Emilia - 13 Months

Again, I'm not quite ready for the monthly posts to stop. I will likely go until 18 months and then start doing 6 month updates. 

This post is late because Emilia is so sick. Yesterday she had high fever, goopy eyes, miserable temperament; today she's just yucky. Poor girl. 

As of her 12 month immunizations appointment just over a week ago...

Weight: 21 lb (55th percentile)
Height: 30 inches (65th percentile)

I feel like her and Dom are looking more and more different as they get older.

Dominic at 13 months

Likes:

• Me. Again (still?), I am her favorite person. 
• Animals. She LOVES dogs. We went to dog agility regionals for a bit yesterday,and she was in dog heaven. She was getting kisses and snuggles and feeding them cheerios. Giggling away. She also liked the people with the dogs much more than people without dogs! 
• Music. She is a dancer. Her favorite song to "sing along" with is still Baby Beluga. 

Dislikes:

• Being told no. 
• Sharing. She will throw tantrums if Dom tries to take a toy from her. Yesterday she actually slapped him twice on the face. Yeesh are we ever in for it with her!

Notes:

• Size 12 and 12-18 month clothing. 
• Literally on our last 10 size 3 diapers before finally moving on to the 4's I bought forever ago. 
• Size 3 shoes/sandals
• She has 5 teeth, with one more on top just coming in. (3 on top and 2 on bottom)
• Her and I were both getting frustrated by her inability to communicate her needs to us. She's not really talking much, but has a few words which I'll mention below. I decided to try sign language again with her, and she picked it up SO quickly. She seems relieved to be able to communicate, and there is a lot less whining and screaming now. She will sign: more, all done, milk, up, food/eat/hungry. We're working on sorry and water. 
• Along with her signing, she has a few pretty pathetic words. More like reactions. She has: Wooooowwwwwww, Woaaaaaah!, Ya!, Banana (nana), This (dis). The "this" one I think is because I would always say, "would you like this?" or "what is this?", etc. Now she just holds something up and goes, "Dis." Kinda cute. 
• She has just this week started picking up some animal noises. She will mimic: cow (moo), elephant (raspberry noise), pig (snorting - this is her default if she's not sure what to do), gorilla (thumping her chest), penguin (turning her head), dog (some sort of bark from the "Woof" book), monkey (ah ah ah!), and snake (sssssss). 
• One day she randomly started being attached to the crochet blanket I made for her when she was born. I had completely given up hope. Then I put her in the car seat and she started pointing to it, so I handed it to her and she snuggled in. Since then she likes to sleep with it and cuddle with it. Yay!! I love blankies :)
• She can reliably and safely get off the couch on her own now, which makes life a lot less stressful. She can't, however, get off all the other places she climbs!
• She is a climber. I can't even believe how adventurous she is. She full on climbed up a step ladder I was using for painting. I was there to supervise, but didn't touch/help her once. She made it all the way to the top and then started shaking it like a wild person. Dom wanted to try climb it too, so we gave him a turn. He put one knee on the first step and said, "Nope. I don't fit. I tried. I don't fit." Haha... good try buddy... She also taught Dom how to climb into the counter stool we have, and how to climb on top of the toy box, and how to climb the slide at the park.

• She favors her right hand; I'm quite sure she'll be right-handed. 
• She can use a fork and a spoon, but unlike Dom she doesn't mind getting messy. Therefore oatmeal, applesauce and yogurt are all finger foods. Full hand to scoop it into her mouth. 
• She is still very shy with people other than Dave or I. She's getting better with our parents and siblings. If someone does take her, they have to whisk her away from my presence and then she recovers pretty quickly usually. Once she's distracted.
• Every night at bedtime we say goodnight to Dave and Dom. She waves goodnight and then blows them kisses.
• She loves to flip through books, but almost always goes and digs out the Baby Beluga book and brings it over singing "Buh buh duh duhhhh".
• I have her down to 1 nap per day and 1 bottle per day, which I could probably drop pretty easily.
• We got one of those little munchkin cups with the weighted straws and all of a sudden she can use that sippy cup and her spill-proof milk cup! She drinks lots of fluids throughout the day, and that's why I don't have to worry about her bottles anymore. 
• She still holds the award for the best sleeper ever. I haven't had to go into her room after putting her down for probably 8 months. Not once. Even now that she's so sick, she just sleeps, self-soothes, cuddles her blanket and sucks her fingers! So easy. 

A Typical Day:

0700: Wake up
0730: Oatmeal with honey and cinnamon, banana and milk
9/930: Snack
1100: Lunch
1200: Nap
230/300: Wake up
330: Snack (usually cheese, crackers, and some sort of fruit or vegetable)
500: Dinner (whatever we're eating)
700: Bedtime!

She is my challenging one. I have to ask for help (which takes a LOT if you know me), just to get a break from her sometimes. I love her to bits, but she is difficult!

She's lucky she's cute!

Her hair is getting long!

Getting in her blankie snuggles <3