Lucky 13

I don't know what's lucky about it, but Chaselyn is 13 months old now. And seeing as how I just wrote her one year update 2 weeks ago, I must say that not much has changed. In that time, she has fought off a bout of bronchitis, which meant extra Mommy time :) and extra time in the doctor's office. :(

Last night we discovered Chaselyn's affinity for a Capella singing. She was entranced by the singing and dancing on "Sing Off". We had never heard of it before, but it came on after "Wheel of Fortune", which Chaselyn likes due to the large amount of clapping throughout the show. She was just playing around and then she heard these people singing. She got up from her toys and walked right in front of the tv and stared, then danced a little. She then did something that I have never, ever seen her do unless she is feeling very shy or very sick, she came and sat with me...voluntarily. I loved every minute of it, and even got a pillow so she could rest her little head and still see the tv. You can see the toys strewn about in the background. That is the typical result of nighttime playtime with Chaselyn, but not last night.
We also discovered while trying to take pictures for our Christmas card that she will smile and be happy until she sees that flashing light for the timer, then she just stares blankly at it. And if you want her to stand near a tree, don't expect her to turn around, the pretties are on the tree, why should she look away? And then we found something even prettier for her to look at to look away from the tree...Chaselyn.
That's right, see that smile, that's because she is looking down at Daddy's camera which is currently displaying some beautiful pictures of her. After realizing the brilliance of her smile and increased patience with crazy picture taking parents, we snapped a few photos with my camera and used those as bait to get her to smile and look in the approximate correct direction so that Stanton could take a picture with his camera. So, the picture above is one of the bait pictures. And it worked quite nicely, but you'll have to wait until after we mail out Christmas cards to see the end result.

Other new tricks that are mostly amusing include a very apparent attempt to snap, but coming nowhere close to being successful, an improvement in dance skills, I think that she is now officially a better dancer than Stanton, and the ability to play peek-a-boo using her hands, a rag, or hiding behind a door or wall. Very fun.

Things Stanton and I still can't get enough of include her wide, open-mouth, drooly kisses, the way she looks for her Daddy all around the house in the morning, her cheesy smile for the camera, and her love of bathtime.