Emma at 16 months

This past month we were lucky enough to have some family visiting us from Australia.  It was a wonderful treat to have them with us for so long, as we were able to see lots of sights and do so many things together, including a long road trip to Arizona (more to come on that soon)!  It was also a very special treat for me and John to have a couple extra helping hands with the kids during their whole visit! :)  Beyond that, I think it was also an amazing month for them to be able to watch Emma grow and learn so many new things.  It really seemed so grew up a lot in just this one month.  Especially with respect to her communication skills.  Here is the recap...

My big girl Emma with Nanna

Firsts:

-First stomach flu (i.e. vomiting), unfortunately on Christmas morning :( 

-First time playing in the snow (her first sledding experience doesn't count since she didn't really get to play in the snow).  Just like Evan at this age, she didn't enjoy it when she fell/faceplanted into it.

-First time seeing her shadow (while dancing when I was taking a video with the light on)

-First pigtails, pony tails, and braids! (none stayed in very long of course!)

Auntie Sarah attempting to braid Emma's hair (while she's distracted with a book!)

Growth and Development:

Emma weights about 24 pounds (no official weight measurement this month, but she stepped on our scale a few days ago while we were weighing luggage!).   She still can wear some 12-18 month clothes, but we've also started having her wear some 18-24 month clothes now too.  The latter usually has sleeves or pants that are a bit too long for her, but otherwise fits pretty good.  She's still wearing size 4-5 shoes, and size 4 diapers are a must this month (I found a leftover size 3 and it was pretty snug when I put it on her!).

Emma has really developed her ability to communicate with us this past month!  She'll say words or use signs and point to things she wants/needs.  She is sometimes a little frustrated when we don't understand what she wants, so it will always be good for her to learn to speak more, but John and I both really feel like she can "tell us" so many things now.  For example, when she is poopy and needs a diaper change, she'll pull at her diaper and sometimes say "poo".  However,  if I ask her if she needs a change sometimes she'll say "no" right afterward, and I think "no" or "no no" is her favorite thing to say this month.  In fact, her and Evan have gotten into echo "wars" where they say "no no" back and forth to each other.  Emma puckers up her lips so cute when she says "no no" also.

I think she might say "no no" when asked about needing a diaper change because she really doesn't like them.  She squirms away so much it's hard to change her, and especially hard on top of the changing table (so that may be foregone soon).  But most every change, right after I get the new diaper on her she'll do the sign for "all done", and I have to tell her "almost, but I need to get your clothes back on!"  It's really cute to see her laying there waving her hands with a very sweet look on her face.

Emma also says (and does) "cheers!" toasts.  This started when Auntie Sarah and Nanna were trying to encourage her to drink, and now she picks ups her cup and says "chez" and wants to clink cups with everyone of us at the table!

New words she now says: Nanna, I love you (she's started trying to do the sign and has even said sounds that come out mimicking "i love you"), woof woof, up, down, please ("pees"), poo, cheers, ball ("bao"), duck, no no

[A short story about her saying "Nanna": the day Nanna and Sarah left I was looking through photos on my phone and showed her one with Nanna in it.  I told her that it was her and Nanna, and she very clearly said back to me "Na-na".  I only wish Nanna could have heard it!  However, she was starting to say Nanna a bit toward the end of her visit, but maybe not as clearly as this time...]

New signs: I love you, toothbrush

Emma loves to brush her teeth!  When it's nap or bed time she'll go straight into the bathroom and climb up on the stool by the sink to get her toothbrush.  She sometimes lets me help her more, but mostly she'll suck and chew on it herself and then also try to do some brushing motions herself too.

Now that she's getting good at walking, Emma really just wants to walk everywhere, and she really doesn't like being held or in the stroller anymore!  However, she will just walk and walk and not look back!  So, we still have to strap her in unless we have at least one person able to keep a very close eye on her!  But she sure does love to explore!

Exploring by foot

She is also starting the copy cat phase.  Between copying things she sees Evan do, or us do, she wants to be just like the rest of us!

