These were taken just a couple days ago…she suddenly looks more like a little girl than a baby!
Firsts:
-First steps! (Just last evening…more below)
-Emma cut her first (and second and third) top teeth (within the first week after she turned one)
-First meals by eating what we eat
-First times brushing her teeth
Growth and Development:
Emma took her first steps last night! And then took a few more this morning! Prior to that, she was just so close. John and I had been working with her most evenings where we'd sit apart (but still pretty close) and encourage her to walk to one of us from the other. She usually wouldn't budge until she could grab the other person's hands. However, last night I had noticed that she suddenly was getting enough confidence to purposefully stand unassisted (recall previously while she could stand on her own, she only showed us she could on accident) because she'd stop pushing her walker toy and stand and clap her hands. She did this several times, and so when John and I sat down to encourage her to walk between us, she had no problem letting go of our hands and just standing there. The walking part was more of a challenge, but she did it! Her first couple steps were toward John, then she did a baby step or two to me. We were getting so excited and cheering and hugging her each time that she kept wanting to do it. However, after the first couple attempts she started just leaning forward until we would catch her, rather than moving her feet to take steps. Either way, this all happened during the Broncos game last night, during which Peyton Manning scored the all-time record-breaking 509th touchdown. One for the record on the TV, and one in our own living room!
Emma still can wear some 12 month size clothes, but we are also putting her in lots of 18 month clothes too. She is still in size 3 pampers diapers. It seems like she's worn this size forever now, but they still fit her good. She wears size 3-4 shoes (or 12-18 month). She got some super cute boots for her birthday (as seen in the autumn portraits I took), which has been not only cute for her to wear, but also to keep her feet nice and warm!
She doesn't talk much using real words yet, but she does babble and make verbal noises to get our attention. She signs though, and has even started to combine "more" and "eat" into the same sequence to tell us she wants more to eat. She is also starting to get more upset when things don't go her way, so cries and whines from being upset are becoming more common.
We have started to brush her teeth, and at first she let me do it for her really good. She liked to suck on the toothbrush, but she usually opened her mouth enough to let me brush a good bit too. Now she just wants to hold it herself and won't even open her mouth for me without grabbing it from me first. She does try to move it around like she's actually brushing, which is pretty cute, but she's not getting her teeth of course.
In general, she is definitely at an age where she's trying to do some things for herself. In addition to wanting to brush her own teeth, she tries to put her socks and/or shoes on (by putting them to her feet). And she also likes to wash her own ears! On one random bath night she picked up the cloth and did it after I had done it, and now she does it pretty much every bath!
She is practicing her walking skills by walking with her walker toys all the time. That's her favorite pass time for sure, which is giving her lots of practice at walking. She typically walks in circles around our house, as I just reported in a recent post. In that same post, I also noted how she dances now. She also likes to high five a lot. In fact, the other night she grabbed my hand so she could high five it. And I've probably said this before too, but she has the cutest wave when she see us. It's not just the wave, but it's the cute and happy grin and her sparkly eyes that make it even more precious. But there is something about her kind of jerky hand motion back and forth to wave at us that is also part of what makes it so cute.
Look at all of her walking practice!
Meal time:
Emma can drink from a straw and has even has sips of water when I tip a regular cup in her mouth. When she has a bottle (one before each nap still, but eventually I hope we'll wean her off bottles and give her milk just with meals), she holds it herself. When she has a bottle she typically gets 5 oz whole milk (though sometimes she only drinks 3-4 oz). I am still nursing her at bedtime and in the morning.
She had lots of first foods this past month. Some were just new in the sense that they weren't part of a puree, but others were brand new for her. Things like her first cheese, pasta/noodles, bread, asparagus tips, lettuce, beans, and tomatoes were all new. Other things like shredded chicken, ground beef (from burgers or meatballs, etc), and whole kernels of corn were just a new form for her to feed herself. She basically eats very small bites of whatever soft foods that we're eating. She seems to like most veggies we give her, but is more picky about her fruit. Sometimes she turns away applesauce, peaches, and apricots. However, she's been really constipated lately, so I'm really trying to push the fruits with her again.
She loves her puffs and baby mum-mum crackers still. She could probably eat a whole meal of just puffs if we let her. Peas and spinach (in her purees) seem to be a common favorite too. She's less willing to eat baby food from a spoon, so she's moved into the sucking down pouches stage. And I'm not kidding when I say she can literally just suck them down!
Sleep time:
Emma still takes two naps per day, though on some occasions she misses her morning nap if we go out. Emma also still goes to bed at 8pm, and she usually goes down really well. Up until a few nights ago, she also still would wake up between 4-6am for a feed, and then sleep again until 8-ish in the morning. However, this past Friday night I finally bit the bullet (and lost a few hours of sleep as a result!) and didn't go feed her. I shushed her via the video monitor (because she would be all out pissed off if I came into the room and left not giving her what she really wanted), but she whined and cried here and there for 30-45 min at a time, over the course of two hours (between 4-6am). Then when she finally went back to sleep for good, she slept until after 9am! Regardless, I think it may have been worth it, because the next two nights she has slept all the way through the night without a peep! Straight through until about 7-7:30ish. I find that a totally appropriate time to wake up and feed her and begin the day! I know how things like this come and go, and it's not the first time she's ever slept all the way through the night, but given the message I sent her Friday night by not feeding her back to sleep, I just hope that it keeps up. I certainly don't want to have to do that again…not only for the lack of sleep, but it wasn't easy to sit there and watch (and hear) her cry for me like that. At one point I even saw her sign "more" and then point to the rocking chair where I nurse her. She's no fool…she wanted me to give her a snack so she could go back to sleep.
Play time:
Besides walking in circles and dancing, Emma just loves to explore and test out how things work. She still plays with our kitchen towels, the remote controls, and all of her new toys from her birthday. She puts her teacakes in her teacups and love love loves to hug her giraffe (which I call giraff-ee).
Given the warm autumn we've been having, Emma got another chance to play at the water table this past month. She also got to take some spins around the backyard in the car push toy we were given by a friend. Evan loves to push her in it, and she has even made the car "brrrrr" kind of sound with her lips when she's riding in it.
And to finish off the list, she loves to make sounds with things (banging on objects, or banging one item on another object, etc). So she really loved finding this piano that was just her size at a friend's house this past month. She played (er, banged) away at it!
1 comment:
Seriously love the overalls and the little jean dress on her! So precious. I can't believe she's a toddler already!
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