Growing up overnight

Emma has been spending some time in the 2-year old room lately at daycare whenever they need to even out the student-teacher ratios. Whenever she hangs out with the "big" kids, she usually comes home with a new skill. Today was one of those days. When she came home, it seemed like she grew up from when we saw her this morning! She even looked older!

We were eating pizza for dinner and Emma asked for cheese. I pointed out that there was cheese on the pizza. She shook her head no. I got out a slice of cheese from the refridgerator and asked if she wanted it. Again the answer was no. She then seemed to mumble something before she said cheese while making a funny motion with her hands. All of a sudden it dawned on me what she wanted. I asked if she wanted sprinkle cheese and she emphatically said Yes! and was so happy that I figured out what she wanted. Over the weekend, I put some parmesean cheese on pasta and Emma discovered that she liked it as well. (Prior to this, she was not a fan.) She remembered and thought she would like it on her pizza. :)

After dinner, Emma got down from her highchair and said a whole sentence. In Emma-speak, it sounded like, "da dee o dames mumble Daddy." Translated: I want to play video games with Daddy. It was adorable. She kept repeating it to ensure that we knew what she wanted. She was calm the whole time and made sure to get her point across until Daddy was ready to play video games with her. I'm pretty sure it melted Daddy's heart to hear her say it.

On another note: Unfortunately, Emma is going through another, "I hate bath" phase. Bathtime has been rather painful for the past 2 weeks. For some reason, she has decided that she doesn't like getting her hair wet. Hair washing is not really optional because she gets food in it daily. *sigh* hopefully this phase will end soon!

Teacher's Helper

Last week, Emma's teacher told me that she is a little helper. Apparently, when the lunch cart comes, all the kids run to it and crowd around it, anxious for their milk and lunch. Somehow, they've developed a routine that now all the kids go sit at the table except Emma who is more than happy to carry each child's milk cup to them after the teacher fills it. The teacher said that it definitely helps make the room more organized and that Emma loves doing it and the kids wait patiently for her to bring them their cups.

Little Gamer

After not having a good night of sleep, Emma was out of sorts today and took an extraordinarily long nap. When she woke up, she was still out of sorts and wouldn't let me pick her up for quite a while. I finally went to get Kurt, hoping that she would let him get her, which she did. She couldn't decide what she wanted...she didn't want to eat or drink or play. But she got really excited when Kurt asked her if she wanted to play video games. She shook her head very emphatically and said "I do!" So downstairs they went to play geometry wars where Emma can fire and Kurt can steer on the same controller. I think this was one of Kurt's happiest days...his little gamer is finally emerging!

Boo Boo

This morning, Emma was playing in her diaper bag and found a band-aid. When she asked what it was, I told her it was a bandaid and that bandaids make boo boos better. She immediately looked up at me and put it on her mouth. Poor girl, her top two incisors are coming in and her bottom two are still working their way to the surface so her mouth has been pretty sore for the past few days. Hopefully, once they all break through the skin, she'll be much more comfortable.

Weekend Pictures

Just a couple pictures from all the time we spent outside over the gorgeous fall weekend:

A tired girl fell asleep during lunch

Like Daddy Like Daughter

A couple evenings ago, Emma and Kurt were in the basement after dinner. When I finished cleaning up, this is what I walked downstairs to:

Like Daddy like Daughter

Emma used to never like blankets on her. At all. She would fight and fidget until she was out from underneath one even if we were snuggling with her on the couch. Lately though, she's been loving her blankets, or "Bee" as she calls them. In the mornings, if we put the television on to entertain her while we get ready for work, she'll climb up on the couch and cover herself up. 

In her bedroom, she will pull a blanket out of her crib, climb up into the chair, ask for Elmo, monkey, frog or bear, and then ask for a book and sit and "read" for a bit. She is so happy sitting in that chair. She thinks she is such a big kid when she's sitting there reading her favorite nursery rhyme book or another current favorite, Curious George and the Bunny.

We say this all the time, but it is truly amazing and exciting to see the little person that Emma is becoming.

Little Mommy

Emma has been very motherly lately. We're not sure if this is a developmental milestone or just Emma's natural personality coming out. She has been very interested in putting her dolls and stuffed animals down for naps and for giving them drinks from her sippy cups. She even shares some tea with them from time to time when she has tea parties with Mommy and Daddy. When she puts her friends down for naps, she covers them up with a blanket and then pats their backs for a bit before tossing them off to the side and going through the same routine with another one. In the evenings, one of us will be laying on the floor playing with her and she will get a blanket and cover us up and then pat and rub our backs for quite a while. One afternoon, she alternated covering each one of us up and patting our backs for about 20 minutes. Every once in a while, she would even give us a good night kiss. It was really quite cute.

This evening, I asked Emma if she would give me a massage. She said yes and tried to repeat massage. She proceeded to cover me up and then pat my back relatively hard about 8-10 times, then rub it about 4 times over and over again. When I told her how sweet she was she came up to kiss me and then leaned in for a thank you kiss and hug. :)

Pink Eye

When I picked Emma up from daycare on Wednesday, I noticed she had a eye booger in her right eye. I told her that I hoped she wasn't going to wake up on Thursday with pink eye....but she did. :( It wasn't a bad case at all, but since she can't go to daycare without treatment, we called for a sick appointment at the doctor's. Luckily, Thursday was Veteran's Day, so both Kurt and I had the day off. Unfortunately, we spent over 3 hours at the doctor's office and pharmacy. I (Carrie) was not a happy camper.

Emma ended up screaming the entire time she was being checked out. (The nurse practitioner checked her ears, throat, and chest to make sure it was "just pink eye" and not a more systemic infection.) We left the office with a prescription for both eye ointment as well as amoxicillin in case Emma wouldn't let us put the ointment in her eyes. We drove around for 10 minutes so that Emma would fall asleep, then I ran into the pharmacy while Kurt stayed in the car with Emma. After wandering around aimlessly for 15 minutes, I was paged to the pharmacy where I was informed that they couldn't fill the prescription because it was dated for Friday, not Thursday. Back to the doctor's office we went to get it updated. (This took another 20 minutes.) Luckily, it only took about 10 minutes to get the ointment from the pharmacy.

Emma woke up by the time we got home, and Kurt put the first dose of ointment in her eyes while she was in the carseat (We figured restrainment would be helpful). She was not happy. Since we had to fight with her again that evening and on Friday morning as well, I called the pharmacy to have the amoxicillin prescription filled. Emma was fantastic when we picked it up. She held my hand and didn't touch anything I told her not to! She even got to pick out a Dora the Explorer cup during the outing.

That evening, I tried to give her the oral medication but she did not like the bubble gum flavored liquid. We've tried using the medicine spoon, a straw in the spoon, and a dropper, pretty much all have failed. We even resorted to bribing her with orange juice for every dose she takes. This morning though, I offered her juice if she took her medicine and she refused. She definitely knows what she likes and doesn't. Luckily, her eyes are clear and we think she had a viral case not a bacterial case of pink eye.

She loves me!

Last week for the first time, Emma melted my heart when she said "Love you" for the first time to me. Kurt was getting her ready to settle down for story time before bed and asked her to tell me that she loved me before I left the room and she did!

Sheep

Last week, Emma was playing with little animal squirt toys. She is really good at telling us what sounds animals make, so I decided to reverse the question and ask her what each animal was called. When we got to the sheep, Emma quickly responded "Sheep." Her pronunciation was a bit off though and it sounded like "Shit." It was quite funny, although I tried not to let her see me laughing. I made a mental note to work on the difference between "t" and "p" sounds.

Birthday Party!

