Yesterday was Alethea’s thirteen month birthday.  Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

Since I never actually got an update written at twelve months, I’ve got two months to go over here.  First off, at Alethea’s 12 month appointment she got her stats checked.  Since I’ve lost the piece of paper on which the doctor wrote everything down I don’t have all the info, but I do remember that her height was 29.5 inches and her weight was 22 lbs and some oz which put her in the 50th percentile for height and 75th for weight.

In the last two months Alethea has certainly made a lot of progress on her walking skills.  When she decides to really get going she looks like she’s close to running.  She also can get to her feet using just the floor to stand up, which I first discovered when she did so in the bathtub and nearly wiped out.  (We’re still working on the whole “must stay seated while in the tub” rule.)

Alethea continues to amaze us with her expanding vocabulary.  It seems like every day or two she whips out a new word.  Her current vocab list includes: mama, daddy, grandma (ma-ma-ma), hi, go, car, truck, shoes, sock, flower, hippo, clock, cup, ball, book, nuk, and of course, “all done”.

Along with her expanding vocabulary is coming an ability to obey commands.  She sometimes will do what you ask if you say things like, “Alethea, go get your shoes” or “Let’s go upstairs so we can change your diaper”.  Her highest rate of follow through though is when you say, “Alethea, come here, I’ve got ice cream for you.”  She’s really good at that one.

On the down side of her growing social/verbal skills, she seems to be hitting the terrible twos a little early.  Lately when she doesn’t get her way she will flop down tragically on the floor and cry as though we’re breaking her poor little heart.  If we ignore her and move away (which is our current strategy) she will pick herself off the floor, come find us and repeat the performance.  It’s actually kind of funny in the moment (although I do my best not to laugh when she’s in the middle of her melt-down) but seriously, she is such a little drama queen!

Her favorite foods are currently: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and pasta.  She generally doesn’t eat meat, although if she’s in the right mood, deli ham or chicken nuggets may be acceptable.

The other day I saw her sit down on the floor and play with a toy.  I know that doesn’t sound remarkable, but as I watched her, I asked myself, “What’s wrong with this picture?”  Suddenly I realized that I literally haven’t seen her sit and play with a toy since she learned how to stand up.  She generally carries toys with her as she makes her rounds in the house.  Sometimes she’ll play with a toy on the coffee table or couch, but until recently, she didn’t like slowing down long enough to actually sit and manipulate an object.  It just seems like she’s always on the move.  Lately though, she’s shown a little more interest in doing “sit still” activities like stacking blocks and putting smaller objects inside larger ones.

In all other areas, Alethea continues to be her same assertive and independent self.  Her daily activities include playing with toys, dancing to music, taking all the food out of the cupboards and then trying to eat the cardboard boxes, climbing the stairs and looking out the dining room window so that she can squeal loudly whenever a dog walks by.  During the course of these tasks, she also manages to maintain a constant dialog with herself and I am always curious to know what she’s babbling about.

This update it getting quite long, so I’ll just close by saying that Alethea is at a really fun stage right now and Peter and I just having such a fantastic time watching her grow up.