I'm still on the fence about what her first word is. She said "bib" for me a couple of times just before her first birthday and she said it again a couple of times around the 13 months. It's obviously not that clear when she says it but it's close enough and she's looking at her bibs. She started saying "hot" around 13 months. We caution her against things that are hot and Suds has been working on that word with her for quite awhile. Everytime we go over in the morning for me to work, Emma watches Suds drink her hot coffee. This is one of the few words that I hear her use on regular basis that we understand.
She likes to repeat back the word "bath." And if you ask her if she's a "good girl," she will say "good girl." It's excessively cute! Another favorite word is "cuckoo." She loves watching Suds and Pops cuckoo clocks. I got a cuckoo clock when my mom and I were in Switzerland - so eventually we'll have to find it and put it up for Emma to watch. Hopefully it made is safely from Atlanta. Who knows where it could be? Another thing she likes saying is "vroom" when she goes up to her bike that Great Grandma Harris got her. Her most recent word is "bop," which means berries. She loves her bops!
Emma is still a pretty good eater overall. Her favorite is still milk. She loves fruit, especially berries and citrus. Oranges have been her favorite this week. She loves Annie's macaroni and cheese as well. She can literally eat a half of a box. It's quite impressive! She has 12 teeth now, including her 4 molars that came in. So she can chew a lot more than she could previously.
She's growing like a weed! She seems so incredibly tall to me. And her hair seems to grow every day. I'm going to have to start doing her hair. She usually fights barrettes, so I've just been using a brush and some water so she doesn't have crazy bed head. She definitely has some curl to her hair but I'm curious to see how curly it will be once it grows out.
She still loves her books and goes through most of them everyday.
A few night's ago Emma came up to me and said "mama." It's the one and only time that she's said "mama" and I think actually meant to do it, instead of babbling. Love!! She hasn't said it since though. I love this age because although she's usually on the move, she will still give kisses and hugs. She'll cuddle with us too. I love it so incredibly much!!
Emma just started shaking her head no around 13 months old. If you tell her no, she'll shake her head. It's cute now, although I'm not looking forward to that stage when she'll say no to everything.
Emma likes to dance. Great Grandma Harris got her a super cute dancing Cupid Pig, called Cupig, for Valentine's Day. She loves pressing the button to get him to dance. She also bounces up and down when Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood comes on. I'm afraid we've done a bad thing. She brings us the TV remotes throughout the day when the TV is off. She wants her shows on. Last week she brought me one of the remotes, but it was not the correct remote for me to put on the DVR. I told her it was the wrong remote and if she found the correct remote and brought it to me, I'd put on Daniel Tiger. I wasn't even sure if she understood what I said. She turned around and looked for the other remote, then brought it to me. I figured she deserved to be rewarded with a show. I was quite impressed that she understood me.
She also loves to laugh, especially later in the day when she gets tired. She gets really silly.
She's been having a harder time being dropped off at MDO. She's cried for the past several weeks. I've learned from watching another parent, that you shouldn't stay and comfort your kid. They'll just keep crying because they want you to stay. You just have to leave. I think it actually makes it easier if I leave quickly. I know that she likes it there and she's familiar with the people, so I know she's in good hands.
We were able to sleep train Emma around 13 months. It was a long night of getting up every hour with her but not letting her get out of her crib. The next day was significantly easier. And after a couple of days, we could put her in her crib without her crying. Since we got back from Durham, NC last weekend, we had to work on her sleeping a little bit more for a couple of days, but she's falling back into her routine without any trouble. Suds spoiled her and slept with her. I know she loved that. Can't beat time with Grandma! I think she was happy to see us when we got home, but I know she was sad to leave Suds. Suds is probably a lot more fun than us :-)
Our trip to Durham to search for a house and daycare started off rough. We had to wake up at 5am to make it to the airport for our flight. I ended up waking up at 4:30am nauseated. Talk about bad timing for a stomach bug. I threw up before we left and was hoping it was something I ate and that I would feel better from that point forward. I wasn't so lucky. At the airport, not only did I have diarrhea, but I also threw up while I was in the security line. Steve and I weren't together at this point since he had to drop me off at the door while he parked the car. We were running pretty far behind schedule because we had forgotten to stop by the garbage with the dirty diapers. We knew it wouldn't be a good idea to leave those in the car for a few days. I can only imagine the smell. So we had to turn around and go back home. I'm surprised we even got out of Memphis. It actually took a little convincing on Steve's part since I was ready to go home and reschedule when I felt better.
