Dear Jack: 13 Months

Dear Jack,

You are now 13 months!  You are at that weird place with age where I could just say "a year and a month," but it feels so confusing.

Everything about you is so much more independent than I remembered with Eliot.  I can't eat with a fork around you because you want to steal it.  You are set on feeding yourself.  You want to climb all of the stairs by yourself, give yourself a bath, pick out your own food, brush your teeth, and even try to wipe yourself during diaper changes.  You've stepped it up in playtime with Eliot too and have specific toys you want to play with.  A simple "trade" strategy no longer works with you two in order to maintain the peace, but we're always working at new ways to play.

You really are taking in the world around you and are beginning to understand how things work.  You take the remote from us and point it at the tv.  You take our phones and pretend to talk.  You get ahold of the ear thermometer and put it in your ear.

As for speech, you haven't expanded your words much lately and mostly stick with ball, dada, ma, dog, some form of "kitty," and bye.  These are your favorite things, so it makes sense.  It's funny because when we are leaving and saying bye, you wait until we are almost gone before bellowing out this huge "BYE!!!"  If we are leaving Target, you wait until we are about to walk out the door.  If I am dropping you off at Nana's so I can work, you wait until I'm pretty much on the front porch.  You're so silly.  And, of course, you continue to growl and roar all of the time because you love dinosaurs the best.

Your dad and I have kind of concluded that you are a daddy's boy.  Sure, you get sad when I leave and so excited to see me, but you yell "Dada" all the time and almost bust out a window if your dad goes to check the mail.  Maybe you aren't playing favorites all the way because I can tell that you really love us both for sure.  And you love dogs the most, probably.  You bring them balls and try to get them to lick the inside of your mouth.  Yuck...

You are so good at so many big kid things.  You love to color with your brother.  You read books on your own (and don't let us help).  

I know that you will grow up and continue to become a boy, but I can't imagine you as anything but our sweet baby boy.  I really can't.  At the same time, I have a hard time remembering what your brother was like at your age.  I'm enjoying this period with you as our little one--our youngest--and I know it will just keep getting better.