13 months

Samantha turned 13 months earlier this week.  While we've stopped taking the monthly pictures with the bear and the sticker in the chair because our toddler is crazy these days, we still wanted to chronicle what she was doing each month.  

Samantha is still smiley quite often.  And she certainly let's us know her opinion these days.  Even though she's very even-tempered, if she doesn't want something, she lets you know by pushing it away or throwing it (this month the item most thrown is meat).

She has been super into riding and pushing things this month.  We've seen a few hints of standing while pushing things, but mostly she has been pushing all her rollly toys around on her knees.  She also has been riding in and on her toys.  Lots of movement these days.

Samantha has twelve teeth now!  All eight in front and all of her first molars.  She has been such a good sport with getting all these teeth.

She climbs on EVERYTHING - the guitar case, the ottoman and chair, her chair, and even the coffee table once. 

She hasn't walked at all yet, but she cruises around everything.  And she's started to stand for a second or two without holding onto everything if she's got two toys in her hands.

She totally understands things these days- when she picks up the remote, she points it at the TV, when she hears the garage door go up she crawls over the door for Andrew, and when you say that you're going to have grapefruit she wags her tongue back and forth in glee. 

Samantha loves to play with her toys.  She now knows how to stack her rings.  She loves taking apart legos and her blocks, and then she loves putting things back in containers.  She is also enjoying moving around all her little people animals as well.  

She's really been liking books these days.  She'll spend almost an hour taking books out of her bin and leafing through all of them.  She likes to read books in her crib before nap these days.  And even though she still has trouble making it through a whole book, she's sitting still longer.  Her favorite book these days are Pout Pout Fish, Moo Baa Lala, The Going to Bed Book, and anything with flaps.

We've been inside for most of the month so we've done a lot of climbing stairs, reading books, playing with toys, pushing things, crawling in circles, and eating.  She's still loving music class, and finally I've loved that she has figured out how to climb into our laps so every once in a while we'll get a few seconds of snuggle out of this one.

And last, but most importantly, Samantha is completely weaned at 13 months!  We were down to only one or two feedings a day since Christmas, and she basically weaned herself, starting to refuse to take my milk in the morning and then finally refusing at night.  It definitely made the transition easier.  While I'm sad to miss our little quiet still time together, to be honest it hasn't involved a quiet and still baby in a few months.  So it's nice to have Andrew be able to put her to bed now and hopefully a night away from her on the horizon. Certainly bittersweet, though- we had a good 13 months of breastfeeding, and I feel very blessed it went so well.