On 23 October, we attended Emma's friend Cameron's 2nd Birthday party. (Cameron was Emma's first boyfriend at school.) The theme was "Down on the Farm." Luckily, it was a gorgeous day and Cameron and his 6 friends were able to be outside. The kids had fun with animal and farm stickers, playing on the slide, attempting to hit a ball off a tee, and exploring the back yard before singing songs and posing for pictures.

We sang, The Farmer in the Dell, She'll Be Coming around the Mountain, Old MacDonald, and of course, Happy Birthday. The kids, all mostly around 2, did amazingly well and sat on bales of hay during the singing.

 Afterward, they were rewarded with animal cupcakes and barns filled with fun favors like animal crackers, silly bands, stickers, and a stuffed animal.

During the party, Emma enjoyed her very first juice box! She loved it and sucked it down in no time. Since she doesn't drink juice very often, we only allowed her to have one. She was relatively satisfied to carry around the empty juice box and chew on the straw from time to time.

Emma fell asleep on the way home from the party around 630pm and slept straight through the night until about 5am. I was able to snuggle with her and she didn't really wake up until 630am the next day! Since she got so much sleep, she was an amazingly happy little girl the entire day!

Happy Halloween!

Ages ago, Emma and Daddy picked our Emma's tiger costume for Halloween. We immediately started working on her sound effects to go along with her costume. As a result, long before Halloween, Emma could tell you that tigers (and several other animals) said "ROAR!"

On Friday, Emma dressed up as a rare pumpkin lion for school. (The jacket portion of her costume, was too warm for her to wear inside all day at school.) When I first showed her her whiskers, she didn't know what to make of them, but quickly forgot about them. (I'm so thankful that I thought to use eyeliner instead of regular Halloween greasepaint/makeup--so much less mess!)

A rare pumkin tiger (with attitude!)

On Saturday, we carved our pumpkin. (When I say we, I mean Kurt carved and I sorted through the goop for the pumpkin seeds!) Emma was not very interested in playing with the pumpkin guts. I tried to show her how to put the pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet, but she tried to eat them instead so she got out of that job. Kurt kept what he was thinking of carving a secret while he drew the template. When he was finished he asked Emma if she liked it. I think she gave the ok. When he was finished, he knew he made the right choice! Emma LOVED her Elmo pumpkin! On Sunday morning, she kept looking at the pumpkin sitting on the island during breakfast and saying in a happy voice, "Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!"

Thinking about putting her hand in the pumpkin

The finished pumpkin!

On Halloween, I got her dressed in her costume in the afternoon and asked her to lay down so that I could put on her whiskers and to my surprise, she promptly did! We intended to try to get some good pictures of her outside in the day light but mostly, she just ran around and played with 4 year old  neighbor.

The tiger in the wild!

 

While I was cleaning up dinner, the doorbell rang and at 6pm we had the first of our 95ish trick or treaters!  Emma was not very impressed with the costumes. There was a skeleton in the first batch and we think it may have frightened her a bit when he walked toward her. We quickly finished up our chores and got Emma into her jacket and took her outside. Our neighbor, Will, was out on his stoop with his bucket o'candy and we took Emma over to him. He told her how cute she was and we tried to get her to roar....instead she burst into tears! And then cried harder when he put candy into her cute little pumpkin! We got her to calm down a bit and took her to another neighbors' house who we frequently talk to, and she started crying again when they answered the door in costume. :( We thought it would be fun to sit on our stoop to hand out candy and that Emma would have fun seeing all the people but she was just too worked up so we went back inside and Kurt and I took turns handing out candy. Every once in a while, we would grab Emma and show her the costumes, but she was very timid the whole night.

Not sure about this whole thing!

Although not entirely how we planned Halloween, we did have a nice, low key time. Hopefully next year, Emma will be a little bit more excited about it!

Pictures are up to date!

Here are some new albums.

Enjoy! 

Emma in August: 

Emma in August

Kurt met some friends at the Baltimore Comic conference:

Baltimore Comic-Con

Emma in September:

Emma in September

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch (October 16):

Pumpkin Picking!

Our trip to the D.C. zoo (October 17):

At the National Zoo

Pizza please!

On our way home from the zoo today, we decided to stop at Costco for a few items. Our first item of business as we entered was a pit stop for all 3 of us. While Emma and Kurt were waiting for me, Emma wandered up towards the food counter. When I got there, I knelt down next to her and she pointed up and said "Pizza." and signed please. It was super cute. She didn't eat a lot for lunch and by this point, it was mid-afternoon, so we got in line and Kurt got out $5. Emma took it from me and started walking up to the counter to give to a cashier. This girl wanted her pizza - NOW! I tried to explain that we had to wait in line...you can imagine how well that conversation went with a hungry 16 month old! Luckily the line moved quickly and we got our pizza slice.

We sat at a table and Kurt started cutting as quickly as he could. As quickly as he placed pieces onto a plate for Emma she had them in her mouth and was saying and signing "More. More. More" Then she started to point to the plate and said "More. Right there." Demanding little thing isn't she?? In the end, she ate pretty much the entire slice of pizza herself and asked for another on our way out!

Interesting points from this story:
1. We must frequent the Costco food counter pretty often that Emma knows that she gets pizza there. (Although there IS a very large picture of pizza on the menu board) (In defense of how often we eat there...who can beat a meal for a family of 3 for about $5-$7???)

2. Emma knows that if you give money (or credit cards) you can get what you want. (I'm not sure if this is a good thing!...although her Mommy is obviously a good teacher! :) )

Zoo!

Emma went to the zoo for the first time today! We met up with Cameron and his Mommy, Kim, and Claire and her parents, Nadine and Paul, at the D.C. zoo for a fun day.

The first animal Emma saw was on the walk into the zoo. It was a maned fox. We were surprised at how big it was...and how stinky it was! Since we arrived a bit before Cameron and Claire, we took our time and walked through the visitor center and gift shop. Emma had fun playing with little toy animal figurines for quite a while. Afterward, we made our way to the panda bear exhibit where one of the pandas was eating bamboo leaves for breakfast. Emma watched him for a while then moved on to climbing on rocks outside the exhibit. After meeting up with our friends, we saw an elephant and gorillas before going to the farm portion of the zoo where Emma got to pet a cow! During lunch, we ran into neighbors who were visiting the zoo with their 4 year old son - small world! After lunch, we saw a tiger and lion where Emma demonstrated that she knew that tigers say "Roar!" Shortly after seeing the big cats, Emma fell asleep and since it was nearing nap time, Cameron and Claire packed up and headed home. On the way back to the car, Kurt and I took a detour to see a cheetah.

It was another gorgeous day and we had a great time being outside and with friends! We're looking forward to visiting the zoo and seeing Cameron and Claire again soon!

Here are some pictures from the day:

At the National Zoo

Soap says "Love"

Emma is constantly taking things in, asking "what's that?" and attempting to repeat the answer. The one thing that she refuses to repeat is "I love you." We even tried settling just for the word "Love." Most of the time she'll change the subject by smiling or running away. (Our consolation though are super sweet kisses and great hugs, so we really shouldn't complain too much!) One thing she is great at is repeating animal sounds. So Kurt got the idea during bath time that soap was going to say "Love." He went through the usual animals and then the introduction that soap says "Love" and repeated it several times. When he asked, "Emma, what does soap say?" Emma looked around the bath tub and then back up at him and said "Bath." We can't get anything by this girl!

Tonight in the bath tub, she did try to repeat "I love you" for Kurt. It was super sweet!

