Big Girl Ella at 13 Months!

Ella, you're 13 months today!! It's been one of those months where you literally seem like a different child than you did only a month ago, and I just wanted to document lots of the changes we've seen in our girl lately!

• You have become so much more communicative. You nod your head 'yes' and 'no' a lot lately.
• Your speech and vocab has all of a sudden exploded out of no where. I'd say you now have close to 10 words we hear from you regularly. Mama, Dada, Bye, Hi, Ball, Baby, Book, Uh Oh, Night Night, & Dog. And the other day I even heard you say "Ca" (Ka) when looking at Carter. I'd never even heard you make that sound before then!
• You've picked up on a bunch of animal noises recently, probably due to your obsession with all your touch-n-feel books. You can do cow, sheep/lamb, doggy, & kitty cat. You also growl, but I'm not sure you associate that with any particular animal just yet, or if it's more to be silly.
• You answer your "phone" (which is usually any hand-sized toy nearby) and say Hello..... although it sounds more like "Yooooo!"
• You're walking about 75% of the time at home, but still not that much when we are out at a park or something.
• You now give kisses (force your mouth up against whatever part of my face that it hits) and you also give "love" (snuggle your head onto my shoulder), and you do both of these on command.... so cute!! You also give High Fives!! Daddy loves this.
• You wave and say "bye" unprompted and in appropriate situations..... like when we're leaving the grocery store or when someone is leaving the house.
• You love to clap and cheer for yourself or for Carter. You think it's hilarious. :)
• You love to brush your hair and your teeth, and you know which is which. I just have to hand you one and you know exactly what to do with it.
• You have figured out how to safely get down off of things by going down feet-first and backwards. The couch, the playset, the slide.... any of those things you climb on a daily basis. Makes Mommy feel much better about all the climbing :)

You're at such a fun (and funny) age. Carter and I literally are laughing at you and your silliness ALL DAY LONG. I'm not sure when it happened, but we have flipped from Carter being your main source of entertainment to you being his. He loves to watch you learn and play, to laugh at all the cute and funny things you do, and to cheer for you when you do something wonderful. And it makes my heart sing!! Love you, baby girl!