The Seamans Family: 13 Months Old

(The video below now works. Sorry, I'm new to youtube)

I'm 13 months old!

Miss Ava is a toddler now, WOW, so I decided that from now on her month pictures would be taken in her pink chair minus Bubbles the bear (at least for this picture. He might make a reappearance another month).

Dear Ava,

Well, you have officially entered the world of toddlerhood! It's hard to believe that we were just celebrating your first birthday a month ago. Since then I feel like you have matured so much. One of the biggest changes to our lives is that we are completely done with nursing. Since you never liked drinking from a bottle I have nursed you almost every meal of your life until now. I would say that is a huge accomplishment for you and I. I am sad that we no longer have that special time together. I hope you will still find time in your busy day to just stop and snuggle with me.

Daddy took this picture of us after I nursed you for the last time and you fell asleep afterward as you almost always would do. I know you wont care much about this picture but your sentimental mommy will.

You have done such a good job at making the transition to drinking milk from your sippy cup. As always you have adjusted to change very well and you have already shown me, through crawling, walking and now drinking on your own, that if you put your mind to something you can do it. That's a life lesson that I hope you will always carry with you.

Another big milestone for you is that you have been dismissed from ECI. Your torticollis has improved so much and since you are so active it is almost impossible for Ms. Kena to work with you anymore. Your neck will completely straighten with time but I am so proud of how tolerant you have been with us over the past 10 months and we are very happy with how far you have come. Ms. Kena and mommy will remain friends so I know you will get to see her more. We do miss her already though!

Over the past month I have noticed you copying more of our behaviors. For example you like to brush your hair, put keys in the door, bathe yourself, and the other day you found a qtip on the floor and put it in your ear. You are like a sponge and learning something new everyday. It is so fun to watch you start to figure things out.

One your new favorite activities is to color at your table that daddy and I bought you for your birthday. I am pretty sure you are right handed but on occasion you will color with your left hand or both! You like to try and put the crayons in your mouth so I am trying to teach you that that is a no no.

This past month you have started babbling a lot more. You still don't say any real words yet, other than mama and dadda which you used to say, but you will go on and on with your babble like you are having a conversation with us. It is so cute and I even got a video of you telling me a story the other day complete with hand gestures and all.

You continue to sign for when you want to eat and when you are all done. Another thing you now do is if you want Macy or anyone else to come to you you pat your tummy as if to say "come here". You obviously have picked that up from me when we are outside and I pat my leg for Macy to come inside.

Your bathtime has been moved to the tub in the guest bathroom and you love bathtime even more in there. It's so cute to watch you play peekabo, with the colander I threw in as a bath toy, and watch you bathe yourself and splash in the water. The other day Macy was drinking from the bathwater and with a big smile on your face you decided to copy her and drink the water too. It was really funny at the time but now I am having to teach you to not put your face in the water. We'll wait for swim lessons for that.

"Where's Ava?"

"Peekaboo!"

Ava, my life just couldn't be any more sweeter now that you are in it. I can't wait to see how much you will change next month. Being your mommy and staying home with you has been a dream come true. Mommy loves you more than Macy loves squirrels. :)