Emma's Ready To Play Operation

Emma has known eye, nose, mouth, head, and toes for a while. She would sometimes know where her ear and hair were as well. A week or two ago we started working on some additional body parts.She now consistently can identify her neck, knees, hands, hair, ears, and boobies. She will some times point to her bum. (I think she knows her bum, since I'm always telling her to sit on it, but is still working on the coordination to be able to point to it or pat it without losing her balance.) She also generally knows where her shoulders are. Again I think this is more of a coordination issue. We're actively working on finding her elbows. She thinks its great when we point them out to her in the bath tub, but I don't think she "knows" them yet. We also have to distinguish between feet and toes and hands and fingers.

Potty Time!

A few weeks ago, Grandma C found a Dora the Explorer training potty for Emma.We placed it in our powder room but didn't pressure Emma at all. We've been trying to make her aware of when she has a dirty diaper so that she can let someone know since she gets such bad diaper rashes, but we weren't trying to actively potty train, just gradually introduce the concept. A couple times, mostly before bath time, we've taken her diaper off and sat her on the potty just to see if we would get lucky but nothing materialized. One day before work, Kurt tried to see if she would use it and one day last week before bath time we tried again. While the potty wasn't filled, Emma did sit on it and appeared to by "trying" and patiently sat on the potty for several minutes.

This evening, I thought that she might have to go, so I took her in, sat her down, and grabbed a book. We sat there for a while...and she went! She was very good and content the whole time, but I think she might have to get used to sitting down to go. I guess this will just take practice. Of course we did lots of cheering about how she is such a big girl! After we got her re-diapered and everything cleaned up, she wandered back into the bathroom and sat down again. We told her that it was just for potty time and to come back out to play. Turns out she went again! I guess she wasn't completely done the first time. We made a big deal over this as well since she knew what to do.

While we know that almost 17 months is pretty young for consistent potty use, we are thinking of getting some pull-ups for times when we're just going to be in the house and have time for practice and messes.

Pumpkin Patch!

We joined Calvin, Melanie, & Adam for a day at Larriland Farm. We arrived just in time for opening and were able to explore and let the kids run around for a bit without having to contend with crowds. Although it was bright and sunny, the wind made it quite chilly and fall-like. We were able to warm up a bit with some warm apple cider and apple fritters though! Emma and Calvin enjoyed the pumpkins, chickens, cow pictures, and goats very much. They also liked trying to push around wheelbarrows which were around for people purchasing several pumpkins. They also were very intrigued by a lake and didn't want to admit that it was a bit too cold to go swimming!

Emma went on her first hay wagon ride today! (Calvin is a seasoned veteran when it comes to wagon rides. I think today's was his third!). We were a little hesitant to go since Emma doesn't sit for extended periods of time. We were about 5 minutes in when she looked up at us and said "All done!" Luckily, at that point we entered into the woods and were able to point out some storybook characters decorating the trail. She also enjoyed playing with the hay, until the wind blew some into her face.

After the hay ride, we purchased some cider and produce and headed to the pumpkin patch a few fields down the road. Luckily, by this point, the wind had mostly died down and it was a bit warmer. Emma again found some wheelbarrows to play with before we took her to the middle of the patch to pick our pumpkin. She and Calvin had fun looking at all the pumpkins and both families headed home with pumpkins with great jack-o-lantern potential.

On the way home, we stopped at Double T Diner for lunch. Both kids did great, especially considering it was past lunch time and quickly approaching nap time. Emma enjoyed pickles from both our plates as well as meatballs from Mommy's meatball sub. Emma only napped for about 25 minutes on the way home and was a trooper all day. We even went out and walked around outside for about 40 more minutes this evening before she asked for a bath at 6:45!

We had a perfect autumn day! Here's hoping tomorrow's trip to the zoo is just as great!

Here are a few more pictures from the day: 

Pumpkin Picking!

Anniversary Weekend

Kurt and I had our fourth wedding anniversary at the beginning of September. To celebrate, Kurt planned a weekend get away in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for us the first weekend in October. We stayed at the 1825 Inn, a fantastic B&B which reminded us of the B&B we stayed at in the French Alsace Region in 2008. We had a wonderful weekend, sleeping in, relaxing, shopping, going to a movie, and eating late dinners.

A note and then a quick funny story about this trip.
Note: Kurt has planned every one of our anniversary trips since our honeymoon. He always does a great job and I am never disappointed by his choices!

Quick Funny Story:  Kurt picked Hershey, PA, because it is close to where his parents live who agreed to watch Emma for the weekend (more on that later). Originally, he planned to get tickets to see Chicago, the musical not the band. He booked the B&B so that we would have a place to stay and made a calendar reminder to book the show tickets when they went on sale a few weeks later. When he went to purchase the tickets, he couldn't find them anywhere and contacted the venue site. He was told that the show had a change in schedule and that they were now touring in Europe. He was also told that there was no replacement and that the only thing in for the weekend was a Nickelback concert. (That was the funny part...because if you know Kurt, you know that Nickelback is not his cup of tea. ;) ) When he told me what had happened, he was a little upset. I reassured him that all I wanted was for us to spend time together, sleep in, have coffee, and walk through Target or a book store like we used to do (before Emma.)

Emma spent the weekend at her Grandparents'. She had a great time! We drove up on Friday and were able to spend time with her, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Johnny, and Aunt Rachel before leaving for the weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend and they spent a lot of time playing outside throwing walnuts into the creek. When we called to check on her (once in the morning and once in the evening), we found out that she slept in until 730! They said that she was great all day on Saturday and would occasionally go up to pictures of us and point and look inquisitively at them. Grandma reassured her that Mommy and Daddy were coming back and she would wander away to play again. On Sunday, they noticed that she was a little more pensive and seemed to be looking for us more. Luckily we arrived just before lunch time and met them at the park where Emma was having a snack before going back to their house. At first, she wouldn't come to us and was content to be with Grandma. After giving us the cold shoulder for a few minutes, she warmed up to Kurt. Finally, several minutes later, she relented and gave me a big hug and let me play with her on the slide.

It's rough being 15 months old!

On Saturday, Kurt had plans to play cards and Emma and I planned to go to a friend's birthday lunch. The morning started off reasonably well, but at 10am Emma went into breakdown mode. Finally, we (Emma and I) figured out that she wanted cheese the third time I offered it to her. She refused to eat anything else. I realized she was tired, but she did not want to nap. I tried struggling with her in the rocking chair, tried resting with her in a bed, nothing was working. So, in a very frazzled state, I threw stuff in her diaper bag, changed my clothes and got us both into the car a good 45 minutes before we had to leave for lunch. She was asleep before we go to the first stop sign in our development. We sat in the parking lot for a good 20 minutes before I woke her up to go into lunch.

While we were at lunch, I guess she was mostly good. She just wanted to be up walking around or exploring outside the entire time. Of course, this got me frustrated all over again. She was pretty good during the meal. At one point, she brought me a bag of Melanie's and started taking out the few things that were in it. Melanie was way across the room from us, but I told her to take the items to Melanie and she just turned around and did. Such a good little girl! By the end of the lunch though, she had about had it and wouldn't sit or stand still long enough for me to get my wallet out to pay or find my keys. It was very frustrating, but someone we managed.

After we got home, I really wanted her to nap since I was exhausted, but of course she didn't want to. After a couple hours, and some tears on both our parts, we ended up going to visit with Calvin and Melanie and Adam. The kids had fun playing with a new outdoor toy of Calvin's and then playing inside after dinner.

Looking back, although I thought it was a bad day, it really wasn't that bad...at least she wasn't screaming the whole time! I guess I just have to learn to take things in stride a bit better.

Visitors and Outings

A couple weeks ago, Rachel came down to visit for the weekend. Emma was thrilled to see her! Her face lights up everytime she sees Rachel. It's really adorable!

