13 Months

Adi girl, You are so much fun and such a mess at the same time. You develop more and more personality everyday. You are learning to express yourself verbally and with facial expressions. This is my favorite and most busy stage in your life yet!

Your receptive and expressive language skills astound me! Of course working with language delayed children has thrown off my perception of 'normal'. To me you are a genius!! You understand so much of what we say and are able to show us that you understand. Phrases and commands such as 'let's go eat,' 'sit down,' 'let's go outside,' 'its all gone' and 'get your juice' are ones that you demonstrate you understand daily.

You have a list of words that seems to grow daily. Here are a few you use consistently: mumma, daddy, baby, a-oh, duce (juice), nose, eyes, mo (more), bye-bye, off (when you want to turn anything off or on), be be (belly button), ooff (woof/puppy), i (hi), ive (hi five), go, cacu (cracker), bu (ball), ba be (Barney), wa wa (water), bu bu (bubble), bu bu (bible), no no no. You know these animal's sounds: puppy - ooff, duck - ack, bear - waaa, snake - sssss, monkey - ooo ooo, cow - moo. You imitate anything and give names to things you don't know the words for yet. You are jabbering constantly from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed. I can just see the cell phone bills now...

You love to play games, especially with Daddy. You will run from him as he tries to get you. But if you get too far, you always go back for more. You love for Daddy to tickle you. You raise your arm or neck just inviting him in to the sweet spot. I love to watch you two play and listen to you giggle.

You also love to sit on pillows or your boppy pillow. It is so funny to watch you plop down in the middle with a book, a snack, or your juice. Sometimes you will sit down with your baby in your lap and feed her with her bottle or a spoon complete with eating noises.

You like to eat. You are not a big fan of meat, so we introduced you to ketchup. I don't know if it made the chicken taste better to you or if it was just fun to dip! That was the most chicken you have ever eaten. You love fruit, macaroni and cheese, peas, bean burritos, cheese, cottage cheese, crackers, and much more. You have learned very quickly to love milk from a cup. You are completely off bottles. The transition was much easier than I anticipated. You handled it very well. You have also transitioned to one nap a day. You go down somewhere around noon and sleep for an hour and a half or two or sometimes more.

You love being outside and are LOVING the water. We play outside in your sprinkler pool or go to the pool with friends quite often. You are getting better and better about being in the water. I think you will be a little fish baby very soon. You also love books, and I love that you love books. You will sit and look at books by yourself but you love for us to read to you. We always read before bed and nap time. You point to pictures, imitate sounds, and sometimes say something at the end that sounds like "the end."

You are a sponge these days. I can see your little mind growing as you try to understand this world around you. I absolutely love this age and am enjoying the time we have to spend together. You are such a fun, happy, energetic, curious, and sweet baby girl. I love you so much!

Momma