Rachel, 13 months

..I haven't had time this week to commemorate Rachel's 13-month birthday. Here's what she's up to these days:

--She points to what she wants. Sometimes she points for no reason, really, other than that she wants us to take her hand or interact with her.

--She has really, really big hands. Or maybe it's just her incredibly long fingers. That's Drew's influence. I am hoping she has his long, elegant fingers, which would be perfect for piano, guitar or championship softball.

--She shrieks -- mostly with joy, or sometimes just to make a lot of noise because she knows she can.

--She has proto-tantrums, screeching and arching her back if she doesn't want to be on the changing table, in her high chair or in the car seat.

--She's rapidly outgrowing her 9-month-old clothes and looks awfully sweet in sundresses.

--She's getting more independent. Sometimes she crawls into the living room while we're in the kitchen because she wants to play with her toys. She can get completely absorbed in a task, then look up as if she wants reassurance that we're still there, then get back to what she was doing.

--She has three favorite books she loves for us to read to her over and over and over and over and over and over and over again: "Ten little fingers and ten little toes," "Chicka Chicka boom boom" and "Clip Clop." The last two I read to her with sound effects and movement, which she loves. She loves "Ten little fingers" because it's about babies. When I read it to her, she gets a big smile and reaches out to touch the little baby faces!

--She's walking a lot with our help. More than 40 steps at a time!

--She has the most infectious giggle I've ever heard. I'll do anything to coax it from her. It saddens me that it will mature into a real laugh someday.

--She's chattering away, but in an unrecognizable language.

--She's getting more teeth! Molars, incisors...I stopped counting at 9.

--She loves it when I pretend to disappear around a wall or doorway, then pop back inside and say, "peek-a-boo!"

--Every once in a while, when she's really glad to see Drew or me, she claps her hands.