Alayna 13 Months.........A little late : )

Alayna, I have not forgotten about you!!! I know this is a little late but I still want to continue your monthly updates.  One day, when you get a chance to read all these monthly updates, I think you will be glad I took the time to write these.  I know I wish I had something like this when I was growing up.  We all can take 1,000,000 photos of our child but NOT very many have an actual status update every month that includes what is going on right then in their child’s life.  For that I am thankful I started doing this for you, Alayna.

Alayna you are now 13 months and a little over a week old today.  WE honestly do not know where the time goes but it does go somewhere : ) You had your 12 month checkup a week or so after your actual birthday and you are now 21 lbs. 7 ounces and 31 1/8 inches. Your weight puts in between the 25-50^th percentile and your height is still 97^th percentile  We still cannot believe how tall you are!! Who knows maybe you will play volleyball, basketball, softball, or dance when you get older.  Daddy doesn’t mind which one you choose : )

As for your monthly developments, not much is new.  I think you only walked for about a week or two until you mastered the art of running.  No one can stop you from going to any room in the house now.  Well I guess the fact that we are now closing bedroom doors. But it’s like we are playing defense against you.  I think maybe you really like to hear the word NO because that is basically what we say 75% of the day.  It’s more like “NO Alayna stop climbing the stair!!!”, “NO Alayna stop trying to pull out the plugs!!”, “NO Alayna you cannot eat the dog food!!”, etc etc. 

I think though you really enjoy reading books with mommy and daddy.  You are funny because you have a few books you really love more than others.  One of your favorites is The Five Little Pumpkins.  When you see that book on the floor you run over and grab it and say pum pum. That is how you say pumpkin.  Some of your other favorites is Maisey’s ABC’s which you have destroyed every single flap you can possibly open.  Oh well it’s your books so feel free to do what you want with them.  Other favorites include the Biscuit storybook series.  Biscuit is a dog who you love.  I think you like the books because you get to touch and feel the hair on a dog, hair on a cat, and various other touch and feel pages. Another one of your favorites is the body book. This book has photos of toes, fingers, knees, mouth, teeth, ear, and other photos of kids running, painting, standing etc. I think you are turning into a baby genius.  We asked you where your knee was and you pointed right to your little knee.  You had the biggest smile on your face! When you do not want to sit still and eat, we like to give you these books. That sitting still and eating thing is something you have yet to master.

Not only do you enjoy having books read to you, you love music more than anything.  Both mommy and daddy are thrilled about that as we enjoy music just as much.  We can turn on any radio station or even have the tv on and you pick up the beat.  One of our favorite things to see you do is feel the beat of the music when you are in the kitchen.  You walk over to the oven and look at yourself and dance.  Sometimes you will even bring a prop in with you.  It’s not that you dance only way you actually change up your dance moves based on the song.  That is something that truly amazes us.  Right now one of your favorite songs is sung by Lorde called Royals.  I think you just love the beat of this song more than anything.  You truly are an entertaining little girl already!

As for your diet, you still like to eat baby food. But we have added some additional foods to your menu.  I guess you are a noodle lover because you really like lasagna and butter noodles.  But when you eat the lasagna you spit out the meat. There are times when you will eat something once and the next day or so we give it to you its like the most awful thing created.  For instance Nutra Grain bars.  You love them one day and hate them the next day. 

As for your liquid diet, you still love breast milk. One day when you read that statement you will be embarrassed. (Don’t worry daddy will embarrass you in front of all your boyfriends one day!) We are in the process of weaning you but it’s really hard.  I don’t think you like bottles of any kind as we have probably bought almost every brand possible. But you do like the old school Tupperware cups that have the lids.  It’s funny because mommy and daddy both used these when we were growing up.  I am happy to report that you do like water.  There are some people out there who hate water.  Water is so good for you so let’s hope when you’re older you still enjoy it. 

Something else we are still struggling with is bedtime. I wonder when you will ever sleep in your own bed for a full night???? You end up sleeping in our bed every single night.  Oh well, your daddy did the same thing as a child.  I guess it’s time for a payback to see how my parents felt about me sleeping in their bed.  But one day I guess we will miss having you scream at 2 am begging to get in our bed. You make sure to sleep al kinds of different ways by kicking us in the face, gut, or laying basically on top of us.

Alayna, you continue to be a little social baby.  Anywhere we go you always are smiling at strangers.  I think you enjoy getting attention as you know you are adorable.  But I have to say you are very well behaved when it comes to going out in public.  You will just sit in your stroller and be so content.  We are wondering how much longer that will last!!

 

Right now, that is all that I can think of.  You continue to get older and smarter by the day.  It’s almost scary how fast you are learning about your environment.  I cannot wait to see what you learn in the next month Alayna!

 

We Love You!