13 month update...on time!

This last month has been an explosion of milestones for Chloe! And as you can see from the pictures, she is WAY too busy to sit still for pictures. So those are the best I got. Maybe in a few months she'll be cheesin' for the camera.

• Chloe is officially a toddler:) Those first steps across Papa's house on Super Bowl Sunday were the beginning of a never ending chase for me. If she is not confined to the highchair, crib, the 'cage' (not really a cage! Just a gated area that Bob and I call the Chloe Cage...don't freak out people!), or in someone's arms, she is ripping and tearing through the house or wherever we are. We've started calling her Baby Godzilla because nothing is safe when she's on the move. She is constantly picking up stuff she shouldn't have so much of the house at her level has been un-decorated.
• She eats pretty much whatever you put in front of her: waffles, crackers, any fruit, all vegetables except potatoes (weird), bread of any sort, cheese, yogurt, pudding, cookies, cake, and the list goes on.
• Weaning is going very slow. We're down to nursing about 4 times in a 24 hour period so about every 6-7 hours. During the night, she usually nurses twice so there's usually only 4-5 hours between feedings. So we're getting there. She does not like whole milk at all so that's what is keeping me from pushing the weaning. I suppose she'll let me know when she's ready.
• Her nap schedule is all over the place. Some days she wants a nap just 2 hours after waking in the morning and it lasts about an hour. Other days it's after lunch that she wants to sleep and it's about a 2-3 hour nap. It kind of makes it hard to schedule anything so we're just going with the flow right now.
• Chloe and Katelyn love bath night because they are both in the big bath tub now together. Chloe really enjoys dumping the water and splashing. Katelyn just likes having someone to make faces at and splash with. She doesn't get in trouble if they're both doing the splashing:)
• Chloe has finally figured out how to sit in kid size chairs. She doesn't normally stand on them anymore. She really loves Katelyn's princess table and chair set, getting in and out of the chair about 10 times before I insist she move on to something not so dangerous. She still slips sometimes so I have to be right there with her.
• Language~expressive...dada, KK, heart, star, all done, oh no, whoowhoo, tweet, uh oh...receptive....understands no (though she just laughs when I say it), brings objects to me when asked, waves bye bye, points to heart, star, owl, bird, and dada, knows what her blanky and binky are, puts her hands on her head when I say peek-a-boo
• She is starting to figure out how to put shapes in shape sorters. I've been using hand over hand modeling to show her the right way and she seems to be getting it. She also tries stacking blocks and likes to knock them down.
• Stranger anxiety is getting better, week by week. She actually let Ashley hold her tonight without crying. And she had no problem with Veronica a couple weeks ago when Veronica babysat her. People that she doesn't know at all are still a bit of problem, but that's good.
• She is wearing all 18 month clothes, size 3 diapers, size 3 or 4 shoes. When she got a bunch of 18 month winter outfits for her birthday, I was worried she wouldn't get to wear them much before it got warm. It was like over night that she couldn't wear the 12 month clothes anymore. I think her weight is around 21-22 lbs.
• She is now rear facing in a toddler seat. No more car seat carrier:( It's taking some getting used to, carrying her into all the places we go. It takes a couple extra minutes getting in and out of the van. My plan is to keep her rear facing until summer.
• We finally have a bedtime routine that works for both girls. At 7:00, bathtime...7:30, PJ's...7:45, brush teeth...7:50-8:00, read stories together, and then I lay Chloe down and sometimes read more stories to Katelyn or she watches American Idol with me. At least one part of my day is predictable.
• There's probably more things that I'm forgetting about, but that's why I try to write every day (yes, I know, I've been slacking!) so that nothing gets missed.