Lucky 13.

I never really did a developmental post about G as a 12 month old. I feel pretty bad about that, but with the craziness of moving and such, it was just an oversight. Rather than try to recreate a post on memories, I'm moving forward and addressing her in the present...as a 13 month old.

I.am.in.shock. of how amazing my baby girl is on a daily basis. She does the cutest things and melts my heart with the tiniest hug. She's turning into a real toddler and even if I really think about it, I can hardly remember her as a little baby. Ten months ago she was 3 months old, and for the longest time that's how I thought of her. A little girl who rolled over for fun, cried to communicate, and nursed as her only means of sustenance. She was light and short. She still used an infant car seat and couldn't sit up. She was active, but that was a totally different definition of the word compared to the active 13 month old we have now.
When she is older and asks about herself as a baby, I will tell her that she loved people and was very social. She smiles and waves at everyone, and will often try to jump into their arms (especially at Target, where a check-out lady had almost no choice but to grab her because she lurched so far out of the cart). Literally everyone comments on how happy she is (in public...mhmm) and almost every time we go out I hear that "she just made my day." While she doesn't always behave perfectly, I do enjoy taking her places. We tend to have better days, though, when we stay home because I am able to keep her on track for eating and napping. She likes her routine and tends to sleep better when we've had a low-key day. In that respect, she is a very textbook baby.

As a 13 month old, G:

Walks. 

She's been taking steps since January but is truly walking now. She walks over half the time now! It cracks me up to watch her mosey around the house because she is so petite. She is still perfecting her balance, so sometimes she stops, throws her arms out, and wobbles on the balls of her feet to catch her balance. Precious. She likes walking because she can see things better and especially because we have all hardwood (Wouldn't your knees hurt?). I also think she likes to look like momma and daddy when they walk. It is also easier for her to carry things around when her hands are busy holding herself up!

Stands. 

Just this week (Monday), G started standing up the floor for real. Previously she would just crawl over to something to pull herself into a standing position. Last week she stood for the first time, but she didn't even know that she did, because she was excitedly dancing to 'hip hip hooray.' I caught it on video, so that's fun. This week, though, she intentionally stands up and even knows what 'stand up' means. If she is whining to be picked up, I say, "just stand up!" and she will :-) SUCH A BIG GIRL!

Eats.

As I wrote earlier this week, G has started the weaning process. She loves to eat big girl food now! She didn't like chicken or noodles a few weeks ago, but now she even likes them! She eats three meals and two snacks. She still loves puffs but enjoys big girl foods too. Her current favorite foods are peas, PB&J, kiwi, pears (the soft sweet kind, not the crisp Asian kind...I learned), hot dogs, shredded gouda cheese, and anything she can confiscate from the food cabinet. I found some organic toddler cereal bars at Safeway that are loaded with vitamins/minerals & she devours them.

Plays.

I once read that a baby's only job is to play, and if that's how you want to look at it, my G needs a pay raise. She is great at playing. Blocks? check. Stacking? (attempting to) check. Riding on push/pull/rock toys? check. Dolls? check. Electronic/musical toys? check. "Cause & Effect" mechanical toys? super check. G can figure anything out, so long as it's age appropriate (sometimes even closer to 2-3 year old toys). She's one smart cookie. In the past few weeks she's started stacking Megabloks on top of each other! Isn't that awesome?? She knows how to play with others too. She's good at sharing, for now, and likes to show other kids how things work (usually in a nice way). She does great at self-play--we like to let her play alone sometimes so that she develops a sense of independence.  I love to sit back and watch her. I get overwhelmed with pride because she has a cute little baby-imagination. She also likes snuggling and petting her stuffed toys. She knows the name of all of her toys and can find/show the correct one each time (so long as you don't get over-specific with colors or shapes, because she's a long way from that).

"Reads."

Another thing that G has been doing for a while is play-reading. This recently turned into a ~10 minute activity--which for a 1 year old is a long time! She will pull all her books off of the bottom shelf on the bookcase and sort through them until she finds just the perfect one. She'll go through the pages, often slowly enough that she seems to be reading to herself. She likes pictures but can tell when there are a lot of words on a page (props to me for pointing to words when I read to her). Sometimes she will vocalize when looking at her books and it seems like she is reading aloud to herself. I'm so happy she loves books. There are a few books she sits still and lets me read to her 2 or 3 times before moving on to something else. If my husband is around, though, that never happens, so he doesn't believe me!

"Talks."

Another recent development; G has started playing with A LOT more sounds. She seems to be on the verge of actually talking. I'll keep you posted on it. Because 'da-da' is her sound for almost everything, it is sometimes unclear what she means (unless she points). The other day she said "Dadda" with the clear intention of finding him. She was so intent on it that we had to call him so she could hear his voice. (I also let her listen to several voicemails saved on my phone).

Does little things.

When you are a parent, your kid does so many things that just slip under the radar. You take notice, chuckle to yourself, but they probably get forgotten before you have a chance to write them down. Here are a few things I want to remember G doing at this age.

• Mimics "I don't know" by using her hands and shrugging her shoulder. Sometimes she even vocalizes "Idunno"
• Points to her ears when we ask "Where's your nose?" EVERYTIME. I've shown her nose 50 million times and so has my husband but she still insists that her ears = nose.
• Mimics "Think, think, think" like Winnie the Pooh.
• Wants almost any food that we have, even if she doesn't like it.
• Does the sign for 'all-done' like a champ.
• Knows what 'bed time' means and walks to her room after we sing the clean up song.
• Enjoys bath time with daddy and knows that when I come in, it means time to stand up for rinse off.
• Tries to pull her crib things (bear, pillow, blanket) through the rails when we are playing in her room. She also hands them to us before letting us get her out of her crib in the morning/afternoon.
• Empties/refills/empties her cloth wipe tubs.
• Dances like a CRAZY person when Super Why! comes on...and pretty much begs for us to turn it on in the morning (poor thing hates when it's not on on Saturdays).
• Loves to stand at the open (and chilly) fridge, often pulling things out of the drawers and putting one thing back in.
• Cries almost every time I lift her up to her changing table because she knows a diaper change is coming.
• She thinks that anytime I reach for my phone, Daddy is on it.
• Gets SO excited when he comes home, sometimes she freaks out too much and falls/crashes trying to scurry over to him.
• Pulls her socks and shoes off EVERYTIME she is in the car.
• Likes going on runs/bike rides in the Chariot and especially loves swinging at the park. She likes being outside.
• Loves looking outside and trying to find animals, especially the neighbor 'kitty-cat.' Now when she seems one on TV, she gets so excited!

-------
We have an appointment with her new doctor this afternoon, so I'll update her height and weight after that.