13 Months

Our happy clapper is 13 months old! We've graduated to "standing" pictures instead of laying down on a blanket. Ryan is pretty proud to show off how he can stand and walk by himself! He's taking longer and longer "trips" on his own and sometimes will walk from toy to toy or chair to toybox instead of only between people prompting him. He can also clap, throw a ball, and drink from his sippy cup while standing on his own.

Since he's supposed to be able to eat all solid foods now, we've been experimenting with different things. Some days he'll eat whatever is presented, but often he picks out one thing that is "acceptable" and insists on only that. His absolute favorite thing is grapes and other pretty "sure" things are yogurt, multi-grain Club crackers (which he tries to eat vertically and/or whole), and diced peaches. Our fall-back foods are bananas and peanut butter sandwiches but once in a while he'll surprise me...like how he finished almost an entire pie plate of spinach quiche over the course of a few days! He can use a spoon or fork by himself if you help load it, but we reserve that for non-rushed meals at home since the utensil usually ends up on the floor several times, taking the yogurt or casserole with it. He should be able to eat just about anything since he has 16 teeth fully through!

Ryan's vocabulary continues to evolve as he has phrases that sound something like "What's that?" and "What's this?" and "Get down" (directed at Nika). His more recognizable new word is "socks" which he repeats as he either looks at or pulls off his shoes and socks. My mom also recently interpreted that when he says "bocks" he is actually referring to "books." He continues to imitate David Spade's SNL sketch by repeating "buh-bye" and waving whenever we are leaving or someone else is leaving. Once in a while he'll use "dada" but I'm learning to live with the fact that he says "socks" more often than "mama."
Ryan can give you "five" and also likes dancing to music and paging through books, especially "lift-the-flap" books and ones with sounds. He interacts with his Little People sets by putting the animals on the tree top platform, moving the counting rings over the school house, and opening the doors/sliding the chicken on his farm set. These toys are great in that they will continue to grow with him.

We can see a little more of a mischievous streak coming out in him as he tests the boundaries by throwing his cup/food/untensils, standing up in the bathtub, and hitting the dog (then giggling hysterically). Hopefully we'll figure out how to handle these situations...but in the meantime, you probably won't catch us in a nice restaurant anytime soon.