After Rachel left, Kurt, Emma, and I drove out to a wine fest at Liganore Winery in Mt. Airy. It was incredibly hot so we didn't stay too long, but Emma had fun walking around making friends and dancing to the live jazz band. Kurt and I enjoyed some wine before heading home. Mommy forgot the diaper bag for this outing, but luckily, everything worked out and we didn't have any major catastrophes!

Kurt's parents came down for an overnight trip over labor day weekend. Emma had a ton of fun with Grandma while Kurt and Grandpa worked on shelves in the basement and Mommy rested with a cold. They spent tons of time outside walking around in the woods and at the playground. Inside, they colored, played with blocks and read. Emma didn't even want me to put her down for her nap...she decidedly wanted Grandma! (I guess Mommy just isn't very fun!)

It makes us so happy that Emma knows and remembers family and has so much fun where ever we go!

Visit with Gigi

On Sunday, we visited Emma's Gigi in Annapolis. Emma needed a few minutes to warm up, but then made herself right at home! She was particularly fond of all the bottles of paint that Gigi has in her office. Emma had a lot of fun moving them around and making little rows of them in other rooms of the house...especially on the toilet lid! She also enjoyed the grapes that Gigi had for snack.

Of course, Emma was a little stinker and wouldn't let Gigi hold her for a nice picture or give her kisses. Hopefully, we'll be able to see her again soon, so that Emma will remember her more and not be so timid.

Mommy's Little Helper

On Saturday, I was doing laundry and had the best little helper! It was time to change out the wash to the dryer and Emma was ready to help! I handed her articles of clothing piece by piece (or several if it was a handful of socks) and she very carefully put them into the dryer taking care that each article was just right. She even took the dryer sheet from me and closed the dryer door with me only having to tell her once and not having to explain it! She then proceeded to put a load of towels into the washer for me and helped me put them in the dryer after they were finished! We're still working on folding, but for the moment I'm happy when she leaves piles of folded laundry alone!

Lessons Learned

Last night, during snack time before bed, Emma kept asking for orange juice. She has only had oj a couple times--I let her have some when she was sick a few weeks ago. We decided that it really couldn't hurt anything to let her have some, so I diluted it about 50/50 with water and let her have a cup. She proceeded to down the cup in almost 1 gulp. A few minutes later, we started bath time and then Kurt sat down to read her a book. About 30 minutes after I left the room, Emma's bedroom door opened and he said, "OK, I give up." And out walks Emma all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I asked why she wasn't asleep and she just giggled as Kurt explained that she had been busy looking out the window, reading books, and having dance party in her room.

We then realized that she was on a sugar high! What were we thinking, giving her a glass of oj right before bed?!? We knew it was futile to try to get her to settle down so we let her play for a while, all the time asking her if she was tired...because we sure were!! About an hour after her normal bedtime, she started to wind down and I was able to take her up and read some nursery rhymes to her and get her to bed.

All in all she was a very happy little girl. Luckily, she slept in today until 7, so at least she didn't lose much sleep last night!

Bye Bye!

Emma has known how to say "Bye Bye!" for a long time now, but recently she's started saying it in a very cute little girl voice to everything! She says "Bye Bye!" to random people we see outside or in stores or whenever shows on TV end but the cutest is when she tells all her toys "Bye Bye!" whenever we're leaving the house, going to a different room, or when she's going to bed.

Kurt said that on their way out the door this morning she was telling all her toys Bye Bye and she stopped specifically at her little rocking horse petted it and said "Bye Bye!" Too cute!

Over the weekend, we saw Adam, Melanie, and Calvin. When we were ready to leave, I told her to say good bye to everyone. She walked up to Calvin, put her had about 2 inches from his face and waved and said Bye Bye! She also told Adam and Melanie Bye Bye and gave them hugs. What a sweet little girl!

We also saw Gigi and Aunt Trish this past weekend. Emma said Bye Bye! a couple times but then refused when we were actually ready to walk out the door. She has figured out when we want her to do party tricks and definitely lets us know when she is not willing to perform!

We'll have to try to get her saying Bye Bye! on camera and post it soon!

Broken Record....or....

On our walk tonight, Emma kept repeating "Uh-OH!" over and over and over again. I asked, "Uh-Oh what-o?" which made her laugh and keep asking. Kurt said, "Emma, you sound like a broken record." I told him that Emma probably won't even know what a record is. He responded with, "Well then, Emma, you sound like a scratched CD. Or maybe a corrupted MP3."

Oh, isn't Emma just going to LOVE her Dad in a few years? =)

"What's This?"

Emma begins each day with the question "What's this?" or "What is it?" And generally doesn't stop asking all day long. It's very cute! Some times she will repeat what we tell her and sometimes, just move on to asking about something else. She even asks about things she knows! When we're reading books, I'll point out an animal or object she knows and ask what it is...and then she repeats the question. So now, I'm trying to tell her what something is and then ask a question about it afterward like what does X animal say or Where is the blue ball, etc.

I think these "What's ?"questions are way easier than the "Why?" question which I'm sure will be coming shortly!

Teddy Bear

Emma chooses who gets to read her books and put her to bed each night. Usually she chooses Kurt. Tonight she chose me.

When Kurt puts her down, Emma is all business and he comes down to the living room in about 3.5 minutes flat after reading her a book and giving her a couple cuddles. When I put her down, it's a different story, Emma drags out the process for 15-30 minutes. Some nights it is frustrating, but lately, I keep in mind that she's only little once and that I need to treasure the nights she chooses me.

Tonight, I read her books and she pointed to her crib. I put her in and she did not want to lay down. I picked her up and she pointed to her changing table. I thought that maybe she wanted to sleep there since it's similar to her daycare cot. (I would have until she fell asleep and then transferred her to her crib) She wanted to be picked up again and then wanted to read more books. We sat down, read, cuddled. She indicated she wanted to go back to her crib. She scooted over to her new Teddybear that our friend Erin brought her last week and came back to me with it. We sat back down. She hugged and hugged her bear. Then she got a bottle and fed the bear. We cuddled some more. We read some more. We went back to the crib and she played with her music box. She also had a little dance party before she wanted me to pick her up again. We cuddled some more. We went back to the crib. She picked up her teddy bear, her two lovies, and her blanket and gave them to me and then wanted me to pick her up. I asked what I should do then. She said "Sit." So we sat. She got comfy...the lovies went on the floor as did Teddy Bear. She tried to put her blanket over her so I helped then she wanted her bear back. She snuggled her bear and cuddled into me. It was so cute. Finally, she relaxed enough to go to sleep and I was able to lay her down. Sweet girl!

She has several stuffed animals and lovies. She really hasn't taken to any of them. She'll play with them briefly, but she hasn't "needed" to have one in her arms for any extended period of time. Last week, after Erin left and it was time for bed, Emma took Teddy Bear upstairs with her. I just put it in the corner of her crib, and I think it's been in the same spot since. I thought it was really cute that it was just what she wanted tonight to help her settle down. Thanks Erin!!

15 Month Stats

Emma had her 15 month well-check and vaccinations today. She is 21 lbs 13.5 oz, 32 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 45.5 inches cm (Thanks for pointing that out Mom!). She gained almost 1.5 lbs and grew 2 inches in 3 months! We weren't crazy when we thought a few of her dresses looked shorter and we could see more of her chubby little legs!!

She received 3 vaccinations: Hep A, Hib, and Tetanus today. She had much more immediate reactions to them than she has previously. In the past, her eyes would get really big while the pain of the injection registered. Today, it was pretty much immediate. Poor thing! She was a trooper though!

