Louise at 13 months

Louise is practically running everywhere.  We love it.  Lately she's really into making faces.  She'll pout and really jut her bottom lip out there one second and grin as big as she can the next.  And she's such a little ham.  She LOVES strangers and other people and has no compunctions against going up to anyone and asking them to pick her up or sit on their lap.  We had our first visit with her new doctor here and she was a little surprised by how not-shy Louise was.  She toddled right up to her, reached for her lap, and started playing with her stethoscope and earrings and face.  We also found out she's now in the 90th percentile for height and 77th for weight (a big jump from the 15th and 5th percentiles she was in a few months ago).

Life as we know it is racing onward.  We can't believe how quickly time is going by.  It feels like we just barely had a baby, and here we are with a 1 year-old living halfway across the country.  She's not a little baby anymore.  She's a toddler, through and through.  Justin says he can see a lot of my personality in her.  The "I want to do it my way, by myself, and no one can stop me" part of my personality. ;)  But that's ok.  I'm kind of excited for when she's a teenager.

She is extremely independent already.  It's adorable.  If I want to put a headband on her, it has to be her idea first, otherwise it gets torn off in seconds.  I'll show it to her and let her play with it, let her try to put it on herself, then when she can't she'll hand it to me.  Then, and only then, I can help her put it on and she'll leave it.  Same with the rest of her clothes.  

Louise is really into wearing things on her neck lately.  It doesn't matter what it is, if she can get it to stay across her shoulders she'll walk very gingerly "wearing" it until if falls off or she finds something new.  This morning it was a pair of pants draped very carefully across her shoulders, yesterday it was a lens cleaning cloth.  She also loves wearing rings on her wrists.  We have a Magic Bullet knock-off that has a bunch of rings that snap onto the top of the cups and she almost always has a few of them on both arms, or her colored rings that stack on the yellow cone things.  She's way into carrying around my shoes, too.  Usually sparkly flats, high heels, or boots.  Total girl. :)   

These days, when she's getting into something she knows she shouldn't, she looks at us and shakes her head while purposefully doing whatever she shouldn't.  *Sigh*  We're working on it.  Maybe in a few years she'll get it. ;)

Louise talks non-stop.  I'll have to record some of it.  She's very deliberate and articulate in her gibberish.  She loves the L and D sounds and is constantly throwing around sounds that involve them.  She likes to "read" us stories.  She's a very clear communicator and is great at letting us know what she needs.  She has a very expressive face, like her daddy.

She's still an unbelievable eater and sleeper.  She eats everything we eat.  We have our big meal for lunch instead of dinner since Justin has night classes, so we get to eat as a family almost every day.  Louise would eat fruit all day if I'd let her.  She goes to bed by 7 every night and wakes up between 7 and 8 (depending on how noisy Justin is when he gets ready for work).

We can't believe how in love with little Lulu we are, and we can't wait to see what the next 13 months hold for us. :)