What she's doing at 1 year

• She is walking quite well now, and climbing the stairs. She can also come down the stairs, but usually panicks after going two or three steps. She also fell off the stairs (near the bottom) recently, and has been cautious about climbing down since then.
• She said her first word, "cat", at about 7½ months. She says it upon seeing the cat, so we're certain that she's not just saying it at random. (She also says it for just about any other animal except the dog.) She now has a vocabulary of perhaps 15 or 20 words. She's also good at expressing herself, as indicated by this discussion with Mom. yes_no.wav, 69K. Lately she's taken to saying "Hi" to the dog and cat.
• She has been feeding herself with a spoon, though the word "neat" is not yet in her vocabulary.
• She's absolutely captivated by the television, so it's fortunate that we limit their viewing. Blanche has been worried by this. However, I notice that when the TV is off (or showing the Weather Channel) she is bright and alert and active, so I'm not concerned.

She's in the 25th percentile for size, which means she's rather small (in direct contrast to Debbie who was in the 75th percentile at this age). Part of this may be diet, as she tends to eat until she's not hungry instead of eating until the milk is gone, which means she never gets to the really rich milk. We're trying to compensate by supplementing her diet, but there are limits to what we can do. Unfortunately, she just doesn't seem interested in eating very much, and is easily distracted. From that and other signs we're starting to wonder if she's hyperactive, though it's hard to tell at this age.