Evan's 13-month update

Firsts:
-First time standing on his own without holding onto anything!
-First times down the slide at the park (with help!)--he likes the slide more than swings it seems
-First food ordered from a restaurant (a side of mac n cheese at Buffalo Wild Wings)

Out for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings 

Growth and development:

Evan definitely stands on his own a lot now.  I can let go of him and he won't fall down instantly, and he often lets go of what he's holding onto while playing with a two using both hands.  It's so clear that he has got great balance now--he even can squat all the way down to reach something without holding onto anything.  Thus, we just wonder when he'll finally take those first steps?

He has some new words, though some sound the same from his mouth, but I know he uses them consistently for certain things.  For example, he says "bup", which must mean milk (even tho it doesn't sound anything like it), because he always says it when I am about to feed him a bottle or nurse him.  "Bup" also means brush, because when I go to brush his hair he says it too.  He'll say "boom" (though less of an 'm' sound at the end) when something bangs or makes a noise.  He occasionally says "nah nah" for night night and "bah bah" for bye bye.  He also still says "buh bah" for bunny bear and even for brown bear (the book).  

And lately, he also seems to be asking "what's that?" though it sounds like "wah dah?".  I think he may have started doing that because I am now asking him a lot of questions like "what's that?" and "where's the ___?".   This leads me to my next big thing about this past month...it's clear that he understands a lot of what we say!  For example, he will now point to the clock, fan (ceiling fans in particular), lights, table, chair, couch, keys, and tree when asked "Where's the ____?"  He's even done it at other people's homes, which tells me he knows what the light or fan really is and not just memorizing ours and where ours are at in our home.  He still points with all fingers extended, however, and I'm not sure when he'll figure out how to just extend his pointer finger.  He also seems to really know ball and book.  However, he still refers to phones as 'ma ma'.  

That stubborn sixth tooth that I've mentioned as being on the verge of coming in for weeks and weeks now finally broke through and is coming in!  That is now his fourth tooth on top.  He still wears size 3 Pampers baby dry disposable diapers, and is wearing 12-18/18 month clothes.  Most of his 12 month clothes are now being put away as they've just gotten a bit too small.  

Mealtime: 
Evan loves to eat and seems to either be having a growth spurt or is just really up'ing his intake of solid foods, this past week in particular.  He wolfs down the quantity of solid foods we'd have normally given him and then wants more and more.  He often eats so fast, like we're going to take it away if he doesn't shove it in quick.  I don't know where this came from, but I worry about him choking when he stuffs too much in at once.  And even though he may shove food in quickly at any one time, we've started having some meals drag out over at least an hour or longer, just because he keeps wanting more to eat (thanks to the "more" sign, we do know he wants more...when he's done he uses his hands to push away food--while verbally making a refusal sound too--and sometimes kind of does the "all done" sign).

He definitely wants to eat things that we're having too, and he doesn't like to eat too much of the same thing at any one time, so we have to keep his meals pretty varied.  I prefer that, however, so that I know he's getting a variety of nutrients and food groups in every meal.

He really loves to eat bread, pancakes, waffles; he still loves cheese, raspberries, and peaches.  Since our apples are ripe, I've been finding ways to make them (I've made a lot of pies!) and Evan seems to fancy them baked with some cinnamon.  He still won't eat cheerios as much as he used to and definitely won't eat them at the table (part of a meal) anymore.  The only way he'll eat them is for snacks while we're out and about.

New foods this past month: egg whites (in scrambled whole eggs--he likes...he didn't care for just scrambled egg yolks though), tofu, macadamia nuts, mango, baked apples with cinnamon and corn on the cob (while he'd had corn plenty of times before, even from the cob, this month he took the cob itself and started to gnaw on it!).

Like I said, he gnawed right on the (end of the) cob itself...

Evan is doing a great job of drinking water with his sippy cup now.  We leave cups around for him to have a drink whenever he wants one and he can drink from the cup himself now, especially using the cups with handles. I'm hoping we can start transitioning him to use a sippy cup for milk...but this is going slowly so far.  Maybe we can make progress this next month.

Oh, and he says "mmmmm" when we eat...(I think he copied that one from me because I'm pretty sure I do it all the time when I'm trying to express to him that something is yummy).

Sleeptime:
We just got new fan to help drown out noise during naps and it's working wonders so far.  It's one of those high volume ones that hums steadily.  It's just like the fan that our daycare has, and they told me that he naps like a charm now with it.  So, since we'd had some trouble with various noises in the neighborhhood waking him from his naps, I thought it was worth a shot.  Now he's napping around 1.5-2 hrs in the morning and around 1 hr or longer in the afternoon.

Plus, I'm so happy to say that nighttime sleep has finally gotten back on track!  It took one night when Evan woke up at midnight and was just totally inconsolable...we weren't going to feed him then so we just let him cry it out.  We checked in on him every 10 minutes or so, but after an hour of crying and whining, he finally went to sleep.  Then when he woke at 4:30am (the time he had normally been waking for at least a month or more) we didn't feed him then either.  Rather, we just quickly checked in on him and he went back to sleep within 10 minutes.  Now he rarely wakes until around 6am! :)  Yippee!!  Bedtime is still 8pm.

Playtime:
New toys: water table, wooden puzzles

New water table!

Evan's always loves when the water sprays out of the hose!

Playing with both hands!

All smiles! :)

Favorite books: "Dear Zoo" and "Spot visits his grandparents" (bday gifts from Nana) are two books he's come to loves so much that he will seek them out when I ask him which books he wants me to read.  He loves the lift the flap books.  He still loves all of his other past favorites too.

Evan likes to dance a lot (see discotehque baby).  Sometimes it's just him rocking back and forth on his hands and knees or while he's sitting down, but mostly he'll be standing and bouncing with one arm in air (the other holding onto something), and even recently he has danced (aka bounced) with both arms in the air.  He'll also rock back and forth from one foot to the other while standing as another move in his groove collection.

Evan spends a lot of time cruising around--he holds onto the wall and anything else to get from one place to another on two feet.  He likes to take his wooden puzzle pieces and place them on things.  For example, he likes to stack them on one level of the entertainment center, then move them one-by-one to the other level, and back and forth.  Or he sets them on the chaise lounge and lets them slide down the angled end (he does this with balls too).

Evan stacking his wooden puzzle pieces on the entertainment center.

He still pushes his walker toy around a lot, mops the floor with the dish towel, and still loves to climb stairs.  He does a really good job at stopping at the top of a staircase and turning to go down backward on his tummy.  I am so glad we taught him that as it's saved us a few times already when he's made a b-line for stairs that aren't gated off!  He also loves the dishwasher--if he hears it being unloaded/loaded he makes a b-line for it too.  Still loves remote controls, cell phones, and other electronic devices.  I don't know if he'll ever outgrow that obsession. ;)

During a recent lunch at Tom and Paula's house, Tom let Evan play with an old cell phone...which kept Evan very occupied.