Emma at 15 Months

Emma has definitely been enjoying the warm weather and loves being outdoors.  She is a very movement-oriented girl, and has a ton of energy.  She stomps her foot when she is mad and when she runs, tucks her chin to her chest and bulldozes full speed ahead.  She loves climbing and the only thing stopping her from serious injury is her height and our constant vigilance.  This past month she learned how to climb into the bathtub by herself which definitely freaked us out.  We were filling the tub up for a bath when Emma decided that she just couldn't wait any longer and hiked herself up and over, landing head first into the water.  You would think this would teach her to not climb into the tub, but it hasn't stopped her.  She also learned how to climb up onto the dining room chairs, which actually was a gateway to her next accomplishment - the kitchen table.  Here she is below getting ready to climb the next mountain.

It has been super hot this month.  The girls and I went to the beach with some friends to stay cool and had a great time.  It was Emma's first time this summer experiencing sand and she was okay with it as long as I kept her sandals on.  After a while she got used to feel of sand and demanded her sandals off.  There was no stopping her after that!  By the time we came home there was sand in nooks and crannies I didn't even know existed!

We also went to the zoo this past month, and had a great experience with the chimpanzee exhibit.  There was a baby chimpanzee the same size as Emma and it was like the world stood still as the two checked each other out.  The baby monkey started showing off for Emma and we were highly entertained.  I'm really not sure what Emma thought of this, but you could tell she was definitely trying to figure out why the baby was so hairy.  Also, as you can see in the below picture, Emma had a death grip on her sippy cup - she was not about to share!

Here Emma is below in the butterfly house.  She was mesmerized with all of the fluttering butterflies.

Emma also enjoyed the fountain at the zoo where she loved pointing and yelling "DUCK!"  Here she is below with her classic smile for the camera pose - squinting her eyes shut tight so the flash doesn't get them!

Friends of ours daughter is just a couple of months older than Emma.  This past month they have both 'noticed' each other, and have started interacting together.  Their first conversation went something like this at the dinner table:

Chloe, touching her food said, "Hot!"

Emma, surprised at the fact that she understood what the little person next to her said, responded with, "Hot!"

Chloe, smiling that the little person next to her seems to speak the same language she does, replied with "Hot!"

Emma, pleased that the little person next to her understood what she said, responded with "Hot!"

This went on for several minutes and I think they are BFF's now.  Here they are below on a different day, intently putting wood chips on the see saw together.

I haven't had the heart to tell Emma that her BFF is moving to Japan this week and will be gone for a year.  The good news is that Emma and Chloe can be each other's first Skype Pals!

Emma's vocabulary highlights include:

-"Boon" for balloon

-"Truck" anytime she sees or hears one go by

-"Boom" whenever we set her down or she crashes into something
-"Hmm Hmm" - which I guess isn't really a word, but she makes this sound whenever she wants something - toy, food, water, etc.  It reminds me of the King of Queens episode where Doug's boss says "whoo whoo" to indicate that he wants the swoosh ball tossed to him.

-She calls Lucy "Sister" now

-"Hank Ew" for thank you

-And Lucy's favorite, "Poop".  We discovered this new word after it rolled out of her diaper and onto the floor during a diaper change.  I set Emma on the ground so that I could go and get the proper disinfectants to handle the bio hazard spill and that's when she spotted it on the floor.  Her eyes went wide with surprise and she pointed and said, "Poop!"  I'm just glad that this otherwise yucky situation turned into a great new word that has given Lucy endless giggles and laughs.

Speaking of poop, Emma has been having bad diaper rash this month from us being bad parents and giving her dairy.  She is dairy sensitive and when she has it her butt gets super inflamed.  I have been trying to let her have some time every day with no diaper so that the air can help heal the rash.  Will came home from work the other day and picked Emma up, not  realizing that she was sans diaper until he demanded to know why I was practically rolling on the floor laughing or why I took a picture of him rummaging in the fridge.  He claims his arm hair kept him from feeling the bare butt cheeks on his arm.

 Not that it would matter if his baby had a diaper on or not - Will adores Emma and I believe the feeling is mutual.  Will went upstairs to put Emma down for a nap the other day and after some time passed and he hadn't returned downstairs I went to investigate.  I found them both asleep on the floor.  Fortunately, my camera flashes only woke Will up and Emma was able to finish out the rest of her nap while Will became quite conscious of an aching neck and reduced airflow to his windpipe.

