Calendar Girl - Thirteen Months

This girl...

She is killing me with the cutes.  

When she was little(er), she was cute just in appearance.  But now she's also cute in behavior.  I mean, look at that picture?  She did that on her own.  And this:

And she does things like share her food with us (adorable), hug her stuffed animals, and even us sometimes(!), and loves on her doggie.  Thirteen months is the best age yet.

The biggest change this month has been Ruby's physical developments.  Girl can MOVE now!  I wrote a lot about that here, but basically she's gone from being a sitting duck, to a girl that can pull herself up, sit on her own, and most excitingly, crawl.  I feel like we finally have a "normal" baby (I kind of hate writing that, but it's the truth) who crawls around and gets into stuff.  She doesn't actually get into too much trouble really, but she will empty a drawer if you give her a chance.

At thirteen months and moving, Ruby's favorite thing to do is make a mess.  She loves to take stuff out, make piles, transfer the pile to a different spot, etc.  But like last month, she still enjoys a good clean-up too, so it's ok.  And if I need her to be occupied for a little bit?  I just make sure she has access to her bookshelf.  She will happily stand there and remove ALL of the books for a good long time.  And girl has quite the library, too, having a Kindergarten teacher for a mama and all.

Speaking of books, books also top the list of her favorite things.  She has favorites (mostly her bedtime books), and will not so gently insist that you read them to her by shoving them in your face.  She also has favorite parts of books, and once you've read to those parts, she generally tries to close the book and move on.  In Goodnight Moon, she loves the three little bears sitting on chairs, but pretty much hates the quiet old lady whispering hush, and closes the book as soon as she sees her.  In The Going to Bed Book, she loves the scrubbing part, and when they all go up to exercise.  And then she's done.

Ruby also loves clapping (see above), eating (she pretty much likes everything except for oatmeal and yogurt), diaper laundry and pretty much any other laundry, swinging, dancing, drumming, her dog-dog, her water table, and her tractor.  She's also getting the hang of throwing a ball, and her only new word this month is "ball".

She still doesn't like diaper changes (which is funny, given her love of diapers).  She's starting to not like having headbands and "hair pretties" in her hair, too.  SAD.  She will leave them in if she forgets they are there.  But if she hears someone say hair or hair pretty, bam.  Up goes her hand, pulling the thing out.  Which is a bummer, since she has enough hair to wear them!  

She also still dislikes naps, though I think she recognizes when she's tired and needs them.  She will often crawl over and lay her head down on me if she is tired, or go get her sleep sack and hug it.  We still nurse at first morning wake up, and before all sleeps, but she usually doesn't make the transfer to her bed at nap time, and is pretty sad about it. =(

Yes, pointing is still her jam.

Though we had no doctor appointment this month, I feel like her growth is right on (her) track still.  She definitely feels heavier!  Especially up all our stairs, oof!  She's wearing mostly 12 month stuff (12mo Carter's onesies fit her great), with the occasional 12-18 Old Navy/Gap onesie, and almost all 18mo Circo stuff because that seems to run really small.  She's also about maxed out her infant car seat now, but her new convertible should arrive on Monday.  It's a Foonf, so she'll have plenty of room to grow in that!

Seriously, though?  How could this kid not give me that explode-y heart feeling?  Love you, Tootie Jo!