Emma at 17 months

The 20th of the month and my baby girl is another month older!   Time is surely flying!

Firsts

--First two-word phrase: 'up high'
--Bad fall (face plant into the sidewalk)
--First meat pie, on Australia Day (we had to cut it up for her to eat it)

--First Valentine's chocolates

Growth and Development

Emma is talking and saying (or at least trying to say) so many words now.  She repeats sounds/words after us, and it's hard for me to keep track of all that she's said or tried to say, but here is an account of words I've heard her say numerous times: 'da da' or 'dah-dee' (daddy), 'mum mum', 'ow' and 'owie', 'uh oh', 'bock' (block), 'puvs' (puffs), neigh, moo, baaaa, 'kak kak' (quack quack), 'book', 'Ohmm-eee' or 'Emm-eee' (Emma), apple, 'nana' (banana), 'wok' (walk), 'up', 'pak' (park), 'poop' (boots...I know it is strange but seriously when she says boots it sounds like she's saying poop!), 'bay-bee' (baby), 'puhp' (poop), 'bod-lee' (bottle), 'buhsh' (brush), 'nuz' (nose), 'at' (hat), 'two', 'nih' (nine), 'nigh nigh' (night night).  I absolutely love hearing her say her name and hope I can get a video recording of it before she changes how she says it.

I think she said her first two-word phrase the other day:  I had told her to ask Daddy to put her up in her high chair for dinner, and she walked to him and started saying "up high", which we interpreted as her asking to go up into her high chair.  

She is wearing 18-24 month clothes, size 4 Pampers diapers, and size 4.5-5 shoes, and has 7 teeth.  The Ugg boots (size 5) that Evan had now fit her, though are a bit loose/big still.  I love that I got a photo of her at the fridge in her Ugg boots, very similar to one I took of Evan (though Evan was just under 2 yrs old when I took his photo there)...but I like having similar poses of the kids to compare.  

Is it just me, or does she not look super grown up in this photo (from this angle)?

Emma sometimes says the number '2' and '9' when we're counting, and she'll add them in after '1' and '8', respectively, so she's definitely starting to recognize the sequence of numbers.  Our daycare provider told me today that she also will say the letters with them (like 'A') when they are practicing letters or saying ABCs.

Emma knows (and can point to) several body parts: nose, mouth, teeth, eyes, ears, hands, feet, hair, head, belly, and cheeks.  I absolutely love when she points to her cheeks...she usually grabs them and squeezes them a little bit.  Just what I always want to do with those cute, chubby cheeks! :)

She likes to dance to music, but mostly by spinning in circles.  Her latest favorite thing is to take mine or John's hand and walk in circles around us.  The problem with this is that it makes us have to spin in circles making us dizzy!  She watches more TV and movies now too.  She likes 'Bolt' and 'Big Hero 6' and the Leap Frog shows (especially those with Scout) that Evan watches.

Snuggled on the cough to watch a movie with Daddy

She definitely wants to be a big girl, from wanting to ride Evan's tricycle or other riding toys that are really still too big for her, to brushing her own teeth and feeding herself.  She can even reach up to turn the door handles now (well the ones that are lever style), so it means we have to start locking the child lock to the bathroom again.  Otherwise, she'll go sneak in there and who knows what kind of trouble she could get into!  The first time I heard the bathroom door open on its own (well, when she opened it) I was shocked and had no idea what was going on.  She can also reach up to the edge of the countertop, so we have to keep things away from the edge again.

She's also started to make a 'silly face' as Evan calls it.  He loves to laugh at her when she does it, and he's even started mimicking it back.  It is a pretty silly face though, where she puckers her lips up so they almost curl out.  I haven't got a great close-up shot of it yet, but this one of her at the park the other day kind of shows it off.  

Doing her silly face and then sitting with Daddy enjoying her sandwich at the park

She's learning to walk up the stairs standing up while holding the railing, and going down the same.  I am so nervous for her, but she is really not interested in doing the stairs on her hands and knees anymore!  While she learns to do new things and gets more adventurous with her climbing, walking, and running, that means there are more chances for injuries.   The other day after Evan's swimming lessons, I was outside letting her walk around while Evan showered and got dressed.  She was doing fine, but there was one place on the sidewalk where it dipped down for drainage I guess.  I had warned her about it and helped her cross it slowly several times, so she had started to be very careful walking over it.  But then one time she decided to run toward me quickly and as I went to her saying to slow down and be careful for the dip, she tripped and just face planted directly onto the concrete.  I heard the smack and knew she'd hit herself hard.  She got a light bruise on her forehead, but amazingly no goose egg or dark bruise from it, but she cried pretty hard for the first few minutes after it happened.  Poor girl!

Meal time

Emma is still taking 3 bottles of milk a day (one before each nap and before bedtime).  Last weekend I tried using sippy cups instead and she didn't take much milk that way, but still went down for naps just fine.  However, we haven't kept that up during the week (she's back to bottles).  I will try the sippy cups again this weekend though, and see if slowly we can get her off the bottles soon.

