William 13 months (1 Year 1 month)

Dear little Bood,

You’ve gathered quite the collections of nicknames in your year of life. Your most recent one is Bood, given by your big sister. We’re not sure where it came from but it is all she calls you and its uniqueness has rubbed off on your daddy and I (and even your grandparents and aunts and uncles) as we often find ourselves referring to you as Bood. Other names you respond to: Bud, Budski, Budski Mudski, William, Will and ‘the grump’.

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This past month has been a long one full of sickness for the whole family. You, Lexi and Mama came down with a terrible cold in the beginning of the month. Your cold turned into an eye and ear infection. I don’t think the ear infection you had in February ever went a way so this was more a continuation of it. Then, when we went to get it re-checked at the end of the month, we learned that it still hadn’t gone away and the Dr. threw out the ‘tubes’ word. Daddy had lots of problems with his ears growing up so it may be something we have to look into if your infections continue.

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As far as talking goes, the words and even really noises are few and far between (with the exception of laughter and whining there are lots and lots of those). You have learned how to say ‘uh-oh’ and say it whenever something falls or throw something off the table. You’ve also started to initiate the word ‘done’. I’m the only one that can tell you’re saying this because it really just comes out as the ‘D’ sound, but it is accompanied with you doing the baby sign for ‘all done’. You also make the sounds ‘Mmmamma’ when you’re hungry to mimic ‘Num-num’. This is particularly confusing because it sounds like you’re saying mama, but it is really not about me and it is more about the food.

Speaking of food, you love it. If someone is eating something, you absolutely insist on eating it too. You’ll come over tug and my legs and just whine. If you don’t get it, you dramatically fall to the floor and start crying. If something comes along that you believe is better than what you currently are eating, you just spit it out and reach for the new food. You absolutely refuse to eat anything unless you can put it into your mouth yourself. The one exception to this is ice cream. We’ve started to give you a fork and a spoon while you’re eating; and while you do hold it, you have yet to use it.

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One afternoon, Lexi left most of the apple she started to eat on the table. You were able to reach it and started waddling around the house and eating it. You would take a bit of it, eat the inside part and then spit out the peel. I found little pieces of peel all over the house.

This month, we took away your bottles before nap time, and just give you a sippy of milk to drink before if you want. The first couple naps there were lots of tears and it took you longer than normal to go down, but you adjusted pretty quickly. You still love your bottle in the morning when you wake and the one prior to bed time.

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As far as napping goes, you take two naps a day, usually for about an hour each around 9:30 and then again around 2:00. At home, I will tell you it is nap time and you usually start crying as we walk up the stairs and when I lay you down, but as soon as I put your blanket over you and give you a stuffed animal to snuggle, you calm down and roll over onto your tummy. Then for bedtime, we’ve been giving you your bottle earlier and allowing you to play a little after to help break the association that you need a bottle before bedtime. You usually go down around 8:00 and with very few tears if any at all. We go into your room, give you a kiss, turn your sound machine on, turn the lights off and walk out. Occasionally you’ll cry but for maybe only a minute or two. (However, there were several times this month where you did cry for over an hour!) So hard little guy and I think this is a little foreshadowing into your stubborn and determination.

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This month you also turned a corner in liking books. You frequently go to your shelf and pick out a book and bring it to me and plop yourself down into my lap. Your favorites are the Animal book, Little Blue Truck, the little color board books,

Another amazing accomplishment for you this month was learning how to go down the inside slide all by yourself. You climb up the stairs and have figured out how to get your legs out in front of you and slide down. Throughout the entire process, you have a smile as wide as the Mississippi plastered across your face. You just love it and then get up and go again.

Happy 13 Months William! We are infatuated with everything about you and just love how you are this happy little smilely guy that has made his perfect way into our family. We don’t know what we would do without you.

Love,

Mama

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