13 months

I guess its a sign that Abby is getting older. I no longer count down the hours until her next monthly birthday. I've started to generalize more. When people have asked me how old she is, I say "she just turned a year" or "a little over a year" I used to say things like "she'll turn 4 months old in 2 days and 9 hours"

Yesterday I went the whole day without remembering that it was the 12th. And then a lady at Target asked me how old she was and I started to say "almost 13 months" when I realized it was, in fact, 13 months on the dot.

So, happy 13 months Abby.

At 13 months, she is - once again - more fun than ever. She is a total goofball.

Things she loves include: blueberries. being chased, flipped, flown, tickled, tossed, or tackled. She loves bathtime. She loves little einsteins. She loves her gloworm and her blocks, her puzzles, and stacking toys. She loves books - especially the eric carle ones, goodnight moon, and what do snowmen do at night? She loves eating - and she'll eat pretty much anything. Blueberries and strawberries are her favorites, but she's recently learned how to eat tuna and grilled cheese sandwiches. She loves putting on her pink cherry shoes - but no others. She loves going to stores and flirting with all the people. She loves stairs. She loves Beckah and baby Reese.

She is 100% completely off formula and bottles *crowd cheers wildly* I did not shed any tears packing up those suckers. She gets between 12-18 oz of whole milk each day and probably about the same in water. She loves milk now....which is nice.

As previously blogged, she is starting to try to walk. She can only take 2 or 3 small steps at a time, but she loves trying. As soon as she is standing by herself she starts laughing. It's a lot of fun to watch her try and to keep encouraging her. I still think it will be a little longer before she's actually walking efficiently, but she's well on her way.

Other developments. She knows how a spoon and fork work, and can occasionally get something like mashed potatoes to her mouth using a spoon, but, really, we're just introducing them to her. Mostly she feeds herself everything with her hands (except for liquid type foods of course). Her receptive vocabulary is really growing. I can ask her where things are and she'll point - or I can ask her to go get me a book, block, gloworm, coat, shoe etc and she usually will. Her expressive vocabulary is also expanding. She's getting better and better at mimicking our tones and inflections. The other day, she tried to sing after I did and Kyle and I have both heard her point to the computer and say "Comtutr" multiple times. She'll say "cir-sel" for circle and "shs" for shoes. She still says "bab-ab" when she sees her reflection. She's saying Ma-ma allll the time now and can diffreciate between ma-ma for me and da-da for Kyle.

She still signs "all done" when she's finished eating - and has now generalized that to when she's done with other things - like when we finish changing her diaper, or when I put away a book or toy. She points to her tray/plate when she wants more food - and drops her food off the side if she doesn't want it anymore. If you ask her if she wants something, "do you want more potatoes?" She'll either open her mouth for yes or shake her head no. If you insist - she'll push out her hands as if to say "no, stop" She knows when she's not allowed to do something. She'll look at a cabinet or the blinds and touch them and then look at you and shake her head no.

All in all - we communicate fairly well.

She's still in size 3 diapers and mostly size 12 month clothes. Her hair is growing, but is still thinner than thin.

What else? Oh, dislikes. She hates having her nails filed. I tried to clip them the other day, and after 3 or 4 minutes of trying to get one finger still - it just wasn't happening - so maybe we'll file them forever. She does not like crawling in her coat because she trips - so if we put the coat on, we have to leave right away or she gets mad. She's ok in the car seat as long as she's occupied. She doesn't like being in the car when its dark and she can't see to play. She often wants me to hold her in the evenings when I'm busy cooking - so she doesn't like it when I don't. She doesn't like falling, but with all the practice she's getting, I bet she gets used to it. :)

So, that's Abs in a nutshell.

I've got to run now, I'm hoping I can get some pictures up soon. I just gotta make room on my computer first.