She still is more fussy at meal times, especially if she isn't getting to feed herself (or she thinks she's not getting to feed herself...meaning heaven forbid me from handing her a spoon with food on it already!).  She also has had a few meals in which she's seemed more picky, and not devoured the whole meal.  We aren't sure why that's happening yet, but the last time it happened she whined and pointed at the table and in the end ate dinner from my spoon (that I dipped food onto from my plate). So maybe she's just wanting whatever we're eating...literally from our plates (because the food in her bowl was the same thing, just not from my plate!).  

She still loves pouches though, and can suck them down in no time flat (and nearly in one breath!).  She also likes her snacks (Puffs, cheerios cereal, berries, etc).  She also is getting a sweet tooth, and wants chocolate and other sweets if she sees us having them.  

Excited to get her baby cupcake that Evan baked earlier that day

Sleep time

I am so thankful Emma is back to sleeping good at night and going down at bedtime and nap times without a fuss (or even a peep...she just remains silent as we leave the room!).  Whew!  After about a month of her fighting us, crying and whining when we'd leave the room, it's amazing to know she'll just let us leave now.  Last month when this had started I thought it might have been due to our long road trip and how she had gotten used to us sleeping in the room with her.  I also think part of it was teething, at least at some point, because she did sprout her 7th tooth (3rd on the bottom) in the past month.  I hope we don't have any more regressions in the sleep department anytime soon though, because it's just so nice to get good sleep!  She has been waking up earlier though...around 7-7:30am instead of 8-8:30am.  That's been helpful for me to get out of the house earlier without feeling like I'm waking her up too early such that she misses out on sleep she wants/needs.

One thing that I've started doing with her right before I put her in her crib (so after she finishes her bottle) is rocking with her cradled in my arms.  I started this in part because I wanted to get in some baby-like cradling before she grew too big to fit in my arms like that (and she's bordering that already as it is now!), but also to add a bit of snuggle time in before bed.  She seems to like it because most nights she'll snuggle up to me and let me do it for as long as I want.  Other nights she'll start to squirm so I just put her in her crib then.  Either way, I'm really trying to soak up these kinds of moments while they last.  

Emma is still taking two naps per day as well.  There have been rare occasions where she hasn't slept during her afternoon nap, or lays there awake for an hour or more before falling asleep, so maybe that's the start of her being nearly ready to wean to just one nap per day.  But until that time, I still enjoy having alone time with Evan during her morning naps.

Play time

Emma likes to do so many things, and is still a pretty independent player (much different to her brother who always wanted to play with us), as she can find some toys and play by herself for 10s of minutes at a time.  She likes to play with balls, her stacking/nesting blocks, her handbag, stuffed animals/FurReal puppy dog, carry things around, climb on furniture, play with pretend food in the play room, play with megabucks, bounce on the bouncing ball (with my help to hold her on), read books (or usually have us read them to her), and more.  She's also started wanting to do puzzles more, and she likes to play with most all of Evan's toys too.

Playing by herself

Reading "Brown Bear" on her own in the beanbag

She also loves to play with her big brother.  She's recently started trying to wrestle him and loves with Daddy helps her ride on his shoulders around the room!  She laughs at him when he is being silly, which often eggs him on to continue his shenanigans.  She'll also copy Evan in doing whatever he is doing too, which in the good scenario means she may try to color in her coloring book (as pictured below), and in the bad case means she's learned to hit.  She's definitely started purposefully hitting. :(

Moving so fast I couldn't get a non-blurry shot, but they have a blast doing this!

Coloring time

Emma likes to explore.  She really loved getting into our lower cupboards and sitting in them while the cupboard lock was missing.  We've since put locks back on since she was constantly playing in them and we were starting to have too many situations with pinched fingers and nearly dropped glass pan lids.

"Look ma, this spot is just the right size for me!"

Emma loves going outside and to the park just like Evan.  She loves to swing and also climb all over the playground and go down the slides.  She's at that age, though, where we have to help her up and all over the playground equipment still, so it's a bit nerve-wracking to take her to the park without John to help me (because if I help her climb up the equipment to go down the slide, I still need someone to help catch her going down the slide!).  I like our neighborhood park because it has double slides, side-by-side, so I can go down one and she can go down the other, while I help hold onto her a bit. But the swinging I can handle no problem...and it allows me to get some pictures at least too!

Emma is really such a sweet girl.  Our daycare provider tells me that every day, and especially because she'll give her hugs out of the blue and as she's leaving when I pick her up at the end of the day.  She's also becoming a good little helper.  I can ask her to do something (i.e. 'go pick up your ___ toy' or 'can you take this to Evan?', etc) and she'll do it!  

My helper...helping me get the mail

I love the phase where they actually listen!  Even when she's doing something naughty, I can say no, and she'll stop and listen to me to do something else!  I can't get enough hugs and snuggles and kisses with this little girl!  I love her so much!

Love this cutie pie!