Once the baby has a taste of freedom, it will be hard to hold her back. That is absolutely true. Once DD, a risk-taker, tasted the freedom of walking, it was difficult to prevent her from toddling. During month 13, she continued to make progress, physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively.

Walking:
Since DD made her first independent step on her birthday, she was on the road: she was eager to rise to the challenge of walking. She wanted us to hold her hands and walk with her. We circled the family room, one lapse, two lapses, three lapses…Several lapses later, I got tired and wanted to sit down. But she was still full of energy. So Daddy came to take the turn. Sometimes she dragged me back to the practice field and pushed me to walk backwards. She was so happy at moving with her two feet that she giggled, squealed and laughed.

Then she got tired of begging us to walk with her. She found a push toy to practice by herself: a wheeled chair. She held the wheeled chair and pushed it around the kitchen. To prevent the chair bumping onto the new refrigerator, I had to hold the chair and walked with her. So whenever she felt like practicing, instead of begging me, she went straight to the wheeled chair and cruised around with it. I had to jump up to follow her. Who was in control, she or I?

Soon she moved to the next phrase: walking completely independently by herself. At first she could take one or two steps, then three, then four, and then five. One afternoon, when I knelt in front of her and held out my arms, she rose from the ground, took five strides and collapsed into my arms.

One week later, she could manage wondering around the kitchen on her own feet. To maintain balance, she extended her arms out to the side with her elbows bent, turned her feet outward, stuck out her belly in front and her bottom behind. She was walking like a cute little penguin.

She continued to practice walking by circling the kitchen and family room, one lapse, two lapses, three lapses…She fell pretty frequently, sometimes by loss of balance, sometimes by being tripped by wrinkled carpet, sometimes by being stumbled by toys on the ground. She didn’t mind. Instead of crying for help, she simply got up by herself and continued her exercise.

She didn’t like wearing shoes. I tried to put a pair of canvas sneakers on her, but she always kicked them off. Walking barefoot, as I found out online, is actually good for her because it helps build muscles in the lower legs while developing a sense of balance.

DD proved it true with her progress: days later she could walk confidently, squat down and rise without holding onto a piece of furniture.

Hand work:
At month 13, DD was quite adept at using her hands. She enjoyed “putting things in” and “taking them out” — for instance, placing blocks into bucket and then dumping them out.

Meanwhile, she could also pick up small foods, like pieces of O-shaped cereal, with just her thumb and index finger (called the pincer grasp by experts) instead of raking up a handful at a time. Sometimes she pinched the food out of her mouth and gave to me or M. M took it with a delight and said “thank you for sharing the bread with Daddy, and it was already chewed.”

Although she loved to litter her toys and books around the family room, one of her favorite things to play with was still pots and pans. Since I was tired of chasing and picking up after her, I asked M to put childproof locks on all the cabinets. But she still loved investigating what’s behind the door and grasped every opportunity to practice her “grasp and release” skills when I skipped one minute of attention. A game called mouse and cat. But wait, who was the mouse and who was the cat?

It is always about me!
Growing with her weight and height were DD’s independence, confidence, and demanding for attention. At 13 months, DD started to recognize that she had power, and she was learning how to maneuver it serve for her.

As long as she could keep an eye on you, she entertained herself in the family room while I worked in the kitchen (mommy’s work is never done). Then she came and interrupted me for a quick reassuring cuddle, and then ventured out on her own again.

But if she decided that she wanted attention, she would demand that I or M read to her, play with her, talk to her, or walk with her. Of course she couldn’t do it verbally, but she could make clear by holding on my leg, throwing a book onto M’s lap, yelling to interrupt our conversation, or pointing to exactly what she wanted.

I am not afraid of you!
At around 13 months, many toddlers develop stranger anxiety. Yes, that is true. DD felt upset when I and M had to go out without her and left her with Grandma whom she saw often. But she never cries or whimpers, trembles, hides, or tries to run away from “strangers”. She just stayed cool and indifferent before she knew them better. Once she warmed up, she would actually become quite friendly.

She seemed never to be bothered by those “strange things”—things she never saw before, like the vacuum cleaner, TV, computer, or a neighbor’s pet. On the other hand, she was fascinated by those things and wanted to find out more. She literally chased the puppet of our neighbor and pulled her tail two days after she started to crawl!

Non-verbal communication:
Even DD couldn’t say any words at this time, she was trying to communicate her needs with non-verbal ways, such as gestures (holding her arms out when she wanted to be picked up), sounds (singing “da-da-da” when she was happy and shouting “nein-nein” when upset), and body positions (turning her head away from the food she didn’t want).

She also pointed to exactly what she wanted, for an instance, a drinking cup when she was thirsty. Of course, crying or throwing a temper tantrum was still an effective way to quickly get her way, at least it worked with me.

She also responded differently to M’s firm “No!” when she tried to pull off the electricity plug or touch the hot oven, and to a more cajoling tone (yes, from me) to get her to stop littering the family room with her toys. Yes, she was realizing that intonation plays a role in communication.

Related posts:
Baby’s growth, month 12
Baby’s growth, month 11
Baby’s growth, month 10
Baby’s growth, month 9
Baby’s growth, month 8
Baby’s growth, month 7
Baby’s growth, month 6
Baby’s growth, month 5
Baby’s growth, month 4
Baby’s growth, month 3
Baby’s growth, month 2
Baby’s growth, month 1

Tags: Baby's Growth | Baby's Growth, From Lina, Second Year | Lina | August 6, 2009 11:13 am | Comments (0)