Thirteen and a Half Months

Amelie is growing and thriving. Not walking yet, but getting close. I think. Lots of no-hands standing up. I've gotten her to try taking steps on a couple of occasions and she'll take one and stumble. She can walk holding just one of my hands, though. And all she wants to do is practice walking, preferably doing laps while holding someone's hands, otherwise pushing a walking toy around. She's gotten pretty good at steering her walking toys -- she can back up and swing around in circles.

She's still only got two teeth, both on the bottom, but there's four in a row on top waiting to come through any day now.

She eats like a champ and loves meat, in particular. Strange baby! Calliope was never like this so it's especially fun to have a baby with a hearty appetite.

We are in the process of weaning. Nursing her has always been a mixed blessing, often uncomfortable, and I've had to work hard to maintain a supply, taking nursing supplements (herbs) for months now. So I decided to stop those, and I stopped pumping at a year, and the milk is slowly going away. And then I decided, definitely, not to take her on Calliope and my long weekend to the Bay Area for my uncle's wedding. And this way I don't have to deal with pumping while we are gone. So we are down to once a day, and the last couple days she's had cow's milk after the morning nursing. She seems not to care which one she gets, or might have a small preference for the bottle since it's easier. I'm just hoping that I don't get hit with depression like I did the last time I weaned -- that was a pretty miserable three weeks, until it abruptly disappeared. I saved some placenta pills from the postpartum period so hopefully those will help if I need it. Now I just have to pick the day I stop entirely.

In addition to saying hi, she nows says bye, too. She was saying "poop" this morning, copying me, also thank you. I don't know if it "counts" as a real world if she's just copying me. She now says "bye!" and makes her version of a kissing noise before she wheels out of the room with her walking toy.

We've done some trips to the potty, with a few successes, and that's exciting. I'd love to try potty training this summer, at 15 months, but am not wildly optimistic that it'll work out. I just think summer is the ideal time for it and I hate to wait a whole year to try again. I definitely think earlier is better, and easier in some ways (though harder in others). She likes sitting on the potty with books, and always wants to check the potty to see what's inside.

The nanny and I are trying to transition her to one nap a day. It's rough. We can keep her up until about 10:30 am, but it's a stretch. Yesterday we went out for a walk, in hopes of keeping her up and also needing the kids to get some fresh air, and we stayed out just a little too long and she fell asleep. And only slept 90 minutes (still, a record for her in the stroller), and was up extra early this morning as a result -- 5:15 on a Sunday morning. Sniff. My kids generally wake up early when they are overtired. A maladaptive response if I've ever seen one. I feel bad that I'm switching her when she's not really ready but it's hard with two kids -- this summer, I need her to be awake in the mid afternoon so I can pick Calliope up from camp.

Ridiculous looking, if effective, travel highchair device

Big sister was gifted a new dress, one that matches her friend Annabelle's, that she will
actually wear! So nice to have a break from black fleece pants.

My ballerina in "first pagishun" 

Big sisters have big responsibilities

"Now how do I get these pants back on?"
She tried over her head and around her neck without success.
Notice the no-hands standing up!