Almost 15 months!

Emma is approaching her 15 month mark so I thought I'd go ahead and tell you what she's been up to for the past few weeks.

In the last week or two, she's really started to repeat a lot of words that we say. I just adore her sweet voice. She's still not really saying mama or dada. She can definitely say her own name though. It's pretty cute! Her favorite word right now is "up." I feel like she understands most of what we say. It's pretty amazing!

She's still a good eater and will try just about anything. She has been loving blackberries. And a new favorite is ice. She loves ice! And she loves tomatoes too. I tried avocados again yesterday and she wasn't a fan. One bite was more than enough for her :-) I remember that I didn't like avocados when I was younger either. I'm sure that will change when she's older. One of her staple meals is Annie's Mac and Cheese. She loves it! I give her a spoon to use when she's eating it, but she mostly uses her hands to eat it. More efficient, I suppose. And I'm sure she likes how it feels in her hands too. She loves feeding us her food as well, usually she does this once she's done eating but still has food on her tray. Her favorite place to eat is in the refrigerator. She likes to sit there with the door open. Haven't figured out why. We try not to make a habit of it. So usually she'll sit at the table with us in her chair that attaches to the table, or in her booster seat.

She likes to stay up late with us. Lately we've been trying to make her go to sleep by 10pm. Her schedule is all over the place. The other day she took only one nap that was 2hr40minutes (which was a record) in the middle of the afternoon. The next day she woke up at 7:30am (earlier than usual) and took a nap by 9:45am. Typically she wakes up at 8:30am. Once we move to NC, her schedule is going to change quite a bit since I"ll have to be at work early in the morning. For now, I love the schedule that we have. I'm going to miss our morning cuddle time once I start working more regular hours. I'm already quite sad about it.

For the past few weeks, she will bring us her baby doll and she likes us to pat the baby doll. I just pretend that I'm burping the baby doll. She watches and then pats the doll herself. It's pretty cute. She will make a good big sister one day.

When Suds and Pops were up in Minnesota a few weeks ago for Suds surgery, we spend a lot of time outside at their house. Emma loves it. She can roam free and I let her do just about anything she wants. I think it's as fun as the park for her. At the park, there are more things to do- but I have to keep guard to make sure she doesn't get hurt/ fall/ get trampled by bigger kids, etc. Anyways, she loved being outside. Now, she loves being outside. Much better than inside, that's for sure.

We had our biggest scare to date with Emma. At least it scared me. She had a low grade fever for two days, then a fever that got as high as 102.4 (axillary)- which is really like 103.4. I felt sorry for her because she felt so hot and uncomfortable. It wasn't the fever that scared me. On the fifth day of the illness, she woke up fever-free. I was happy that I thought she was getting better. However, she acted like a different kid. It was a continuous meltdown the whole day. It literally did not stop until the second half of the day, but then continued in the evening. But it wasn't her normal cry. It was a shrill cry that I had never heard from her before. It really scared me. I ended up taking her to the pediatrician's office that day. We spend the whole afternoon there. Steve ended up meeting us there for the second half of the afternoon. She ended up calming down a little bit once Steve got there. I really don't think he would have believed me if it weren't for the nurse who came in and commented how much better she was doing since he got there. Anyways, she ended up being fine the next day thankfully.

She still loves bath time. If you ask her if she wants a bath, she literally takes off running to the back bedroom door and bangs on it so she can get through to the bathroom where she takes her baths. Sometimes she resists leaving the bath, but we usually give her lots of time, so she's willing to get out. She also likes showering with me. We've done it on a couple of occasions. If she's awake and Steve is watching her, she always seems to realize where I've gone (even if I try to be sneaky). And then she wants to be in the shower so badly. She will just sit and cry at the door until you let her in. So we let her. She likes playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain too. Pretty cute.

She can fall asleep by herself these days, which is SO nice. She has gotten in the habit of waking up around 1:30am and will continue to cry until I come get her and bring her to the bed so I can sleep with her. I give in everytime. I love sleeping with her. In the morning, she usually comes and cuddles and will put her face right up against mine and go back to sleep. When she's ready to get up for good, she'll start rolling on top of me or she'll start poking me in the face. Ha! Works pretty well, especially when she tries to put her fingers up my nose :-) During the daytime, it's hard to get her to cuddle. She's usually too squirmy. She does like to play with us and if you catch her in an extra sweet mood, she'll even give kisses. They're the absolute best! Open mouthed and slobbery, of course :-)

In the past week or so, she's really resisted us putting on her pajamas and sometimes even her clothes before we go out. She even woke up in the middle of the night trying to tear off her pajamas. Not sure what that's about but hoping it will be short lived. She doesn't do it consistently. I try to ensure the apartment is always cool enough for her, so I'm not sure on this one. Hopefully this phase will pass before too long. Maybe all babies prefer to run around in the diaper? Who knows?!

She's still a squirmy worm. This past week has been maybe a little better when it comes to diaper changes. But by a little better, I mean she'll sit there while I wipe her bottom (more than half the time). She still won't stay put while I'm putting on her next diaper. The majority of the time, I just put her diaper on while she's standing up. It's quite a skill I've developed. Previously, she spent the whole time trying to turn over, then escape. We learned early on that we have to change diapers on the floor. It's too dangerous otherwise. And she's incredibly strong. Hoping this phase will pass, but I'm guessing not since this is pretty much how she's always been. Maybe we can potty train her early? Sounds like a good plan to me.

We've been to the dog park a couple of times with Emma. It's in walking distance from our apartment. The first time we went was so awesome. She really seems to love the dogs. She literally barked the whole time we were there. It was Emma's version of what a doggie says. It was adorable. I had her in the carrier to keep her away from the dogs since she's so little, but we still a run in with a dog. A bigger dog almost knocked me over while I was carrying Emma. So I feel like I have to be a little cautious while I have her with me.

Here is the real reason I know you are all here... photos!
I'm cheating and just put photos on Picasa

We're going in for Emma's 15month check up tomorrow. I'll be sure to post her stats and more photos soon!