Emma was great in the waiting room and stayed right near me while I filled out paperwork. While we were waiting for the doctor to come in, she enjoyed sitting on a stool at a desk eating goldfish and reading through a truck book. She was very excited when the nurse brought Daddy in to the room.While the doctor was examining her, she was a little weary. She did not really want to be poked and prodded. Apparently, this reaction is completely normal at this age.

After the doctor left and we were waiting for the nurse to come back in for the shots, Emma got a little restless. She made it very clear that it was time to go "Outside!" We kept trying to explain that we had to wait just a little more. She proceeded to pretend that the stainless steel wastebasket was a drum. Awesome. We weren't really thinking when we asked if she wanted to go see Oscar and Elmo in Grouchland (a favorite in our house) because that started her wanting to leave immediately. *Sigh*

One question the doctor asked was how big Emma's vocabulary is. We explained that she definitely knows a lot of words and understands commands and what we are talking about but that we don't feel that she says a lot of words. Most of her words are just the first sound or syllable and many words sound very similar and that other people wouldn't know what she is saying and that context plays a big part in understanding her. The doctor reassured us that it sounds like Emma is normal and that at this age, "normal" is considered to be regular use of 2-5 words.

After dinner, I got out a pen and paper and we made a list of words Emma uses daily or at least regularly enough that we know she knows what something is. We (or at least I) were surprised that she uses upwards of 40 words consistently. She has also repeated many more, but hasn't committed them to her regular usage vocabulary. A couple of her favorites are dog, book, cheese, shoes, hi/bye, and pretzel. She also consistently tells us what sounds 6-7 animals make. We're working on 2-3 more and she can repeat with prompting.

We are amazed daily at how much Emma has grown and is developing! Our little baby is getting to be such a big girl! We can't believe how quickly time is flying by!

July Pictures are posted!

Emma in July

Fun Emma stories from Friday

On Wednesday, we were having meatloaf for dinner and I didn't want Emma bothering me for the 8 minutes it takes to mix everything together so I put out a quilt on the living room floor, got her a bowl of crunchers and a cup of water and turned on Blue's Clues. Tonight, we got home and Emma asked for a snack. She proceeded to carefully carry her bowl into the living room, wait for me to put the quilt on the floor and then sat down and ate her snack. =)

During her second pre-dinner snack (they were both small), Emma was sitting in her booster seat at the table. When she decided she was finished, she started throwing what was left on the floor. I sternly told her that it was not acceptable and took her to timeout. She did not like this and protested quite vehemently. When I let her go, she was still crying and went and sat on the stairs and just looked at me with the most pitiful face. I sat by her, she gave me a hug and finally calmed down. I reiterated that throwing food was not acceptable. I'm not sure she was really listening.

During our pizza dinner, she insisted on feeding me a piece of pizza in between her bites of pizza. It was really cute.

After dinner, she was on the couch and threw a thow pillow over the arm, she then proceeded to dive head first over the couch after it. Luckily, I was able to catch her leg so she didn't fall on her head. When I looked at her, she just smiled and started laughing. *sigh* This might be a new game.

During bath time, Emma had a lot of fun playing with her floating hippos. She really likes hitting them to make them chirp. Afterward, while I was trying to get her dressed, I asked her to lay down and she promptly folded herself in half and pretty much laid down on her stomach. Not the best position to put a diaper on!

She enjoyed reading a nursery rhyme book, and pointed at a pig and said "Piggy" without any prompting! I didn't even know she knew what a pig was! During the second book, she turned and pointed to her crib and pointed. I asked if she wanted to go to bed and she shook her head yes. Kurt usually puts her to bed and says she does this almost every night.

Although she had some moments, we had a lot of fun tonight while Kurt was out playing cards!

Emma takes a shower

This evening, Emma was tired and a little restless. Kurt and I didn't really want to take her outside because it was hot and kind of muggy and we were just feeling lazy. Out of the blue, Kurt asked Emma if she wanted to take a shower. Emma responded by getting up from the couch and climbing the steps. At the top, Kurt asked where the shower was and she marched through our bedroom right to the shower in the bathroom. We opened the door and she stepped right in. She was very excited!

We decided to undress her to her diaper and let her play in the water. She got a little apprehensive...she's had a on again, off again relationship with running water over the last few months. Kurt picked her up and let her hold her hands in the water. She was getting pretty wet, so we stripped off her diaper and Kurt ended up washing her in the shower. She had fun trying to splash me and watching Kurt make funny faces and noises when he put his face in the water stream. After a little while, she got a little worried, looked at us, pointed to herself and said "Poop." We immediately scooped her out of the shower and got a diaper on her quick as quick could be. Apparently, "poop" is her way of saying "uncle." It's kind of funny that she knew that would get her out of the shower and back onto familiar ground.

Where is Emma?

One day after work about a week ago, I was trying to cook dinner and Emma was walking around the kitchen playing in drawers and generally staying occupied. She wandered into the living room and I didn't think anything of it. Until she didn't come back to the kitchen for two minutes. (Two minutes is a very long time for this girl to be away from her Mommy...especially if no one else is home) I peeked into the living room to see what she was playing with and was shocked that she wasn't there. I immediately started calling her name, looking behind the couches, in the bathroom (whose door was shut tight) and got scared when I couldn't find her. I flew downstairs thinking I would find her trying to turn the xbox on but she wasn't there either. At this point I was frantic and was yelling her name...and of course she wasn't answering. I ran back upstairs, glanced at the front door and was relieved that it was locked (we don't think she can reach the door knob yet, but one day she will!), and ran upstairs to find her sitting playing with a barn toy we have in our bedroom. I said "Emma, THERE you are!" and she just smiled up at me with the sweetest most innocent smile and offered me a toy. *sigh*

No More Baby Gates

 That's right, we have a 14 month old and have no baby gates in our house.

Two or three weekends ago, Emma decided that she wanted to go downstairs. I can't remember if Kurt and I didn't want to go down stairs or if we weren't paying attention to Emma, but at any rate, Emma decided that she was going to climb over the baby gate to get to the basement. Luckily, we stopped her before she tumbled head first down the stairs or fell backward off the gate. Then we took the gate down.

Emma was overjoyed! She now has full run of the house -- and we take extra care to close the office and laundry room doors and not leave random things laying around. She can go upstairs or downstairs whenever she pleases. We do follow her to make sure she's not getting into too much trouble. At first I thought that by not turning on the lights would be a deterrent to her going down stairs, but since we have a walk out basement, there is enough light that it doesn't even phase her. She is a big fan of changing scenery several times a day and enjoys going up and down the stairs.

Where to Start??

Where to start?? Emma does so many new, exciting, cute things daily and finds more ways to get into trouble daily than we can keep up with!

Emma eats oatmeal for breakfast almost every morning. Some mornings she wants us to feed her and some mornings she wants to feed herself. Since she is still working on being completely adept with utensils and oatmeal is kind of tricky, we give her some help. We're trying to teach her that oatmeal is not a finger food. It's really cute when she can't seem to get a spoonful of oatmeal and then starts to use her left hand to try to pick up some oatmeal, stops herself right before touching it, and shakes her head no, as if she's telling herself that oatmeal is not a finger food.

Emma has been very family oriented for the past week or so. Over the weekend, she was not content unless all three of us were in the same room. At one point, Daddy was reading a book to her in the living room and I went into the kitchen. She quickly came to get me, took my hand and walked me back to the living room then sat back down with Kurt to finish the book.

