Thirteen Months Old

Elaina really is changing every day.  The most obvious of changes is her growing ability to express herself.  It seems like she is adding a new word to her vocabulary every day.  Just this morning, my dad came over, and Elaina saw him and exclaimed "Papa! Papa!"  A few days ago, I found myself conversing with my 13-month-old.  I picked her up off the floor, and she said, "dee dee poo poo." "Oh, you have stinky poo poos?" I asked.  "Yeah." So I laid her on the changing table.  "boo! boo!" she said excitedly. "You want your boots back on?" I asked.  She had been wearing them earlier. "Yeah!" she said.  I asked her where they were. "Uh-oh," she said seriously. "You dropped them? Where did you drop them?" I asked. "Da-teh." I thought for a second and then realized what she was telling me.  She likes to throw things down the stairs into the basement. "Oh, you dropped them downstairs?" "Yeah!" she said, excited that I figured it out.  Sure enough, her boots were at the bottom of the stairs.

I've already lost track of all the words she uses. 

Elaina still isn't walking, but she loves to practice. She holds someone's fingers and throws one little chubby leg in front of the other, with a bit of a drunken sailor in her gait.  She also loves to hold on to the dining room chairs and push them halfway across to the house.  Some days I am constantly returning furniture to its rightful place.

She loves taking baths.  She starts screeching in excitement when she hears the bath water running.

She really likes her uncles.  She likes all of the uncles to hold her during church.  They are all so great with her, it's no wonder.  Isaiah has been around a lot lately, and she really enjoys snuggling with him.

She still likes to rub the corners of blankets and fabric.  I don't imagine that will change any time soon.  She even does it in her sleep.

And she and her sister like to join me in my bed in the morning.  Sometimes they even fall back asleep.

She had her well-child visit recently.  At 18 pounds, she has dropped down to the bottom of the charts for weight (11th percentile!), which is a little hard to believe.  I guess there must be some super chunky babies out there.  My friend Lynnessa was in town recently with her baby Audrey, who is now 6 months old.  Yes, they are basically the same size.  Audrey's cheeks are definitely bigger.

She still just has her two teeth, but has almost completely transitioned to the world of real food.  Sometime she'll scarf down a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one sitting.  Since she still isn't eating dairy (it gives her "burney-buns," as we call them), we've been giving her lots of peanut butter and avocados and low-mercury fish to make sure she's getting plenty of good fats.  She has recently discovered the wonderful world of eating utensils.

She also likes dry cereal. And of course, she definitely wants to try whatever is on our plates.

We all had the Horrible Cold of February 2013.  There were a few days in particular that we all were very lazy and gave our bodies lots of good rest.  That meant lots of reading books and snuggling.

As I have mentioned before, she is a really loud kid.  I think she's been watching her sister, because she like to hold books and sing. 


She loves doing whatever we're doing.  Especially if we let her help. 

She waves goodbye to her daddy when he leaves for work, and bounces up and down with excitement when his car pulls up.