Inara's 13 months old!

Oops. So I'm obviously a week late on her monthly post. I asked Shawn if we were still going to take a monthly pic and do her measurements. He said, neh. Well, I decided I still want to do her measurements and post a blog about her, so poo on Shawn. I just won't have a "monthly" pic to post since that would mean bugging him to post it, but we will have plenty of pics to post of her regardless. So onto what's new with Inara.

First, she's about 23 pounds and about 30 inches long. I swear the kid is growing every day. I think she seems rather tall for her age, but that could be just me. She's quickly growing out of her 12 month clothes I've noticed this past week. I feel like I just packed away all her 9 month stuff and now have to start packing away more clothes. She's in that tough stage though where 12 month tops are getting too short for her. (Her belly's showing in many of them. It's kinda cute though.) However, 18 month pants are too long for her. Maybe she's just got a long torso. Perhaps.

As for her learning, the kid is a sponge right now. She can do so many new things. I can't keep up some times. She amazes me with how many words she recognizes and can identify even if she can't say them yet. She can point to things like her feet, socks, shoes, and body parts on others and sometimes her own, such as nose, eyes, ears, hair. She actually loves to point at and squeeze her daddy's nose. She thinks that's pretty funny. She loves to look at books with Mama. I'll even ask her to sit on my lap so we can read and she backs her butt up to me and sits on my lap. It's so cute to watch. She's getting to where she can point to some things she recognizes in books. There's one book in particular, Baby Faces, that she just loves. The best part is there is a picture of two babies kissing. When we get to that page, we say, "Ah Inara. Look at the babies kissing. Do you want to give them kisses too?" And she leans right in and gives them kisses. She actually gives lots of kisses to her toys, just not mom and dad yet. She does blow kisses though. Super cute! One of my favorite things she does.

Another of my favorites came as a surprise one day. We have a couple sets of animal flash cards plus several Little People sets with elephants. I've been working a lot with her on animal sounds and was always raising my arm like a trunk when I'd make an elephant sound. One day I asked her, "What sound does an elephant make?" and she responded with a funny raspberry sound, but I knew what she was trying to do. I was so proud of her. She tried to make the elephant sound. Yay baby girl! That's another thing I've got her doing a lot: cheering and clapping for herself when she does something right. She does this a lot when she is playing with her blocks and shapes because the kid loves to stack things. Last night she actually was able to stack 6 wooden blocks. Most impressive! Then today she was digging in her food cupboard and ended up trying to stack all her little juice bottles. I had to help her because they're a bit unstable, but she was determined to get them stacked.

She's big on playing in cupboards now too. Along with this is taking DVDs off the racks and carrying them all over the house as well as her Little People figurines. So today in her cupboard I found the DVD of Seven, 3 Little People, a couple soggy Cheerios, 2 Halloween spider window decals she keeps wanting to play with, and her sippy cup with water. This reminds me of when I was little because I used to love to play in the cupboards as well. My mom used to tell me I could be entertained for hours. Guess that's one thing Inara gets from me.

I've tried working with Inara on learning sign language. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck with her using any of the signs I've taught her. Recently, though, Shawn taught her a sign and now she does it all the time. We say, "Ready. One. Two. Three. Touchdown!" And she throws her arms in the arm signaling a touchdown. Nice one, Shawn. Thanks for teaching her something practical. He said next he wants to teach her "Safe!" for baseball. Great.

At least twice a day Inara wants to go outside to walk around. I don't mind walking except for the fact that we stop every 5 seconds for her to pick something up off the cement: leaves, rocks, trash. I love watching her try to cram as many things in her little hands as possible. The scary part is most of the time these things will maneuver toward the mouth eventually. Not cool! I can just see her choking herself by trying to swallow that small rock she picked up.

My least favorite new thing Inara is doing is boycotting naps. Every day is a crap shoot when it comes to naps. Today, I got lucky and she took 3 (2 20 min naps and 1 hour nap...hey I'll take what I can get). Most days, however, I'm lucky if she naps for 20 min. I've even resorted to letting her cry for 15-20 min in hopes that she'll exhaust herself. No luck on that strategy yet. I think I just need to keep her super busy all morning long to wear her out for at least an hour afternoon nap. Another unfavorable new trait is her screaming when she doesn't get her way. I think she's way too young to start this, so I'm not too pleased with this new development. For example, yesterday, she opened the door where the trash is in the kitchen. I firmly told her Inara, NO, which got a response of a blood curdling scream as she left the kitchen and walked around to the front living room all the while carrying a Little People figurine in each hand. I'm such a mean ol mom. Little does she know she will have a lifetime of disciplining and disappointment ahead of her. Guess that means I will have lots of opportunities to hug her and tell her I'm sorry and then have to explain the "why's" behind everything bad.

Happy 13 month birthday, Inara Grace!