She is enthralled with books lately as well. Emma has always loved books, but now, she can't seem to get enough of them. I think on Saturday, she brought me at least 75% of the books off her bookshelf and we read the first page of every one. Generally, she brings us several books a night to read. She really enjoys pointing different items out and repeating words or animal sounds. One of her current favorites is Peek a Who? When prompted, she repeats that a cow says Moo!, a ghost says Boo!, a train goes Choo Choo!, and can point out several of the animals on the Zoo! page -- her favorite is the jaguar and she recently learned how to make a ssss sound for a snake.

Emma loves going down to the basement. There are all kinds of fun things to do there....like take DVDs off the shelf, or climb onto the futon to reach the xbox to turn it on, or see if the laundry room or office door is open and get into something there. She is a big fan of pushing/pulling her wagon around --I think it makes her feel big to be able to do it.

Emma watches Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer. Luckily, she mostly just likes to have them on in the background. She rarely just sits and watches. Usually she is playing or bringing books to us during the show. She lets us know when she wants to watch them by trying to climb over the couches to the remote controls or pointing to the TV and saying either Blue or Dora. She sometimes will use sign language --dancing-- to indicate that she wants to watch Blue's Clues. At the end of Blue's Clues, she will stop whatever she is doing, stand up and wave and say Bye! to the tv. Super cute.

The other day, Emma's caretaker at daycare told me, "Emma is so smart. She is also in charge of this room. All the kids look to her to see what to do." We're still not sure if this is good or bad. We're leaning towards that probably means she's the instigator. (Obviously, her father's child!)

Emma is babbling up a storm. It's so cute to hear her trying to hold a conversation. She'll just look at us and talk and we can tell she's trying to say or ask something. In the car on the way home from daycare, I'll ask how her day was and she'll babble a couple sentences.

After we get her dressed in the morning or after her bath at night, Emma will stand up, reach out and then lean over to us and give us the biggest tightest hugs ever. It makes our hearts so happy!

There are probably a million other things I could write, but I think this blog is long enough. I'll catch up more later this week or over the weekend.

Guilty?

Emma loves taking all the DVD cases off the shelves in the basement. She also loves climbing in her wagon. This is what I came downstairs to on Saturday morning:

Favorite Toy of the Weekend

On Saturday morning, Emma decided that a laundry basket was to be her favorite toy all weekend. She quickly maneuvered it through the door and then proceeded to push it down the steps before following it down. She had fun putting toys in it as well as climbing in it herself to play. Her favorite activity was for us to shake the basket back and forth for her. She laughed hysterically when we said "Time to shake the baby!" (Don't worry, we were gentle!)

More fun with friends

On Saturday, we stopped over to a friends' house in the afternoon. Emma had a great time playing with Catherine who is 10 days older than Emma and Tyler who is 10 months old. Emma and Catherine had a lot of fun filling red dixie cups up with ice from the coolers. Emma tried to take the game to the next level by taking beer bottles out of the coolers, lining them up on the deck and then putting them back in. We quickly put a stop to this (although we did let her play with Sprite cans, which she had fun distributing to empty chairs on the deck...you know, as a gift for the next person who wanted to sit there.) The girls played great together, although they did fight over a red dixie cup a few times (I think Emma was the instigator of these fights) luckily, just adding in another cup seemed to solve the issue.

Emma also had fun sharing a cup with Tyler and even going to pick it up when it fell to the ground and returning it to him. :)

Emma and Lydia

On Friday evening, we visited with a friends from Germany who are in town. We had a great time catching up with Dan, Kristi, and their 7 month old, Lydia. We actually met Lydia right after she was born and right before we returned to the US in January. We were so excited to see them and see how much Lydia has grown in the last 7 months!

Emma had a wonderful time playing with Lydia. She shared her toys very well although she didn't quite get that Lydia doesn't play the same way Emma does. When Kurt brought Emma's jumperoo up, he said Emma's face lit up and then got very confused why Lydia got to go in it and she didn't. Luckily, there weren't any tantrums over it! Emma did insist on getting in it a few times....which was hysterical since we had it on the lowest setting and she couldn't jump in it.



The best part of the evening was when we got Lydia to laugh and were tickling her a little bit. Emma joined in and was so proud of herself when Lydia laughed. Emma was surprisingly gentle for a while, but I did take her away when she started to get a little out more rambunctious. I know she wouldn't mean to harm Lydia, but I was worried that she might get carried away and accidentally pinch her.

It wasn't me!

Earlier this evening, Emma brought the little travel alarm clock I have on my nightstand down to the living room and left it in the middle of the floor. While she was eating a snack before bathtime, Kurt happened to find it and came out to the kitchen to ask, "Emma, how did Mommy's clock get down stairs?" Emma responded with a perfect shoulder shrug and I don't know sound then looked and sort of pointed at me pretty much saying I don't know, why don't you ask Mommy? It was priceless!

*sigh* We're going to be in trouble in a few years!

Time

This morning, I was holding Emma in the kitchen so she could point out what she wanted for a snack. She pointed at the clock on the microwave. I showed her that the hour said 8 and told her that I was going to put a clock in her room and that she wasn't supposed to wake up before 8. I asked if that was ok. She shook her head no and said very clearly "Six!" Kurt and I just looked at each other and started laughing hysterically which made Emma very proud of herself and caused her to join in as well.

There have been a few times that Emma has said something that sounds exactly like what the response to a statement or question should be. But she's only 14 months old, so that's completely not possible She decidedly does not know that 6 am comes before 8 am....she won't even sit still long enough for me to point out what the numbers 1, 2, and 3 are let alone 6, 7, and 8!

At any rate, I can pretty much guarantee that she won't be sleeping in any time soon!

Big girl bed!

Kurt came home on Tuesday after picking Emma up and asked, "Did you know that Emma sleeps on a cot for naps at daycare?" I was completely surprised by this and said that I didn't. He said that apparently she's been on a cot now for about 2 weeks! I guess they forgot to mention it to us which is why we were so surprised!

When I picked Emma up on Wednesday, I asked how they put her down because surely, my little mover and shaker would never willingly go lay down on a cot for nap time! They said they just hold her for about 5 minutes and pat her back and she just goes down. Huh. Imagine that! Maybe we will try that here on weekends since it takes forever to get her to go down for a nap!

We can't believe how big our little girl is getting!

Blueberry Picnic

This past weekend, Emma and I drove up to my parents on Friday for the weekend. Kurt had to be at work on Friday, so he joined us Saturday morning. Emma was an absolutely awesome travel buddy! We only had to stop once for a diaper change and a snack. We stopped at a McDonalds and I got a breakfast sandwich and Emma had a banana. She did great on the changing table (Emma fights changes at home, so I'm always a little worried when I'm alone and in public restrooms with her), stood right by me while I ordered, and had a lot of fun sitting in the booth beside me eating and waving to people on their way into the restaurant. She even got right back into her carseat without a fuss!

When we got to Mom and Dad's she went right to Grammy and gave her a hug! She did the same when Grandpa got home that afternoon too. She was also excited to see the dogs, and warmed up to them quicker than the last time we were there. She had fun wandering around a couple furniture stores while Grammy tried to pick out a new chair and even picked one out for herself that Grammy ended up buying for her. It's the cutest little rocking chair. She had fun climbing up into it all weekend and reading her nursery rhyme book.

We also stopped at the store where Grammy works and she spent a fair amount of time taking toy ring stackers off the shelf, lining them up perfectly, and then putting them back on the shelf when we asked her to! Such a smart little girl!

That evening, she played with water on patio furniture and had a grand time wetting her hands and making hand prints. When the water dried a bit, she figured out how to press her sippy cup just right so that water would come out of the spout. Such a smart little trouble maker! 

