Inga is 14 months!

Inga is at such a fun age. She's super mobile--walking, running, climbing--and is learning how to join in her siblings' games.

She's recently taken to sign language. Favorite signs include nurse, eat, potty, more, bird, dog, and cat. I've seen her do a few others but only with some prompting, such as ball and airplane. Her favorite new word (and she only can say about 2 total!) is dada (papa). This cracks me up because we don't say dad or daddy; it's always papa. Still, she announces emphatically that Eric is dada!

She doesn't say a lot of words, but she is very expressive with her vocalizations and body language. I love how she comes up to me and asks to nurse, saying "ah ah" and patting her lips with her fingers (our made-up sign for nursing). How can I resist?

Inga is the most agile of any of our children at this same age, more physically adventuresome and able. She's already had some nasty tumbles trying to walk forwards down the stairs. Her body is really thinning out, getting leaner and less baby-like. Her hair has developed a little curl.

We're in a really good place with sleeping right now. But a month ago, it was not so great. Her nighttime wakings had gone down to 1-2 times per night, then crept back up to 2, then up to 3. I can handle getting up 3 times a night for a newborn. But for a 12 or 13-month-old? I don't think so. I decided that I wasn't going to nurse her before 3 am. We took turns comforting her when she woke up, but that only made things worse. After a few nights of a lot of crying, she fell into a really lovely routine. Now she wakes up only once to nurse around 5 or 6 am. Score! She's also started eating more substantially in the past month or two. Probably explains why my period came back a few weeks ago.

For a while she had almost entirely stopped peeing on a potty. I worried that she'd forgotten how. It's so hard to get her to sit still for long enough. But my new trick is standing her in the sink with a little water running on her feet. It works instantly almost every time. She definitely knows what potty means now, and will usually sign "pee" when she's going. She giggles when she sees her pee coming out.

So, other news...I turned 34 a few weeks ago.

Eric and the kids made the cake. 

They helped blow the candles out. 

Inga approved.