13 Months!

Punkin' Pie turned 13 months on Saturday. Also on Saturday -- she took her first solo steps at the park, with Daddy. I'm convinced they have a deal. If she shares all of the major milestones with him while I'm at work she gets a sports car when she turns 16, or something like that.

She still hasn't shown off her new moves when I'm around. Although she's getting more and more confident. She'll walk holding just one hand and she's standing on her own for longer periods of time. She's also saying "Hi!" a lot more. All of the neighbors think it's the cutest thing -- and I agree.

Other words, or the beginnings of words are starting. The other night when she started fingering the button on my shirt I said, "Button -- bu -- bu -- button!" She repeated "Buh-buh". We were pretty impressed.

Ella is also trying to feed herself. This is fun when Mommy's in the mood for a nasty mess all over the high chair, walls, floor and baby. But how else is she going to learn, right? So I sit back and coach her and try not to freak out when a chunk of sweet potato goes whizzing past my head.

She's also started clapping and pointing more. I'm glad for the pointing, although someday we'll have to teach her it's rude. I read somewhere the earlier they start pointing the broader their vocabulary will be. The article went on to say most babies start pointing at 9 months! Thank God she's mastered it by 13. So she'll be somewhere between Earl and Dr. Frasier Crane. Darn I won't get one of those Honor Student bumper stickers. (read sarcasm)

And as for the walking -- it's the new question everyone asks. Between 5 and 10 months people always asked, "is she teething?" But usually Ella answered before I could by flashing the row of pearly whites she started cutting at three months! Now it's, "Is she walking yet?"

Until just the other day I was really bothered by my answer, "No, not yet". But my gynecologist told me the longer a baby crawls the better reader they'll be. She said her daughter didn't walk until 16 months and she's a voracious reader. My friend Briana, mother to Annabel and our #2 Godson, Henry, said she was told the same thing. Now when someone asks -- I'll say, "No, but she's going to love the Bronte sisters!" Then I'll know if they're an Earl or a Frasier.