For the past few weeks we have been working on transitioning Kylie from bottles to sippy cups, and with the exception of her bed time bottle, we have finished this task. Kylie will now drink all of her day time drinks from her sippy cups; these drinks mainly consist of juice and water. In addition to this she also understands that she needs to be sitting down when she is drinking and will regularly walk over to the couch and climb up into it when we give her her sippy cup. On the few occasions that she does not go directly to the couch, we simply ask “Kylie, can you please sit down to drink?” and she will either then proceed to the couch or on some occasions Daddy’s La-z-boy and then have her drink.

On a number of occasions, like when we are at a restaurant, we have given her the opportunity to drink from the establishment’s child cup, which is usually a plastic cup with a cover and a straw. However, Kylie has not gotten the hang of the whole drinking through a straw procedure yet. That is until today. Tiffany said that earlier today Kylie drank almost an entire cup of water through a straw at Big Boy. So as of now Kylie is drinking through a straw in addition to her sippy cup.

We are very happy with this progress and will continue to attempt to fully transition her off of her bottle. I think once we get her used to drinking her milk from a sippy cup, her night time bottle will be more easily transitioned away from.

Kylie turned 13 months old today, this last month didn’t seem to go buy as fast as all the others. Not really sure why, but in a way i liked it, I don’t feel like my time with her is flying by. I know all parents say that time goes by fast when their children are young, and this past year I really realized what everyone means. So seeing how this past month seemed to go by at a “normal” pace, it was real nice. This past month wasn’t all that busy, Kylie did a few new things but basically she is right where she should be developmentally, now we are right about at the point where she is going to stat picking up on new words and/or phrases. This month she did start walking backwards, made her first phone call, and had her second ear infection along with an eye infection. She has also picked up a few new words as well, and her new favorite phrase is “What’s that?” while pointing at an object. She also expresses her interest in things by pointing to them and saying “Oooo”, which is really cute to see. The only other new development is that Tiffany thinks she is starting to learn how to throw little temper tantrums, as she will more easily now when she doesn’t get her way. Like when we put her down for a second and do not immediately pick her back up and things like that.

I suppose I should also address pictures, or the lack there of as I am now a month behind, something that has not happened in a long time. I have somewhere in the vicinity of 500 pictures for month 12, this can be attributed to Kylie’s first birthday party and Nana’s visit. So it has taken me an abnormally long time to process all the pictures, as of right now I still have roughly 70 more pictures to process and get ready for posting, as soon as they are done I am going to get them up in the gallery. As for this month’s pictures, well I think it should go without saying that if I am a month behind they are not ready either, but in addition to this I don’t think we took to many this past month, so when the do make it up don’t expect a lot.

Kylie has always been fascinated by our cell phones, and she plays with them when ever she can get her hands on them. She has recently discovered how to open them, as mine and Tiffany’s are both clam shell styled phones, and today, in a round about way, she learned how to make a phone call. Tiffany was changing Kylie and Kylie was playing with her phone, when all of a sudden her phone rang. She answered it (and it was set to speaker phone) and it was my Mom (Nana), who proceeded to ask Tiffany if she had just called because her phone rang and the called id said it was Tiffany, but when she had answered it there was no one there to talk to. So my Mom had called back to make sure that nothing was wrong and to say hello as well. As it turns out, and Tiffany explained to Mom, Kylie must have managed to press the speed dial button on the phone that is designated for Mom and hit the send button, thus placing a call (her first phone call ever) to her Nana, and at that time the speaker phone must not have been on. During this explanation while the speaker phone was on, Kylie was happily chattering away with her Nana and even saying “Nana”. I am sure this was not an intentional phone call, but it is her first phone call none the less, and to her Nana.

Last night (Tuesday) I noticed Kylie doing something a little differently than normal, she was walking backwards. Not for long distances or anything, mainly she would be looking at something, like the TV, and walking backwards towards the couch, the whole time giggling. Then when she would bump into the couch she would laugh and usually stretch back over it. I mentioned this to Tiffany and that is when she told me that this was something that Kylie started doing yesterday (Tuesday), and that Kylie seems to think it is very amusing. So I started to play with her while she was doing it. I would stretch my leg out so that she would bump into my leg before she reached the couch, and she would reach behind her without turning around and feel my leg, and then start laughing. It is rather cute to watch her play like this, and we are very happy at her new found sense of coordination, as, it appears, is she.