Emma is such a doll and she just gets cuter and cuter by the day. I love watching her learn new things. If I blow her a kiss, she blows air back at me. If you ask her to smell flowers, she knows how. You can see her little nose scrunch up while she's smelling them. She understands most of what we say (although she doesn't always listen). She still sounds like she's speaking her own language. In the past week or so, she's really started to say more words as well.
Up is hands down the number one word that she uses. She's still not saying mama or dada. She can say cheese now. I've heard her say that word a number of times and it's always int the right context. Recently we were looking at one of kids meal books from chick fil a. There was a picture of a duck. When I asked Emma what it was, she said duck. I asked her what a duck says and she said quack. I think she really likes ducks. It was pretty cute. I asked her again, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. She said both words again (although duck and quack sound similar). The only two words she uses together are good girl. Usually she'll just repeat that after I say it, but earlier this week during her diaper change, she said it and then didn't move for her diaper change. So she knew she was being a good girl. A couple of days ago, she was fighting a nap but extremely tired. When I went in to get her I asked her if she was being a good girl, and she emphatically shook her head saying no. Ha! She knows what it means, that's for sure! Other words she's started saying in the last week: tree, leaf, hair (or head)- she kept pointing and saying it but I wasn't sure what she was meaning to say. She's pretty good at pointing to body parts, although sometimes she mixes up eye and ear. She thinks it's funny when she finds her belly button.
She loves trees and leaves. She has tried climbing the maple tree in our parking lot a number of times. It kinda looks like she's giving the tree a hug, but then will try to climb it on occasion. If there's one word that describes Emma besides being a sweetheart and trouble monster, I'd say it's climber. She climbs on everything. If she's sitting next to me on the futon, she'll climb and sit on the ledge next to my head, then do a flip over me. She thinks it's quite fun. She's also learned how to climb up on the bed in her room (which is very high off the ground). Trouble. The other day when she was in a silly mood, I put her in her crib for a minute and she was trying to jump up and down while holding on to the crib railing. I guess it was more of a bounce than a jump, but it was still pretty cute. Luckily we haven't had her climb out of her crib yet, but I do see her trying to get a leg over the railing, and she can do it. So I have been keeping a close eye on her while she's in her crib. Usually she'll cry and know that I'll come get her.
She still does not sit still for diaper changes unless she's half asleep. We've started using pull-ups. She's not ready for pull ups or potty training, but it does help me get a diaper on her. It's much easier to pull them up than to get a diaper on properly while she's squirming/ running away. The only issue is that we have to tear them off when she poops, so that we don't get poop everywhere.
She's at a stage where she likes to pick up multiple things up all at once. I remember Sylvie doing this when she was younger as well. It's pretty cute. Well it's cute until you want to go to the car and she wants to hold 5 animals and 2 blankets. Keep in mind that I still carry her to the car with all our belongings. Often times this makes for multiple trips. I'll be thankful when we can park a little closer to our house. I think this is the strongest my arms have ever been in my life with all the trips with all of our stuff. On occasion I'll let her walk, instead of me carrying her. This is usually not a good idea though. She doesn't really listen to us very well. Hoping this gets better with time. She'll run in the other direction half the time. It's tricky when I get home with all of our stuff because there's no good way to get it all upstairs since she can't walk with me. As it gets hotter, I can't leave her in the car for even 30 seconds. I really don't like leaving her in the car anyways, especially being in an apartment complex. There's not really a good option - I can't bring her up to the apartment first. It's too dangerous- because she'll try to follow me back to the car. And our gate at our stairs is not installed very well. So she can knock the whole thing down if she wants.
Emma is a pretty good sleeper. As soon as I think we're on a good schedule, it tends to change. This week, she's started to take short naps in the morning, then another nap in the afternoon. In the past, it was always one good nap in the morning and a nap in the car in the afternoon only if we were lucky. I'm thankful that she's started going to sleep a littler earlier this week as well (a little after 9pm). We've got a ways to go in terms of getting her ready for her new schedule in NC with an early bedtime. For bedtime this past week, she goes to her room when she's tired. She has a bottle in bed while I read her a book and say our prayers. When she's ready to get in her crib, she gathers all her animals and blankets, then we go. So she essentially tells me when it's bedtime. Seems to work pretty well for us. I still sleep with her on occasion. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, then I'll bring her to bed with me. Makes her happy and I don't mind one bit. I'm just thankful she goes to sleep by herself.
