Dear Sage 13 and 14 months |

Dear Sage 13 and 14 months

by elizabeth on July 18, 2013

Dear Sage,

I am not being very timely with these posts. This entry is 19 days late!

As the days go by, time with you is getting busier and funnier. It’s also getting more exhausting. When we are outside of our home you need to be watched very closely or I may find you with a rock your mouth, about to pull a breakable item off a table, sucking down glue, or throwing yourself in the nearest body of water. We have created a wonderfully safe home where you can wander with relative freedom and I find our time at home to be much more relaxing then when we go out. But you like to go out, so we go out a lot. One word you say very clearly is “outside.” You are an outside girl for sure and just like when you were a baby, your mood improves exponentially when you are outdoors. Here are some other fun facts about you as a 14 month old.
• You like to play fetch.
• You have learned how to increase the water flow on the bathtub faucet
• You are much more polite about how you sign for milk only yanking down my shirt when really desperate. You can apply this “asking politely” skill to other things too like “up” or “more”

• You still LOVE the water. You are convinced that you can breathe underwater and our efforts at pulling you above the water level only prove to frustrate you. To you, when we hold you in the water, we are keeping you from all the fun. You have no clue that if we left you to your wishes you would drown!

• You and Dada clocked 30mph on the bike and you were squealing with laughter. The faster the better.
• You sign for bike really well and constantly ask for bike rides. Lucky you, you have a very sweet Dada. When you bring him his flip flops and knock on his office door. He will take a 10 minute work break and bike you around the neighborhood. You cry when it’s over.
• You are really brave and climb to the top of pretty steep big kid slides all by yourself. You are a really strong climber and have really impressed us with all you can do. Just before your 13 month birthday you climbed all the way up the caterpillar climber without any help! Once you get to the top, you like to stand up there and enjoy the view. This terrifies me because I am at the bottom waiting for you to come down and am constatly afraid you are going to forget where you are and fall face first down the slide. Fortunately you don’t. You eventually turn around and like to slide down on your belly.
• You have mastered shaking your head no. And understand when to use it. We ask you, “Sage, do you want to go night night?” you shake your head no. We offer you food and you do a great job of telling us what you don’t want to eat. There isn’t anything you regularly don’t like, but you like to exercise your power and pick and choose between different types of food. The sweetest example of your head shaking was the other morning when you and Dada were snuggling in bed. He told you that he had to go to work and you vigorously shook your head no. You love your time with your Dada.
• You are developing a spunky and strong little personality. I have to be creative about diaper changes and putting clothes on you. When I give you a lot of time and choices you are much more cooperative than when I pick you up and carry you off. The other day, when we were leaving Auntie G’s house you were playing in the driveway. I told you that we had to leave and asked you if you would rather walk to the car by yourself or have me carry you. You put down what you were playing with and marched right over to the car. It was so cute. I am anticipating using the choice strategy a lot in your future.

Here is the most recent list of words that you say consistently. I have come to realize that you understand so much of what we are saying to you but do not yet have the ability to say all the things you want to. Yesterday we walked out to a grassy lawn outside Pier West restaurant in Wisconsin and I had you in my lap. I noticed a bean bag toss game and pointed it out to you. I said, “Sage why don’t you get down and play with those bean bags. You can pick them up and put them in the hole.” You climbed off my lap and did just as I suggested. I was totally shocked and couldn’t believe that you understood me.

Your words at 14 months:
• Bye Bye- sounds like “Die Die”
• Up
• Uppitah and Buppitah (no idea what it means yet)
• Outside
• Help
• Hi
• Doggie- sounds like “Daw-duh”
• Night Night- sounds like “nigh, nigh”
• And your newest addition is the appropriate use of the word Uh-Oh. It’s so funny. You throw your pacifier outside of your crib, or throw food off the table and say “Uh Oh.” It gets a laugh from us every time.