13 Months Old

Samuel, You are 13 months old and a full blown toddler! You are at such a fun age. I'm soaking up all your sweetness and personality!

I think you can officially be called a walker! As of Saturday, you are just walking everywhere. You have been taking steps for several weeks, but all of the sudden, you are walking everywhere. You used to walk a few steps, start to feel unsteady, and drop down and crawl. Now, you have much better balance, and even when you start to lose it, you concentrate and are able to steady yourself and keep trucking along. It still surprises me to see you walk into a room.

I'm not really sad about you walking. It's actually a milestone I've been looking forward to. I'm excited for you to be able to explore your surroundings more fully. You're able to do so much more when you can walk especially outside and at the park. It's going to make for a great summer! 

You are ornery as ever. I catch you in the pantry all the time trying to get a snack. You've been successful on occasion. You are into everything and a pro at making messes. I love your curiosity and determination though!

You are a good eater. You are completely off of formula and are drinking whole milk. You still get a bottle at breakfast and bedtime, and milk out of a sippy cup the rest of the day. You like to eat whatever anyone else is eating. Your favorite foods are bananas, grapes, strawberries, yogurt melts, and macaroni and cheese. You are pretty much eating table food only. Sometimes I'll give you a baby food pouch to supplement whatever we're eating, but you usually eat the same food your brother and the rest of us eat for meals.

You are saying a few words and communicating with us better. You say "mama," "dada," "ball," "dog," and "bubble." You use pointing and whining to let us know what you want as well. When I get you up from a nap or in the mornings, you immediately point to your door and grunt. You want out of there, and there's no chance you're going back to sleep.

I was being silly with you one afternoon, but you loved having it on your head. It was like a new built in toy for you! (We're all trying to get used to this whole BOW thing that is starting to invade our lives!!).

Playing kitchen is still one of your favorite things to do. You also love rolling and throwing balls, and playing with your little cars and trucks.

I'm struggling a bit with what to do about your morning nap. You usually are not ready to go down for your nap until 10:30 or 11:00 (You used to always nap between 9 and 9:30). A later nap is hard because a lot of days we aren't home during that time, and I like for you and your brother to have your afternoon nap shortly after lunch around 1:00. Napping that late in the morning throws everything off, but you are completely melting down by 11:30 if you haven't slept at all. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. Our best solution so far usually involves a 15-20 minute car nap during that time that can hold you over until your afternoon nap.

My favorite time of the day with you is bedtime. It's usually the only one on one time I get with you in a day. Daddy and Nathan stay downstairs and you and I rock while you drink your bottle. You are so calm and sweet after you finish. Sometimes you're so exhausted, you'll spit out the bottle, stick your paci in your mouth and curl up on my chest. Oh, I treasure those snuggles. I'll cuddle you until you're totally out before I put you in your bed. There are other nights where you finish your bottle and you're not quite ready to sleep, and we'll bounce and tickle and laugh and play for a few minutes until you settle in and are ready to sleep. Precious, precious moments with you, my Love. That's probably why I'm so reluctant to wean you from your nighttime bottle. I don't want any disruption in our nighttime snuggle routine.

You are wearing 12-18 month and 18 month clothes, size 4 diaper and size 5 shoe.

Outside is your favorite place in the entire world. You would stay outside playing all day if we would let you. Several times a day I catch you whining and trying to open the back door to get outside. I also catch you climbing into your stroller letting everyone know you are ready for a walk. You always want to swing, and recently you have loved to slide. You can climb the ladder totally on your own (with supervision of course), and then slide down. You prefer to slide down on your belly, and do whatever it takes to get in that position before you start sliding.

You got two more bottom teeth this month (on 3/24 and 3/31). You have a total of eight teeth now and more on the way I'm sure by the amount of drool that comes out of your mouth.

You are our precious baby boy and such an asset to our family. I get a lump in my throat all the time thinking of how much I love you and how the Lord has blessed our family by giving us you, my sweet boy.