13 Months Old

As we sit down to write about what the boys did over the past month for these monthly updates it’s always interesting to look back at previous posts. I took a glance at their one month post exactly one year ago today and couldn’t believe what I saw….where the hell did we get so much time to post 15 times in the month of December!

In all seriousness, it seems cliché to be amazed at how much has transpired over the past year, but reading that post from a year ago really brings it into focus how quickly they change. And at the same time, how much their little personalities have stayed the same. Jake is still the one with all the energy and seems to have something against naps, while Colin enjoys long, leisurely naps and can sit and play by himself for hours it seems.

As parents we’ve gone through some changes as well. There has been a noticeable drop-off in picture taking that’s for sure. The wonderment of new parents I think has worn off and we’ve gone from making exclamations in a cute little sing-song voice of “Oh, you made a poopie! Let me clean you off” to an exasperated voice “[Insert Colin or Jake here] stinks again. Your turn to clean him.” But just when you think you’re becoming jaded as a parent, something will come along and we’re back to new parents mode gawking and cooing over these two cute little guys and some new thing they’ve accomplished.

As you can see from the previous video post, Jake is on the verge of walking by himself. He moves around with the push toys and we catch him every once in a while just standing in the middle of the room not holding on to anything. He’s still a little nervous about putting that first foot forward, but certainly has the ability to.

Colin also has the ability, but enjoys walking while someone is holding his hands instead of pushing something. They both smile and giggle when they are doing this, like they are getting away with some great secret. It’s really funny to watch.

One of the big changes this past month has been their communication skills. When people ask us years from now what their first words were, I’m not sure we’re going to know how to answer. They both seem to know a few words: “Mama,” “Dada,” and the most recent “Hi”. What seems like words slips out on other occasions, but even with the words they know, context is not always right.

What we do know is that they “know” a lot more words than that, but just can’t verbalize them yet. If you happen to say the word “bottle” without having one at the ready, be prepared for a lot of looking around, followed by whining and a look like “why did you say that word if you weren’t prepared to give me one RIGHT NOW!” Same goes for “Cheerios,” “Juice,” and come to think of it, a lot of food related words!

Both boys have been battling what seems like the never-ending cold for the last week or so. With the coughing, sneezing and constant runny noses it has affected them physically, but surprisingly hasn’t changed their moods for the most part. Having their mommy around for the past two weeks for the school Christmas break sure has helped!

We bought a video camera, so hopefully we’ll be able to bring some of these new verbal and physical skills to a theatre near you soon! With the lack of new photos, maybe with a video camera at the ready, we’ll have some new things to show everyone.