Firsts:
-First tooth (and second tooth)
-First haircut (well it was just a bang trim)
-Climbing up the stairs
-"Talking" on the phone (babbles and says 'hi' when phone rings or we make a call or with her toy phone)
-First bath in the bath tub without the baby tub
-First time playing at the water table
-First time drawing (on the magna doodle)
I'm still amazed that she figured out so quickly how to draw on this thing!
Emma's really slowed down on weight gain in the past couple months and therefore has still been able to fit into her 9-12 month size clothes and is still in size 3 Pampers diapers. When we took her into the doctor this past month for a listeria scare (she got sick with diarrhea and had a fever and vomited after we found out we'd all eaten potentially affected peaches) she only weighed 19 lbs 8 oz (just a few ounces more than at her 9-month check up). I still don't really put her in shoes yet (I've read when kids learn to walk it's best for them to be barefoot or have thin shoes on), but since she was getting blisters on her feet from rubbing on hard floors while she crawled, I did buy her these sock-like shoes (with rubber "soles" on the bottoms). They are also nice for if she wants to try standing/walking outside too.
Emma and her new sock "shoes"
Emma's hair was getting so long in her face that I finally broke down this past month and gave her a hair cut/bang trim. Prior to that I had been trying every style of hair clip I could find and yet Emma always figured out how to take it right out of her hair. She also has figured out how to take off her hats, even those with the chin strap, so I just have to be very adamant about her keeping the hat on when we're out in the sun.
"How do you like my hair clip? Get a close look now because I am about ready to take it out of my hair!"
She babbles and seems to say both "ma ma" and "da da", as well as "buh buh" (bye bye) and "hi" (when we make calls on the phone in particular). As soon as I say "bye bye", she'll usually wave her hand, and she also waves when I take her upstairs and tell her to say night night to John and Evan (for naps or bedtime). However, overall she is fairly quiet. She tends to observe people in public outings a lot and is much more reserved until we're at home. That's when she lets loose with more babbling and sound making. She loves to make raspberry sounds, and also do them on my arm or leg too! She tries to mimic sounds and gestures that we do as well.
Emma has also clearly entered the "stranger danger" phase, where she is more unsure of new people she's introduced to. Sadly, since our families do not live close they haven't gotten to see her much and that meant on some recent visits by the grandparents she was nervous around them…at first. After a day or two she was her normal self with them and even let them hold her, pick her up, and she sat on their lap too.
A wild and crazy photo with two wriggly kids and my dad and Aunt Linda
She can climb stairs, but only under very close supervision. However, when she hears the gate open she makes a b-line for the stairs. We have to be very careful to close it behind us right away. I made the mistake recently when I was carrying Evan up to his room for a time out and left it open behind me. By the time I got back she was already 3 steps up. I about had a heart attack! I'm so thankful she was okay. She also cruises around holding onto furniture and then crawls on her hands and knees to get from one place to the next. She is getting much more sturdy on her feet though and will only hold on with one hand (or even no hands, just by leaning against the furniture) sometimes while she grabs for and/or plays with toys.
Getting more sturdy on her feet!
Emma is a very good pointer. She loves to point at things, whether it's balloons from Evan's party, pictures in books we read, people like Daddy or a grandparent, she extends her pointer finger very well to point at objects. In the case of the balloons, she points to them and says "buff", which I think is her version of balloon.
Sleep time:
She's gotten quite fussy at bed and nap times (still two naps a day) lately, and we usually just have to give her 5-10 minutes to cry it out and she'll go to bed. She's definitely tired, it's just that she gets really mad/sad when I put her in her crib and leave the room. But if I watch the clock, even though all the crying seems like an eternity, it usually is over within 5-10 minutes. If it goes longer we go check in on her and try to sort out if something else is the matter (i.e. teething pain, etc).
She still wakes between 4-6am for a night time feed, which is important as my milk supply has really gone down this past month so any extra nursing sessions I can give her help keep it up I think. Sadly, my back up supply of frozen milk has just nearly been depleted, so it's possible that in this next month we may have to start supplementing with formula if I can't pump enough to keep up with what she drinks from bottles when I'm at work. I'm so close to my goal to have her go at least one year exclusively on breastmilk and she's just one month away from being able to have cow's milk too. Maybe it's time to bring out the fenugreek and oatmeal?
I swear this is an obligatory baby photo, and recall Evan also did this
Emma adds the pointing to it though…she loves pointing! In fact, she was pointing at me in response to John pointing to me to get her to look at me!
Mealtime:
New foods this past month have been pretty limited, because she had a few weeks with lots of diarrhea (during the listeria scare mentioned above) and I didn't want to try new foods then. However, she did try dairy for the first time (in a baby food mix) just this past weekend.
I also tried her on a chunky baby food this past month (it had soft rice grains in it and maybe some chunks of soft meat), but it made her gag and she threw the very first bite of it back up in my hand. I guess she's still not ready for more solid foods yet. I did, however, give her the Baby Mum Mum rice rusk crackers again this past week and she seemed to do better with them. She let a few small bits dissolve in her mouth, but then she mostly just played with the gummy pieces stuck to her hand.
Trying Baby Mum Mum rice rusks again
Playtime:
Emma still loves all of Evan's toys, from the trains to the cars to the balls, you name it. She still also loves shoes and socks. She has started spending more time exploring, which worries me because I'm afraid she'll find something she shouldn't have off in some corner of the room. She often goes to the rugs in the house and loves to practice using her pincer grasp to pinch up little bits of dirt or who knows what off the floor/rugs. I just ordered a new swivel sweeper because I'm clearly going to have to stay on top of keeping our floors much cleaner now that she's on the loose.
Emma has really started to enjoy playing with her toy phone. She can put it up to her head and pretend to talk on it by babbling a lot. Of course the phone is sometimes backwards or upside down, but it's so cute watching her pretend to use it for what it's meant for.
First time playing at the water table
Emma has started to laugh more. She laughs at Evan when he does something that makes a loud noise or bang. She is ticklish and loves when I spin her around in the air. And sometimes she gets the laughter squeals from the most random things (i.e. crinkly brown packing paper, silly faces we make at her, etc).
Emma definitely has a good bond with me. I love how she comes crawling from across the room for me when I get home from work. Yet, she is also developing her bond with John. She says something similar to "da da" when I think she's referring to him, and she gets really happy to see him too after he's been absent. No matter what though, she still is in love with her big brother and watches him closely and wants to do everything he does. I sure hope he'll be a good role model for her! :)
My new fav of John with Emma…such a precious father-daughter moment
1 comment:
This year has flown by- can't believe you almost have two toddlers! She's so cute.
Post a Comment