Miss M at 13 Months

The house is blissfully silent. Miss M is sleeping in daddy's arms, and I am running a bath, so I thought I would work in a quick post while the tub fills (we have the slowest tub faucet EVER!).

Miss M is running around and into everything. She can climb stairs. She has no fear, and wants to go down them facing forward like a big girl. Unfortunately, she is a peanut, and not nearly big enough to walk down stairs. She is like a moth to a flame with anything that appears in her little world that is new or appears forbidden--paper, television remotes, cell phones, the telephone, the cord to the electric mixer when it appeared in the kitchen one day. She succeeded in pulling the mixer on her head before we realized our error, but I think it largely missed her, and she mostly got a face full of whipped cream from the beaters and a tremendous scare. We do try to keep everything out of reach, but invariably, we err at times!

She has become a bit of a parrot, and will mimic you if you say words to her. "Are you done, done, done?" at dinnertime results in "da, da, da!" She has mastered mama, dada, and no. Everything else is still a bit of a crap shoot. She points for things she wants, like her bottle. When I asked her where daddy was the other day, she pointed at him. She'll hand you things when you ask her for them. If she wants to, of course. She also might run in the other direction and hide them.

We've been having a blast with her. We continue to have many visitors coming in and out, and everyone marvels over how good she is when we are out and about. She loves to be on the go, and rarely fusses about being out. The only challenge is that she no longer likes to sit still in restaurants--she wants to be down and walking around. It's curtailed our dinner adventures, but that's about it. Museums, bus rides, long walks through the park--she's an angel for all of it. She just loves people.

We went to the playground the other day, and she spotted a tiny pink doll stroller that was pint-sized. She toddled right over and ran away with it! The stroller's owner was none too thrilled to share, but her mother encouraged us to play with it. I'm guessing they are having a bit of a hard time with the concept of "sharing." It was hilarious to watch Miss M chase after the older child, as she tried to push the stroller and escape Miss M. We finally decided we'd better leave before both kids ended up miserable. Sometimes the path of least resistance is the best. Plus, it was cold out, and Miss M never wants to stop playing. She's is that kid with the blue lips, who insists she is warm and doesn't need to get out of the pool.

Miss M's friend R visited again with her mom. R had developed a ton since we'd last seen her--she's learned to crawl, clap, etc. It was a blast to see them play together. Miss M toddled over to R, hugged her and gave her kisses. So priceless! I missed it, but T said that R has also learned to pinch, and pinched Miss M's cheek hard. . .which didn't phase Miss M a bit. She has a crazy pain threshold, and is so determined that a little pain doesn't get in the way of whatever she wants to do.

This month, the riding zebra toy that Auntie C gave Miss M has been a bigger hit. I think it's because she's had a bit of a growth spurt, and she can now reach the floor while sitting on it. She thinks it's a blast. She carries around her Dressy Bessy doll or her Minnie Mouse stuffed animal like they are babies, hugging and kissing them. I get such a kick out of that. She kisses us, too, and gives big hugs. It's just the best. My sheer perfection moments are when she comes to me so that I pick her up, and then lays her head on my shoulder. Nirvana! Last night she held Dressy Bessy up to my mom on the Skype so that my mom could kiss Dressy Bessy. Cracked me up!

The other thing that has been cracking me up lately is that she talks on the telephone. Or imagines she is, anyway. She's started holding her play telephones to her ear, or my cell phone if she manages to get her hands on it. Occasionally, she'll hold other items to her ear as though they are telephones, and pretend to talk. We don't actually talk on the phone that much--via Skype more often than anything--so it is amazing to me to see her do this.

We are weaned. She is fully on whole cow's milk now, and likes it just fine. We've had no issues with her drinking the cow's milk, but she hasn't wanted to wean at all. Evening, morning, and middle of the night, when she wants comforting, she wants to nurse. I have a bit of milk left occasionally, but we really need to stop this. I think we are just going to have to tough it out cold turkey. She sobs, and it escalates terribly in the middle of the night if I don't let her nurse. It was getting better, and I thought we were just about done, until her top teeth started really giving her trouble last week, and all of a sudden we are all about the nursing again. Her teeth are mostly in now (two top and two bottom), but she is still drooling a ton and tugging at her ears, so I know that they are still bothering her. Med's help a bit, but don't resolve the problem entirely.

It has been lovely to give up pumping. It's so nice to have that time back, especially in the morning. I actually get to work on time every day now--no running behind because I need to pump for a bit longer, or because I fed her for longer than I had planned on. I was very sad to stop nursing, but relieved when I saw that it hasn't changed our relationship at all. I am still her favorite mummy.

As far as eating goes. . .she's just a poor eater. While R was here, we fed the girls together, and R (a healthy sized girl) ate for about twice as long as Miss M. She gets quite angry when she's finished, if you try to leave her in her high chair, so I let her down and she ran around R's feet as R continued to eat. Miss M is a big fan of Cheerios, chicken and cheese. She's become quite the independent eater, and really only wants to feed herself. She doesn't want to be fed with a spoon lately, and doesn't want to use one herself. Our solution has been that she likes some fruit and veggie purees that come in tubes (baby food brands like Plum and Ella's Kitchen), and she'll let us squirt those in her mouth. She pretty much likes all of them, so we are able to get a variety of fruit and veggies into her. As far as other baby food in jars, though, it's been a complete bust. She refuses to eat any of it. She does like macaroni and cheese, however, when I make it from scratch. So, we get as much cheese, chicken, Cherrios, and fruit and veg into her as we can, and try not to worry about it. Oh, and yogurt. The kid loves yogurt. We do a weight recheck with the doctor in a couple of weeks, but I already know what the result is going to be. She's clearly growing UP again, rather than out, and I know she's still going to be off the chart. Hopefully she won't have fallen at all.

And now, my tub is full. It's still quiet, and I'm off to relax and read a trashy magazine while I can!