Katya is 13 months!

Well we are definitely out of the sweet, easy going infant stage of Katya's life and on to the toddler years. Of course she has always been pretty independent for a baby and is now getting increasingly so (as do most all kids at this age). She wants to do everything herself and gets very mad when she is not allowed to do what she wants, like step on Bentley. She likes to smile at me and repeat her actions over and over again when I tell her "no." She is getting minute long time outs, I am not sure that she gets the concept yet but she will soon enough.

Of course she is still sweet and continues to give lots of hugs and kisses, just usually not when asked too, rather when she feels like it. A couple of days ago Craig fed her her AM bottle while I was still in bed and when she finished she climbed up to the stair landing, pointed towards our bedroom and signed 'mom.' So cute! She is signing like crazy but is getting them mixed up a lot. She knows what she wants but will pat her chest instead of rubbing her tummy for 'hungry.' She is getting better at some signs; 'eat' looks much different than 'water' and 'mom' now. She is making connections with words like signing 'water' when she is in the bath or when she sees the water fountain in our neighborhood (not just when she wants a drink of water).

Her schedule is pretty much the same, bedtime is around 6:30, wakes up between 6-7am, first nap about 8:30 and second nap around 1-2pm. It is hit or miss weather or not she takes the second nap and usually depends on if she takes a really long morning nap. If she misses her second nap she usually goes to bed early. The sleep book says the afternoon nap is the most important but she gets so tired in the morning it seems to work out better to let her sleep then and go to bed early. My pediatrician says as long as she gets one nap not to worry about it but of course she is not a sleep expert. I will re-evaluated when Katya is older and see if it would benefit her by making her nap in the afternoon. I think right now it is fine, especially because many times she does take 2 naps still. She gets 2 bottles a day, morning and night and drinks water or sometimes cold milk from her sippy cup during the day.

Love and prayers to all, Brenda