Jack is 13 Months Old

So I couldn't decide if I should continue with the monthly letters past 12. I mean how many is too many? And then how do you decide to cut it off? And wow, that's a whole lot of pressure every month to come up with something. I mean what if an animal ate my arm off and I couldn't type and then I felt bad about not posting?

So instead I am just going to do a little roundup post. Kind of a "greatest hits" of the last month. Bullets would be nice. Lazy, but nice. So I will actually try to form coherent sentences and use actual segues.

This month Jack finally clapped. For the last several months, we would ask him to clap and he would wave at us. We would clap for him and he would look at us like we had squirrels on our heads instead of hair. We tried it all, to no avail.

But just this past weekend we were at lunch with some friends and he started a slow clap. Our friends must have thought I was a lunatic clapper fan because I kept interrupting the conversation to tell Josh to watch him clap.

We get out a lot, as you can tell.

He also has mastered the art of turning on his crib soother. Now, in the middle of the night, instead of hearing whining and crying, we hear the strains of Baby Einstein melodies. It's a little weird to wake up at 3 a.m. and think you are at a classic music concert, but hey, it beats a 3 a.m. screamfest.

He's also starting to change his sleep habits. The 11 hours overnight is nice, I'm not going to lie to ya. And he had been taking two one-hour naps during the day. But then he started taking longer and longer to actually fall asleep for his afternoon naps. A few times now we have done one-nap days and they have gone well. The first time we tried it, he was awake for six hours and slept for two hours and 45 minutes. I almost fell off the couch when I saw the completion time.

But the good sleeping is somewhat mitigated by the picky eating. Previously enjoyed foods are now met with disgust. We try to give him vegetables -- green beans, peas, carrots -- in real people form and he spits them out the minute they touch his tongue. But spoon them out of a babyfood jar and he's all about them. Other non-hits include eggs in any form, hot dogs, turkey sandwiches, homemade pasta, hamburgers and french toast. Oh but his almond butter -- sweet, sweet almond butter than he loves more than life itself -- is making up for the deficiencies in his toddler diet.

This was also the month of the intolerance. Can't drink cow's milk. Can't drink soy milk. Can drink rice milk. Has started drinking a SMALL amount of goat's milk each day, with no ill effects yet. Of course, as I typed that the fates are laughing hysterically and will now send the eczema plague upon our house.

Jack has started to run here and there. Arms up, head back, laughing hysterically. This summer should be so much fun if he keeps up this daredevil manuever. We'll have skinned knees and faces left and right.

He's also up to nine words now. He can say mama, dada, kitty, this, baby, buh-bye, boom, pig and duck. So far, pig, duck and buh-bye have only been said a few times, but baby is a crowd favorite right now. He always has to call out the babies in his books and give them kisses before we can move on to the next page.

This is becoming such a fun age. Every day he learns something new or shows us a skill we had no idea he possessed.