Thirteen months

Lucky number thirteen. I'm still going strong with these monthly updates but the onesie stickers are a thing of the past. I cannot fathom the torture of continuing that series past one year---the last 7 monthly photo shoots have been completely ridic. I'd rather not break out into a sweat anymore trying to keep my mobile son on the chair and not lunging towards the diaper pail, the sticker on his shirt and not in his mouth, and his eyes focused on the camera instead of every other possible object in the nursery. So yeah, it was a great project but no more of that, okay?

So what is new in this thirteen monther's life?

Truman has gotten really into playing pretend and it's probably one of the funniest things I've seen him do yet. It will be my life's mission to get this on camera (along with about 10 other things I've been meaning to capture before he stops doing them) but I'll try to explain it for now. Truman LOVES to pretend that he is holding a little bit of food between his fatty thumb and forefinger and then he will offer it out to us and 'force' us to take a bite. Then we'll tell him to eat some and he dramatically puts the imaginary morsel of food into his mouth and says, 'MMMmmmmm'. Mostly he loves to feed Henry the fake food because the old dog falls for it every time. Also, we've caught him pretending to pull pretend food out of his toys, out of drawers, out of his shoes....and then he'll act like he's scarfing it down, totally satisfied by this invisible meal. It's freaking hilarious, you guys. He'll also pretend to drink out of random objects, like stack-able cups and Tylenol bottles. I cannot help but laugh at this little mysterious mind and wonder if he'll be a kid that has about 10 imaginary friends; maybe he'll be a dreamer with a mean creative streak?

Besides playing pretend, Truman is officially obsessed with dancing. The boy has moves and rhythm and a passion for mad beats. I have no idea where he got these dance skillz but they are amazing. All of a sudden we noticed that he started to dance with his hands up in the air, usually making at least one of them into a 'duck head' and usually one of them with a pointed finger as if to emphasize the bass. We tried to catch the hand gestures on video and this is the best we have thus far. I asked Lori about his hilarious moves and she said they have dance parties all the time at daycare and Truman loves to steal the show---I wonder if he learned the hand motions from one of the kids there?



I'll go ahead and address the hottest question to ask all mothers of a one year old child: 'Is he walking yet?' Not by himself but he has to be getting close. He moves between all the furniture like it's nothing anymore and lately his new thing is to reach out for one of our hands, and when we let him hang onto our fingers he will strut all across the house and we are barely helping with his balance. I'm sure he COULD take a few steps if he wanted to but he's really not that interested, other than holding onto us to explore the house by food. Honestly? I'm totally fine with that and not freaking out just yet. I mean, this is my son who didn't even crawl until he was 9.5 months and didn't pull to stand until he was 10 months old. Again, he must be on his own time line and soon enough he'll be running all over. But for now it's super cute to see him reaching for our hand for assist.

Other cool things on Truman's trick list include:
-responding by patting his tummy when we ask, 'Where's your belly?' and then he'll stare at his belly button in admiration. Also he can point to his nose when we ask and SOMETIMES to his ear. Most of the time 'pointing to his nose' actually means that he digs for gold but whatev.


-in the same vein, when we ask him how old he is or say, 'Truman are you this many?' holding up our finger, he will smile really big and do the same. I know that is something Lori taught him because I had nothing to do with it. Super cute, though. Love that trick.

-He's starting to sign a lot more now, too. Still loves the 'more' sign, and he has his own version of 'all done.' This week he started to sign 'milk', which was new and exciting for this mama. I swear he looks at me like I am deranged when I get all uppity about him doing new things. Like, 'You are SUCH a first time mom, lady.'

-He will reach and point and grunt and whine to show us what he wants and we can usually figure it out. Trying to communicate with us has to be a frustrating task for Truman, though, since he doesn't have the words to do so and can't sign everything just yet. He specifically says, 'DaDa' for Nate (or all men, but whatever), 'MaMa' for me, and 'Duh-Duh' for doggie. I think he also said 'Ni-Ni' a few times referring to night-night and Nate thinks he said, 'Na-Na' for banana one morning. Probably a big stretch there, huh?

Truman is such a loving little dude it's sick. He will give us kisses now without us even asking. Sometimes he will get into a giddy/happy mood and becomes really cuddly and kissy and it's absolutely heart-melting. His face lights up when he hears our door open in the evenings and he immediately squeals, 'DA DA!' knowing that Nate just got home. I cannot handle the cuteness of my son loving his dad so much. 'Tis too much!



