Toddlerhood

Alyssa is 13 months old and officially a toddler! She is no longer labelled "a baby," and all products for her age (e.g., food and toys) specify "toddler appropriate." We can't believe that she is not our baby anymore, but we will always think of her as our Nenewsa (our nickname for her, which means "little" in Arabic).

Our Nenewsa

Alyssa wears size 4 Pampers and Huggies diapers. She also wears more clothes that are size 18 months and shoes in size 3 or 4. Since Alyssa turned one, we have started the weaning process and she is now drinking cow's milk. She doesn't like to drink milk from a sippy cup as much as she likes it in her cereal and oatmeal though. She has tried more foods and loves all kinds of fruit! She doesn't seem to like fish or eggs, and clementines have proven to be a hard food for her to eat since she leaves the peel in her mouth after she sucks out the pulp. It is also hard for her to eat big pieces of food since she doesn't like to bite into anything. As a result, I have to cut everything into small pieces or Alyssa now rips things into smaller bites. Alyssa tries to feed herself with a spoon or fork too. Ever since she started eating solids, I have given her a spoon to hold during meals. Now, she loves to hold her own utensil and tries to feed herself or Mommy. She is getting better at placing the spoon into her mouth, and it is funny to see her attempt to scoop food up with the spoon or pierce food with a fork using either hand.

Drinking Milk for the 1st time

Should I use the salad fork or the dinner fork?

Alyssa has learned to open cabinet doors and loves to open our bathroom cabinets and the cupboards in the kitchen, especially the one filled with Tupperware. She has also started to climb up 1-3 steps on our staircase since she learned to climb up the stairs in the living room at Teta and Jiddu's house. She still manages to move around wearing her first pair of sandals too. I am glad that Alyssa has also learned to obey Mommy and Daddy when we tell her not to touch certain things and to follow us when we go into other rooms. She also loves to imitate us when we say certain sounds and words, especially when she hears Mommy or Daddy yell "Yeah" when one of us is calling the other person from another room.

Getting stuck in a bowl

Say "Yeah!"

Here is what we have been up to the past month:

We went to the pool for the first time after Alyssa's neighborhood birthday party. She loved splashing in the water and playing with her toys. We spent most of the time in the baby pool, but we also ventured into the "big" pool.

Splash!

Alyssa also played in her own pool (given to her by the Karam family) in our backyard. She loved filling her cups and dumping water on the grass.

My big girl pool

We took more walks outside, but the weather started to warm up more and get too hot. Alyssa also got sick for the first time so we stayed home for about a week. She had a viral infection as well as a rash after her fever broke. Daddy was out of town for work in Las Vegas when Alyssa got sick, and I could tell that she was not feeling well because she was not her happy self. I thought her fussiness was due to teething, but her fever lasted a couple days before I took her to the pediatrician. Unfortunately, there was nothing that we could do for the infection other than wait until it passed. Fortunately, Alyssa was a good girl the entire time she was sick, and I loved that she wanted to cuddle more.

Playing

We went to our neighbor Ron's birthday party at the clubhouse one evening and sat by the pool. Another neighbor celebrated his 2nd birthday by inviting lots of family and friends over for a Hawaiian themed party. Most of the big kids played outside with water toys and sand, but Alyssa and Mommy stayed inside out of the heat.

Alyssa graduated to the next level for Baby Fun Time! She is no longer in the Lap Time group, and we now attend the group for walkers which includes 12-24 month olds. Alyssa didn't know anyone at first, but she now waves to the other children and parents and enjoys sitting in the larger room since there are more kids in the new group. The theme for the month was Daddies.

Ready to go the library

Alyssa sent Uncle Patrick a card for his birthday that had pictures of the both of them from the past year. Happy 25th Birthday Uncle Patrick!

We spent Father's Day morning taking Alyssa's 1st year professional pictures. We also took another family picture to commemorate Alyssa's 1st birthday. Alyssa wore the dress that we bought her last year on her first shopping trip after she was born. I always think of that day when she wears that outfit. We celebrated Father's Day by going out to dinner at a local steakhouse since Daddy was craving steak. Alyssa gave Daddy a card filled with pictures of her and him over the past year too. Daddy loved his 2nd Father's Day!

I'm 1!

Daddy had the chance to spend an afternoon alone with Alyssa while Mommy went to see a movie with her friend. They had fun together eating lunch, playing, and taking a walk.

Likes
The pool
(LOVES) Strawberries
All her new toys
Bubbles: Alyssa loves to hold the bubble wand and put it in the soap solution before giving it to Mommy to blow bubbles.

Bubbles!

Laughing with Daddy

Drawing: Alyssa loves to play with crayons. She holds them in her right hand (usually upside- down) and scribbles on the paper as she laughs.

I love to draw!

Dislikes
Water splashing into her eyes
Sour foods: I gave Alyssa a kiwi one day to try for the first time. I thought it tasted a bit sour, but Alyssa seemed to love eating it. After giving her almost all of it, she suddenly started screaming and spit it out. She must have finally tasted the sourness.
Not getting her way

Here comes trouble...

And I am on my way to being "2" cool