Samantha 13 months

Just a quick update on what Miss Samantha Jane has been up to over the past month...

She is starting to stand more by herself (intentionally!) and her samurai stance cracks us up. She is happy to walk behind her toy car but has not tried to take any steps on her own yet. Climbing is still a favorite activity and she can pretty much get onto any couch or chair in the house by herself. That being said, she is bumping her head 2-3 times a day now and I have honestly thought about buying the poor girl a helmet!

She is using signs more every day and we have been happy to see her sign "Please" "Eat" and "Milk" more frequently. She still is not interested in "All Done" when she is done eating but is now taking off her bib when she is done instead of throwing food. Yay, progress... Some of her favorite new foods are persimmons, dates, tangerines and peas. Peanut butter on bread is her absolute favorite and boy will she get mad if you take a bite!

She still loves to read and will melt your heart by climbing up into your lap with a favorite book and handing it to you (see photo above of papi's heart melting). She loves books about animals and makes this funny sound that sounds almost like a cat purring (or pteryodactyl!) when she sees one that interests her.

She is chatting a lot more and we are always trying to discern whether she has said a word or not. It seems as though she has said "This" a few times and on the way to our friend's house on New Year's I swear she said "Gilly."

She continues to be a great sleeper and all we can do is pray that this continues when Baby T2 arrives.

We are trying to get her ready to meet her brother or sister by looking at baby pictures of herself and playing more with her baby dolls. She definitely has no clue that a new baby is about to arrive in our home though. We are looking forward to seeing her reaction and can't wait to meet our second child!

Papi addendum: Samantha's language comprehension is also progressing very well and it is really special for us to see her start to really understand us. She clearly understands multiple words and phrases and we are glad to say that most of them are in spanish. For example, Samantha has shown very concrete comprehension of the following list of Spanish words/phrases: huele, come, Tu lo haces, perro, gato, luna, luz, agua, leche, donde esta?, camion, avion, pajaro, gaviota, aqui, nariz, lengua, arbol, flor, caminar, ven, vamos, cobija, guitarra. That is all I can think of now but I am amazed how rapidly she can add new words these days. She may have even tried to say 'aqui' a few times but I can't be exactly sure.