13 Months

Each day with Owen feels special. He fills us with so much pride and joy. Complete fun. I can't seem to take my eyes off him...I'm always wondering what he's up to and waiting to see what he does next. We are in total awe of everything he does. He fits perfectly into our lives. Don't know what we would do without him!

13 month milestones:

• Owen is walking! He just started, so he’s still very wobbly. This past month has shown a lot of progression with him walking. He’ll now hold you hand and walk with you, where he was not at all interested in this before a couple of weeks ago.
• He can stand well on his own without holding on to anything. The ladies at daycare say he’s got really good balance, so I’ll have to take their word for it.
• Owen is eating finger foods! No more purees! He seems to do really well with picking up food and putting it in his mouth. It is super nice that he is eating on his own. Now if he could only feed himself yogurt we’d be all set!
• Owen seems to really like containers filled with toys, like this box of legos that we have. He enjoys taking the legos out, then putting them back in. The same with a big dump truck that he got for his birthday…he loves putting things in, then taking them out.
• Owen is saying a few words now. His vocabulary consists of bye, ball and Mama & Dada. It’s hard to say what his first word was. I guess I would have to say it was Mama because he says it a lot, especially when he’s fussy. Who knows if he realizes he’s saying my name or if he’s just upset. When he plays with a ball, he definitely says “ba” and we wave bye-bye all the time and I’ve heard him say bye a few times now.
• Owen laughs at funny things, like Grandma Kuder saying “Zoom, Zoom” or Aunt Cat showing off her power walking. It is such a joy to hear his laugh.
• Owen is really starting to understand no. There have been times when I have said no and he actually obeys me. I was so thankful the other day when I told him no as he was going after the toilet brush and he actually left it alone! He’ll occasionally shake his head no to me which seems pretty good. It is nice that he’s starting to communicate in his own little way.
• Owen likes to look at picture books and turn the pages. Still not really interested in stories yet, but we’ll get there.
• Clapping his hands is something Owen has really gotten into lately. If I start saying “yeah” he’ll start clapping. He especially likes to do it in the bathtub, I think because the wet hands give more of a clapping sound with his small hands.
• Lately Owen has started having great little "conversations" with me during our drive home from daycare. He's none stop with all kinds of different sounds and babble. These little moments, when he is finding his own vocalizations, are definitely my favorite part of the day.