Anna's Twelfth Month! : Dykestrom Doings

I love the word "twelfth." Seven letters with one vowel. Amazing.

Anna is ONE WHOLE YEAR OLD!!!

Also, Happy Fathers' Day (belated)!

Gosh, this has been a full month. I usually try to write these things down as they occur, but I didn't do that at all this month, so I am for sure going to forget some things. Also, not gonna post the party pics here because I just need to get this post on its way for now. The party is coming, though! (Probably.)

The day after she turned 11 months, Anna started stacking her own block towers.

I believe I took 70 pictures of this moment.

She also stacks her watermelon cubes during dinner.

She has been standing independently pretty often, though she needs support to get into that position. A few little step/falls, but no true first steps yet.

She doesn't seem very interested. Crawling, however, is often not fast enough now, and so she's been bear crawling a lot this month.

She's also begun climbing into her toy boxes, onto the dishwasher door, and (attempting) onto the couch.

The babbling has been wonderful this month. It sounds more and more like conversation (musically, at least).

She's added teeth to her vocabulary this month, but I think she has been more focused on the mechanics of fitting things together, putting on and taking off lids, trying things on as hats, putting things on her feet, moving things from one bowl to another...

...and banging things on other things. She definitely has my temper with mechanical things not working out (ie square lid doesn't fit on round box no matter how hard she tries, so we get the whimpering and growling, and then banging and flinging the uncooperative items across the floor + a little thumb sucking to calm back down - this is definitely my child).

She gives sweet kisses now, and she LOVES to be tickled on her legs and trunk. We "chew" on her rib cage, too, which she finds hilarious (especially if there's a good lead-in so she has lots of time to anticipate).

Being tossed in the air has been a favorite for a while now (not sure if I mentioned that before), as well as spinning around really fast. I wish I could capture her face when we spin...it's pretty classic.

That social laughing she's been practicing for the past few months has developed even more this month.

Now she uses it to jump into a Big People conversation: she waits and watches for her moment and then either fills a gap in the talk with a big laugh or else joins in the group laughter when it comes.

Peek-a-boo has been a big deal this month.

She still tries to do it sometimes with a piece of fabric that is too small, but she seems to understand that it isn't as good if she can still see us when she's "hiding." Daddy has even taught her hide-and-seek which they play at bedtime: he runs and hides and then calls out to her until she discovers him. It's great fun, so many giggles!

Anna is learning to help me unload the dishwasher!

She pulls dishes out one by one and stacks them in my hands for me to put in the cupboard. She loves doing this chore and gets very upset when I won't let her unload the dirty dishes.

I am super excited about this development and very, very proud of my helpful little girl. I'm hoping to build her a Learning Tower in the near future so that she can help with lots of things at counter height, maybe even in the workshop!

Love the little pinky-up in this one!

She has been "reading" to herself and to us this month, flipping the pages and talking as she points at the pictures which may or may not be upside down.

One more tooth cut this month, so we're up to four across the top and two on the bottom. She still really likes broccoli and cheese, but she mostly wants her fruit at meal time now.

And whatever we happen to have on our plates, even if it's exactly the same as what she's got. FOMO, I guess. Oh, and everything is tastier if it comes on a fork.