Emma has come to the age where she is getting to be so much fun, is so adorably cute like all.the.time., and can repeat nearly every sound she hears. This latter feat means that we have to watch what we say again because she's very interested in repeating the sounds that come out of our mouths. It's such an amazing time in childhood growth to see them learn how to communicate. She can now do some simple two word phrases, such as "bye bye daddy" or "up high" (meaning she wants up in her high chair). She's learned "bye bye daddy" so well that even when she says bye to me she'll say "bye bye daddy".
She can tell us when she's pooped with a simple "poop". She'll giggle and laugh and tell us when she's tooted. She'll tell us when she wants up with an "up....up" (very reminiscent of Evan). And sometimes there will be some tears or a little bit of a tantrum if she's not getting what she wants right away. She is definitely a toddler! And now is officially one and half years old!
She looks like such a big girl to me!
Firsts:
--Drinking from a straw
--First molars! (both on bottom)
--First seafood
--Ride on the tricycle
Growth and Development:
Emma had her 18-month doctor check up this past Thursday. She weighed in at 23 lbs 11.2 oz, which was the 66th percentile. She was 32 inches long (58%) and her head circumference was 46.4 cm (55%). Overall, she showed the doctor she is a very healthy 18-month-old girl! This was the first doctor visit where she seemed scared about being placed on the exam table, and even didn't like having the stethoscope on her chest. Of course, by the time she needed her shot she was already scared and crying about being back on the table, so the poke bothered her, but it was mixed in with already being upset. After the appointment she got some stickers, which she really liked, and was fine the rest of the day.
Emma is now wearing mostly 18-24 month clothes. She's a bit small for some of the 24 month/2T stuff we have, but will quickly grow into it. Some of her 18 month clothes are too small now and getting retired from her wardrobe. Her summer wardrobe is definitely going to be in 24 month sizes! She's in size 4 Pamper diapers still and still wearing her same shoes as last month (probably size 5). I think we'll be needing to get some more new shoes soon though, since her little early walker style flats seem to be getting on the small side! Her boots (size 5) still fit her, though it's not boot weather as much lately. She loves the rubber boots we were given as a hand-me-down...and even got upset with me the other day when I tried to put her in her flats while she clearly wanted to wear boots (both her Uggs and the rubber boots, but just not her flats). Too bad it was a warm spring day, so I let her wear the boots around the house for a bit and then changed her into her flats before we left.
She loves wearing boots!
As I mentioned above, Emma is really accelerating her speech development lately. New words she says (or new pronunciations of words) are: "boots" (this sounds more like the real word now), "socks", "cup", get dressed ("dest"), eat (well, really she says "num num num num" while walking to her high chair), "doggie", "cheese", Cheers ("chess"), Evan ("Eban", sometimes more like a single syllable "Eh-an"), and balloon ("maloon"). She loves balloons by the way. Every colorful ball or circle she seems she'll call a "maloon". And she loves reading "Goodnight Moon" and pointing to the red balloon and say "maloon". She says her name, which initially she really focused on the M sound "Emmmmm" or "Emmmmmmie", which I think is so cute. Lately I have heard her say it more properly as "Emmm-ah". There are few sounds that she's starting to make more regularly that I haven't figured out what they mean, but I better soon because she thinks they mean something and she's telling them to us in order to try to communicate something as well. Because it's such a cute age with the various sounds she makes that sometimes sound like a real word (and sometimes don't...she does a LOT of babbling lately!), I've been trying to video her more often to capture those adorable noises. Here is one video of her after she woke up in the morning...just walking around being a cute toddler...all cute in her pajamas and occasionally telling us she wanted breakfast by going to her high chair and saying num num num num.
Video of "Emma in the morning wanting brekky" (long video)
Emma has 10 teeth now! Just last month I think she only had 7. During this past month, I noticed she had her 8th tooth coming in (her right-most, 4th on the bottom). While I was checking that tooth popping through her gums, she opened her mouth wide and I saw a molar completely grown in already in her back bottom left! So I did a more thorough check with my finger for other molars, and sure enough her bottom right molar was popping through too! I have no idea when that bottom right molar came in, but as far as it was out it may have been last month! She doesn't like us to brush her teeth still. She doesn't mind "trying" to do it herself (which involves her sucking the training toothpaste off the toothbrush). I have had recent success pretending to brush my teeth with her toothbrush and then doing a similar motion in her mouth. However, most times it's still a fight.
