Claire Update---13 months

Claire is becoming a verbal butterfly. Talking is definitely her thang. She imitates nearly everything as requested, but not always when requested. For example, if a clerk in a store says "good-bye," I'll tell her to say good-bye. We all sit and look at each other for a moment, waiting---for nothing. About at the point when we hit the door, Claire leisurely says "buh-bye" along with a cute little wave. Ahhhh. She is a sweetheart. Lately, the "buh-bye" has changed quite a bit. For basically one day, she modified it to "guh-bye", but more recently, it has become "boka boka bye." Initially I was thinking she was saying "rock-a-bye" and perhaps this is the case as I have been singing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to her, but her "boka boka bye" seems to be everywhere. Before I forget, I'd better list the other words she says...
Momma (muh ma)
Dadda (daduh)
Harvey (hahee)
Grammy (daya)
Papa (baba)
pretty
up (upa)
love you (wuh wu)
hi (hi)
bye-bye (buh-bye)
outside (ousih)
go (do)
milk
Obviously, her production of these words is exact. I'll have to take a minute in the future to transcribe the words as she says them. Her productions are so cute.

She is laughing at everything. It is hilarious! If she hears someone laugh, she laughs. What a kiddo!

She still loves going outside and tries to escape out the door any chance she can. For example, when we ask Harvey if he has to go outside, immediately, Claire is bolting for the door. He is a godsend to her. He helps her catch a few extra minutes outside everyday.

Her favorite things at the moment are: "talking" on phones--everything is a phone (cups, cell phones, babies, her hand), crawling up on everything (the other day I caught her standing on her ride on toy, which helped her to get to the top of the coffee table; she really loves climbing up the chaise), sitting on Harvey (poor guy is good to her that he just lays there; in another Harvey note--she has finally begun to pet him very nicely, although her nice pets are often combined with pulling his ears or some whacking), dancing, playing "I'm gonna get you," "working" on the computer (this involves pulling off keys or bending back the screen---"working" to destroy), swimming or bathing, reading her puzzle books and taking every cup/bowl out of her two drawers (I put everything back several times per day).

She is sleeping through the night a bit more. We quit using bottles & formula when she turned one year old. We weren't sure how this would affect our bedtime ritual because she was so used to having a bottle in the early morning hours, but it has been surprisingly easy. She still wakes up around 4:00 am or so (although full nights of sleep are becoming a bit more frequent), I think out of habit more than anything. We're trying to let her cry it out, but we're a bit inconsistent. When she comes to our bed, she immediately goes to sleep. Easy peasy.


On a not so great note, we are dealing with alot of biting. She does it when she's mad & she does it when she's happy, there seems to be no consistent rhyme or reason. I'd put her in time-out if she understood. The joys and challenges of parenthood. Thankfully, the joys outweigh the challenges--at least so far, anyway!