Emma: 15 months

Yesterday Emma turned 15 months old.  I started out the day by running to the pharmacy to get her antibiotics for the ear infection she just came down with the night before.  Friday night I had taken her to Children's Hospital Urgent Care to be checked out for croup and they found puss in her right ear (even though it wasn't red yet), so they opted to treat for both ear infection and give her the steroid for the croup.  So we've been trying to take it easy the past few days, even though Nanna and Auntie Sarah are here and we want to do things during their visit too!

Dressing up in half of Evan's old monkey costume, while carrying around her little monkey! :)

Firsts
-Croup and ear infection (same time!) :(
-Visit to see Santa Claus
-Peanut butter

Growth and Development

I feel like I can say this month that Emma is now talking!  Both verbally and by signing.

Words/sounds that she says: bye, ma ma, da da, mine ("my", for when she wants something), night night ("nih nih"), more ("moh"), milk ("mao"), boo, hi, [roar sound] (for lions or bears), moo (for cows), sssss (for snake), ha aha aha [dog panting sound]

Words she signs: more, please, thank you, drink, duck, hat, ball, swing

I think that the absolute cutest thing is to hear Emma do her little roar sound.  When we're reading books (and on pages with a lion or bear or dragon) or when she comes up and wants to surprise or "get" someone.  The other night, when she woke up with her barking cough (i.e. the croup), we brought her into our bed for a little while.  That woke her up big time and she crawled back and forth between me and John.  At one point, she even pounced on John and did the little roar sound.  It's so hard to be mad at something so cute, even if it is two thirty in the morning.

Emma is wearing size 18 month clothes, and size 4-4.5 shoes (I recently found out that sizes vary by brand, making it that much harder to order shoes that fit her well!).  She weighed in at 23 lbs 13 oz (fully clothed) when she was at Children's Friday night.  And we just bought our first box of Size 4 Pamper's diapers, as the size 3 that she's been wearing for the past 10 months are starting to seem tight around her waist.  I can hardly believe how long she fit in that single size!

Tantrums have started, but aren't too bad or frequent just yet.  But if she doesn't want to sit still, she'll squirm her way out of my arms and cry and whine.  Not fun.  Speaking of not sitting still, she really doesn't ever want to sit still.  Where ever we go now, she wants out of her stroller, out of my arms, off my lap, etc.  She just wants to explore everything now that she can hobble around on two feet.  There are so many new things within reach to check out!  So she keeps us on our toes running after her now.

Exploring the supplies at a "Bob the Builder/Home Depot" birthday party we attended recently.

She gets so excited to first see me or John when we come home from work.  She opens her mouth wide and squeals or yells out and jumps around in excitement.  If she's able, she'll walk/run as fast as she can to the door (but sometimes she's in her hair chair eating when I get home).  One recent day when she was moving fast to come greet me, she fell flat on her face.  Poor thing.  She was so excited to see me that she didn't pay attention to her balance.  She just started moving her body as fast as she could.  She was okay, but I felt bad knowing that it was because I'd just gotten home that she was in such a hurry.

She knows (and will point to when asked) her belly button, nose, ears, and mouth.  I think she may also know her hands and a few other body parts too, but she's consistently pointed to things like her nose and belly button (the latter being a favorite of hers, and then she wants to see and point to and/or touch mine or others' after she shows hers).

She has started dancing a bit more, especially spinning in place to make herself dizzy.  She also sometimes "smiles" for photos now by opening her mouth wide.  It's pretty funny, but cute too.

Sleep time

Emma sleeps great at night still (8pm bedtime and wakes up around 8am).  She still takes two naps (10:30am-noon, and 3-5pm).  Some days we skip her morning nap if we're out and about, and I think she may be ready to drop that nap in lieu of an earlier afternoon nap, but she doesn't complain about taking both her naps and she still goes down and falls asleep for both, so I'm not sure if we should try to drop one or not!?

Meal time

Emma is still such a good eater.  She sometimes is showing a bit more pickiness for some vegetables or even meat on occasion, but it's hit or miss.  She really just wants to eat what we're eating, most of the time.  She still takes bottles of cow's milk: one at wake up (3-4 oz), one before each nap (5 oz), and one at bedtime (6 oz).  She likes to hold her bottle herself and so on some occasions (typically in the morning when we're busy getting ready to go) we let her lay by herself to have her bottle.  On this one occasion, she had her morning bottle in Nanna's bed, and Evan came up to snuggle her.  Right as he snuggled her he told Nanna "this is my baby sister."  It was precious!

Awwww….

She hasn't tried too many new foods this past month, except she did get her first taste of peanut butter yesterday morning!  It was a bit of an accident, as Nanna made Evan and Emma waffles with peanut butter (which is Evan's typical breakfast).  Emma loved it and didn't have any reaction, so we'll try it again a few more times and hope that all is well.  We still also need to try fish and strawberries with her, but otherwise she pretty much can eat anything.  She still only has six teeth though, and I wonder how she manages to eat/chew all the things she does with only those few front teeth!  I'm sure she'll enjoy having more teeth to help her eat once more come in!

Having a bagel for breakfast on the couch…such a big girl

Play time/favorites

Emma now really loves books. We read so many to her each day.  She loves pulling them all off the bookshelf (yes, a nice mess for us to pick up!), and then sorting through and finding her favorites.  Her favorites currently are: Dear Zoo, Where's Spot?, Where is baby's belly button? (all of these are lift-the-flap books).  She also likes Spot loves his Daddy, Faces for Baby (she gives sloppy kisses to herself in the mirror on the last page), any other book she finds with a dog in it.

She love dogs.  And probably most any furry animal.  She also loves her stuffed giraffe.  If I ask her where it is, she'll look around to find it and then bring it over to me for a hug.  And her stuffed little monkey is also on the list of favorites.  Sometimes she'll set both of them in her green chair together, and then turn around and squats down (practices trying to sit) in the chair with them.  Most of the times, she misses, but her balance is pretty good so she doesn't fall, but rather just has to try again.

A successful sit (notice giraffe and monkey are with her)

Emma likes to go down slides.  She has learned how to climb up the back "steps" of the slide we have in our basement play room.  And she loves to go down slides at parks, but she still needs us to hold her hands so she sits upright as she goes down. 

Emma is a really good listener.  She understands pretty much everything we say to her and can follow basic instructions.  She is such a cute little joy to have around and I look forward to seeing all the new things she learns to do and say in the next month!

Love. :)