Much I guess I should mention the one time I wasn’t there to catch you. The other day you decided to give the two steps out into the garage a try. You ended up tumbling down them and when you got to the bottom you straightened yourself up as quick as you could and kept walking. It cracked me up after I knew that you were alright….it was as if you’d just tripped or fallen in public and tried to get back up before anyone could see you. Your walking has transitioned from an orangutan to a t-rex to a normal little girl. You now hold your arms at your side as you walk….and sometimes I swear you are running. Or I guess we can call it a jog….like when you spot something you really get excited about you tend to kick your walking into overdrive….25% of the time this ends in a faceplant. Falls have been getting fewer and fewer lately. Still no major injuries or bloodshed thank goodness (knocking of wood). Falls are more frequent first thing in the morning when your jammies are sagging and you are still a bit groggy. You usually just look plain drunk in the morning. Good entertainment for early mornings!

It's been a record hot summer baby girl. While most are worn out after a billion consecutive 100+ days, you don't seem to mind at all.....

Until we get in the car that is......

Staying hydrated is a must so you are good about stealing my drinks to help with this cause....

Sometimes I can’t believe my eyes when I see the crazy things you come up with. Like just the other day I found you shoving diapers from your basket into a tall candle holder sitting on the floor in the living room…along with the diapers were two binkies.  You love to give your stuffed animals hugs and kisses when I ask you to. You feed your food to the dogs. And after you fill their bellies we can sometimes find you kicked back lying against Lucy’s big belly. You love to give the dogs “pets” and pulls their tales. Sometimes I think you forget that I exist when you latch onto these two canines. What am I, chopped liver? They command your attention and you chase them around the patio and yard giving hugs and stealing toys from them. At the end of the day they are two of your best friends and you make sure to let them know.....

"We're buds for life Lucy"

"This girl has an attitude and doesn't like to share"

As my little girl develops an even bigger personality everyday and begins to manifest more characteristics I try to take it as much as possible. Each smile, silly face, pose and laugh…I just can’t get enough. You fill me with memories, stories to tell and more love to share. You put the sparkle in the sun, the light in my eyes and the fun in funny.

Love,
Mom

I adore that goofy grin