Big Girl

I guess I was so overwhelmed with Maisie's first birthday that I put off blogging about it... and all of a sudden she is thirteen months and one week! I don't even know where to begin.

The basics: at her 12-mo. appt., she weighed 23.5 pounds (between 75-90%) and was 33 inches long (still off the charts). The doctor asked if she had any words yet. Yes. A lot. I never know whether I sound crazy because it seems like an awful lot for her age, or whether I sound crazy because maybe it's really not a lot after all. Not that it matters. It's very fun, and hearing her new words are the funniest thing, although she is full of personality in other ways too. She now says: Mama, dada, yes, no, more, good girl, nose, toes, teeth, belly, cheese, keys, book, bird, ball, pig, duck, dog, car, baa, meow, woof, nay, quack, moo, Maisie, baby, Elmo, George, shoes, hi, bye, house, bath, door, out, up, walk, night night, water, milk, bottle, cup, Bet Bet (my parents' dog), lalala, oh, uh oh, whoa. Today I am 99% sure she said "owl" and "want." I know there are a good many I'm missing.

She doesn't pronounce all of them correctly yet, of course. You have to use context to distinguish between "book" and "bird" or "keys" and "cheese" or "ball" and "bottle." "Baa" and "bath" sound pretty much identical; it just depends on whether she is pointing at a sheep or into the bathroom. She says "Mamie" for "Maisie" and "guh guh" for "good girl." She repeats other words like her names for our parents (and will say them voluntarily when she's with them). She will repeat "dirty" but only sometimes says it unprompted, but the words in the above list she will say whenever she sees the object. She calls a cat "meow" but will repeat "kitty" if you ask her to. It sounds like "titty." She still won't say Fiona or Sammy, but she will point to them when asked and walks up to both of them and says "good girl." When I tell her Sammy is a boy, so he's a "good boy," she looks at me like I'm crazy and turns back to Sammy and says, "good girl!" again.

She has a great wave and will lean over to people (and by people, I mean strangers) in stores and restaurants saying, "Hey. Hey. Hey," until they turn around so she can wave to them. She likes to yell, "Bye!" or "BUHBYE!" just as much as she likes to say hello. She blows kisses to her daddy when he leaves for work in the morning on her own. She knows to stick out one finger if you ask her how old she is (and sometimes she will say, "WUH!" for "one") but sometimes it takes awhile. She might not answer until a couple of minutes have passed. She is more likely to answer if someone asks ME how old she is and I respond. Usually when that happens, I look over at Maisie and she's holding one finger up.

A couple of days ago she hitched her lunchbox up on her shoulder like it was a pocketbook and said, "Bye!" like she was going somewhere. Shortly thereafter she was playing with my bracelet. When I asked her to put it on, she slipped it up her arm, admired it, and sang, "Oh oh oh!," and did a little shoulder shake... her signature dance move.

She loves music and loves to dance. Her favorite song is still "Single Ladies" by Beyonce and she requests it by saying, "Oh oh oh?" and wiggling the shoulders. She asks to watch the Elmo's Song clip on Hulu every time she sees the computer. We have had a couple of (what feel like) legitimate conversations about it. After we've watched it, she immediately starts signing "more," sometimes saying "more" out loud, and then saying, "Lalala." More Lalala. I say, "No more Lalala. We're all done." She shakes her finger at me and says, "No no no. [Sign for more.] Lalalala."

She requests specific books now (like "Where is the Green Sheep" is "baaa") and can find her favorites. She will find the right toy and bring it to you if you ask, too. She points at things to ask what they are and will point at things when you ask her to identify them (light, door, window, fan, dog, cat, baby, book, bird, etc.). She likes to go up to doors in our house and knock on them ("na na"). She's a wonderful mimic and will try to copy any face you make. If you ask her to make a funny face, she scrunches up her nose and sniffs a little bit, and then laughs.

She recognizes herself in pictures and in the mirror and will happily exclaim, "MAMIE!" when she sees herself. She can also identify Jake and me in pictures and will do so unprompted. She loves to look at pictures of the rest of the family but doesn't usually point them out, although she'll look at the right person when I ask "where's so and so," so I think she knows who they are too. She loves monkeys but says "day" or "dee" for "monkey" -- no idea why. She also will put her hands under her armpits and say "ee ee oo oo" if you ask her what a monkey does. She will also bob her hands up and down if you ask what a bunny does -- it hops ("ha ha ha"). She still knows most of her other animal sounds too, although she can't say "oink" yet so if you ask her what a pig does, she just wiggles her nose up and down.

She loves to lean her head against us and climb in our laps (although a lot of times she doesn't want to stay there), and if you hold her and give her a hug, she pats you on the back or the arm. Sometimes she likes to just reach out and touch your arm, or pat your hand. She offers up her baby dolls and stuffed animals so you can kiss them, and she will pretend to kiss them too, though she doesn't pucker -- just presses her mouth against them and says "muh!" We are working on being sweet to Fi and Sammy. She knows that she is supposed to pet them gently -- and sometimes she will do so on her own, saying "eeee, eeee" because I always say, "easy, easy" -- but just as often she will bop them on the nose. Like I said, we are working on this. Right now I just say "no!" as firmly as possible and move her away from them as fast as I can.

Oh, and she still likes to eat! Her favorites are cheese and fruit, but she likes most everything. She prefers water to juice. She still sleeps great for the most part. She goes on nap strikes occasionally, but they don't last long (knock on wood). She still loves her baby yoga class and can do some of the moves and positions if you ask her to (and if she's feeling cooperative!).

Oh! She isn't quite walking yet, although on several occasions she has taken up to five or six unassisted steps. She can walk quite well even if she is only holding onto my index finger, but boy, does she not want to let that index finger go. I guess crawling is too efficient to give up just yet. I hope she will turn out to be more coordinated and graceful than I am, but we haven't seen any signs of that yet. Ha. She still tumbles around quite a lot.

I will think of a zillion more things tomorrow, but I wanted to get these down before I let any more time slip away and I forget them. She's a funny, sassy, delightful baby who makes me laugh about a hundred times a day.