Besides loving his daddy to death, Truman is becoming quite fond of brother Henry, too. He loves to chase Henry around (by crawling towards him, of course) and will play tug-of-war with any dog toy of choice for abnormally long amounts of time. Henry dies for the attention, too, so really they are quite the pair. I've caught Henry rubbing up against Truman and even laying down with his butt on Truman's lap. I love thinking about Truman growing up with Henry as the family pet, knowing he's going to be so attached to old Hank and they'll be best buddies for many years to come. Doesn't that just warm your heart?

In other news, Truman just started playing alone for longer than 10 seconds at a time!! We still have to be in the same room, but now he can entertain self for minutes at a time. This is big news, people. He will just move from toy to toy and play with intention, not requiring me to be actively involved. I don't even need to be within a 2 inch radius anymore to avoid a meltdown---progress! Still some tears at daycare drop offs but not every day anymore and one day this week he even waved at me with a straight face as I left. Again, progress!

Truman loves books more than before, because he is perfectly content to sit on my lap and flip pages for me while I read the words. He even has a few favorites that he requests nearly every day (by grunting and pointing until I pick the right one) like: Llama Llama Red Pajama, anything by Sandra Boynton, Biscuit's Pet and Play Christmas (yes, even in March), and Mommy Hugs. Doesn't it show that you are a total mom when you can recite kids' books word for word with your eyes closed? I'm totally that mom now. And I love our reading time, so that is okay.

Big milestones this month include: the official end of nursing :( , weaning off the pacifier:) , and attempting to move from bottles to cups :/.

Truman nursed through the first week of March but then on our trip to Missouri he just sort of phased it out, without me even noticing too much. Our morning session got shorter and shorter and then I just stopped offering and he didn't complain. I honestly wasn't as sad as I thought I would be either because it was such a gradual process. I'm pretty sure my post-breastfeeding hormones hit the hardest right before his first birthday when I stopped pumping. THAT was a roller-coaster ride from hormonal hell. Note to self: don't stop pumping, plan a first birthday party, and get your first 'real' post-baby period all within the same week and expect to be an enjoyable person. But we made it through, Truman nursed for another two weeks and now we are done. Sigh. It was a good run, no?


Getting rid of the pacifier was a breeze, really. I mean, he didn't even take a paci except for in the car and occasionally with sleeping---but he'd always toss the darn thing out of the crib within 2 minutes anyway. He did enjoy having the paci clipped onto his shirt at daycare, though, and he'd suck it when he 'needed' it there. So basically after his birthday I wanted to try life without it and it was painless for us at home. Lori took it a little more slowly there but that's fine by me. One less thing on my worry list---whether or not he'll still be sucking a paci when he enters Kindergarten.

Speaking of that, I know you are 'supposed' to wean off a bottle and onto a cup at one year. I get that, I really do. But dang, this one is proving a lot more difficult than expected. He's drinking all whole milk now and usually takes in about 30 ounces in a day (five 6 ounce bottles). Boy loves his milk, I guess. I'd love to see him just drink a nice little cup at meals and maybe one snack but I worry that he will be missing lots of wonderful, healthy calories that way. He will drink from a cup but only a VERY small amount and only when he's really hungry. So basically we are starting with the daytime bottles, moving those to cups first, and then the first morning bottle and the nighttime bottle will be the last to go. I'm sure it's normal for moms to worry that their kids aren't eating enough but that is the name of my game right now. I just know that if we take away all bottles he'll only drink like 4 ounces of milk all day and will wither away into a stringbean of a child who is unhealthy and unhappy. Also, I am convinced that taking away all bottles will spell disaster for our amazing sleep habits lately. See? Isn't that a positive thought? :) I'm good at anticipating the worst, you know.

So any advice on moving from bottles to cups appreciated.

Also, what is with the lack of pictures in this post? Pathetic! I blame the fact that we had to move my camera to a very discreet location, out of the way of one curious toddler. So now that it's not right in front of my face all the time, I think I forget to snap away. Either that or I'm photo'd out after this past year of thousands of pics. I'm working on Truman's one year album and it's freaking insane---up to page 158 and I still have a month to go. Lord help me. :)