Day 303- 13 months

My dear Caleb is now 13 months old! (pictured holding his dear "buddies")Dear Caleb,
You are getting SO big. You are becoming more of a boy and less of a baby everyday. You love exploring your environment and are becoming more opinionated about how you want your life run. You walk everywhere now, but still need us to hold your hand on uneven surfaces, stairs, or to go a long way. Your favorite toys are your ball, your popping ball game, your car track, books, legos, and shapes puzzle. You also like refridgerator magnets and anything we don't want you to get into. Your bond to your "buddies" (cloth diapers used as a comfort item) has increased even more. You will walk to your room, simply to grab a few from the basket I put them in. You bring them back to the living room and sigh in delight as you rest for a few minutes hugging them on the floor with your thumb in your mouth. You then go about your playing with a trip back to hug your buddies every once in a while. It's really cute now, but let's just hope you don't love them this much at 10 years old :).
You are eating lots of table foods now and about 3/4 of your diet is table food. You especially like banana, grapes, peaches, bread, yogurt, cheese, steak, black beans, green beans, and crackers. We supplement your diet with some stage 3 and toddler foods to make sure you are getting enough veggies and protein. You are starting to use a spoon and fork with help and you've been independent with your sippy for a while now. Eating all this food is certainly helped out by the fact you now have 8 1/2 teeth (1/2 a molar!)
You wear size 3 diapers and size 12 month-18 month clothes. You say "da" for dog and say "dada" with meaning now. You are babbling a lot more, so I think you're really getting ready to start talking. You follow simple commands and mostly respond to "stop." I realized that I use the sign and word for stop a little too much when you throw food off of your highchair because you started throwing food, then signing "stop." haha.
I am loving this stage. I love going to the park with you or seeing you interact with other toddlers at library time. I love hearing your laugh many times a day. My love for you is teaching me a lot about God's love for his children. I hope that I can be part of teaching you about the grace, forgiveness, joy, and love that is found in Jesus.
Love,
Mama