13 Months Old

February 3rd:

No longer am I the mother of a newborn or even a young infant.... I am the mother of a full blown Twoddler!! I can hardly believe how quickly time has flown by... I am almost afraid to blink, because my fear is that if I do, she'll be headed to college already!!

Some of you are asking yourself... "what is a twoddler?" This is a good question, because this a word I made up. In pediatrics, we refer to 11-14 year olds as "tweens" (this is not a scientific term, so don't quote me). "Tween" meaning pre-teen/young teen. This is an important designation... because they are BE"tween" being a child and a teen. Therefore, "twoddler" would me pre-toddler/young toddler. So... not a baby, but not quite a toddler yet.

"Twoddler"hood can be a challenging age. Active, mobile and opinionated, but not enough vocabulary to communicate their wants and needs. This makes for some great "parenting moments," as my mother would say. You might call them "melt downs." Ha! So far, this age has been challenging, but also OH SO MUCH FUN! She is becoming this little person and it is so fun to watch!

Highlights from the Month:
- First Birthday
- First trip to Monkey Joe's... she LOVES other kids!
- Not walking, some standing, but mainly cruising EVERYWHERE!!
- Saying "Hi" to anyone and everyone, and waving at everything.
- Very happy baby, great eater, loves to "do it herself."
- Transitioned FULLY over the sippy cup and whole milk.



Snuggled up with Daddy reading her bedtime stories. Her attention span for stories has dramatically improved over the past month. She loves to turn the page, lift the flaps and "pat the bunny."

 

Headed out on Blakely birthday adventure to Chick-fil-a (Blakely's Favorite Restaurant) and Monkey Joe's (an indoor play place.)

 

Blakely and Gigi at Monkey Joes's!!! Blakely is wearing her Birthday outfit that Gigi made for her!! So, so, so, so cute!!!

There is a toddler only zone... and Mommy's get to play too!!

Blakely loved jumping up and down in the play castle... she especially loved watching the big kids play!! I think Blakely is going to love jumping as much as her Mommy does!! (Disregard my nasty sock... yuck!)

Blakely made friends with this sweet 3 year old named, Angela!! Blakely loved getting to play with her!

To put it mildly... Blakely LOVED going to Monkey Joe's.... she fell asleep in the car afterwards, and slept for 3 hours!! It wore the girl out!!

 

Kiddo's together for Uncle Ryan's Birthday party. Gigi had just gotten them new Stokke highchairs so they could sit at the table with the rest of the family. I think they liked them!

The Birthday boy arrives!!

A Tober family birthday classic is the Eclair cake..... pudding, cool whip, frosting and soggy graham crackers.... basically the ideal baby cake!! Both Banks and Blakely tried the cake.... and it was a major hit!! Definitely Tober kids!

Thursday's at Aunties house.... both these kids are happy, as long as they are together.

Big girl snack time: Fruit and Whole Milk from a Sippy cup.

I waited a little too late to start transitioning to the sippy. Ooops! When Blakely had her first birthday, she wasn't even holding her own bottle yet... so we had some work to do. I got serious about it, and about 3 weeks later (...and about $30 invested in different brands of sippy cups) we were off the bottle completely!! Success!!