13 Months Old/31 Years Old

Svea and I are celebrating reciprocal milestones today!!  She is 13 months old and I turned 31 today. I've got a a few pictures to compare from last year and a few updates too!

Svea here's what you've been up to!  You are signing like crazy and it helps us so much avoid a few meltdowns each day.  You can sign more, bath, elephant, and book now too!  It's amazing how much you can communicate with us just with these few signs.  Especially elephant.  Ha!  Just kidding!

You are such a big girl and eat three meals a day and one snack.  You feed yourself 90% of the time with finger foods and now drink milk from your sippy cup.  All of the sudden though you have started to be quite picky with what you will eat. We are still nursing one time a day at night, but we'll be done with that shortly too.

You wear size 12 months and are starting to fit into some 18 month clothes although we always roll pants and sleeves as you are quite petite.  You are in a size 3 diaper and I have no idea how much you weigh.  We'll go to the doctor in another two months so we'll find out then.  You sleep from about 7:30-8:00 until 7:30-8:00 at night.  You are still a fantastic sleeper at night and only struggle if you are teething. You are still not a huge napper.  You'll sleep anywhere from from a half hour to two hours, but it's usually an hour and fifteen minutes.  We are thankful you sleep so well at night and we get tons of quality time with you during the day.

It is fun to see your personality coming out.  You seem to be pretty mild mannered with the occasional burst of frustration.  You love to laugh and at times it seems like you are trying to make us laugh.  You have four teeth (two on top/two on bottom) and you can point to your head, tummy and belly button, and sometimes your nose.  We are working on legs, toes, ears, and eyes.  You have a book that you just love (All of Baby Nose to Toes) and you will drag that book over to us all of the time and then you head bob to the beat of the words. You will also open and shut your mouth pretending to read.

You no longer crawl unless Daddy is chasing you down the hall and you are desperately trying to get to Mommy.  You walk everywhere and continue to get better each day.  To give you an example of how crazy you are about books when Grandma picked you up today from your nap you immediately started signing for books.  We read books ALL day long and we love it!

We love you Svea Grace.  Our lives are so much better with you here.  We thank God every day for you and we pray that you have a beautiful, long, and healthy life.  Thank you for being you!  We love you just the way God made you!

A few things I loved today about my birthday! Daddy goes above and beyond to make it possible for me to kick back and relax a little bit, which includes driving all the way to the next town for Mommy's favorite Chinese food.  The fact that my birthday cake is better in a bowl...yum, I love me some ice cream cake and it makes a perfect breakfast. And, the best part...I got to spend this whole birthday weekend with three of my favorite people.  Thank you Dan, Svea, and Mom for making it so extra special for me! I love you all!

Svea is not very smiley in these pictures.  She has another mild cold along with a dry cough that is keeping her up some of the night even with a humidifier.  She's such a trooper though.