13 Months

hi....Hi.....HI to one and all. And if you don't respond "hi" back we will keep saying it louder and louder until you do. HI is Rooney and Brady's favorite word, Rooney more than Brady, and like typical toddlers, they repeat it no less than a thousand times a day.

Right around their first birthday Rooney and Brady woke up one day as toddlers. It was a sad realization. Where did my babies go? They now point at everything and say "dis?", which seems to mean, tell me what that is. They have on occasion thrown fits from being frustrated because we aren't doing what they want and Mr. Brady has started to display his frustration by experimenting with biting and Rooney with hair pulling - her own, her, brothers, mine, Lee's, her doll's, anyone she can get her hands on -....all fun things I thought we had more time before having to deal with.

Brady is my handful...all boy, all the time! He spends his days kicking balls around the apartment, pushing a big exercise ball, climbing on and under furniture and playing with his trucks, blocks and books, and oh yeah, picking on his little sister. He tries his best to play in the toilet daily, but he is only able to reach the precious porcelain a couple times a week:). Brady is independent, focused and quick to anticipate things, which is great when he tries to put his shoes on but not so great when he is running the other way as soon as you grab his coat. He doesn't care how old or big the other kid (or adult for that matter)is, if he/she has something he wants he goes for it. Needless to say, we are working on sharing with others. Right now, he is obsessed with noses, constantly touching and pointing at his and everyone else's. He always accompanies his touch with the word "bas". Rooney will then come up and touch the same nose and look at him and tell him "no, nose":)

This month Brady's verbal skills started to take off. He now says momma, daddy, na (no), yea, baw (ball), yummy, hi, hey, bye bye, nye nye (night night), oh oh and up. And his laugh is infectious and comes easily, sometimes for reasons that I can only hope to one day get a glimpse into. Seriously, it comes out of nowhere sometimes.
Brady has 8 teeth now, each one came with a lot of crying and pain. The poor kid has had a rough time teething. I can't wait for his teething (and drooling) process to just be over.

He eats anything and everything, however we still struggle with digesting dairy. This dairy issue means we are still mostly drinking formula, and not really able to often enjoy a Khan family favorite CHEESE!!! this doesn't seem to interrupt his growing too much though - last week, he weighed in at 20 lbs and was 30.5 inches.

We love are little man (or old man as he sometimes looks likes when he's just lounging in his chair or deep in thought) and are so impressed with how much energy he has for life, all day, everyday! Lee's already convinced the emergency room for osteo docs will be on first name basis with Brady before he hits his teens.

Miss Rooney! Sweet Rooney is still mastering the art of walking. She will take 4-5 steps between furniture or toys or parents and sometimes does it just to show off, but predominantly she crawls. But she seems to get more and more confident inn her ability everyday. Talking, on the other hand, is second nature. Roo's become so vocal that it's pretty obvious that a quiet Roo is a Roo that isn't feeling well. Notice I didn't say a quiet Roo is a sleeping Roo...sleep only slows her chatter, not stop it entirely.

Roo finally got some teeth - four to be exact - two front teeth on the bottom and top, all sprouting in the week surrounding her first birthday with what appeared to cause very little discomfort for her. Given Roo's penchant for a bit of drama (she get's it from her dad), and how miserable her brother is when getting a new tooth, we expected a lot of sleepless, whiny, nights full of crying...and not just for me and Lee. But to our pleasant surprise, Baby Girl/The Boss, hasn't really had too bad a tine with the teeth.

She is currently in love with stacking anything and everything! She loves puzzles and anything she can fit together, and gets noticeably aggravated when the pieces she thinks should go together don't. But whereas her brother would try to force it (boy), Roo stops, grunts and then thinks and sometimes starts over (girl).  She has a difficult time playing with blocks or watching Brady and I play with blocks because all she wants to do is put them back in the bag we store them in.  We love how orderly she is!! 

Rooney talks nonstop, I am sure to miss many of her words, but some of them are... hi, may up may up may up (wake up, wake up, wake up), momma, dada, daddy, no, ny ny, pup pup, baby, bady (brady), amy, aya (ava our downstairs neighbor), dis (this), dat (that), egg, yaya, oh oh, baw, cup, book

We continue to work on figuring out how to get her to sleep through the night in her own bed.  For now, we are focused on just getting her to sleep, which usually means coming to bed with us at some point.  Or sleeping on the couch with her...one of her four beds in the apartment.

She already has a sense of style and insisted the dress wasn't enough for a random Tuesday and a tutu was a must!

Playing with the exercise ball

Out of order...After the first hair cut shot

And before the first hair cut shot...and if you notice the scab on his eye...yes its from his first black eye.  The playground ground can be hard!