The Peaden Life: Lydia Elise: 12-13 Months

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Lydia Elise: 12-13 Months

I am SO grateful that I we did monthly posts for Lydia's first 12 months of life. I love looking back at them and I am glad for the things that we have recorded because I already have a hard time remembering. (When exactly did she sit up? What did it look like when she first started crawling.) It's hard to remember a Lydia that is any different than the beautiful girl we spend each day with. I don't think that I can keep up the intensity of those monthly posts and I think I would like to transition to one post every three months and then maybe when she gets older... every six months. However, she is still growing and learning so much that I still want to post each month for a while. I think that these posts will be a little less intensive, but hopefully they will still capture the spirit of this little girl.

It's obvious now that she isn't a baby anymore. It seemed to happen suddenly. Even at her first birthday she still had several baby characteristics but between 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 weeks she suddenly became all toddler. Everything she does is older and more thought-out. I don't know if that makes sense - but it is really the way that I feel. My little baby is now a little toddler. For real this time.

Some things from the past month:

--Lydia has developed a love for reading books. She was never really interested when I read to her before, but a week or so after her birthday she "discovered" books. She picks them up, lugs them across the room (some of them are still pretty heavy for her so she grabs them with both hands), and will hand them to us to read them to her. She loves to flip through the pages as fast as possible. Recently she has started handing us the books and then backing herself up and sitting down in my (or David's) lap. I love it so much. It's like "I want you to read this book to me, but first I want to sit down right here in your lap." It's so so sweet.

--Started drinking real milk. She doesn't love it and so we are slowly transitioning. (She is still nursing in the morning and at night but I know she is supposed to drink real milk for the fat content.) David discovered that she likes the milk better when she eats it with cereal, so in the mornings he will share his wheat chex and milk with her. She likes to suck the milk out of the cereal and off the spoon.

--When she wakes up in the morning (or from a nap) she will stand up in her crib and before she will let you take her out she will hand you her purple blanket and her bear. It's cute how much she loves them. (David is nice and lets her carry them around for a while. I usually stick them right back into the crib so that I can find them both later.)

--We went swimming for the first time and she really enjoyed it! Since then we have been a couple of times and I am so glad that she likes it because I love it. All of my sisters and I love the water, and I think that she definitely takes after us (it's that Walker blood coming out in her). Not only does she love swimming, but she loves to play in any water - bathtime, water on her highchair tray, splash pads, and even when I set her on the counter so I can wash my hands. Such a water baby.

At 12 months she was still fitting into most of her 9 month footie pajamas/sleepers. Each night as we put her in pajamas it was like "Well, this is the last night that she is wearing these pajamas!" She seems to have grown so much in just the last month. She is pretty consistant at escaping after we change her diaper in the morning and she likes to walk around with the little feet dragging. Except this month the feet stopped dragging on the floor and you could tell that they really were getting to small for her.

--She is even more expressive now. She jabbers fairly often and when she gets excited about something she just doesn't. stop. talking. It's so funny - because most of the time I can't tell why she is so excited. But I do love that she is more interactive and likes to try to tell you things.

--She likes playing with toys, especially balloons. It's fun to see her learn how to play with new things.

--She still hates grass.

--She loves the train and each time she hears it she will point to the window or run over to the sliding door. I think that train will probably be her first word besides "daddy".

--She looks SO cute in her little white hat that we got to shield her almost-hairless head from the sun. Unfortunately, she doesn't love it as much as I do.