The Big One

Well, it looks like I've made it before the big 13 month mark, so I'm gonna call it good.

Autumn turned One(!) October 12th, and things have been so busy since then. My parents were in town to help celebrate the birthday. They spoiled her with a trip to the zoo, the play area at the mall, Monkey Bizness, and of course with tons of attention. The last time my parents had seen Autumn she was going on nine months, and hadn't quite started walking yet.

Now, at almost 13 months, these are some of the things this little terror -- I mean tot -- is doing (and of course I mean terror in the most endearing sense of the word)...
--Being her "industrious" self, at all times of the day. This is one of my favorite words that Mrs. Rachel uses to describe Autumn. Autumn always seems to have work to do. She's constantly taking items/toys from one side of the room, walking/running them to the other side, and then either lining them up on something like the arm of her chair, or putting them in a bucket, or something else that we find really odd. She also likes to push things from one room to the other, and then laugh at herself for the pure genius of it all.

First taste of carrot cake

--Getting more resourceful every day. We're starting to see some light bulbs going off in the little brain of hers. The other day Autumn noticed a pacifier on the mantel above the fire place. She started pointing at it, and throwing a fake tantrum (we'll talk about tantrums next). Since we had thought we'd try to wean her from pacis aside from in her crib, I was telling her that she couldn't have it right at that moment. So, after crying a little longer, she walked over to the fireplace, pushed an ottoman to the wall so that it was right under the paci, and climbed onto the ottoman. She fell off before she was able to remember why she had done all of that in the first place, but she'll figure it out some day.
--Tantruming, often. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking these tantrums are the real deal. I've seen my fair share of 2-year-old tantrums, and hers aren't quite there....yet. But Autumn's automatic response to anything that she wants and doesn't get, or doesn't get right this damn second is to turn bright red and yell and cry at us, at the top of her lungs. She even does this when I ask her to sign or say "more" (both of which she has done in the past) before giving her another little cheerio or her bottle.

Favorite birthday gift

--This brings me to a couple more things she is doing, and not doing...
--Doing -- still drinking out of a bottle. About a month ago we started putting her milk in a sippy cup every once in a while. She was totally fine with this. The only reason we didn't keep doing it was because we have a million bottles and only a couple of sippy cups that don't make us mad (i.e. they are big enough to hold more than a few ounces, and they don't leak). We could have solved this by buying more sippy cups a month ago, but instead, we figured it wouldn't matter if we held off on this one. Turns out, we were wrong. Autumn will sometimes drink milk out of a sippy with lunch or dinner, but I warn you to never dare put her morning bottle's worth of milk in that same sippy cup, unless you're up for the tantrum of the year. Point taken. We missed the boat on that one.

Second favorite

--Not doing -- talking. I'm not sure how many months Autumn has been saying "hi" and "uh oh" now, but it's been a few. Every once in a while we get a version of "thank you" ("duh doh"), and often we'll get her to mimic what we ask her to say. But for now, pointing, screaming and grabbing for what she wants seems to be the preferred method of communication around here.
--Am I making this kid sound like a true little beast? Because really, she's not. Aside from the tantrums (which truly don't happen that frequently), Autumn is as happy, giggly and as fun as ever. She LOVES wrestling with her dad, climbing on everything, chasing the dogs, finding anything that resembles a purse and putting it on her arm while she walks around, dancing, finding anything she can play peek-a-boo with (her version of this game is to find something she can cover her head with, and then walk around without being able to see anything), etc. She does all of these activities with an awesome giggle.

--Weighing in at about 21 pounds (50th percentile) and around 30 or so inches (90th percentile!). She's still tall, and all of the activity is finally catching up with her.
--Developing fears of all sorts. I'm told that none of them are out of the ordinary, but I still find it weird, and often annoying. She has a total, irrational fear of certain people. Her entire face will contort, turn red, and then let out the saddest, loudest cry ever. Other recent fears have included snow, this stuffed gorilla that sings a funny song, and my violin. She displays her fear of these things by clinging to one of us and turning her head away from the scary object, then secretly keeping an eye on it once it's at a safe distance, just to make sure it won't sneak back up on her while her back is turned. Oh, and for the record, snow is fine now. She just didn't like it that first snowfall of the year, when it covered everything on her front yard, trees and cars without asking her permission.

--Still a bookworm. Her love of books has grown a lot over the past 2-3 months.
--Starting to play pretend. She loves picking up our phones (or anything that's the same shape as a phone), and putting it up to her ear. She'll even say, "hi?", "ohhhhh", "duh doh", etc. into the phone. Pretty awesome. For her first birthday, one of her gifts was a Little People farm set. We bought it for her thinking she might like at some point in the next year, but that she probably wouldn't know what to do with it at this point. While I will not say that she has any idea what a farm really is, she certainly has a definite idea that she loves that thing. She loves arranging the animals in/on/around the farm, dancing to the music it plays, and talking, yelling and laughing at all of the animals. And perhaps my favorite pretend thing of all is when Autumn finds a little purse (or anything with a strap that she can pretend is a purse), and wears it around the house, putting anything in it that she comes across. I'm not a purse person. I have like three total, and only one that I have used in the past 6 months. But Autumn has taken notice that purses are for wearing on your shoulder, and that you put things in them. I love it.