As most of you have heard, we were in Durham, NC for a few days so that we could find a house and tour daycares. It was a daunting task. Although I lived in Durham in 2005-2008, I always rented and really didn't know much about the housing market in Durham. The radiology department at Duke hooked us up with a great real estate agent. We had a n amazing experience with her. We spent about 12 hours looking at homes in a couple of neighborhoods in Southwest Durham, which was our targeted area. We saw a total of 18 homes on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon and evening. There were only a few that we would even remotely consider. Most of them had horrible lots, were smoker's homes, were in really bad shape, etc. There were three houses that we liked but we definitely had a favorite. We saw the house on Thursday and both loved it immediately (minus its small size, minimal storage, tiny bathrooms). The downstairs is awesome. It's not perfect but the previous homeowners have our taste, so that helps a lot. I even like most of the paint colors. We found out Thursday evening that somebody else had an offer on this house, so we immediately knew we wanted to put an offer on the house as well. Then we heard back from the seller's agent that we had to make a decision by 10pm on Thursday night. If we didn't put an offer on the house, they would have accepted the other offer. We didn't want to lose the house so we knew it had to be a strong offer. We found out Thursday night that the seller's accepted the offer. Woohoo!
Steve and I were talking after we decided to put an offer on the house. I think Steve thinks that I'm sillly, but I like having signs or what I think of as God winks. These coincidences made me feel like we made the right decision. I liked that they had a cross with Christian music/guitars in one of their bedrooms. They also had a Stargazing binder. Then come to find out, the seller's first name is Mark and the wife's maiden name is Johnson. I also like that the address is 18 and we saw 18 homes. 18 was also my soccer number in high school and the end of my telephone number. I know it sounds silly but it's comforting in a weird way.
Our trip ended on a bad note too. Our flight was delayed over two hours (and might have been canceled completely) due to maintenance issues- so there was no way to make our connecting flight. We were supposed to get back to see Emma on Friday night but there was no possible way to get home to Memphis on Friday. So we ended up taking a flight at 5 in the morning on Saturday out of Durham. We stayed at a really nice hotel near the airport, so it ended up not being as bad as we initially thought. Although, we did want to see Emma, and we knew that Suds probably needed a break. She was so awesome to watch Emma so that we could stay focused with the house hunt. There's absolutely no way that we could have taken her along for such long hours. Suds is just the greatest!
Look how long she is!
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. At least the show has good lessons.
Valentine's Day flowers from Steve made me so happy!
I got us Muddy's Valentine's Day cupcakes! Yum!
Emma had fun eating her cupcake
Eating a cookie while playing in the refrigerator. That is one happy girl!
Beautiful sunset at Shelby Farms
Zoo day. Emma had a meltdown because I wouldn't let her get on the other side of the fence. She wanted to go hang out with the giraffes. I don't blame her. They're pretty cool!
You can get a better idea of how long her hair is in the this picture
Clapping
Such a happy girl!
I'm not sure what the look on her face is here. Scared?
I know these are blurry but look at that sweet face!
Emma loves her daddy! And she loves swinging too!
Emma pretending to blow her nose :-)
We've gotten some awesome videos of Emma lately. I need to upload the videos from Steve's iphone. No promises that I"ll get around to it but I'll definitely try!
My favorite is the one of Emma and Suds in the parking lot. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen you blog, you go all out! These must take you a long time. I love it. Please keep it up when you move!