13 months

13 months old

Eliel continues to amaze me (and everyone around him) with all the things he can do.  Just the other day, the gentleman at the bank was amazed that Eliel was smiling and waving at him without any prompting from me.  We were at the drive-thru no less!
Eliel has recently learned how to dance which is so funny to watch! He seems to have taken a liking to guitar riffs and drum solos.  Maybe Daddy's dream of having a drummer will come true! I've tried to teach him some new dance moves but so far all we do is a little bounce... :)
Eliel has also gotten much better at eating.  Either that or Mommy has just gotten better at accepting what he will and won't eat! :)  Eliel still doesn't care for meat but I'm pretty sure it's because of the texture and his lack of teeth.  It's hard to bite through meat when you have no teeth to chew with!  He will eat meat if I slow cook it and shred it to very small pieces with potatoes or carrots.  He still loves to eat cucumbers, avocados, and any and all kinds of fruit.  We also tried peanut butter, egg whites, coconut and almond butter and luckily, we had no reactions to it.  So, basically now Eliel can eat everything, although he of course doesn't like to.  He is not one for trying new foods very easily.  Just the other day Uncle Brian wanted to give him to try some ice cream and he shut his mouth tight and wouldn't open his mouth.  Once we smeared some on his lips and he got a taste, he opened wide for some more.
Surprisingly, although Eliel is allowed to drink milk, he tends to prefer water.  I guess it's a good thing although I sometimes worry he's not getting enough vitamin D and calcium.  He does love his cheese and yogurt though so I'm guessing we're okay in the dairy department.

We now have a total of five teeth.  Two on the bottom and three on top.  I think we're also working on the sixth (fourth on top).  Eliel loves to 'brush' his teeth but he also allows me to brush them for him.  I'm starting to try and work on incorporating that into our nighttime routine but at the moment we're in the midst of another transition.  Eliel is completely done with bottles and is also done with taking any milk before he goes to bed.  So, we're in the process of working on a nighttime snack.  Being like his Daddy, he can't go too long without eating so we have to have a snack  before bed or he wakes up at 5am hungry.  So far, we've done cheese chunks but I'm looking to give him some more variety.  I know he'll eat fruit for a snack but I'm not sure if the sugar is the best thing for him that late.  Any ideas or suggestions for nighttime snacks before bed would be greatly appreciated!


This past week, we also took Eliel to a 'Mini Movers' class at the library.  It was in the evening after dinner so it was nice that the whole family go to go.  As expected, it took about 20 minutes for Eliel to warm up to the idea of being in a class with the other kids.  They were all singing and dancing and he just stood there staring with that scowl on his face.  I know that means he's just taking it all in and trying to figure it all out, but to the other families, I'm sure it looked like he wasn't having a fun time.  To be fair, he was one of the youngest kids there.  The library also has story time for kids his age but unfortunately it's right at his naptime and I haven't been brave enough to try and get him to skip his nap.  Speaking of which, we might be moving towards one nap.  It's a double edge sword because although I would love for him to take one nap so that we can go out and do more, I know that a lot of the time I spend doing things while he's napping will be drastically shorter.  I'm sure I'll be very happy for only one nap this summer when the weather finally gets warmer (fingers crossed!).

Well, that's Eliel at 13 months in a nutshell. I am so grateful I get to spend every day with him and watch him grown and learn.  I'm looking forward to all the adventures we're going to have this spring and summer!