Emma has been picking things up left and right lately. One of the things we've been working on is animal sounds. When asked what a puppy dog says, Emma responds with heavy panting. It is adorable and cracks us up every time! She learned this from a McDonald's toy dog that pants and barks when his paw is pressed. Emma has a book with a cow in it. When prompted, she will repeat that a cow says "Moo." Just tonight, Kurt was reading Emma her Animal Baby book and made an elephant sound. Emma's version wasn't quite an elephant, but it was pretty close!
This afternoon, Emma and I were playing and I asked her if she could bring me her pink puppy dog, a toy she hasn't played with in a couple days. I repeated the request 2 or 3 times and she got up from my lap and brought over her big stuffed pink dog. I then asked her where one of her yellow duckies was. She looked around but didn't see it, I pointed towards a pile of toys and she got a look of recognition on her face, walked over and picked the yellow duck from the pile of toys.
We're so impressed that Emma seems to pick things up quickly and are trying to be more descriptive using colors, shapes, and numbers, hoping that she'll pick up these concepts too.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Using a Fork is less messy right?
Tonight I used a fork to feed Emma her dinner. Towards the end of the meal, when she started playing with the food more than she was actually eating it, she took the fork in her left hand and grabbed a handful of beans in her right hand and proceeded to try to put the beans onto the fork so she could eat them. It was adorable! I tried showing her how to stab at the beans, but she only wanted to use both her hands, which sort of negates using the fork in the first place. =)
Teacher's Helper
One of the caregivers at daycare told me today that Emma is a little teacher's helper. She's always near a teacher trying to help them. Her favorite thing to do is help kids go to sleep by shaking their cribs.
Now we know where she learned to shake the baby gate!!
Now we know where she learned to shake the baby gate!!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Learning New Things
At 10.5 months, Emma is becoming a little person more and more. Emma demonstrated this in several ways just in the past week.
On Saturday morning, Kurt was getting Emma's breakfast ready and Emma said "nana." He didn't think anything of it until around her morning snack time when I asked if she was hungry and she said "nana" again. She wanted a banana! She was very excited when I started cutting up a banana for her. This is the first food that Emma has distinguished using words. Recently, whenever she gets hungry she makes a "MMMM" sound or says "Mom." To her, this probably means food since I was the sole provider of food for 6 months! How exciting that she is starting to be able to communicate with words what she wants/needs!
During diaper changes, we usually have tickle time before we get Emma dressed again. On Sunday, as Kurt was changing Emma, she reached out and tickled his stomach! She was so proud of herself when he laughed in response!
The other night, we planned to skype with Kurt's parents following dinner. As we wrapped up dinner, we asked Emma if she wanted to talk to Grandma and Grandpa. She immediately turned the laptop and smiled!
When we visited family in late January-early February, Emma's uncles were very disappointed that Emma didn't know how to high five. She was 8 months old afterall! We worked with her on that for about 20 minutes and she's been able to high five ever since. We high five a lot....whenever Emma does anything cool...which is often! We've also been working with her to start waving. Her daycare providers also wave a lot. She has been very timid about it and would just open and close her hand down at waist level so you could barely see it. Lately though, it's been getting higher and higher and more pronounced. It's really cute to watch. Today, as we were leaving daycare, she even waved to a little girl.
Yesterday, we got Emma a wagon that we can use for walks so she doesn't have to sit in her stroller all the time. We think that she will like more room and enjoy looking around a bit more. Since Emma had a 2 second ride in the living room last evening and liked it,we were excited to take her outside in it this afternoon. She LOVED it! She liked feeling the wind in her hair and being able to turn around to look at things we were passing.
This evening, in between tantrums (see previous post), Emma decided to climb the stairs.The first time, I helped her get her footing and she made it up 4 stairs. The second time, Kurt went to the landing and told Emma to come to him. She made it up all 5 stairs with very minimal help from me! I know our lives will be forever changed once she masters stairs, but it's so exciting watch her figure things out!
