I’d thought maybe with our 2nd child we would cease to be as amazed by your daily developments. But every day, your father and I say to each other, over and over, “Look at her!” followed by “She’s so cute!” or “She’s doing xxx (new thing).”

We traveled for 3 weeks in Dec and Jan. You were a major trooper through it all. In Israel, people kept commenting on how beautiful and amazing you are. I think the amazing part pertained to your tenacity and strong personality, as well as how clever you are.

Once you are intent on doing something, you are very persistent and don’t give up easily. You were even moving a stool around to try and reach door handles. That’s a lot of planning for a 13-month old! Yaakov was also amazed by how hard it was to try and distract you. Other babies are much easily diverted to different activities.

People were also happy to see how happy you were to try new foods. Not that you loved everything you tried but you ate hummus, falafel, even a stuffed pepper. One thing you loved and ate lots of is cheese. You have four front teeth on top and 2 on the bottom. Just today we noticed that you have 1 upper molar and another one coming in. I think the teething explains why you have been fussy all week.

In the last month you have started picking up more and more words and have been less enthusiastic to use your hand signals. Sometimes you babble sounds that sound like you’re speaking only we have no idea what you’re saying. This you find very frustrating.

You have also started to like books, which I am thrilled about. Your current favorites are Hungry Caterpillar, Birds, Hop on Pop, From the Zoo, Moo Baa La La La, and lots of baby books with real pictures of things. You continue to love dogs and cats and birds. You also love going out. Frequently, especially in the morning after Noam’s left for school and Aba’s left for work, you bring me your shoes or jacket and ask to go outside. I try to take you somewhere fun every day, even if it’s just to the playground close by. It’s hard to be outside a lot in this Seattle weather though. You are still very active and love running and climbing. One of your favorite games is being chased by Noam around and around, which results in the two of you in giggles.  But you can also do small motor things. Today you stacked 8 blocks up and repeatedly picked up 5 dice into a cup. Yesterday you were putting marbles into a marble run.

There are small new things that you do every day, like walking backwards, and learning how to get on/sit on a chair (your favorite place to practice is the last step by the door), getting dressed and undressed. Sometimes after I put on a sock or shoe of yours you roll your foot around as if admiring it. I don’t know why I just love it when you do that.