On Saturday, family and friends came over for the blueberry picnic. Emma even learned how to pick ripe berries and eat them! She thought they were yummy, but I'm not convinced she actually chewed them to taste them! She had a lot of fun meeting new family and running around the yard, climbing on chairs and coolers, playing in icy cooler water, and getting lots of attention from everyone!

We headed home on Sunday and Emma was a great little travel buddy again. We stopped a couple times for change and snack breaks but she willingly got back into her carseat every time! Similar to her reaction when we got back home from the 4th weekend, she was very happy to be back in her own living room with all her toys.

4th of July

Emma celebrated the 4th of July in the U.S. this year! (And she was much more active than she was last year!) We spent a relaxing long weekend at Kurt's parents house where Emma got to run around in a big yard, look at fishies in the creek, be intrigued by her first camp fire, eat cookies whenever she wanted (she WAS at Grandma and Grandpa's house afterall!), and pretty much have any one of at least 10 people's attention whenever she wanted. It was a 13 month old's dream come true! And all while that was going on, Mommy and Daddy got some time to relax and even go out to dinner without Emma for the first time in the States!

Funny stories from the weekend:
We arrived at Kurt's parents' house just before lunch and nap time on Friday. After lunch, we just put Emma down for her nap on the bed in Kurt's room, which is in the basement, since we hadn't unpacked and set up her pack and play yet. We all go off to do our own things for a bit, Kurt gets on the computer, I read in the living room, Kurt's Dad is cooking in the kitchen for the party. The house is pretty much silent. After an hour or so, he thinks he hears something and goes over to the basement steps and there is Emma, half way up the staircase. Apparently, she woke up, climbed off the bed, and figured we were all upstairs and was coming to look for us! We were all amazed that she wasn't scared at all and knew exactly how to find us!

Grandma and Grandpa bought a little kiddie wading pool for Emma. We were all excited to get her into her swim suit and put her in it to play. She on the other hand, did not think that was a great idea! We finally coaxed her into it but she would only stand. She was playing with a toy and got water on her tummy and started bawling. For the rest of the weekend, she would only play on the outside of the pool. Finally, late on the 4th, she did get back in for a few minutes.

We bought Emma a booster seat while we were in Pennsylvania. She was SO excited! She initially showed interest in a friends' booster seat a couple weeks earlier and we put it on our list of things to look for. Since we were visiting, we thought it would be a good time to get it so that she could have her own seat. She feels like such a big girl in the seat!

On Sunday morning, we met up with the entire extended family for breakfast. We ended up going back to the house for a few hours afterward. We could tell that Emma was severely disappointed that we weren't staying in the car and heading right home. Although she enjoys visiting and seeing family, she was more than ready to get back into her own house with her own toys and back into her normal routine. She went to the front door a couple times and said "Go." When we arrived back at our house, we set her down in the living room and she just looked at her corner of toys and said "Woah!" and "Wow!" She took it all in for a minute then ran up to her chair, climbed in and just sat there for several minutes admiring her toys and her living room. I wish I had been recording the scene! It was so cute!

Vocabulary

Emma's vocabulary seems to be growing in leaps and bounds daily. She experiments with new sounds and tries to repeat what we say more and more frequently. Although she sometimes can't (or won't) say some words, she defintely knows what objects are called and will point them out to us.

Just last night, I got out a bowl for dinner and she pointed and said "bowl". I just looked at her. Kurt said he told her what a bowl was earlier in the day and she remembered.

Also last night, Kurt was reading Peek-a-who to Emma and pointing out all the animals on the Zoo page. When he said jaguar, she repeated it. I was in the kitchen doing dishes at the time and walked to the living room to ask if she just said jaguar, they both smiled and Kurt said, I think so! Later, I was reading the same book to her, and worked with her to say Boo! I could see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to figure out how to move her mouth to get the right sound to come out. She didn't say a peep until she was sure she was going to make the right sound...not buh, but boo. It was really neat to watch!

Over the weekend, I was trying to get her to point to her nose. I said something like "I have a nose, where is Emma's nose?" She said "Eye!" and pointed to her eye instead. =)

She has also clearly said cup, book, and cheese recently. She's working on making shoes a little more clear. I think there are a few more, but I can't think of them right now.

WWF

Incase you didn't know (even after reading the last post), Emma is a very physical kid. A few weeks ago, Emma started doing some wrestling moves on us whenever we would lay down on the floor. I think, generally, they're meant to be hugs and kisses that just get a little out of control, especially when a few tickles from Mommy and Daddy are thrown into the mix! There have been a few times that she has come running over and executed a perfect flying drop elbow to my windpipe. (Not too sure about the technical term for that move) Mostly we try to tell her to be gentle and calm down, but have so much fun tickling and rolling around that I'm not sure it does much good. Emma absolutely loves this time before bath. She laughs so hard and has so much fun, it makes us so happy to see her so happy!

Our Little Monkey

Emma is becoming quite the climber. She loves climbing up onto her little bench, sitting in chairs, and trying to get onto the couch. She can skedadle up the steps in no time flat. At the playground, she will specifically choose the hardest way to get up onto the platform that leads to the slide so that she has to climb up instead of walk up. We'll suggest the smaller steps and she looks at us like "I'm no baby, I can get up this way!" On Sunday, she decided to jump down from one small landing to the ground while holding onto a railing...she hung on for a split second, but I could see a look in her eye that said, hmm hanging might be fun! She also has a lot of fun with Daddy who taught her how to walk UP the slide after she slides down it. She has also taken to holding my hands and trying to "walk" up my legs to get me to pick her up.

Although she has recently started trying to get out of her high chair when she's finished eating, so far there are no indications that she wants to try climbing out of her crib; although I really wouldn't be too surprised if she did just walk into our bedroom some night.

June Pictures are Posted

While going through June's pictures, we realized that we've been slacking a little on pulling out the camera. In our defense, it's getting increasingly harder to get good pictures of Emma because she just doesn't stand, sit, or stay still in any fashion. There are a good deal of pictures that are blurs or her just running toward the camera when she sees that we're trying to get a picture of her. (She loves looking at the LCD to see herself in the picture that was just taken).

Emma in June

 

13 months!

Emma is 13 months old today! It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating her birthday!

She is getting much quicker and starting to run. She especially likes running after dogs. She is very intrigued by dogs, but doesn't like to get too close.

We think it's funny that she has just learned how to crawl, in probably the last month or so. She likes being able to explore and get to small places or into corners that she's not supposed to get into.

She can't climb up onto the couch yet, but tries very hard every day. At this point, it's just a matter of time. Once on the couch, she makes her way to the arm to try to climb up on the end table and get the remote controls or the xbox controller.

She is a pro at climbing stairs and is relatively proficient at coming down. (We still pay close attention to coming down, but tend not to worry when she climbs up)

She is starting to talk a bit more. She says "bubble" very clearly as well as "Dora" when she wants to watch Dora the Explorer. We've also heard "book" and "cheese" in addition to yes, no, mama, and dada that she's been using for a while.

She knows what most of her toys are and will bring them to you if asked (unless of course she doesn't want to) and can point out objects in books as well as trees outside.

She is getting very opinionated on what she wants to eat when. In the morning, we offer her 3 choices for breakfast: oatmeal, cheerios and milk, or a banana. She lets us know if she wants milk or water. She also goes to either the pantry or refrigerator to pick out snacks.

She loves giving us hugs and kisses. If we ask for a kiss and she doesn't want to kiss us, she'll lean her head forward so that we can kiss her forehead.

She is growing up before our eyes! Every few days one of us will say, "Emma looks older today."

