Time is going by faster than ever. Riley is now 13 months old, and has added all kinds of new skills this past month. Riley is now a 100%, full time walker, (and has been for quite a while) and she is FAST. She's practically a speed-walker, wanna-be runner. She now weighs almost 22 pounds (yikes!), in size 4 diapers, and is in mostly 18 month clothes. She's in between size 3 and 4 shoes, which is always fun. :)
She learns things SO fast these days. She's learning body parts- right now she knows (and can point to when asked) ears, tongue, fingers, toes, feet, eyes, teeth, mouth and hair. Sometimes she gets nose right, but mostly when I say nose, she thinks I said "noise" and then makes a "piggy noise." Close...? She knows the color red. She knows the letters A, B, and C. She knows even more words than she knew last month, her receptive language is unbelievable. Words she says: mama, dada, yum, "nana" (banana) and again ("aga"), "bubba" for baby, and "ma" for more, "ba" for bath and ball. She can also say "nigh-nigh" (night night) and she tries to repeat a lot of what we say. She can also moo like a cow, oink like a pig, bark like a dog, baa like a sheep, and growl like a lion. If you ask her a question, if the answer is yes, she does this little squeak thing as her version of "yes."
Left: she thinks she's going to get my camera. Right: she realizes I'm not giving it to her.
This month she really discovered climbing. As in, oh hey, I can climb on to that chair and then stand up and reach all those things I wasn't supposed to reach! We taught her how to get down from things like couches or beds feet first, and she actually does it pretty well. She often needs to be reminded, but if we say, "feet first Riley!" she turns around and climbs down the right way without face planting. Except if she's really excited, then she will just go flying off furniture any which way. She also LOVES going for mini bike rides with her daddy... or just playing with the bell on his bike.
We finally started the process of weaning. We have now eliminated day time nursing, and she drinks whole milk from a sippy cup during the day like a champ. We've gotten rid of all bottles, although she hasn't has a bottle since around 11 months so that was no big deal. We are basically down to nursing one time in the early morning, and will drop that last feed in the next couple of days I hope. As for sleep, I thought she was transitioning to one nap a day, but she took 2 x 2 hour naps today, so I could be wrong. Who knows.
She does the hand gestures to "wheels on the bus" although they all look the same... She has become even more obsessed with reading books, if that was even possible. She will pick up her favorite books and bring them all the way across the room to us so we will read them to her and she FREAKS OUT with joy when we start reading. I really need to get it on video because it's so so cute. And she will bring us the same books over, and over, and over again. She has learned how to BUILD towers instead of just destroy them, although clearly destroying them is much more fun. She has also learned to put things IN something rather than just remove them (i.e. putting small objects in a box rather than taking them all out), which is helpful for clean-up time! It is NOT helpful when she hides the keys in a box inside a box, and we have to search the whole house for them.
She has learned how to kick a ball, and will do it on command. She can throw balls/toys across the room as well. My mom has been teaching Riley all kinds of fun "tricks," so when we say "ta da!" she throws her hands up in the air and smiles, and when we say, "oh no!" or "doh!" she smacks her hand on her head. Pretty darn cute. She loves to be thrown onto the bed or the couch, she loves swimming, and she loves going for "car rides" in her new pool toy that she prefers to play with on the carpet. She thinks any thing remotely electronic looking is a phone, and will hold it up to her ear.
She refuses to even try and feed herself with a spoon, but does well with a fork (if we put the food on it for her). She is also really stubborn about using a sippy cup. She prefers that we hold it for her, so the only cup she will use completely by herself is a straw cup. Oh well, we'll get there. We've eliminated day time pacifier use, so she only gets it in her bed (unless she needs to take a nap on the go and then she gets in in the car/stroller). She still love love LOVES to be scared/surprised, and still loves to be chased all around the house. She's obsessed with doggies. She responds 100% of the time to "sit down" and "stand up," which is pretty impressive. She almost always responds to "go give this to (mama/dada/whoever)" and even consistently responds to "come here."
And on to some not so awesome new developments- biting. Riley has discovered biting as a form of protesting being told no. And it's totally my fault. Her biting all started when I was trying to put my fingers in her mouth to check for new teeth coming through. (Speaking of teeth- she currently has 10- 6 on top, 4 on bottom with another bottom one about to break through... THREE of those are molars!!) But anyway, when checking for teeth, ahe usually clamps her mouth shut and won't let me see, so I made a game out of it so she would open her mouth. She'd bite down on my fingers, and I'd go "ouch!" and she would laugh, and then open her mouth again. It then progressed to her randomly initiating that "game" when I wasn't expecting it. And then it progressed to her realizing she can bite whenever she wants, and then deciding that if I tell her no for any reason, her immediate response would be to bite me (or her dad). Needless to say, we no longer play that "game," and we no longer think biting is funny in the least. I'm just hoping she doesn't figure out she can bite other kids, yikes. But even when she bites, it's so hard to get mad at this little face, no?
Happy 13 months to my little bug-a-boo!
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