13 months

today talan turned 13 months old and he's still not walking. he is finally, however, walking while holding onto our hands. at least most of the time. he is completely steady and makes it seem like he could just let got and keep walking on his own. he probably can, he just won't.
the other day jessica and justin came over and we tried getting him to walk back and forth between us without holding on to us. he took 1, maybe 2 steps but most of it was him basically throwing himself to the person across from him.
he continues to let go of things and stand on his own but once he realizes, he slowly and gently lowers himself to his knees.
as with last month, his favorite book continues to be "the wheels on the bus" which robin, sara and josh sent him for his birthday. he makes us read it over and over and he'll do most of the motions with us as well. while changing him, i often sing it to keep him relatively still. the other day he repeated me and said "beep beep." dave walked in and said "great...so this kids entire vocabulary is all sound effects!" which is true. he continues to say "woah" and "wow" at all things. he will sometimes say "beep beep" and will saw "awww" when he sees an animal or a soft toy/blanket. he has, however, been saying "mama" as well. not necessarily to me, just to repeat me. i highly doubt he even knows that i am mama.
if he wants to eat, instead of putting his hand to his mouth the way you are supposed to sign it, he will slap himself on the right ear....hard. he has occasionally signed it the correct way but he prefers hitting himself in the ear. i correct him every time by showing him how i do it and then doing it with his own hand but then he'll just slap his ear again. whatever. we know what he wants.
he does like to eat, but he doesn't do it very well. he isn't the world's greatest chewer, so there are things that i just can't give him to eat or else he'll choke himself. it seems like he'll suck on things for a bit and then try swallowing it. he LOVES chips but after many times of seeing him make a face like "woah, this really hurts going down" and then coughing, we realized no chips until he learns to chew. he loves chicken and continues to love sweet potatoes. he also loves to eat pea pods, but typically i'll find pea pod carcasses all over the kitchen floor.
which leads me to another thing. he loves to make a mess with his food. he'll swing his arm back and forth across his highchair tray to send food flying through the kitchen. either that or he'll simply drop it, piece by piece, onto the floor. the other day he was eating a grilled cheese. apparently he was done so he picked a piece up and dropped it on the floor. i looked at him and said "NO!" and he stared me down, the same way hayden always did, picked up another piece and dropped that one on the floor never taking his eyes off of me. this continued until every piece was on the floor. i went from just saying "NO!" to then saying "NO!" and slapping his hand. but the end result was the same. the slap made no difference.
he seems to not really enjoy the stroller very much. i don't remember hayden being like that. it seemed like hayden could just get in and enjoy the ride, even though he was especially active. with talan, he wants nothing but to get out. i keep telling him maybe if he learns to walk but that doesn't even work. the second you put him in he is squirming and twisting trying to get himself free. if he does sit still he immediately starts signing "more" so i give him food. both he and hayden have learned if they are out in a store i feed them to keep them quiet and occupied.
talan continues to be a good sleeper, going to bed at 7pm and waking up around 7am. he still takes 2 naps...most of the time. one at 9:30am and the other at around 1pm.
he has finally decided he will drink milk so the only formula he gets is a cup in the morning and that's just so we can get rid of it!
he loves to babble, and it seems at times, to lecture you. the whole time he has a very serious and stern look on his face and he'll be waving his hand or just one finger in the air.
he tries to climb on everything. he climbs up on the lip of the entertainment center and the molding in the bedroom to look out the window. he has been trying to climb up on the couch and into the tub as well. he learned very quickly, just on his own and not because he took a big fall, to turn around when he's going down a step. if he's up on our bed you'll see him turn himself around like that's going to help him land safely off the bed.
he loves to go outside and will cry when i walk hayden out to the bus in the morning simply because he wants to come too.
we finally changed car seats and he is now sitting front facing which he loves. the first 2 days he would get in and have this look on his face like "i am the coolest thing around." it's much easier not having to carry him around in that 40 pound car seat now, and it's nice that the weather has been cooperative where we haven't had to bundle him up to get him in and out of the car. it is a pain when he falls asleep in the car seat and then we just have to wake him up to get him out of the car and into a store though.
he still isn't that into tv or movies, he still loves to dance to music. he's still the happiest baby around but he can get mad. when he gets mad, if you're picking him up, he'll jump/kick his legs really hard and it's pretty funny. he crawls super fast. he loves the cat. he still loves super soft things. he now takes his blanket with him around the house, making sure to always take it out of the crib when we get him up. he recently started making a scrunchy smiley face, especially when you take the camera out. papa discovered he cracks up when you say the word "blue" (i think he thinks we're saying "boo" or "boom" either way, it gets him every time.) he loves to play in hayden's room with or without hayden. he likes to play peek-a-boo but still covers his ears instead of his eyes when asked "where's talan?" he LOVES to wave and will wave to everyone he sees, sometimes for up to 5 minutes. he loves baths but has recently decided he doesn't like us washing his hair. he still coughs like a 90 year old smoker and it's even worse right now because of his cold. he doesn't care if another kid steals his toys. he's still the most chill baby there is. he still loves jumping. he loves going down to play in the basement. he also loves playing in the kitchen. he can play by himself for long extended periods of time. you can leave him upstairs while typing a long blog and know the only trouble he'll get into is removing all of the dvds. oh, and sometimes ripping a huge hole in the living room window screen.
happy 13 months, baby talan! we love you!