Thirteen Months Old

Miss Mae is growing up faster than ever!  She's so smart and is really gaining quite the personality! It's hard to believe that we are already starting a season of 'seconds' with her.

New for this thirteenth month: first pinata, first chipped tooth, first time being babysat by her Gran & Pop Pop, first time brushing her teeth with a big girl tooth brush.

Mae is adorable and knows it!   She is such a sweet heart and is growing up so well.  She's still an itty bity thing and wears 9 month clothes well - and while not swimming - certainly has plenty of growing room in 12 month ones.    She is doing much better at eating 3 times a day.  Although it varies from day to day on how much she actually will consume.    Some days she wants 'people' food and other days is totally content to simply eat her jar food.    She's regularly drinking cow's milk in the mornings now and so we've lessened the amount she nursing just a tiny bit.    Things that her favorite right now are puffs, sweet potatoes, and often she'll eat any chicken that we put in front of her.  Surprisingly, she also likes raw broccoli.

Mae loves to cuddle in her giant pillow while her dada holds her and at the beginning of her 13th month would often start her night time sleep that way.   Half way into the month though we started to work on a bit more of a night time routine for her and she started to get ready for bed at the same time as her brother - so while Ace got his pjs on - I changed her diaper and put her pjs on and then they both head into the bathroom for teeth brushing.  She LOVES to brush her teeth.  She gets very upset when it is time to be all done.     After we finish with the teeth brushing it's into brother's room we go for songs, book reading, and prayers.   We say good night to brother and then  head into our room to put M to sleep.       I am writing this blog about 10 days post her 13th month 'birthday' so at the time of that - she was still nursing to sleep and on occasion taking HOURS to do so.  However, a lot of that seems to have been the illness and as of the 10th of this month she had 3 nights of under 20 minutes to go to sleep!   A post specifically on her sleeping progress is in the works!

Mae has gotten extremely good at listening!  She has been since before she turned one, but considering how young she is - it's amazing at how well she will listen (when she wants to!)   If we are nearby her diapers and I ask her to bring me one she will get me one.   I tell her to lay down for a diaper change she will go into her room and lay where we change her diaper.    If she has something she isn't suppose to, I will ask her to bring it to me and she 90% of the time will.    She's a good little helper.   She doesn't always understand what I am asking of her, but she is listening and we are in awe of her comprehension and execution of requests.    She'll blow kisses at you when you ask, wave goodbye, and play peek a boo with her dad (and well anyone really who will entertain the idea.)   She also has taken to walking over to a certain wall in our living room and posing for pictures.    It's too darn adorable! 

She loves her brother!  Mae will play with him any and every time he is willing to do so.   He loves her without question and wants to be on him and be everywhere he is.    Ace tolerates and (most of the time) loves it.   She without fail will run into the bathroom if it is open and climb up onto the stool (likely because she wants to brush her teeth) - Ace will yell for me to come retrieve her.

Language wise Mae is starting to further form the words already in her vocabulary - milk is a little closer to 'meee'  rather than 'ma ma',  book is 'boo' rather than 'bah',  brother still has 'ba' most of the time but occasionally she'll squeak out 'burda'.   Me as 'mama' hasn't really been heard around these parts in a while, but I'm hoping it makes a comeback.   Her sign language has really improved a lot. She has started to use "more" with more regularity and is very good with "all done" at dinner time.  She also knows (our version) of "I'm sorry" (her brother tends to require signing it to her regularly and we make her do it as well when she has wronged him.)  "Thank you" also is there, but often confused with her blowing kisses, but it's kind of a gratitude statement, so we'll take it.  :)    She loves to help sing songs at bed time and in church and it's just too darn adorable.  

Mae is also very into making various facial expressions.  She has a sly smile, a goofy grin, and a giant cheesy smile too.  They're all adorable.  She's also got a mean frown, an annoyed look to the side, and a host of others that very easily describe what her opinion of the various things happening to and around her.  :)      She is such a joy.   She loves to brush her hair - which is adorable and I am so pleased to see that it's finally starting to thicken up.  She's developing a love of hats, headbands, etc... but none stay on very long.  Hair bows are not long for wear and most of the time not even attempted yet.    She likes to rip them out and then try to set them back on top of her head.  It's cute, but it can go on forever if we let it.  :)

Sickness wise - Mae got herself another doozy of a cold, along with her brother and her mommy.   We were all down for the count for over a week.   The cough  is still lingering even still, but hopefully it's residual and not symptomatic of it worsening.   Otherwise she's a healthy and very happy little girl.   She now has 4 teeth - and sadly her second top tooth got chipped somewhere (which honestly is no surprise since she falls regularly from the great heights she's scaled!)  although it has now come in further and looks like it has a crack in it - so I think a trip to the dentist is on the horizon very soon!

We're already well into our 14th month of Mae's little life and she is such a joy and changing daily.  Can't wait to discover more with her as she grows and changes.  :)