Now, I wonder if I'm looking into the future with this shot. It looks to me more like the school picture of an 8-year old....not a snapshot of a little 13-month baby!
Nonetheless, this is Alessandro at 13-months old. The biggest news, of course, is that we're weaned!! Mom has reclaimed her breasts and they are thanking her very much for that. Alessandro is OK with that except he still won't take milk from a sippy cup (grr!). At least, not enough. Another upside is that it is now very easy to put him to sleep. Just a 2-3 minute relaxation routine instead of 15-20 minutes of nursing.
He is also in the middle cutting more teeth. Two more on the bottom have crowned, but there has got to be more. He hasn't slept longer than 2-hours in 4-days and he's screeching like a howler monkey most of the day. I try not to give him too much Motrin, although that and the Baby Oragel seem to work the best in alleviating his discomfort.
He is very physical and adept at throwing balls and anything else he can get his hands on. Seems very "boy" in the regard for sure. He is great at climbing down stairs carefully, although I still worry if he stands up in the middle of a stair case lest he take a step backwards and fall. He is all over the place in a playground. I'm fine with him climbing around the toddler section, but he can't help himself in following the girls into the "big kid" sections. He climbs up the stairs after them, tries to straddle the teeter-totter and runs across the tall bridges which have me worrying at every corner. He's not bold enough to try the slides yet. He opts instead to master each section of the climbing by scaling a section, backing down carefully and repeating a number of times. His favorite toys remain balls, especially the liquid-filled glitter balls that Grandma bought for him. The one with the floating eyeball that lights up when bounced is one he will always hunt down and claim.
He's added a couple more words to vocabulary: "done," "momma," "juice," "more", "hi" are the ones he can do without prompting and he'll mimic a number more. He can ASL sign "hat," "shoes," "dog," "more," and "done." He's also starting to change his nap schedule, getting ready to drop a nap. We now nap around 10:30am and again around 4pm. Lights-out is around 8:30 or 9pm.
He LOVES the pet chickens we have, as well as any animal that moves! He often watches the chicks in the box and will start walking toward any animal that's near. It was fun taking him to the farmyard at the zoo. He spent half the time watching the ducks in the water and the other half following around the different goats. We love this little guy to pieces!
