Photos of the….month?

So, you may noticed that pictures of Jaia have been markedly absent for the past few weeks.  After a year of posting a photo everyday (no, I didn’t come close, but I tried) I took the eqivalent of vacation from it.  By no means does this mean that I stopped taking them.  In fact, I think I’ve taken more pictures in the last few weeks than I did during all of November and December.

January has been amazing, Jaia-wise.  It’s like she’s become a totally different kid.  Though she took her first steps at 11-months old, she used them very sparingly throughout the month of December.  We could sometimes coax her to take a few steps on command (usually with promises of food), but for the most part, she was happy to crawl to where she needed to go.  It was much more efficient, and brought fewer opportunities to fall.

And then when she turned 1, like a switch flipped, she started using the newly acquired skill, and not just in front of Dan and I (my sister started thinking that Jaia walking was a lot like the Polkaroo…).  She started being brave and would walk for a few more seconds each time, fall forward and rather than revert back to crawling, would stand herself back up and begin again.  It was pretty amazing to watch.  With each step her muscles seemed to strengthen and her walking would be a little less…wobbly.  And then, within a week or two she was fully walking.  And she continues to shock me.  We went to the mall yesterday to meet a friend and I shouldn’t have bothered bringing her stroller.  She just wanted to walk the entire time and by the end of the visit she was practically running – which meant I was too.  No more relaxing coffee dates for this gal.

She has also turned into a non-stop chatterbox.  She says quite a few words: mama, dada, cat, banana, bath, etc.  We can easily distinguish them, though I’m pretty sure very few others would be able to, which makes me laugh.  As my younger cousins or kids of friends were learning to talk, I would always look desperately at the parents to translate because I had NO IDEA what the hell the kids were trying to say to me and yet the parents seemed to understand every word.  I finally get it. 

My baby-turned-toddler is surprising us at every turn.  My friends kept telling me not to wish away any of the early stages because they were all so short and I’d miss them when they were gone, and they were so right.  But I’m enjoying this kid so much at this stage that it feels like a reward for patiently powering through some of the tougher ones. 

Now I’ll just have to do a re-read of this post when she’s 12 and talking back.