Harper is blowing our minds lately. She is the sweetest, funniest, most joyful and smartest little girl (and I say this simply as a loving parent and not because I think she's advanced in any way).
Her personality is emerging more and more each week and she has so many adorable things that she does now that it's hard to keep track of them all. It seems like she's learning at such a quick pace now that she surprises us daily. We have this "baby animals" book we read at home and when we get to the baby tiger page I always make a "roar" sound and say "that's what the tiger says." One day when I picked Harper up at daycare this week the teacher (not knowing about the book we read at home) told me that Harper saw a little tiger on one of the babie's onesies and kept making the "roar" sound! She always says "moooo" when we ask "what does the cow say?" but I've never heard her do the roar!
Harper has a very playful personality and her receptive language is unreal right now. She understands everything and follows specific commands. She is eager to learn and discover and frustrates easily when she can't figure something out---and then she's overjoyed when she does figure it out. She's been laughing up a storm lately and it's so much fun to interact with her and witness her reactions. She hugs, kisses and cuddles us and her stuffed animals. When we read books, she sometimes lays her head down lovingly on the page when she sees one of her favorite animals. It's so adorable.
Harper's 13 month updates:
Weight/Height: At her 12 month appointment, Harper was 30.5 inches tall (89th percentile), 23.06 lbs (88th percentile) and her head was 17.5 inches (37th percentile). Our pediatrician told us he thinks she will be 5'8. I'm not sure how much I believe in the accuracy of those early predictions though. She still has her precious baby rolls but is thinning out a bit since she walks (and runs) everywhere!
Health: Good this month! She finished her antibiotics in early June for a double ear infection but has been in the clear ever since.
Sleep: Harper consistently sleeps from 7:30-8 p.m. through 6-7:30 a.m. It kind of varies. She's done well with the transition to no bottle at bedtime (we give it to her after dinner). If she ever wakes at night she usually finds her paci on her own. We've had to go in there on the rare occassion if the paci falls out of the crib, but she goes right back to sleep with it.
Diet: Harper loves to eat all of the foods! She is still absolutely frantic about food. You'd think she was starved as an infant with the way she acts when she sees food. She gets very dramatic and she wants it NOW. I have a few other friends whose babies were the same way. I'm actually grateful she's so enthusiastic about food because I've heard that a lot of babies start to become more picky and eat less as they age. However, when she sees food she can barely contain herself and she will work herself up into a crying tizzy sometimes as we prepare her food.
We transitioned Harper completely to whole cow's milk. We use the Horizon brand organic milk and she gets roughly 15 ounces per day. We still do one bottle near bedtime and the rest of the milk she has during the day is from a sippy or straw cup.Likes: Walking, running, laughing, reading books, playing with her shape sorter, playing with her baby doll, playing peek-a-boo, eating, dancing, singing "if you're happy and you know it," showing us "how big she is," playing outside, playing with and (to our dismay) trying to eat rocks.
Dislikes: Waiting for her food to be served, having sunscreen applied.
Postpartum: Pumping is officially OVER! I'm planning a "one year after baby" post so I will go into more detail there about how I weaned from pumping, body after baby, etc.
Clothes: Harper is wearing some 12-18 and mostly 18-24 months.
Crying: Harper's tantrums seemed better this month, though she still has them. She cries if she is hungry/wants food more quickly than we prepare it, if she's really tired, hurts herself, etc.
Milestones: Mostly we are seeing a huge increase in her receptive language--- pointing to the right animal when we ask, following commands correctly, recognizing words and phrases we say and acting upon them (ie: when we say "lets go outside" she will follow us or go get her hat or shoes). When we sing "if you're happy and you know it" she claps and stomps her feet at the right part of the song. She is very talkative lately. Not saying real words yet other than the ones she knew before, but getting there. Sometimes when I ask "what does the cow say?" she says "moooooo." She is truly a little person now who can understand so much, it's awesome!
Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!
