The Cahill Family: 13 Months and Catching Up

Mary Frances is leaving the baby stages behind and becoming more like a toddler every day! While she is still not toddling around on her own yet, she is becoming more bold in the walking department. She has moved from demanding two hands to walk around to cruising comfortably holding onto only one hand. She can make anything a push toy for her to walk from point A to point B. While she can stand alone, she will pitch a fit if you intentionally let go and leave her standing. I am sure that will change all too soon!

Her little personality is starting to match her age. She is still so sweet and is learning how to express love with hugs. In the last week, Mary Frances has started to hug all of her stuffed animals and baby dolls. It is precious. On the other side of the personality scale we have the drama and tantrums that start early with little girls, or so I'm told. If you take something away or make her sit when she wants to stand, she will bust out the fake cry and sometimes even tears. I'm afraid I haven't been too consistent in my responses, fluctuating between telling her "you're okay," ignoring the said forced hysterics, and doing whatever it is that will reverse the spell. I'm probably better off ignoring it and am trying to remember to do that more :)

This is her "I am not amused" look

Mary Frances continues to love to read and I think that has really helped her vocabulary. I feel like the last month she has changed more and learned more than any month before. I guess what she is learning is much more apparent than maybe it was when she was learning some of her gross motor skills. Mary Frances seems to have a lot of words that we can understand what she is trying to say, but probably no one else would be able to. Her list of words includes (in addition to the ones she had at 12 months): door, ball, star, duck, uh oh, "whoa," hello, drop, and stuck (sounds like "tuck"). She loves to point out facial features on us and can point to our eyes, nose, mouth and head on command. She also loves hair and will gently stroke my hair. So cute! Mary Frances is also very into mimicking fine movements such as brushing her teeth, brushing her hair (or ours!), using the bulb suction to get buggies out of her nose (gross!), put on her shoes, etc.

She eats great and can completely feed herself at meal times! I am SO happy about that because I thought I was going to have to feed her for forever :) She definitely goes for her favorite food first and then eats the rest. Going from a bottle to sippy cup was hard, but probably could have been worse. True to form, Mary Frances has been slow to warm up to milk. She drinks water like a champ, but when it comes to milk lets it dribble out of her mouth. The only milk she will not spit out is the Horizon Organic Milk. Can we say picky! We are working through it though. I am just trying to be patient!

Okay, I think that is enough for now. Please enjoy these pictures from the last month!