Elsie Marie - 13 Months

Well if you thought I would end Elsie's monthly posts after she turned one year you were wrong :)  She is still changing so much so fast that I don't want to forget a moment of it all.  Like I say every month, she has changed so much over the past month.  We were busy and had a lot going on with Christmas and all that it seems like that was so long ago!  Good thing I have been keeping notes over the past four weeks. (Disclaimer-yes this is coming out two weeks late but all information was correct as of 1/14/13.  And of course things have changed since then :).

GROWTH
I don't have any official measurements but I am sure amazed at how big our little girl is getting.  She is definitely no longer a baby but our little toddler.

EATING

She Likes to Eat bananas like Mommy

She is quite the eater these days.  We can hardly keep her full!  She is eating everything we are eating which is awesome because we don't have to make her dinner and then make ourselves dinner.  This also means we are eating dinner a lot earlier which then takes away from my play time with Elsie in the evenings since I am preparing dinner.  She is getting really good with the spoon which is fun to watch.  Her favorites are chicken, brocoli, yogurt, cheese, cheerios, sweet potato fries, avocado and crackers. Another big transition this month is that she is 100% on whole milk and completely off bottles.

Here is her typical eating scheudule.  
6:45 AM:  Breakfast-6 oz milk in sippy cup.  banana, egg, and toast (this is almost what she eats everyday)
10:00 AM:  AM snack-fruit and cheerios-water in sippy cup
12:00 PM-Lunch-varies but normally includes a fruit, veggie, and meat or leftovers-6 oz milk in sippy cup
4:00 PM-Afternoon snack- water or milk in sippy cup, veggie, cheese, and crackers of a sort
5:30 PM-Dinner-6-8 oz in sippy cup, and whatever we are having.  I always make sure to have a veggie for sure though for her.  We have to give the veggies first as an "appetizer" otherwise she will choose the meat over the veggie any day.  Dinner is the last time she gets milk since it is so close to her bedtime.


SLEEP

Like every month, this has changed from the beginning of the month to the end.  In the beginning she was still getting up for a bottle in the middle of the night.  We were going to wait until after Christmas to lay the law down but we didn't have to.  Magically, when we got home from all of our Christmas travels she stopped waking for a bottle in the middle of the night.  However, she has been waking up now at 5:30.  Sometimes she will fall back to sleep in our bed but lately, she has not.  Her bedtime routine has also changed since we stopped giving her a bottle before bed.  When she was sick last week we stopped giving her milk for a few days and now she doesn't even miss it.  We will put a little milk in her sippy cup if she wants some while we are reading stories but rarely does she even drink any. I think this might have to do with the fact that we eat dinner a little bit later and pretty close to her bed time.  So we are officially done with bottles!  I was expecting a really tough transition but it just all happened naturally.  The last three nights she has not woken up once until 5:30-6:00.  I wish she slept in a little later but I will take the 7-8 hours of interrupted sleep over that any day!  SHe is still taking a morning and afternoon nap during the day and she still goes to bed before 7:00 PM.  Thankfully we still haven't had much trouble laying her down at night.  She goes to bed really good without any fuss.  I pray this continues.  Here is her sleep schedule:

5:30-6:00 AM - Wake up for the day
8:30-9:00 AM - Morning Nap-this lasts between 45-60 minutes
1:30-2:00 PM- Afternoon Nap - This lasts between 1-2 hours-typically about and hour and a half
6:30 PM - we start to get ready for bed and I am normally walking out of her room around 6:50ish.  Sleeping straight through until 5:30-6:00 AM.

DEVELOPMENT


I just love this age!  I love to watch her develop new skills just about every day!  After a VERY scary tumble down the stairs Elsie has now master the correct way to go down a flight of stairs-on her belly.  I just love watching her stop at the top lay down on her belly and then scoot back towards the edge of the stairs.  It seemed like it just clicked overnight.  She has begun to tell us what she wants or needs by using her words, sounds and gestures.  Towards the end of our Christmas celebrations Elsie finally figure out how to unwrap her presents (and everyone elses). She has also begun to help us out around the house.  She loves to help her daddy feed Cinder at night and she now comes down with me to the laundry room and helps me put the clothes in the washer/dryer and take them out.  Another exciting thing is she learned how to climb up on the couch/chair in the living room all by herself.

Feeding Cinder

Made her way onto the chair by herself

TEETH

Finally, something to report in this category.  Two of Elsie's top molars came in shortly after Christmas.  I had a feeling they were coming because she was drooling a ton and she was a little bit fussy.  Nothing too bad though.  So this brings her total number of teeth to 10.

SPEECH
Previous Words:  mama, dada, woof-woof, up, hi, uh-oh.  She is really getting good at saying "hi" when she meets new people.  At the eye doctor the other day one of the ladies came out of one of the rooms and Elsie said "hi" to her.  She also says "up" a lot when she wants us to pick her up or if she wants to go upstairs.  It is starting to sounds more and more like "um" though.

New Words:  night night.  She just started saying this when we were at John's grandma's house.  Everyone was telling her "night night" and she started to repeat it.  Now she says it all on her own.  In fact, the other night when she was exhausted and not feeling well she walked over to the stairs, laid her head down on the step and said "night night".  She was ready for bed I guess.

PLAY
Elsie has started to play more and more independently which is nice because I need her to while I prepare dinner in the evenings.  She still loves books, Cinder, her stuffed animals, and to put things in her mouth.  She loves when we build towers out of blocks so she can knock them down, she has really gotten into her stacking cups, and likes to rock on her rocking butterfly.  She also likes to play (carry around) her play food and put them in the doors of her new kitchen.  She also discovered this past month that her little basketball bounces and likes to throw in down on the floor and watches it bounce.

Besides all the fun Christmas festivities that took place this month Elsie also played outside in the snow for the first time, watched the Vikings play in the playoffs, fought a stomach bug for about 5 days, and celebrated New Years by waking up at midnight for a "snack".

Watching the Vikings with her buddies