13 months

We are having so much fun with Bethany. She loves the cold air when it hits her face outside, it is quite funny when she looks at us at laughs at her breath in the air... I don't think she'll think it is funny in March when it is still cold! We try to keep the doors closed to rooms in the house we'd prefer her to stay out of. We've found her splashing in the toilet, or depositing things in there too often. When our bedroom door is open she likes to run in there and turn around to see if we'll follow her. Either way she'll try to grab things off the dresser like Dan's phone, any remotes, his work badge etc. We pretend to "chase" her down the hallway as she tries to escape which sends her into fits of laughter. Her words are not completely clear yet, but she says cheese, socks, book, mommy, daddy, eat, milk, bottle and night-night. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few words... When we read her animal book and get to the bear, tiger or lion she roars. She also tries to cluck like a hen or make a fish face for those animals. We have started to spell things so she doesn't understand us, otherwise when we say something about dinner or food she runs over to her high-chair. She could be playing contently and then I say something about her bottle and she gets up and runs to the fridge and wants to be held. Sometimes if I say goodbye, she'll go get her coat and hat and bring them to me and start waving. Or if I ask if she needs a bath she will walk over to the bathroom and start banging on the door. She likes to open and shut doors if they are ajar and we aren't concerned with her going up and down the steps anymore- we made it through without a baby gate!

Charlie came over on Saturday because Brent was sick and Amber had to work. Bethany played really well with him and kept patting him on the head gently. He is doing so well at crawling and if he could keep up with her he was happy. They were being silly on Sunday afternoon laughing at each other’s noises. Charlie would happily scream and then Bethany would join in. She’d run around shaking her head and he’d laugh at her hysterically – it was so cute. We put their highchairs next to each other so it was easy for me to feed them but Bethany kept stealing blueberries off Charlie’s tray! He didn’t seem to mind, but liked it when she shared a cracker with him. Her favorite food is cheese. She also likes fruit and sometimes bread (she’d do well in Paris). Anything else is hit or miss, so we take advantage of it when she likes something. Shredded chicken or turkey works sometimes and carrots once in awhile too. Hopefully the picky stage won’t last long J
A few weeks ago Dan and Bethany came along with me on a work trip to San Antonio. Bethany really enjoyed running around the hotel room and onto the balcony. She didn’t enjoy her bed though which made for some long nights with her in bed with one of us… during the day she and Dan did some sight-seeing and swam in the hotel pool. She did incredibly well on the flights again! We just booked another trip to Phoenix in February which will be fun because we have a lot of family and friends there. I work 3 days, and then we’ll extend through the weekend and two days the next week. We are looking forward to seeing Nate and Lindsey and their kids – it has been a few years since we saw them, was it in Singapore? Ian and Courtney may also come up from Tucson while we’re there and then we’ll try to spend some time with my family too.
I’ll try to be a little better about posting! December is always busy with Christmas - we’ll be at the Wisconsin Dells with the Totman’s and Springer’s in a few weeks and then with my family over Christmas at the cabin. The good news is that I am almost done Christmas shopping! I really dislike shopping, but I love it when I find good deals and with a lot of retailers discounting merchandise early and offering free shipping we were able to get a lot done online over Thanksgiving – yea!