13 Months

Well, honey, I didn't make it for your 12 month...so here we are ...1 month later. Sorry. How do I begin? How do I express the happiness you bring to my life every day? There are no words that could accurately convey the love your mommy has for you.

You are a very busy girl these days. You are crawling EVERYWHERE! You took your first steps about a week ago, but you're not convinced that you are ready for this walking business. This past week you have taken a few steps here and there, but have discovered you can walk on your knees. You really like this! You can wave "bye, bye" and "hello." You blow kisses with you hand up to your mouth and fingers all spread apart. You give big, open-mouthed kisses! You sign, "more," "finished," and sometimes "please." You say,"Dada"...and I'd like to think you are saying "Momma," but it sounds more like "Meh-meh" and I think you are referring to food.

*sigh*

Lately, you have also been stopping what you're doing, looking around, and calling, "Dah!" I don't know if you are calling Dominic or dog.

You like most foods, except carrots. No matter how I give them to you, you spit them out. You LOVE bread, just like me! Sorry...it's more of a curse than a blessing. Oh and you love your milk! We tried switching you from formula (because you stopped breast-feeding at 9 1/2 months-my first rejection) to milk at 12 months, but you did NOT like the taste of whole milk in your bottle or sippy. So I had to trick you by slowly incorporating milk in with your formula and gradually cutting back on the formula. As of last week, you are solely on milk...however still in a bottle. That's the next trick...to get you to drink it out of a sippy and be done with the bottle. I know...the "rule" is, "No bottle after 12 months old." Oh well...here's a little secret...(don't tell ANYONE)...Mommy isn't perfect.

Sleeping...oh sleeping...how Mommy covets a good night sleep! You were sleeping through the night for a while...until those molers started coming in. You are still getting up usually once a night...sometimes twice. All you want is a bottle, a kiss, and back to sleep. You go down between 6:30 and 7:00 in the evening and you are up for good between 6 and 7:00 in the morning. The sleep wouldn't be such an issue if Connor slept through the night:( I can tell if you're ready to greet the day when you wake up happy. If you're crying, I know that you need more sleep.

My absolute favorite time of the day is when I go in your room to get you and you greet me with that huge smile of yours! You take 1-2 naps a day...very erratic...nothing dependable as of right now.

You still don't have much hair...you have your 8 front teeth, and molers movin' on in. You are in the 98th percentile in height and 56th in weight. And your smile...oh that smile melts Mommy's heart! When you smile, your big blue eyes sparkle and your whole face lights up.

You are so easy going and easy to please. You love people.

Dancing.

Sand.

Pat-a-cake.

and Dirt.

And I love you!