13months

13 Months old

Physical Development

Etta dances by simultaneously bobbing her head, swinging her shoulders, flailing her arms, and if standing, gyrating her hips, too. Hysterical!

She stands alone without holding onto anything for brief periods, dropping slowly to her knees when she realizes she’d unsupported.

On the wood floor she "walks" along while kneeling, and when excited will do what we call "boinggy-boinggy girl" -- bouncing up and down while kneeling, her bottom springing off her heels.

Etta’s always been way ahead in the fine motor skills area, but this month she really surprised me when she unscrewed the lid off a small jar of lanolin I have at the changing table. I knew that the lid was on tight, and that she had to make several rotations to get it off. As soon as I noticed the lid in one hand and the jar in the other, and that huge glow of accomplishment on her face, I reapplied the lid fully and watched as she purposefully twisted her wrists in opposite directions until again the lid and jar were separated. I made a note to be extra vigilant about monitoring her around bottles with screw caps.

Language Development

Early in the month Etta selected a new favorite book, "Go, Dog. Go." It was the first book that she actually sat still long enough to listen to the whole story, page by page, without impatiently skipping ahead. I’d read a page, and then when it was time to turn the page, I’d release my hold on the pages so that the one page would pop up for her to grab and turn. When the text contained the phrase, "Go, Dogs, Go," Etta would echo "Go Do, Go." After awhile she’d memorized which pages contained that phrase, and as soon as she recognized the illustration she’d call out, "Go Do, Go!"

New words:

Bird ("Buhr") She says this when she sees a bird, or hears a bird’s call either in the background music of one of her children’s tapes or outside.

Sleep

Toward the end of the month she was sleeping through the night (9 hours) six nights out of seven. I was still struggling to keep her to a two-nap routine, with an hour between 11:00am - noon, and an hour between 4:00 - 5:00pm, but many days she submitted to only one, one-hour nap after lunch.

Eating:

The month started with Thanksgiving weekend resplendent with turkey and all the trimmings. Etta loved the turkey, especially the moist, dark meat. She also had stuffing, green beans, mashed potato, and pumpkin pie. She finger-fed herself everything, but as usual she didn’t eat much in total. Surprisingly, she rejected the yams.

New foods tried this month: Yams, stuffing, pumpkin pie, crab, gingerbread

Her appetite has increased, and she’ll eat a good amount of food if given plenty of time (sometimes up to 45 minutes) to self-feed. Speaking of self-feeding, toward the end of the month she became very interested in feeding herself with a spoon. We have a unique spoon with holes which act as a vacuum, keeping most foods on the spoon even if it’s turned upside down. At first she’d hold the spoon in one hand and use her other hand to put pieces of food from her tray onto the spoon before bringing it to her mouth. A few weeks later she wanted to scoop food out of a bowl using the spoon. I wasn’t expecting her to self-feed for several more months, so this was a pleasant (if messy) surprise.

Other Events

She turns a book right side up if it’s upside down. She knows when pictures in the book are upside down. She sits still to listen to a simple story from beginning to end, turning the pages when I indicate. For favorite stories she’s memorized, she knows exactly when to turn the pages, and waits for me to say the last word before reaching out to turn the page.