On Saturday morning, Kurt was getting Emma's breakfast ready and Emma said "nana." He didn't think anything of it until around her morning snack time when I asked if she was hungry and she said "nana" again. She wanted a banana! She was very excited when I started cutting up a banana for her. This is the first food that Emma has distinguished using words. Recently, whenever she gets hungry she makes a "MMMM" sound or says "Mom." To her, this probably means food since I was the sole provider of food for 6 months! How exciting that she is starting to be able to communicate with words what she wants/needs!
During diaper changes, we usually have tickle time before we get Emma dressed again. On Sunday, as Kurt was changing Emma, she reached out and tickled his stomach! She was so proud of herself when he laughed in response!
The other night, we planned to skype with Kurt's parents following dinner. As we wrapped up dinner, we asked Emma if she wanted to talk to Grandma and Grandpa. She immediately turned the laptop and smiled!
When we visited family in late January-early February, Emma's uncles were very disappointed that Emma didn't know how to high five. She was 8 months old afterall! We worked with her on that for about 20 minutes and she's been able to high five ever since. We high five a lot....whenever Emma does anything cool...which is often! We've also been working with her to start waving. Her daycare providers also wave a lot. She has been very timid about it and would just open and close her hand down at waist level so you could barely see it. Lately though, it's been getting higher and higher and more pronounced. It's really cute to watch. Today, as we were leaving daycare, she even waved to a little girl.
Yesterday, we got Emma a wagon that we can use for walks so she doesn't have to sit in her stroller all the time. We think that she will like more room and enjoy looking around a bit more. Since Emma had a 2 second ride in the living room last evening and liked it,we were excited to take her outside in it this afternoon. She LOVED it! She liked feeling the wind in her hair and being able to turn around to look at things we were passing.
This evening, in between tantrums (see previous post), Emma decided to climb the stairs.The first time, I helped her get her footing and she made it up 4 stairs. The second time, Kurt went to the landing and told Emma to come to him. She made it up all 5 stairs with very minimal help from me! I know our lives will be forever changed once she masters stairs, but it's so exciting watch her figure things out!
To sleep or not to sleep....
Emma answered that question last night with a decided "Not to sleep." I think all 3 of us were equally frustrated by it.
Let's back up and start at the beginning. We had a great day. Emma was an angel at church, had fun eating lunch, and enjoyed grocery shopping and running errands with us in the afternoon. We ended up being out a little later than we expected and Emma was STARVING when we got home. Dinner time ran late and before we knew it, we were just starting bath time when Emma is normally asleep.
At first, Emma acted completely normal. In fact, you wouldn't have even known it was after 7 just by watching her (usually we can tell that it's about 655 without even looking at a clock by her demeanor ). Unfortunately, though, she was very wound up and would not settle down after her bath. I tried everything, more stories, more snuggles, snuggles in Mommy's bed* but nothing worked. Finally, I put her in her crib and decided to let her cry it out. Emma immediately flipped onto her stomach, stood up and took a step to the head of her crib. I heard her giggle and all of a sudden she turned and with lightening speed attempted to run the length of her crib. She did great, until she tripped on her blanket and face planted against the foot board. After many minutes of soothing, I thought she would lay down and fall asleep. I was wrong. She tried the exact same trick....and ended up with the exact same outcome. *sigh*
*Snuggles in Mommy's bed was really just 30 minutes of trampoline time for Emma. She would stand up, try to walk, fall down, laugh, roll over a few times and start all over. Very fun.
At this point, Daddy tried to take over. Unfortunately, he did not have much luck. We brought her to the living room thinking, maybe she'll zone out if we're both relaxing and watching tv. All she wanted to do was run around and play. Probably around 9 tears began....and pretty much didn't stop until Kurt finally got her to sleep (or she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion) around 1130!
She was up at 3 am and again at 6 am. She looked exhausted, but didn't even take super long naps today. She was pretty fussy tonight, but enjoyed her first wagon ride and stair climbing(more about that in the next post) before passing out before 7! Here's hoping she sleeps all night and our little Emma wakes up with smiles in the morning!
