13 Months

Hailey is growing, changing and learning so many new things so fast. It's getting hard to keep up. She's now 13 months old. 

At her 12-month doctor appointment we learned that Hailey is short and round. Her height is in the 20th percentile and her weight is about the 75th. I just think it's kind of funny that she's short. It's definitely apparent in her clothes. Her pants are all too long, and her feet don't stay in her footie pajamas. 

Our little girl is starting to talk. She doesn't say full words yet, but she has her own words, with their own meanings. She says:

   dad: da, or dada

   banana: nana

   bye-bye: buh-buh

   book, ball: boo

   puppy: puh-puh

She also knows a few signs: more, please, milk, water/drink, cheese, and all done. Her sign for water in ASL really means where. To say water you make a W (which is touching your thumb and pinky together) and bring it to your lips. Hailey waves her pointer finger. It works for me, I know what she trying to say. More is her all purpose word. It means she either wants something or wants more of something. At first she used it with food, but now she uses it all the time. She often signs more, but doesn't point to what she wants. I have to ask her and then she points out whatever it is she wants.

Hailey loves music and loves to dance. Her uncle Kris taught her how to "raise the roof", so now every time she dances (including at church to the hymns) she raises her arms and "raises the roof". She also sways her head back and forth and bends her knees while dancing.

Hailey has also learned how to fold her arms and pray. This is hilarious. We love it. It always takes her awhile to do it. We will ask her to fold her arms before we say a prayer and she usually just looks at us. So we fold our arms and start to pray. A few seconds later we typically hear her shuffle her arms to fold them, and mutter some jibberish. She literally says her own prayer! I really can't explain what her prayers sound like. She doesn't make any consonant sounds, she just moves her tongue around and vocalizes. It's so funny. I love that she picked that up. We didn't teach her to say anything, she just caught on that when we fold our arms we say things. 

Hailey is a walking queen. It's now her main mode of transportation. She still can't stand without assistance from us or furniture, so if she falls or sits down, she crawls to the nearest structure and pulls herself up and walks again. I'm learning that with walking, it means that things will start disappearing. I watched Hailey the other day, take two pieces of my Fisher-Price nativity set into her room. She dropped one, opened one of the drawers to her dresser, put in the other piece and close the drawer. Awesome. Actually, I thought it was pretty funny. I'm sure one day when I'm desperately looking for something it won't be so funny anymore.

Hailey also loves bath time. If I ask her if she wants to take a bath, or mention that it's time for a bath, she will walk over to the bathroom and stand at the tub. She sticks her hand under the faucet, like I do, to feel the water, and tries to pull on the knob to adjust the water temperature. It's pretty cute. 

If I ask Hailey if she's tired and wants to take a nap or sleep she will look to her room or her crib and will sign please. This makes me happy. Hopefully she stays this way.

Today I watched Hailey from across the room open up her animals book and correctly make the animal sounds for the animals on the pages. She knows what the dog, cow, horse, sheep, goat, lion, bee, snake, elephant, rabbit and owl say. (You're thinking, what does the rabbit say?  The answer: It sniffs.)

Hailey also gives out high-fives and fist pounds. She gives an excellent back scratch, great hugs and slobbery open mouthed kisses. She loves Sesame Street. It puts her in a trance. Nothing does that like Sesame Street. Good, bad? I don't care. It makes her happy and maybe she's learning something. 

Can I just tell you about what a horrible mother I am, occasionally? So, poor Hailey has had some tummy issues since I gave her a tuna fish sandwich last week for lunch. (You saw my post on facebook? That's what that was about.) So, the other night, close to bath time, Hailey squirted into her diaper lovely things, and instead of putting on a fresh new diaper I decided to just give her a bath and strip her down. So, little miss Hailey was free to roam in the nude. We still use her inflatable duck tub. The air in the tub was low, so I was blowing it up. The Dickman's were over that evening and I was talking with Holly while blowing up the tub. Hailey was in the bathroom standing at the tub. I wasn't paying much attention. Next thing I know, Hailey is on the ground crying. She had slipped. Slipped in what? The floor wasn't wet. Ohh.... yes. She peed, slipped in her pee, was covered in pee, crying and trying to get me to pick her up. I was still trying to blow up the tub, not wanting to pick up my pee covered crying child. I got the tub in the big tub, filled it up and put Hailey in it. She didn't like that, immediately began crying again, so I sucked it up, picked her up, made her happy, put her back in the tub and bathed her. I then had to change my wet clothes, and clean the bathroom floor. And then I laughed at what happened and how sad it is that my child slipped in their own pee and I think it's funny.  Sorry Hailey.