Baby H: 13 & 14 Months of Mark

One things for sure, this little boy of ours is basically our favorite human ever! He's so wild and independent and confident. He is full of spunk, can be so much fun and truly is a boys boy. It's been so awesome to watch him pick up on new things the last few months and I can't wait to see who this little boy will be.

He... 

[+] still sleeps 7:30-7:30 in general but with the holidays and him getting older we aren't always so strict about his bedtime. We try to make sure it's close but it's also nice to have the flexibility to stay out a bit later if something fun is going on. We're starting to transition him to just one nap which is a slow process but it's getting there. We try to keep him up longer in the morning (previously he was napping around 10 and we've gotten consistently till 10:45/11) and are letting him sleep as long as he wants for the morning, usually between 1hr45min-2hr30min. He's taking what's turning into a cat nap in the afternoon between 3:30/4 to help bridge the gap between his morning and bedtime. Ideally I'd like to get to noonish, sleep till 2 or 3 and then be up for the day but any progress is good right now.

[+] will go and find a handful of object by name now and it's awesome. He knows "ball" and will get whichever is in closest proximity. He knows J's childhood stuffed dog Tuffy and lovingly grabs him by the ear to drag him around. He knows "your lady" which is the blonde girl from his Little People garage and most of the time he grabs her car to go with. He also knows balloon, paci, the banana piece to his puzzle, Blue Bear and Reindeer (his other stuffed animals).

[+] consistently signs "all done" and not just for eating... getting out of the bath, wanting to be put down, and the cutest is when you ask him if he wants to nap, like he's all done with the day, "eat" especially when he's whining in the kitchen and banging on the fridge doors, "milk" when he's done with foods and wants a drink, and "more please" when we're giving him snacks (please just got added recently and it's the cutest!).

[+] will touch his head, hair, tummy, diap (aka diaper) and occasionally ears when you ask.  He also just recently started lifting J and my shirts if you ask him "where's daddy's/momma's tummy?". He'll also point to his nose and makes the cutest sniffing sound. He sniffs his feet if you ask him "do you have stinky feet" and kicks them furiously when he's in the bath tub or sitting in his high chair.

[+] searches for Ollie when you say his name and will give him big hugs and "pat, pat, pats" if you ask him to. He also gives his stuffed animals giant hugs too.

[+] grabs his shoes and stands by the door if he wants to go outside. He also reaches for the doorknobs if you ask him if he wants to go outside. We've been working on saying "open" when he stands near the door and he tries so hard but mostly just says a "p" sound.

[+] learned to stomp his feet and spins in circles with his arms stretched out. He also kicks balls if you tell him too and he's actually really good at it. He picks up dog hair fluffs and takes them to the trash can in the kitchen.

[+] knows how to blow air and we've been working on associating blowing with things that are hot. He helps cool down his food on his plate before he eats it and if you hold him while there's something on the stove he's usually blowing in that direction too.

[+] still isn't very vocal in terms of specific words but with everything else above we know his communication skills are on-par so while I'd love for him to start "talking" more I'm also proud of everything he can do. He is however constantly babbling it just has no association most of the time. He still makes the "da" sound the most and I think he's starting to connect dada to J. He also tries to say water, juice, hat, and hot and has actually gotten pretty good at saying Ollie. He's still never once said mama which drives me crazy but we're working on it.

[+] has been in serious teething land lately and I don't see an end in sight anytime soon either. He had two bottom teeth and four top teeth going into his birthday and officially he now has a bottom L molar to add to the mix. His top L and bottom R molars are both poking through the tiniest bits and I'm starting to see his two bottom lateral teeth beneath his gums. I seriously don't know what's with this kid and his out-of-order teeth but it's pretty funny that he only has two bottom teeth but has one molar already!

[+] can seriously put down some food sometimes. He still loves all fruits, yogurt, cottage cheese and apple sauce. He loves eggs, sausage and pancakes for breakfast and dominates anything pasta with his favorite being tortellini. He'll basically eat any meat we give him which is awesome because I've heard a lot of little kids don't like it. He drinks milk, water and diluted juice from both a sippy cup and a straw cup. Strange enough he really isn't a sweets baby, turns away after one taste of whipped cream, spits out marshmallows, etc etc which is great but very odd too.

We love you Marky Mark!