Claire is now 13 months old.
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| WHAT?! |
I don't intend to continue monthly updates through her whole life, but I don't really update this blog that often, and Claire is changing SO much right now that a blog monthly update is in order.
Claire is a little rascal! She understands many of the things that I say, but (seemingly) deliberately ignores me or does exactly the opposite. Everything is a game to her so when I say "no" it obviously means that I want to play chase or peek-a-boo. Or take turns biting, pinching, or smacking each other, right?
Claire also thinks that she has to scream about everything. She's kinda loud. No real "kinda" about it though.
So that's the bad.
The good.
She doesn't mind wearing clips and things in her hair so much any more. She will still play with them and thinks it's a great game to take them out right after I put them in. But generally, she will put her hand to her head wondering where her clip is and bring her big flower clip to me grunting for me to put it on her head.
She says "mom," "dis," "dat," and sometimes she will say "da" when talking about her father, but most of the time it's "mat." I don't know why. It might be a combination of "da" and "dat." It started after we came home from visiting my family in Texas where Claire had just started to learn to say "Marc." So maybe "mat" is really "Marc" and she thinks of Marc as a father figure? Haha. Her one other word is "dog." And most of the time she does get the "g" sound on there.
Despite all of these words, she has started blowing raspberries any time she wants to speak a word that she knows. When she sees a dog she will tuck her chin into her chest and spit. Sometimes when I ask her what she's pointing at (to which she usually responds "dis" or "dat") she tucks her chin in and spits. Weird.
Claire LOVES to push buttons and put things where they belong. After she is done pulling all of her dishes out of her designated drawer, she will take apart and put together again her sippy cups and bottles. She likes to put colored rings on a long peg. She also likes to snap together the button on my wallet. Her favorite buttons are on the phone, remote, CPU, and keyboard.
Everything is a cell phone. If it is solid and rectangular in shape, Claire will hold it to her ear and say "ugh?!" really loud. (Usually it's the remote.)
She likes to "help" by "folding" laundry (ie, taking what I've already folded, waving it above her head frantically, then laying it back down on the floor, couch, coffee table, and patting it several times), pushing the laundry basket to the washer and dryer, opening/closing the dishwasher and turning the dishwasher knob, sweeping the kitchen, and wiping any surface with any towel-like cloth (she doesn't discriminate between house cleaning cloths and body cleaning cloths).
She REALLY likes to play pat-a-cake at the moment. She has gotten so excited about it lately, I think, because she is starting to remember some of the words and actions. She will excitedly scream and grab both of your hands to start you clapping. Then as you chant, she does her own clapping and then frantically waves her hands in excitement as you exclaim "for Claire and Me!" It's so funny.
If you ask her to point to her nose, she will point to your nose, but not her own. If she does point to herself, it will most likely be to her ear. She's really good at finding her ears. She also knows head, hair, mouth, and feet (thanks again Gigi!). Gigi taught her about stinky feet. She now sticks her "stinky feet" in your face expecting you to make silly faces and exclaim "Eww! Stinky Feet!"
Other tricks she knows include giving high-fives (which she LOVES), waving good-bye (almost always two-handed unless she's nervously clinging to mom, and using your hand to make you blow kisses.
It's so fun to see her choosing what to do, and what games to play, and what things to tear apart, and what messes to make!
Claire loves to run. Unfortunately, she's not very good at it. She fall often. And scrapes her knee. Or finger. Or bumps her head. Poor baby. She also loves to climb which often results in bruises rather than scrapes.
Claire currently hates her Car Seat. This is probably due to the recent car sickness episodes. But she hasn't had one for over a week.
I still sing a song to Claire while I feed her a few ounces of formula in a bottle when I'm putting her down for naps and bedtime. I can't bring myself to wean her from the bottle yet. I just love holding my sleepy baby in my arms. This time and right when she first gets up are my absolute favorite times, hands down. Freshly woken up smiles make my life complete. And just before falling asleep is the only time I'm almost guaranteed that she will cuddle with me without fighting or making too much noise. She still feels like my baby when I can sing her to sleep.
I do however make her keep her binkies in the crib during the day. I haven't brought up the courage to never give them to her while we are out though. She does scream quite loud when she is angry. And she does get angry!
While I made it seem like Claire is a wiggly unaffectionate worm because I can only cuddle with her at night, she really does love giving kisses and snuggling, most of the time. Lately she will just come up to me and lay her head down on whatever part of me she can reach. Cah-ute! She's incredibly shy and runs to hide behind my legs at anything: strangers, loud noises, when she gets too far away and gets scared that I'm not close enough. It's a little endearing.
Claire likes tomatoes! I don't know where this child came from, but little cherry/grape tomatoes are one of her favorite snacks. It's good for Peter and me when are out because then she can eat them off of our salads haha!
One last thought.
Claire will not play by herself.
Ever.
If I am doing something, she must put herself between me and it, whatever it is, and scream and cry.
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