We've learned our lesson...don't mess with a baby's schedule or you will pay!!
Let's back up and start at the beginning. We had a great day. Emma was an angel at church, had fun eating lunch, and enjoyed grocery shopping and running errands with us in the afternoon. We ended up being out a little later than we expected and Emma was STARVING when we got home. Dinner time ran late and before we knew it, we were just starting bath time when Emma is normally asleep.
At first, Emma acted completely normal. In fact, you wouldn't have even known it was after 7 just by watching her (usually we can tell that it's about 655 without even looking at a clock by her demeanor ). Unfortunately, though, she was very wound up and would not settle down after her bath. I tried everything, more stories, more snuggles, snuggles in Mommy's bed* but nothing worked. Finally, I put her in her crib and decided to let her cry it out. Emma immediately flipped onto her stomach, stood up and took a step to the head of her crib. I heard her giggle and all of a sudden she turned and with lightening speed attempted to run the length of her crib. She did great, until she tripped on her blanket and face planted against the foot board. After many minutes of soothing, I thought she would lay down and fall asleep. I was wrong. She tried the exact same trick....and ended up with the exact same outcome. *sigh*
*Snuggles in Mommy's bed was really just 30 minutes of trampoline time for Emma. She would stand up, try to walk, fall down, laugh, roll over a few times and start all over. Very fun.
At this point, Daddy tried to take over. Unfortunately, he did not have much luck. We brought her to the living room thinking, maybe she'll zone out if we're both relaxing and watching tv. All she wanted to do was run around and play. Probably around 9 tears began....and pretty much didn't stop until Kurt finally got her to sleep (or she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion) around 1130!
She was up at 3 am and again at 6 am. She looked exhausted, but didn't even take super long naps today. She was pretty fussy tonight, but enjoyed her first wagon ride and stair climbing(more about that in the next post) before passing out before 7! Here's hoping she sleeps all night and our little Emma wakes up with smiles in the morning!
We've learned our lesson...don't mess with a baby's schedule or you will pay!!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter!
We took Emma to meet the Easter Bunny yesterday. We were a little worried that she would be scared and cry while sitting on his lap, but she completely surprised us! Luckily, there was no one behind us, so we were able to take our time. We let Emma walk up to the Bunny by herself. At first she approached timidly, but was completely interested in him. The closer she got, the more enamored she became. It was really cute. After she met him for a minute or two, I asked if she would sit on his lap and picked her up. She thought it was the coolest thing ever! When we finished with pictures, we walked her away, but she wanted to go back! After a group of kids finished, we let her walk back up to "talk" to Bunny some more.
After leaving the Bunny, Emma held our hands and walked through the mall a little bit. We let her play in a kid's play area for a bit. Unfortunately, there were big, rambunctious kids playing tag in the area which made all 3 of us nervous so we didn't stay for very long. Emma also had fun running and laughing through the towel section of JC Penney's before we left the mall.
This morning was Emma's first Easter morning. She had fun looking through her basket and thought that the plastic Easter eggs were the best thing in it. She also enjoyed shaking a bag of dried apple pieces
like it was a maraca. Unfortunately, she didn't really care about the stuffed lamb, bunny ears, or the shape sorter.
Emma in her Easter dress
After leaving the Bunny, Emma held our hands and walked through the mall a little bit. We let her play in a kid's play area for a bit. Unfortunately, there were big, rambunctious kids playing tag in the area which made all 3 of us nervous so we didn't stay for very long. Emma also had fun running and laughing through the towel section of JC Penney's before we left the mall.
This morning was Emma's first Easter morning. She had fun looking through her basket and thought that the plastic Easter eggs were the best thing in it. She also enjoyed shaking a bag of dried apple pieces
like it was a maraca. Unfortunately, she didn't really care about the stuffed lamb, bunny ears, or the shape sorter.
Emma in her Easter dress
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