13 Months

Our little baby is slowly becoming a little boy. The other day with him sitting in his car seat I caught the shimmer of peach fuzz growing on his arms and legs.
He walks everywhere, if not trotting or attempting to run. He still has issues with balance and steps. He takes his sweet time walking over steps, and even the slope of our driveway makes him stumble and sway.
His favorite toy is still the little car his PaPa gave him for his birthday, but his favorite thing to do now is to crawl in from the side opposite the actual door. So, he likes slithering in the car like it was a Dukes of Hazzard car.
He still loves seeing his own image - whether it's in a mirror, or the reflection of a stainless steel trash can. Or, does anybody else remember looking at themselves in the stainless steel guard of a bathtub? And it was just distorted enough to curve your face like some kind of Fun-House mirror? Well, that has become another highlight of taking a bath for Kole. He stares at himself and screams as loud as he can scream. Happy-scream, but still a scream.
Now that he's as physically active as he's ever been, we now hit a season where triple-digits are outside, and playground equipment can sometimes give 2nd-degree burns to even adult hands. So, we've found a couple of nearby 'indoor playgrounds'. Once you go in you can't help but think "Why didn't we think of this?" Someone buys a strip-mall store, makes it a big playground with all kinds of toys, bounce-houses, etc. I'll attach some photos from a recent Kole visit.
Kole's diet is moving away from formula and mushy cereals and towards some solid staples - grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese. He's pretty good about eating most vegetables. Kathy buys canned chicken like you would make a chicken salad with, and he gobbles that up. Everything still with his hands. We're working on using utensils, but he still wants to eat with his hands and play with a spoon. Somewhere along the way, we purchased our last can of baby formula. At $18 a can, it will not be a purchase that will be missed. But, it's another reminder that our little midget is closer to boy than baby, and more of that stuff is putting a lump in our throat. He's now moved on to whole milk and he will absolutely slurp down every last drop if you put it in front of him. Give him more and he'll suck that bottle dry. He's a milk guzzling machine! Speaking of bottles, we're now trying to tansition to more sippy-cups and open cups, and even sucking from straws.
We think Maggie may have gained about 5 pounds since she became the beneficiary of Kole's mealtime droppings. Sometimes accidental, sometimes Kole picks up something he doesn't like and deliberately drops it on the floor for Maggie to gobble up.
We still haven't had a definative word spoken with direct association to a person or object. Along with "Mama" and "DaDa", the other key contenders for First Word look to be "ball", "Maggie" (some variation - "GeeGee" or something) , or perhaps an outside variation. This accounts for how some babies often make up their own word for one object - "boo boo" for a car, "tee" for a bottle, etc. We're just looking for some some consistent word directed at a person or object. Until that point comes, we get daily doses by the earful of babble and giggles, and it's not like we're in any rush to start shaping and fine-tuning grammar.
At restaurants or a store or wherever, we consistently get comments about Kole and how tall he is. At the indoor playground the other day, he had an inch on a kid who was 18 months old. Everyone agrees that he's one of the cutest kids they've seen. He's at a fun age and life is very, very good for the little guy. Photos: Kole swinging in our local 'indoor playground', The agony of a tumble and bump on the head, The bounce-back reaction less than 2 minutes later.