13 Months

Branson,
It seems impossible to enjoy you more and more every month and that my heart grows to love you more and more every month, but it is true. You are showing us more of your sweet, adventerous, passionate, playful personality every day and we are loving it! I have been away from you some this month to help Aunt JoDee with your cousin, Adilyn, and I miss you so much when you are gone. Your sweet smile and laugh brighten my day.


You are getting so much better about sleeping all night and taking two good naps (in your CRIB!) during the day and Mommy is loving that. It is easy to plan our day around your schedule in order to keep you happy while we are out. That schedule was long in coming, but works so well and makes every day smoother. We have tried going to one nap when we thought you were ready for it, but you do much better with two, so we will stick with that for awhile.

You will still eat anything we put in front of you and we try to give you a variety. You recently ate spoonfuls of hot sauce at a Mexican resturaunt and wanted more. Silly boy! You love fruit, meat, cheese, and juice. We are definately spoiled by having a good eater. You are so much fun to take out to eat because you're happy and playful the entire time. People often stop us to comment on how cute/pretty you are. You have recently started waving to everyone who walks by and saying "bye bye" so that usually gets a laugh and then they start talking to us. We are going to have to start sitting in a corner where you cant see anyone so you will finish your dinner and stop waving all the time. So funny!

You still love to be outside and love playing in the water. Every afternoon when we go out back to play, you go straight for Rufus' water dish, splash in it, dump it out, and play in the water on the ground until it dries. I tried to stop you for awhile, but it isnt a fight I want to keep fighting. I'll just fill up the dish when you are done. :)

That reminds me of the subject of discipline. We definately have to tell you "no" often, but you usually listen to us. You are a tester of the limits and go back to that same object over and over just to make sure we say "no" every time. Your Daddy and I pray that we will be able to parent you well and give you the consistency you are going to need.

I love this picture of you in this hat. It came with a different outfit, but we just stuck it on you for fun. You usually dislike hats and take them off immediately, but you were preoccupied with your paintbrushes, so we got a good picture. So cute!

You aren't really a fan of getting your hair cut either, but sitting you in the sink and letting you play with the water kinda helped.

I am amazed every day at the things you are learning. You follow directions and answer questions. You arent really saying many words and they definately aren't pronounced correctly, but you get your message across. I never really pushed baby sign language because you were always so good at pointing to what you wanted, etc. You say momma, dadda, ba (ball), baba (bottle and paci) and "bye bye". You also have a word/sound for "outside" that even the speech path in me cannot transcribe and a word/sound/movement for "open" if you want something opened like the door or some food. I really need to get "open" on tape but I will try to explain it. Apparently you noticed that when we say "open" our head goes up and down. You raise your head up and drop it all the way down to your chest while making a "ooo..p" noise. So funny. No one can say that you don't pay attention to us.

I know that I say it every month, but you are such a joy to us, Branson boy. I could never have imagined the extreme highs and lows of parenting before becoming a parent. You have given us so much in your short little life and I will forever be thankful. We love you, Bubba!