13 Month Blog

Well, today marks 13 months for the "E-Man," and I can already tell that the month markers after one year are just not as exciting as the ones before. I was the only one to remember, and that's only because I have this blog to write.

But it's been a VERY exciting month!

He's been growing and changing so much.

The BIG milestone this month is: HE'S WALKING!!

Well, he's not full-on, fluently walking around the house, but he has good bursts of walking before he falls on his bottom, starts crawling or doing his elephant walk thing. We've counted 12 steps in one stretch, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's done more when we weren't counting. I'm the biggest sceptic of the bunch, and even I concede, yup, he's walking now.

It was probably three days ago that we all started saying to each other, "yeah, he's walking. He's a walker now, no denying it."

I think the real indicator is that walking is becoming a preferred mode of transport. Not THE preferred mode, but it's now tied with crawling and elephant walking. {:

We now have a BIG "reader" on our hands. He loves having books read to him. He can occupy himself for tens of minutes at a time looking at his books. And the newest and cutest thing he's doing is bringing books to us so we can read to him. His favorite book right now is a book about trucks that has little sliding "doors" in it that you slide to reveal things. Although it's about trucks, he calls it "caw! caw!" Trucks are basically cars, guys.

Besides getting books for us, I've also discovered that he will "fetch" things for you. It's not just so I can stay sitting on the couch, he's LEARNING!

I'll say, "can you bring me a car?" And he'll go find and bring back a car or truck toy.

I can also say, "bring me a ball." And sometimes he'll bring me a ball, but most of the time he goes to the toy that has balls and air and the air blows the balls around and there's music!! And he just get's distracted with that, understandably.

When he looks at his books, all the people in the books are "dada" or "deedee" or "da dee," and all the animals are "caw caw," and all the things with wheels are "caw caw," but somehow there seems to be a difference between the animal "caw" and the car "caw." I just can't translate it to written words.

Even though all animals make the same sound, if you ask him to point out a "duck" on a page, he can. He's also started identifying colors in his truck book. But I don't know how clear the concept is to him.

He's great at mimicking things people say and do. He's started mimicking the "bye bye" sound when he waves bye bye. But it's just the sound, not the "buh" part.

He knows what "hot" is, even though he's never touched anything super hot (not yet!), but he'll put his hand out and say, "ha" in kind of a breathy voice.

When I tell him I have to put his socks on, he'll sit with his feet out to help with the process. He knows what shoes are, but he's more interested in putting our adult shoes on his feet than wearing his own shoes.

Doctor Patterson was right about more and more "tantrums." Not that his tantrums are very bad, but if you take him away from something he likes (or take something away from him), he'll start crying and making this high pitched squeal. It'd be funny if he weren't so pathetic.

He's also gotten a lot more affectionate, hugging and "kissing," which has gone from an open mouth on your face to a closed mouth on your face. Progress!

The other day, he had pooped, and someone said, "did you poop?" and he reached down and grabbed his diaper. Since then, I've been making a point to talk about his poop when he does it. Maybe we'll have an easier time potty training if he's super aware of is bodily functions.

Since we're back to physical things, last night he climbed up on the couch by himself! Totally surprised us. He's been climbing the stairs for a while. I'm embarrassed to admit, he once climbed all the way up the staircase looking for his daddy while I was distracted for a couple minutes. Fast guy!

He hasn't been teething as much lately, so the sleep has been GOOD around here. Last night was actually a bit of a drag, but it was the first day it's been over 90 all spring (it was 97, supposedly).

The most dramatic, and emotional, thing that's been happening for me lately is he's begun to wean himself. He hasn't stopped nursing by any means. But I can just tell he's not taking in as much milk as he used to (I can just tell!! *grumble*grumble* . . . for multiple reasons).

It's good, though, and I hope the process happens gradually and easily for both of us.

Here's to another wonderful month!