13 months old!

Michael was 13 months over the weekend and he is learning new things every day. It is so much fun to see! This month, in addition to "mama", "dada", "up", and "agua", he has added the words "bear" (he says it more like "beh"), "apple" (appah), "papa" for the pictures of Pope Benedict we have on the refrigerator, "banana" (nana), "mas"/"more" (ma), and finally he's working hard on "oatmeal" (it comes out more like "oh-meh"). Whenever he sees food that he really wants -- usually snacks and adult food, naturally -- he'll start saying "mmmmm" really emphatically. Last night when Chris and Stefani came over to babysit, Chris had a few cookies, so Michael would head right over to Chris every time he opened the package and say "Mmmmmmm!" until he successfully got some cookie for himself. It is pretty funny. Finally, with regards to communicating, Michael has the sign for "please" down very well.

Michael also learned how to walk this month! A week or so after his birthday he started working on individual steps, and day by day he worked on stringing them together. For awhile he could get six in a row, but that seemed to be the limit. Then in last couple of weeks, he has walked all over the house. He raises his arms all the way up and usually gets a big smile on his face when he starts moving.

Other little developmental things with Michael right now are that he loves putting things in cups and hiding spaces and then retrieving them. He loves music and doesn't mind pushing the buttons on three different toys all at once as long as it just results in music (I mind this, though -- cacophany!). He dances to all types of music by shaking his midsection if he's sitting down or bopping if he's standing up. Finally, we are still gradually working on weaning. I stopped pumping at work about a month ago, which seemed like a good time since I'd been doing it for six months! But I really wanted weaning to go more gradually at home. Over time, he has stopped asking to nurse after I get home from work or during the day on weekends, so we are down to sometimes before bed and once per night. I don't mind that at all. I know I don't have much milk left at this point but it's still a small comfort thing and we both seem to be happy with that!