 Emma's last molar came in this month and as long as we remember to keep the dairy away from her she has been sleeping really good.  Now we just need to work on getting Emma to stay quiet when she wakes up at 6:00 a.m. because that is too early for Sister who doesn't have the mood benefit of two naps to keep her happy till bedtime.

Here Emma is below, taking some time out from her busy life at 15 months old to smell the flowers!

Emma at 13 Months

The other night while Emma was running around upstairs in her birthday suit, Will and I looked at each other and decided that one is a really fun age.  It brought back memories of Lucy at this age and we feel very blessed to experience it all again.  What a bonus!  The utter joy on Emma's face as she ran around diaper-free made us laugh so hard it hurt.  I could watch her all day long, running around naked.  Or at least until I had to clean up the carpet.

The following is the clothed version of what our little one year old has been up to this month.

Emma is very active and is constantly on the move.  She loves spinning around and around to music and she loves throwing and chasing after a ball.  She loves chasing and being chased with Lucy.  In case you are wondering, Emma is holding a fake knife from the play kitchen in the below picture.  She was chasing Lucy while brandishing the knife over her head, but by the time I found the camera, the tables had turned and Emma had turned into the chase-e, even though she was still holding the weapon.  Yup, when subsequent children run with fake knives, we take pictures.

Emma loves climbing.  She can climb to the top of the slide in our backyard, can climb up the heating register to look out the window while she clings pull up style to the window sill and she also loves climbing on top of the Little Tikes picnic table as well.  Here she is below, after she climbed into Lucy's new doll wagon.  Seconds later she started jumping in it, the wagon started to move, and she fell out.  She tends to curl into a little ball when she falls though, and usually falls, rolls and then springs back up.  That is of course if no one saw her - otherwise she will sob uncontrollably while hiding her face out of embarrassment.

Emma loves reading simple board books on our lap.  She has a handful of favorites that she always brings us to read and it is fascinating to me that she picks out the same couple of books every time from a very large selection.  She also is really enjoying the new bookshelf Will built her for her birthday as it is just her height.

Emma's food pickiness has decreased ever so slightly.  She has tried several new foods this month that she has previously refused including chicken and shell-shaped pasta.  She ate one or two bites of the pasta before she discovered it was more fun to put them on her toes.

Note to self - try spaghetti next time.

Emma has also developed quite a sweet tooth and knows the difference between a vegetable and a dessert. The difference is she refuses to try the vegetable, where the dessert she will shove in her mouth faster than you can say childhood obesity.  She swiped a juice box for Lucy out of my hand the other day and drank it so fast she started choking.  Even when the juice box was gone, she refused to give it to me and even fell asleep holding it.

She also swiped a sucker Lucy had left on the picnic table outside.  By the time I realized it, she had already fallen in love and sticky drool was everywhere.  Lucy has been telling Emma, "Swiper, no swiping!" which some of you might recognize from Dora the Explorer.

Speaking of Lucy and Emma.  Besides Emma's constant swiping, they have been playing together better this month.  Emma adores Lucy, and wants to do whatever she is doing.  Here they are below checking out some worms in our flower bed.

Monkey see, monkey do.  As many of you know Lucy adores running around with bags of all shapes and sizes filled with toddler treasures.  It seems Emma has developed this habit as well this past month.  Here she is below toting a purse.  She kept running over to me whenever it fell off of her tiny little shoulder and would then indicate that she wanted it put back on.

To me, the biggest development this past month besides her fourth bottom tooth and an upper molar popping through is her level of comprehension with the world.  We can almost see the wheels turning in her head, and the connections being made.  The other day Will found a frog in the yard and put it on the driveway so the girls could see it better.  Emma ran off while we were looking at the frog and came back with a plastic toy frog.  She proceeded to set it down next to the real frog and then went on her way.  It was like she was saying, "yup, I know what a frog is!"

She understands simple directions now like "Go get your socks" or "Put your spoon on the table."  She can give high fives when asked, and even blow a kiss.  I swear she said "Banana" and "Jane" (for Aunt Jane of course!) but hasn't repeated it so I can't say it is official yet.  She hasn't yet learned that she can defy our simple directions, and I think that is one reason why I love this age so much.  When I say, "Emma, lay down it's night-night time" she immediately drops to the mattress.  That of course doesn't stop her from popping up 10 seconds later but I attribute that to a short attention span, and not defiance.

Ah, the sweetness of a freshly turned one year old!  Look at my little cuddle bug snuggling with me.  Oh, I love my baby!