13 Month Update

Sarah is 13 months old today, and it has been a pretty exciting month since her birthday. She is still working on walking, but she has become pretty good at going up and down the stairs. She even makes sure to turn around when she's at the top to go down feet first. Sometimes though, she starts turning too soon and finds herself turned around too far away from the stairs, or her legs get stuck behind the banister. Instead of becoming frustrated though, she just repositions herself and turns again - unlike Noah, who probably would've just either given up or started crying if in the same situation. As Sarah has become older, more and more differences in her and Noah's temperament are surfacing. Of course we didn't expect them to be the same, but it's interesting to observe. Noah was, and still is, more easily frustrated, but while Sarah is more patient and seems to be more skilled in problem solving, she seems to have a fiery temper and gets mad easily. Maybe it's just a language issue though, so it may be too early to tell. Noah tends to be pretty good at vocalizing his feelings when he's upset, and often will talk about hitting or hating things, rather than just acting out. Sarah, not so much, but then again, she can't talk yet, so we'll see what happens. In general though, I don't remember Noah getting mad that much, even when he couldn't talk yet.

Sarah on the move:

Sarah has also been moving around a lot more this month. She's cruising around, digging and discovering things around the house, and trying to turn everything she can find into a walker. She's definitely interested in moving around, and enjoys being in a standing position, so perhaps walking is not so far off for her. Sarah is such a small little munchkin though, with a big head, and doesn't seem to have very good balance when she isn't holding on to something, so who knows. As parents we tend to be eager for our babies to move quickly to the next milestone and I'm no exception, but I can't deny that it's been a bit easier to deal with two kids with one less mobile....especially when the other is a little too mobile. :) She's making progress though, so I'm sure she's fine.

Sarah is a mini-Peter.

Loves playing with Noah's toys.

Sarah may have a fiery temper, but most of the time, she's a happy, smiley, low-key, silly baby. She doesn't say much, but she says mama and dada a lot and gives kisses making a "mmmah" sound, so we're obviously completely satisfied with that. She always has smiles for mama, dada and Noah and loves hugging. She's become a little less wary of strangers, but she's having a lot more separation anxiety. Is that contradictory? Last week at church, we left her in the nursery and we found out later that she cried until she fell asleep. :( She often is tired at that time, but the paranoid part of me keeps wondering if she just retreated into sleep because she was so traumatized. :(((

Eating has been tricky, but I think Sarah may be turning a corner. For a while she seemed to be on a hunger strike, and would only eat Cheerios and warmed up milk. Everything else she'd have a few bites and then be done. Recently I've been limiting the milk a bit and she seems to be a bit receptive to more actual food. She also loves croissants - who doesn't? As a result, I've been making croissant sandwiches with cheese and ham inside, at least once or twice a week. I hope I'm not contributing to childhood obesity too much. Sarah gained three ounces between her 9 month and 12 month checkups so I've been a bit frantic trying to feed her. I keep worrying that she isn't eating enough for proper brain development...hehe. She is eating more yogurt and other foods too though, and even had some chicken the past few days. She's just so picky and still only has those four little teeth to work with! But I promise, I'm not just feeding her pastries.

Last bit of news is that I started taking Sarah to a music class this past week. It takes place during Noah's school and is actually right across the street, so it's very convenient. I took Noah to the same class when he was younger, but it seems like Sarah is enjoying it more than he did, so far. Mostly, I'm just happy to be able to do something with just Sarah, instead of just dragging her around on errands and Noah's activities, and she appears to be quite happy about it. Now that she's older and Noah's in school, we can have more mommy and second child time!