You’re now thirteen months old! You are getting so big and capable.
We are so delighted with how affectionate you are. You give hugs and pat us sweetly on the back (like we pat you), and we all think it is very fun for you to blow on our bellies and sputter. You’ll crawl over to mommy and daddy and pull up our shirts so you can do that! What a silly bunny! You also learned how to blow kisses. Your baby doll, which was your mommy’s and Grandmama’s before you, is one of your favorite things in the world. You call it “Baby” and pat it, check its diaper, pretend to feed it, and try to put it in your little rocking chair over and over again.
Shortly after you turned one, you started really enjoying talking on the phone; you hold it up to your shoulder and babble, sometimes saying, “Ho?” You are trying to be like mommy! You also tried lots of new things, like using crayons to draw your first picture. You’ve started learning to use a spoon, and you love to push buttons.
Physically you are able to stand unassisted for a few seconds at a time, more every day, and can walk with us if we hold just one of your hands now. Shortly after your first birthday you took a real step! You love music, and you dance and sway and bounce to it, singing along saying, “dit dit dit.” Now you know how to move your arms and legs to help us get you dressed, and you got another tooth on the bottom.
Books are now interesting to you; mostly you want mommy’s books, but you will also bring your books to mommy to read to you. You especially love cars and balls to play with, and you have several Little People sets (a little barn with animals, for example) that you find just fascinating. It has a silo on it that opens and you can put the animals down it, close the silo, collect the animals, open the silo, put them down the silo, etcetera. You love putting things in things and taking things out of things! You love to pretend to hand us toys and then take them back, and for us to fling toys a few feet away so you can retrieve them and bring them back to us. Sometimes you will physically open our hands to give us items, and you once got very annoyed with your daddy when he didn’t understand you wanted to give him something! When you are frustrated you might grunt at us, so we have to watch out! You also giggle wildly when we tickle you, or just pretend to tickle you—you double over laughing! You like to try to carry your toys with you (which is hard when you are crawling). When you want to carry your favorite pink ball, you have a funny little method of scooping it under one arm while you try to move on your other three limbs. You also liked playing the piano this month.
This month you’ve started playing outside a lot in the backyard or at the playground with your little baby buddies. We got you a swing, a slide, and a toy-truck sandbox to play with out back! You crawl around in the leaves and examine them, and you love to watch the puppies play, too.
One of my favorite memories of you from this month was when we first gave you blackberries. You just gobbled them down, and you were so messy, smeared with blackberry juice! You really love to eat and will try anything. Sometimes when you have food (or dirt, when we’re outside) stuck to your hands, you will shake them to try to get the gunk off.
You may be moving from two to one nap a day, and you got your first childhood illness today—roseola. You had a fever (though it wasn’t too high and it didn’t bother you very much) and then a few days later red spots appeared all over you! You were fine, though. We also got your first formal portraits done this month and you were just adorable in them. You are so photogenic! You wore a purple smocked romper your Grandmama gave you and the Christening dress that was mine and your Grandmama’s as well.
This month you started spending some time with your babysitter Miss K and the two other one-year-old girls who spend time with her for a few hours a week while mommy was in class before daddy comes home from work. As long as I stayed with you for a little while before leaving, you were fine and you seem like you are really starting to enjoy going there!
You’ve said some more words this month: doggie (dah—you say this for actual dogs and for dogs barking, and you say dah for Daddy, too), tweet tweet (sort of), hi, hey, hello (which you also say when the phone or toy phone ring), Mama, kitty (kee), kisses, Baby, uh-oh, up, and go. Some of these you’ve just said once or twice, but you are really starting to imitate us!
We love you! You just get more and more fun!
Mommy and Daddy
