Katharine Lange: Arwyn Week 57: Our 13 Month Walking Wonder!

Arwyn's biggest news is that she turned 13 Months old and started walking this week! At the beginning of the week, she had really perfected her balance (getting up and down mid-room with grace and ease), and Josh reported that she was taking just a couple steps out and back, which increased to about 6 steps by my last day of work. I didn't get to see any of it, and he kept missing the video! So we are calling Thursday, 7/21, her first official day because a) I finally got video proof, and b) she really took off that day more than any other. First thing Thursday morning she took a long walk across the room, and then she just didn't stop walking the rest of the day. It was funny too because she really increased her skills so quickly. She had that very first shakey walk in the morning, but by the afternoon she was so confident she was practically running! So far she's not falling too much either; when she loses her balance she just stops, almost falls, then recovers with an athletic stance, and keeps on going. She even was walking across the big trampoline by the end of the day WHILE people were bouncing on it...talk about so advanced with her balance! Arwyn loves her new big girl shoes. She gets really excited when she sees me pull them out, and sticks out her feet to help me put them on her. She even gets angry and starts pointing at them if I'm too slow and she thinks I might not put them on after all. Her top front teeth have also just surfaced, so she's up to 4 teeth now at 13 months. As I mentioned above, Arwyn seems to have incredible balance. A few days before she started walking, she was able to stand up and balance on the surfboard at the pond. And the day she started walking, she walked, balanced, and jumped on the big trampoline at MorMor's while Leia and Megan were jumping, and she was balancing and compensating so well!

When we put Leia into her new toddler bed a month ago, we had convinced her that she needed to stay in the bed and call for us even though she could technically get out on her own. Much to our surprise, she totally respected that for a month, until this week. Now she's started getting out of bed on her own after naps and in the morning, plus she's starting doing a bit of jack-in-the-box up and downs at bedtime. It's not totally different from her calling us a bunch of times before, but now she just gets out of bed and comes to the stairs to call us back up. She also made her first middle-of-the-night trip out of bed and up to our bedroom (down the stairs, across the house, down the hall, and up the other stairs). I never heard a thing in the monitor and was not expecting her at all, so I screamed and jumped when I heard my name called and found out little face right in front of my pillow! It was pretty funny. I've also been noticing more talking in her sleep and dreaming recently, which she's never really done before. She's gotten back into a horrible jealous phase of Arwyn, and seems to be testing us constantly. We are trying to make a new disciplinary game plan that we can both agree on and stick to. Also, in an attempt to get her back to better eating habits, we invited her to stay up a little later and eat a special dinner out on the deck with Mommy and Daddy a couple nights this week. The first night we got her to eat an herb-heavy lamb burger, and she even asked for seconds. The second night she ate a crab cake burger, and liked it despite how tired and cranky she was. After that, despite the gastronomic success, we got tired of not having a nice relaxing dinner for two, so we stopped inviting her! Finally, I can't remember if I've properly documented Leia's current obsession with finding treasures or not, but either way, it's so important to her that it deserves a repeat discussion. She watches Jake and the Neverland Pirates constantly hunting for treasure, so she like to do the same. Some of the treasures at home are cool (pennies, face crystals, real crystals, etc), but whenever we go out, she is constantly hunting for things, but mostly what she finds and calls a treasure is just trash. Nasty pink hair tie that someone lost? Treasure! Shiny bolt that fell out of something? Treasure! We have to bring bags with us everywhere, and for awhile I was worried that she'd be pissed if she realize that I dumped her treasure trash, but I finally just started doing it, and so far, so good.

This dress was too small when she received it, but did that stop her from wearing it? No! I guess it's ok since she's 3. She and her dad will be having words if she tries this at 12!

What a goof!

Arwyn and her friends chasing after bubbles!

Homemade pizza with veggie box squash, fresh mozzarella, basil, and the best sauce Josh has ever made!

Fun morning at the Yoga Fest with my friend Leia...we did some good treasure hunting!

Got home from the yoga fest, and this is what she said: "We need to put on our decorations and take off our panties." Then she spent the next two days naked under her decorative toga. Weirdo!