13.5 months. Of course.

So how did I miss Hunter's 12 month post?  Did a month and a half really go by since his big debut to entering number-hood?  Oh well, now's catch-up time I guess.


Here's Hunter at 13 . 5 Months:

He talks like, all the time.  Everything is "na-na" or "NA-NA!!" or something similar but different.  He probably has about 12 different dialects of "Na-Na" and I'm starting to understand his language a little better.  But I just love that he loves to talk.  

He loves to dance!  If I say the words "Music," "Dance," or just turn on any tunes, at least two thirds of his body starts to shake in some form.  Sometimes its on his knees with his hands raised in the air, sometimes its while he's crawling and his bum and shoulders wiggle-shake in cute combination, and sometimes its holding his hands together in front and shaking his upper body from side to side with a big goofy grin.  Any way he does it, its perfect.  And I really hope he keeps his love for dance alive until he's an old man, only able to move two thirds of his body, but still dancing because he can!

He's seriously in LOVE with his blanket.  He calls it "Ny-Ny".  Of course. He's become a real-live blanket kid.  Never thought I'd have one of those!  So after he wakes up and nurses, we together say "bye-bye ny-ny" and try to leave the room without tears.  Your welcome future wife, hopefully he won't be dragging this blanket around forever!

He is standing now without props!  Both on accident and on purpose.  He gets a little shaky after about 5 seconds, but he pushes through, until he realizes that he's solo . . . then he drops to his bum or his knees.  But he's learning the drill, so props to him!

He now says "dog"!  ("Da!)  And he says it when actually referring to a cute little doggie, unlike most of his other "na-na" verbage.

***Update 2 days after starting this post***  

He no longer says Dog.  He's totally over it.  Sad.

If we say, "turn on the light" he points at the nearest light switch and says "na-na" and won't stop until you walk to the light switch and let him turn the light off and on as many times as I'll let him.

Did I mention he says "na-na" a lot?

He LOVES his Wiggle-Wiggle Monster.  I'm pretty sure this deserves its own post.  Its pretty amazing.  We'll see if that happens, but if it does, you'll be happy I wrote the post.

He decided he loves the Ergo now.  I was able to vacuum and mop the entire house with Hunter ON MY BACK!  Woah, that was simply amazing.

He will always turn the page for you when reading  a book.  He doesn't seem to have much interest in looking at the pages, but he'll definitely turn them for you!  Probably he knows he's closer to finishing, the more he turns the pages.  But either way, he will sit with us before every sleep-time and "read" books without putting up too much of a fight!  We can count that as a success!

He is very interested in touching as many different types of leaves or branches or tree trunks or pretty much anything that is different from carpet.  If I have him in the Ergo and don't stop to touch the leaves of different trees, I definitely hear about it.  But usually if I do stop, he pretends that he's not that interested in it, and touches it just a teensy bit, unless I touch it too, then he'll get up more courage and give it his good Hunter grasp.  He just needs a little encouragement, I guess.


He now maneuvers his walker by himself, without getting stuck ALLLL the time.  He turns it left and right, and bulldozes right over the folded laundry and really anything else in his way.  But its much more of a fun toy for ME now, since I don't have to help him every second, when he runs into the couch again. and again. and again.

Hunter and Hazel together careening the walker into the couch.  Again.
And yes, they are sharing one set of kneepads. A special bond they share, these two.

He has taken to opening every cupboard & drawer in my house!  I was surprised that this took so long for him to realize he could do this himself, but now that he has...  I better watch out!  He has a favorite drawer with lots of "Hunter-friendly" things in it and it is SO fun to watch him reeeach for something at the back of the drawer, examine it thoroughly (as if he were trying to figure out what kitchen-function this tool served) and then toss it to the floor as if he were much too good for the whisk to actually PLAY with it.  But thanks to Hunter, a few things I 'thought' were Hunter-friendly, are really Not.  And it's good to know that now  :)  The ice cream scooper is so much heavier when batted at Jake's face than when looking at it in the drawer!

He is sleeping Fantastically.  Like really, really well.  I am amazed at his consistency over the past 3 weeks or so.  About a month ago he had some rough patches (3x awake a night for a while!) but he's back to just one night feeding at about 10:30 or 11, and then the normal wake-up time of 6:45 to 7:30 now.  I could keep this up forever!  

His favorite food is PEAS!  But, he is enjoying all sorts of different fruits, vegetables, pastas, grains, etc. but the biggest surprise is his love of spicy foods!  His face gets a little red, but we push through!  :)  He's a pretty good eater, but each day is its own game when it comes to how much he will eat.  Or, what he will throw on the ground.  Or, if he wants to help hold the spoon, or if he would rather you seriously take care of the whole 'work' of eating thing, and lazily open his mouth a little every once in a while. The other day he was practicing whistling while eating (read:  pppbbblllhhh, since you can't whistle and eat at the same time).  That was definitely fun.  And last night he would NOT open his mouth for another bite until Jake gave him a drink of milk.  So, it was Bite. Milk. Bite. Milk. Bite. Milk.  All meal long.  So today, I kept the milk and the water in the fridge until he was 3/4 of the way through dinner.  Then he drank, finished dinner, and drank again.  A Much easier time!  And.  Less Games.  :)  We'll see what happens tomorrow!

We weighed him last night, and he is a whopping 19.5 pounds!  He might not look happy about it in this picture, but his mom & dad are thrilled that he is growing and healthy.  That's all that matters!

Hunter really is such a happy kid, willing to put up with us as we learn how to be parents.  He definitely knows what he wants, but hasn't shown too much stubbornness yet.  He is easily distracted, and has been a BREEZE during diaper changes.  He has become more clingy to his mama lately, and has even had a few breakdowns in the church nursery where he was simply unconsolable unless he was in my arms . . .  But hopefully this is just a short phase!  He loves balloons, balls, and technology.  He can unlock Jake's smart phone, and has changed my wallpaper on my phone just once, thank goodness.  He plays 'well' with other kids, and really, really enjoys attention.  He can climb up our huge staircase unassisted, and can look pretty cute under a heap of couch cushions.  He LOVES swinging, and will seriously cry if you make him stop.  He is our favorite little man, our sweet baby boy, and we are SO thankful that we get to enjoy him as he learns and grows.  We love you Hunter!