Julianna is 13 months (OK it was really last Thursday!)

Wow. How did I let this one get by? About half way through Thursday (6/23), it hit me that my baby girl is 13 months old. How did I forget? How did I look at her beautiful face that morning and forget she is 13 months old? Bad Mommy. Maybe after you hit that all mighty First Year - you stop counting months so much? Or am I supposed to count months until I get to 120 months? or forever? Or do I just gear up for the 2nd birthday party countdown already?

Some 13 month milestones

Food: Julianna is eating a lot of table food, especially dinner. She loves chicken. She eats all kinds of chicken. She might sprout some feathers soon. She also loves cantaloupe, peaches, eggs, pasta, potatoes, turkey, cheese, Italian bread, bagels (the best for food shopping), pancakes, french toast, corn, veggies (as long as they're mixed in with her food to disguise their taste)...
For breakfast, she eats oatmeal with fruit most days. We are going to give her the iron fortified cereal until she is at least 2. Iron is a very essential part of her diet for growth. Lunch (depending on if she's at daycare or here) consists of some kind of veggie puree and fresh turkey and cheese... and toasted multi grain bread.

Drink: We were able to switch Julianna over to Organic whole milk without any issues at 12 months. She drinks 8 oz in the morning... 4-6 oz before bed.... and about 6 throughout the day. She also drinks water from a sippy cup with meals or throughout the day as needed. Next up; switching her daytime bottle of milk over to sippy cup. I'm not ready to give up the night time or morning bottle yet. That's snuggle time. Let's face it, there is not much snuggle time with a toddler that wants to be put down on the floor all the time now! I'll take what I can get! I have not introduced any fruit juice. We tried to give her the 100% real/organic juice once and she wasn't interested. Fine by me. Water & milk works fine. I don't want her being a juice addict anyhow.

Words: Dada (She's super-daddy centric!), Dahhhh (we think means Pepper our dog?), Deedee (I have no idea what this means, I think it's toy), Uht-Ohhh (she says this all day long), Bobba (I think she is attempting to say Mama), Mmmmmmm (Not really a word but she does this while eating - soo cute).
And of course she does crazy baby babble and has full blown conversations as if she was speaking perfect English. Super Cute.

Walking: She is not walking yet. She's gonna be a late one! She can pull herself up to her feet but doesn't do it very often yet. She can stand up pretty good when we stand her up and she holds onto furniture. She can cruise a little bit. The pediatrician said she was concerned and asked us to call "Early Intervention" - It's a free service by the state of NJ (What? Free in NJ? That's a first!) - they come out and evaluate Julianna ... and offer suggestions (exercises) to get her going with standing & walking. I still have to call. She's been making progress this month so I think I might hold off for now.

Sleep: This. Child. Sleeps. She is a great sleeper. We had some wicked storms the other night that kept me up for 2 hours overnight. Not her. She was Zzzzz'ing through the whole thing. Nothing wakes her. She sleeps from 8pm to about 6:45 or 7am. She takes 2 naps about an hour each. 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. For anyone whose child does not sleep through the night. I am telling you - Babywise is the method I used. We had her on a schedule from day one and we were golden. And sorry but we did not co-sleep ever. I think that helped her to sleep through the night very early (7 weeks!). I understand why some do co-sleep, but it just wasn't for us. After 8pm is daddy & mommy time.

I love watching Julianna play with her toys. She is getting so smart. It amazes me to watch her teach herself how to do things for the first time. You can see their little minds spinning!

Julianna is getting shy around strangers and she is scared of balloons. Well, scared of ANYTHING that looks like a balloon too. She is scared of statues, big vases, and anything else that is up in the air and is big. Haha! She looks at something, gives a whimper and buries her head in my shoulder. It's quite pathetic but I am glad that she does it so I can 'protect' her. Kinda cute actually.

Julianna and Pepper are becoming quite good friends. It will be precious to see them grow up together.

I was going through some older pictures of Julianna to see how much she has changed (and she certainly has changed!). I found some ones that I love. Here they are below:

3 months old

2 months old  

8 or 9 months old (I think!) 

3 months