Copying Evan laying on the bed watching TV

Exploring the hotel room and hanging out under a table

 

Helping clean the floors

As many people have pointed out to me, Emma's hair is really starting to grow fast!  I was aware of this given how frequently she's needed bang trims lately!  I gave her a bang trim (her 2nd) just over a month ago, and then she needed another one just this past week!  Since she still won't keep any hair clips in, it looks like she'll be sporting a haircut with bangs for awhile yet.  At least she let Auntie Sarah put her hair in pigtails and all kinds of pony tails. I think this may be our best chance at hair styles for her for now (well, maybe not the mohawk pony tail style that Sarah tried on her, right below).

Pigtails...and more!

Meal time:

When Emma had the stomach bug at Christmas time, we stopped giving her bottles of milk and she went down for naps and bed just fine without it.  Since she's at the age where the doctor recommends stopping bottle feeding and switching to sippy cups, we thought this might be a good time to try it.  However, right after that bug was gone and we wanted to give her milk again, we first tried milk in sippy cups with meals and at nap time and she wouldn't take it (neither cold nor warmed up).  What is it about milk in a bottle for her?!  I have no clue, but that's the only way she'll take it so far.  On our trip we decided to keep giving her milk in a bottle at bedtime and one nap time (her afternoon nap, which is the only one she really took regularly on the trip).  And since we've been home we wanted to first get her back on a good routine before trying to take her off bottles again.  So, maybe I'll have an update on this by next month.  Wish us luck! :)

Snuggling giraffe while she has her morning bottle in her bean bag

Emma has started to refuse food unless she is able to feed it to herself!  She'll swat my hand or the spoon away if she thinks I'm trying to feed it to her.  So, this sometimes makes for messier meals, but for the most part she's kept herself pretty clean.  This also means that she wants her food in bigger sizes too (not cut up as much), and she always wants to try whatever we're eating.

Taking a big bite of Daddy's sandwich!

Sleep time:

Emma still takes two naps per day, but she broke her routine many many days in this past month.  This was not really her fault, since most of those days were during road trips or outings that we were on.  On those occasions, she'd skip her morning nap and then sleep sometime in the afternoon (either in the car when she finally just got so tired that she couldn't stay awake any longer) or back in the hotel (if we'd been out in the first part of the day).  Since we've been home and trying to get back into her normal routine, she takes both naps fine, but lately she's been sleeping in so late (around 9am or later!) that we have decided to just give her one early afternoon nap instead of two.  Therefore, something is definitely starting to change with her schedule and she very well may just be down to one nap a day very soon.

Speaking of our travels, Emma slept most nights pretty well in her pack n play while in the different hotels.  However, there did get to be a few nights where she just started to want someone there with her, stroking her hair or snuggling her.  Since we've been home, there are still a few nights where she hasn't gone to bed as easy as she used to, and while it could be due to the cold she's fighting, we think it's more her just wanting someone there with her while she falls asleep.  Maybe it's just a phase or the age she's at, or maybe it's due to her getting used to having us sleep in the same room as her...hard to say.  I hope we can get her back to her going to sleep so well on her own soon though!  

Play time:

Emma still loves books and dogs.  Thanks to Nanna for getting her a FurReal dog for Christmas, she now has to find it first thing when she wakes up and she carries it around and pets it and plays with it a lot.   It was great having lots of extra people to help read books to Emma too, over the past month, because she wants to read books all the time!  After you read one, she'll go find another one and so forth.

Emma saw Nanna reading a book, so she thought she'd read hers too.

She also explores and plays with other toys too (hers and Evan's alike), such as building with blocks (her new stacking/nesting block set in particular or MegaBlocks), playing with her "gumball machine" ball drop toy, and playing music with her new keyboard.

Exploring a new toy with her puppy by her side

Checking out her new keyboard!

Pointing to (er poking) her baby doll's eyes

She's also started dancing more and I caught the cutest video of her getting her groove on, and during the video she saw her shadow for the first time!  She wasn't scared, but very curious and kept moving her arms around to see if that shadow would copy it too!  [I also have a very similar video of Evan when he first met his shadow, also while dancing, although he was a few months older than Emma is now and he wanted a "nuggle" (snuggle) afterward!]

Check out the video of "Emma grooving with her shadow"

It's so amazing when I realize how my baby girl is clearly no longer a baby!  She is turning into such a cute little girl before my eyes!  I look forward to her being able to communicate with us better and can't wait to find out what she'll learn to say this next month!