New Routine

For several weeks now, Emma has been so excited to learn new things that we simply must start our day around 5am (or earlier). As you can imagine, Mom and Dad are not quite as excited about this. We tried several approaches, from letting her fuss (which turned into crying) to trying to rock her back to sleep to trying to bring her to bed with us...nothing worked. Emma was wide awake and raring to go! ...until about 8am when she's ready for a nap as well as long afternoon naps at daycare. It's been a long few weeks.

Today, Emma's caregivers suggested that it might be time for Emma to go to one long nap in the day and push her bedtime back a bit so that she sleeps in a bit longer in the morning for us. We're up for trying anything, so we're going to try lunch at 11 followed by napping from 1130 to 130 and then in the evening bath time at 800 followed by bed at 830. We'll let you know how it goes! 

Taking care of Baby

This morning Emma woke up entirely too early. How early you ask...early enough that she took a nap before Kurt was ready to take her to daycare and head to work. *Sigh* Anyway, that is not the point of this post. The point is what she did after she woke up.

Kurt said she sat up on the couch, slid down by herself and immediately found her new baby doll and hugged it. She then carried it to the kitchen, opened a drawer to find a measuring cup for semi-solids and brought it back to the living room along with Baby doll. She then sat down and "fed" Baby doll with the "bottle." (The measuring cup is white and sort of resembles the baby bottle that came with one of her baby dolls. She does keep the bottle in her kitchen drawer, but mustn't have been able to find it this morning.)

Too cute! I wish I was here to see it!

Pickles Please!

This evening, Emma wandered around the kitchen grunting the noise that means she's hungry and randomly waving her hand in random directions. I picked her up and asked if she wanted something in the refridgerator, she said yes. But she didn't want her milk cup. And I said she wasn't allowed to have any wine. Finally, I asked if she was pointing at the jar of pickles. She emphatically said yes. I didn't even know she knew what pickles were but she saw Kurt eating a pickle a few minutes earlier and decided that she needed one too. She enjoyed a half of a spear and probably would have eaten the whole spear if we gave it to her!

Emma the Trendsetter

I was discussing Emma's day today with her teacher when Emma went to the door and started banging on it, indicating that it was time to leave. Not more than 30 seconds later, she had 3 other kids in her class banging on the door with her. Emma's teacher told us today that Emma is the trendsetter of the classroom. We're pretty sure those are kind words for "Your child is an instigator."

Outside is Outstanding!

Emma love love LOVES being outside. On more than one occasion her need to be outside has resulted in a tantrum. She lets us know it's time to play outside by going to either the front or back door and hitting it. She also lets us know by pushing either her stroller or wagon around the sunroom (where they are kept when we're not using them).

Tonight, Kurt is out playing cards so Emma and I were on our own. When we got home, I put an Elmo movie on so that I could get dinner ready (usually, one of us gets dinner and the other one plays with Emma)without her hanging on my legs and tripping me. After dinner, she went back to the living room and was happily playing and watching Elmo while I cleaned up. I walked into the living room and asked, "Emma would you like to go outside?" She was immediately on her feet saying "OOHHH!" with a very excited look on her face.

We walked over to the playground in our development and Emma had fun climbing on the toys. She has mastered climbing up onto the platforms and loves the slide. She has learned how to walk up to the top of the slide just far enough to sit down before pushing herself to get going. It is VERY cute!

There are two sets of slides on the equipment at our playground. A little slide and then a bigger slide complete with a bump in the middle. Until early this week, Emma was only interested in the little slide which was great because I could be up on the platform with her and then jump down and get to the bottom of the slide in about 3 seconds. One evening Kurt and I were both at the playground with her and she wanted to go down the big slide and had a lot of fun! Tonight, she wanted nothing to do with the little slide and only wanted to slide down the big one. The first time, I was able to get down to the bottom of the slide before she pushed off to catch her. The second time, she must have thought she really is a big kid because she didn't wait for me before she pushed off, even though I was telling her over and over, "Wait for Mommy, Wait for Mommy!"  As you might have guessed, she flew down the slide and off the end. Luckily the playground is layered with woodchips so it was a pretty soft landing. She was mostly scared but finished crying and was up climbing again in about 30 seconds.

Although sometimes it's rough when we can't go outside when the weather is bad, we're really thankful that Emma enjoys being outside so much!

Tantrums

A few days before her birthday, Emma had her first throw herself on the floor kicking and screaming tantrum. I had to check the calendar to make sure I didn't lose a year, and that she wasn't turning 2 instead of 1.

Emma finished her dinner before Kurt and I and asked to get out of her highchair. She immediately went to the sliding door and started banging on it. After being reprimanded, she started crying and pointing outside. We tried explaining to her that as soon as we were finished with dinner, we would go outside. As any of you who have 12 month olds know, there is no reasoning with a 1 year old since they haven't developed the capability to reason yet. As a result, Emma yelled and kicked for about 15 minutes before we were ready to take her out. *sigh* Once we were outside and she was strapped into her wagon, she was as happy and smiley as a lark in springtime.

Earlier this week, Kurt had a late meeting and wasn't home in time for dinner. About half way through dinner, Emma asked to get down and went to the bottom of the stairs and started yelling and crying. I asked what was wrong which brought on more tears and yelling. I thought I heard a "dada-dada" and asked if she wanted Daddy. She nodded yes. I tried to explain that he wasn't home yet but would be soon. She didn't believe me and just kept pointing upstairs. I took her upstairs and she pointed to our bedroom and when I showed her that he wasn't in there, she proceeded to point to every room on the 2nd floor. She was NOT a happy kid when I took her back to the living room and we still hadn't found Daddy! Luckily, I was able to distract her by getting her interested in going to the playground until Kurt got home!

We have the feeling that until she can communicate with words, that her tantrums will get more frequent so we're trying to be more perceptive to how she's feeling (hungry, bored, tired, etc) to try to avoid more of them.

Emma is 1!

Emma had a fantastic birthday weekend! Saturday, her actual birthday, Grammy, Grandpa, and Uncles Jim and Dave came down to visit. Emma had fun opening her rocking horse from Uncle Jim and her hand-sewn narwhal from Uncle Dave. She also enjoyed a couple pieces of funnel cake from the local fireman's picnic after dinner. She was not a fan of Grammy's ice cream though.

On Sunday, Emma was baptized. Through the beginning of the church service, Emma had fun being passed from family member to family member. (Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Rachel met us there...so there were a lot of people to go to!) At the beginning of the baptism, the Pastor was addressing us and Emma just looked at him and waved and smiled. The Pastor told us later that she melted his heart right then and there. Emma was good through out the baptism and only squirmed a little bit.

After church, more family and friends came to our house for lunch and cake to celebrate. Emma had a great time playing with friends and seeing family members. She was interested in every gift she received and is having fun playing with all her new toys. Emma was very excited for the Elmo cake that Grammy made her. After everyone sang Happy Birthday, and Mommy blowing out the candle, the first thing Emma did was pop one of Elmo's eyes into her mouth. The second eye quickly followed it. When she started trying to grab handfuls of cake, we swapped Elmo out with a cupcake which was quickly smashed all over. Emma definitely enjoyed her cake! Luckily Grandma C. was close by to clean Emma up! =)

Even though she only had one nap all day and that was for about 15 minutes, Emma was a happy little girl all day long. As she was finishing dinner around 5:15, she got really tired so we decided to do a really early bath time. The poor little girl fell asleep as soon as Kurt laid her down to wash her hair in the bathtub! She looked so peaceful; it was precious! We were able to finish her bath and get her dressed and put to bed with out her making a peep! She slept straight through until 5:15 the next morning!

Emma had a great 1st birthday and we enjoyed seeing everyone that was able to make it. We look forward to seeing everyone that couldn't make it later on this summer!