Levi at 13 months

I love this age! Minus the occasional tantrum, this is such a fun time, and I know it only gets better for the next few months.

I love seeing Levi grow and learn. He learns so much every day and it blows my mind. I forget how much toddlers understand what we say even though they can't say anything to us. A couple of weeks ago Levi was eating a snack in his high chair. My mom simply said to him, "Can I have a bite?" without making any gestures at all, and he reached a piece of his cracker toward her. My mom and I looked at each other, both of us shocked.

Levi knows when he isn't supposed to be doing something. He obeys me when I tell him no (don't play in the cat food, for example), cries and walks away, then 3 seconds later turns around and tries again. Sometimes I find him watching me across a room when he thinks he's doing something that I wouldn't like (climbing, playing with something, etc.).

His favorite items right now are our iPhones and the tv remotes. Loves them. I let him carry the remote around sometimes but we have to keep our phones completely out of his sight and reach. He doesn't know that the phones do cool things, but he loves to push the home button and hear the beep when Siri comes on.

As far as toys go, he loves the pieces of our chunky wooden puzzles. He doesn't really know that they fit into the puzzles, but he enjoys carrying them around. He also very much enjoys climbing into the baskets that hold our toys in the living room.

Levi loves milk, definitely more than Isaac did at this age. When we first weaned from the bottle (a few days after his birthday) he would not drink milk from a sippy cup. He would drink water from a cup, and whole milk from a bottle, but not milk from the cup. It took a few days of tough love, but he finally broke down and did it, and now he loves it. He drinks a cup of milk first thing in the morning before breakfast, a little with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a whole cup after bath, before bed. He will only drink from a straw cup, and doesn't quite understand a regular sippy cup yet, which is fine with me. During the day he loves to steal Isaac's water cup and often prefers it over his own.

Levi says bye bye, moo, quack quack, ruff ruff, meow, a weird grunt for oink oink, and toot. Yes, toot, as in passing gas. That's the word we use in our house, and he has picked up on it, which is quite hilarious. It sounds a lot like moo, which comes out as "boo", but he will toot and then announce it. His most recent word is Mickey (Mouse), but it sounds nothing like Mickey. It sounds like "brrr", but he definitely uses it in reference to Mickey Mouse. I feel like it's still very early, but I'm a little concerned about his speech. He definitely understands us and does communicate (although he still doesn't point), but his speech is not clear or defined whatsoever. He still doesn't say mama or dada or any clear syllable at all. Even bye bye sounds like "rye rye" or "yah yah". I know I need to be patient, but I'm a little worried that he will need some extra help. Obviously we will get help if he needs it and be grateful that it's available, but you know...mama worries coming through.

We had his 6 week follow up appointment with the ENT to check on his ear tubes. They did not do another hearing test, but were able to determine that the tubes are properly in place and functioning.