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Dear Vera: 13 months

By Dawn Sailors In Dear Vera

Dear Vera,

You’re 13 months old now (and I’m sorry I’m one day late with this post). Strangely, this past month has seemed like the longest one since you were born. But we’ve seen some big changes, especially in your mental development. You seem to understand us better now, and we were just talking today about how much smarter you are than we give you credit for sometimes. It just seems like you’re too small to know as much as you do. You are starting to repeat words back to us and starting to grasp the concept that words are attached to objects. You know the word ‘ball’, and call everything round a ball. From a balloon to an egg. You’ve just started realizing that ‘dada’ means that guy you love, and I think ‘mama’ will be coming shortly. (You’ve been saying the words for a while, but now you point at dad when you say it, or say it when you see him.) You also know what the word ‘no’ means, but you try to make us laugh when we say it to you- like you don’t like us being so serious. Sometimes it works.

You also are doing things like opening your mouth and saying ‘ahhhh’ when it’s time to brush your teeth, and grabbing your hairbrush after bath time and brushing your own hair. Yes, you’re learning a lot and faster than we realize, I think.

You’re still cruising around furniture, and you’ll walk holding one of my hands, but haven’t quite gotten up to letting go and taking those first steps by yourself yet.

With the weather so nice lately, you’ve developed a new love of being outdoors. You’re as bad as your cat-brother, Lucious, and will sprint on all fours for the door as soon as you hear it open. Once you’re outside, you want to head to your swing (a birthday present from Grandpa) right away. Besides playing outside, you also love to play catch and your dad is already working on your throwing technique. I think you’ll be a righty (you seem to favor that side more often), but it’s still a little to early to tell, and you tend to switch from hand to hand.

This month we are just starting to work on moving you away from your bottle and I think it’s going to take a little while to get the hang of it. For both of us. We’ll see how it goes, but hopefully once you get into a new routine, you’ll adjust quickly. We’re also working on a little habit you’re starting to develop of biting people. At first you seemed to just do it out of curiosity, and we tried to just detour you, but now you’re a little more calculated about it. The last few bites have been when you’re mad or don’t get your way. (See what I mean about that ‘smarter than we realize’ comment earlier?) We’re going to try to nip this in the bud before it turns into an issue though.

Other than that biting thing, you’re personality is so bubbly and fun most of the time. I almost forgot my favorite new development this month! You have started to laugh when you hear other people laughing, and it cracks me up. Your dad pretends to laugh loudly, just so you’ll laugh along and it is so adorable to hear your little giggles, even when you don’t know what you’re laughing at.

I love you so much.
Love, Mom

 

 

P.S.- A new year means a new pose (and a new prop for size comparisons), so below are Vera’s photos in her new pose at 12 months, and you can see all her first year photos by clicking here.

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