Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

My baby is one now!  She is such a joy to be around, and it has been an amazing year with her in our life.  Somehow Emma knew exactly what to do to fit into our family and we can't imagine life without her.  Emma, where have you been all my life?  I am so glad you are here!

At one years old, Emma is a sweet...



 ...funny...



...cuddly...

...agile...



 ...and sensitive little girl.  She hopped on the toilet all by herself in the above picture and surprised even herself when she filled it with pee!  In the below picture she took a ride on the carosel at the zoo and broke down crying when it started to move.  She is extremely sensitive when we tell her no, and will even burst into tears if you look at her wrong.  This is new territory for Will and I, since we are used to aggressive defiance from our older daughter when things don't go her way.

 Emma loves wagon rides...

...and stroller rides, as well as short cat naps.

Emma enjoys bringing books over to us and climbing into our laps to read.

She has added the words nigh-nigh for night-night and says it when she is tired.  She loves saying my name like a chant: mamamamamama and she says Uh Oh when she drops something.  She also says Dora, dog and duck much the same way - duh!  Here she is below pointing at the pair of ducks in our neighborhood, waving and saying "Duh!"

Emma is walking like she has done it all of her life, and has even started to run.  She popped two more teeth this past month - her fourth front one on the top, and a molar on the top!  She still only has three teeth on the bottom though.

For Emma's birthday we ended up staying home because Lucy was still sick.  Unfortunately, by bedtime Emma was running a fever as well.  It didn't seem to slow her down though, and we had a nice and relaxing day together.  I made all of her favorite (dairy-free) foods including pancakes for breakfast, tortillas and hummus for lunch, and orzo, pickles, grapes and homemade pitas for dinner and an apple cupcake for dessert.  We were able to play outside for a short period of time until the wind picked up so badly it kept blowing Emma over.

Emma thought opening presents was funny, and after she ripped each piece of wrapping paper off of the gift, she stood up and walked it over to the garbage can in the kitchen.  This made gift opening a very slow process but highly entertaining for Will, Lucy and I to watch.  We gave Emma a Little People doll house, a book I made for her about the day she was born, a wooden book shelf Will made for her room that will hang at her height on the wall, and a snack tray for her seat in the double stroller.  It was tough coming up with meaningful gifts for someone who would rather just play with dirty socks and has a big sister with every toy a little girl could ever want, but we managed!

Here Emma is below getting her second measurement written on our family growth chart.  She measured in at 27 inches tall, about a 1/4 inch shorter than Lucy at a year old.  Ironically, Emma was a 1/4 taller than Lucy at birth.  It will be interesting to see how their heights play out over the years.

Happy birthday Emma!  We love you ever so much!