playground

It might seem a little daring, but I can climb all the way to the top

and go down the big slide all by myself

Month 13

I am already 13 months old! This morning we are playing with paint as you can clearly see. I am walking, carrying things with me while I walk, and making sure to fully experience everything I can get my hands on. I've started pointing at things that interest me, and making up my own little words for the important things in the world. If you pay careful attention you can tell I'm communicating with you - "th" with a head nod, for thank you, EmAH! with a thigh pat for any creature doglike, open hands and ma ma ma for Mommy. Interesting accomplishments of the last month: can climb to the top of the playground and go down the spiral slide all by myself at Bee Ridge Park, can now get close enough to chickens to pet them, can climb up the dining room chairs and onto the dining room table, and I popped out two top molars in two days.

Even though I'm getting bigger and doing all of these crazy independent adventurous things I'm still very snuggly, wanting Mom and Dad throughout the night. I still hangout in the Mei Tai too, when we're out and about, or just when I'm needing a cuddle.

and I can feed myself with a spoon and enjoy eating most everything. Taco Soup, Chicken Fresca, salads, green smoothies, yogurt and fresh fruit are my favorites.

It should probably be noted that at my one year checkup not everyone had such a rosy view of my development - my pediatrician is concerned that I'm a little behind on my communication skills (at that point I wasn't pointing yet and my only word was "EmAH") but Mom told his it was just because I was working so hard on learning to walk. We also checked this out with Early Steps (to confirm Mommy instincts) and they think I'm doing fine too. He was also concerned that my iron levels were a little low and prescribed a supplement, but Mom tried it and decided it was too yucky tasting to possibly be good for anything. And after researching more about what an iron supplement would do to my gut flora and immune system, that's probably a good thing. So instead we're going to work on correcting it with diet, and we'll see how our test results go with that.