Emma definitely likes to help us count by saying '2' after we starting counting with '1'. She also likes to add in 'nine, ten' as well. And she now says "cheese" and smiles for photos (most of the time).
Meal time
We finally got her off bottles, or really we just stopped giving them to her. We slowly went from 3 a day to just 2 and then 1 a day. And then finally went cold turkey off them. The thing is, she still doesn't really drink milk from other cups, but I just wanted to be done with bottles so we're gonna have to let her get back to drinking milk on her own. The doctors felt it was more important to be off bottles than the fact that she's not drinking much milk, so I think it's okay. I'm trying a variety of sippy cups and even straw cups to see if there are different ways she'll drink it more. I don't understand why she won't drink it because we know she likes it from all the bottles she sucked dry. Anyway, we'll keep trying and offering it to her. But in the meantime, we definitely aren't going through as much milk anymore and may have to cut back our milk delivery!
She can feed herself very well with a spoon or fork. And she'll eat a sandwich or a slice of pizza all by herself too. Just last night she ate nearly a whole slice of pizza by herself (though I gave it to her in smaller size portions). She is eating really well still, and seems to like most things we give her, except chicken is hit or miss. She likes to say "cheers" (sound more like "chess") and do toasts with our cups
She's eaten strawberries now (I don't think I mentioned that as a new food before and can't remember now if it's new this past month or the prior one). She also tried her first seafood this past month...crabcakes! She loves snacks and will walk around with her snack catcher full of cheerios, or pirate booty, or puffs, or goldfish crackers and finish it all gone. That's the main way we keep her occupied during Evan's evening swimming lessons! She'll sit on one end of the bleachers, sitting on the foot rest and using the front seat as her table. It's her little spot there to sit and have her snack.
Having a banana snack with Evan, while saying cheese for the camera!
Sleep time
Emma is still a great sleeper at night and nap time. We finally cut her down to just one nap per day, though she often still has two per day at daycare. It's just become a lot nicer for us to be able to go out in the morning and do things and then come back after lunch (or to have lunch) and put them both down for naps right after lunch. Some days Emma will sleep about 3 hours! So perhaps that's because she could still do a morning nap, but I still think the convenience of having her at one nap per day now is pretty great. Sure, I do miss some of my one-on-one time with Evan I used to have during her morning naps, but he often wakes up before her so there is still some Evan time to be had.
Play time
Emma still likes books, and will go get one for you to read to her if you offer to read a book. She'll bring it over and sit on your lap with it. Her favorites are her word books, "Alaska 123", "Goodnight Moon", and "The very hungry caterpillar". The latter she'll put her fingers in the holes (as will Evan still). She likes to carry her babies around and play with blocks, puzzles (though she doesn't try to put the pieces in the spots yet), and whatever Evan (or other kids she's around) is/are doing.
Playing with a friend on St. Patrick's Day
She likes to climb the furniture a lot, and can easily get on top of each thing she's climbing on. I caught her walking along our zebra chaise lounge the other day (about made my heart stop!). She still likes to dance when music is on, but it's still mostly running in circles, although she does bounce (in fact she surprised me the first time she did that, because I asked her if she wanted to bounce, thinking I'd bounce her, and she just started squatting up and down and bouncing on her own!). She also is trying to start jumping (after seeing bigger kids doing it), but she just ends up doing a big bounce and lifting her arms in the air, but her feet stay on the ground. She just wants to do what the bigger kids are doing though!
She has started to ride on the tricycle, but she can't reach the peddles yet. She also rides other riding toys and likes to just walk around and explore when we go outside.
When we get in the car she usually asks for "book", which is the travel magna doodle. Of course Evan ends up wanting it then too, so it's a bit of a fight sometimes. She'll draw on it and she'll also color a bit in a coloring book (just scribbles though still).
Emma loves putting on sunglasses. And doing it by herself or trying to figure out how to by herself too. She practiced one day after dinner over and over, and sometimes figured it out, while other times she ended up with them around her neck or on crooked. It was pretty cute. She also said "cheese" several times since I was taking pictures.
Cheesing it up!
I'll sum up by reiterating how stinkin' cute I think she is these days. I love the sounds she makes, her moves and toddles, and her hugs and snuggles. I just love watching her grow up, but at the same time don't want my baby girl to get too big too quick! It's the most precious time...
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