She's a cuddle monster when she's tired. In the morning, on occasion, she'll even put her arm around me as she sleeps. LOVE. Typically she gets up early enough that I put on a TV show for her so I can slowly wake up on the futon. She likes being near me, so often times she'll sit on top of me and poke me in the eye or put her finger up my nose. I suppose she's trying to wake me up :-) I will never be lively before 7am... and really before 8am :-) I do have to pay more attention now that she can open doors. I've only seen her do it once in our apartment, but that's enough to know that she can get into more trouble now. We are going to do some serious baby proofing in our NC house.
She LOVES the TV. I really don't like the fact that we let her watch TV. Well a little bit is okay, but she'd watch for half of the day if we'd let her. Well maybe not that long. She's very active around our apartment and gets into everything. Drawing is still a bit tricky. Pretty much every time I let her draw, she ends up eating the crayons. She still puts everything in her mouth. She loves being outside but our apartment is not ideal for her in terms of outside space. The green space in front of our apartment slopes down quite a bit so she can't walk very well there. We end up spending most days at my parents' house since they're backyard is so great for kids. Emma loves spending time outside there. She doesn't get bored quite so quickly. I think it will be easier and easier to do projects with her as she gets older, but for now, she just eats everything. I let her play with uncooked rice the other day. It actually feels pretty neat to play with. Only problem is that she started eating the uncooked rice. Ha!
Back to the topic of TV, she watches a handful of shows. Besides Daniel Tiger's Neighbrohood, her favorite is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She'll even dance to the songs on the show. If we put Mickey on the Tv, she'll immediately go searching for her Mickey and Minnie until she finds them both, so she can hold them while she's watching TV. In the evening, we put on the Goodnight Show on Sprout.
Pretty much every night, she wants to climb on the bed and have tickle/ wrestle time. She loves it. She gets all silly and likes jumping around on the pillows. It's excessively fun! I love hearing her belly laugh. The bed that we play on is a double/full sized bed. It's an iron bed, so I pad the headboard/footboard with pillows. Only problem is that Emma wants the pillows in the middle of the bed. So as soon as I put them on the edges of the bed, she moves the back. Well a couple of nights ago, I gave in and let her keep them in the middle of the bed. Then she bounced over and hit her face on the bed :-( She actually hit her eye and got a mild black eye. Poor girl. She's a pretty tough cookie though. It's not super obvious but I still felt horrible.
She loves playing peek-a-boo. If you pretend you can't find her, she loves it. Once you act like you've found her, she kicks her legs with excitement.
Emma is a good big sister to her animals. She often times will carry her baby doll around and pat her on her back. Half the time she wants me to carry the doll for her. She gives her hugs and kisses as well. Recently she's started bringing her baby doll (and Mickey Mouse) to her high chair. After we help her get them buckled in, she gives them a bottle to feed them. It makes my heart happy watching this. It's so unbelievably sweet. Although she likes her babydolls in the high chair, she now prefers to sit in a real chair, which ends up being even messier. Sometimes I make her sit in her highchair, but we do let her pretend to be a big kid and sit in a chair at the table.
She'll eat just about anything. She ate some smoked salmon the other day. But her favorite is milk, She'd drink a gallon of milk every day if I'd let her. She'll throw a fit at home if you give her a sippy of milk. She only wants bottles. I don't do bottles outside of our apartment though. She really needs to get used to cups and sippy cups. She can drink out of a cup by herself, although I usually only give her water since she does spill some. She still a super squirmy worm when she drinks her milk. I try to make her sit and drink but I'm not always successful.
She LOVES dogs. She gets giddy when she sees a dog. If you talk about dogs, she'll go look out the window to see if she can see one. She giggles and gets so happy when she's near them. At the dog park a couple of weeks ago, a couple of dogs came up to her and were licking her. She loved it!! We went to the water spray park the other day, and she sat right next to one of the dogs and got in its face trying to get licked (I think). The owner let us know that her dog was really sweet. I'm still a little afraid that Emma has no fear around dogs. I really don't want her coming up to a mean dog and getting bitten.
She has no fear and does anything and everything that's dangerous. I think the word she hears most from me is "careful." I tell her to be careful 100x a day.
She imitates lots of behavior. Although she doesn't use toothpaste yet, she has started to pretend to put toothpaste on her toothbrush. The other day, she was playing at the sink (her new favorite activity) while I cleaned up the kitchen. When we were done, she saw a paper towel on the counter. She made me get close enough to it so that she could grab it. She then proceeded to wipe the counter with the paper towel. So cute! I wish I could say she liked to clean up around the apartment with us. She is like a mini tornado though. She empties out every drawer she can find. If there is a pile of papers on a piece of furniture that she can reach, she will throw it all to the ground. I'm trying to work with her a little on this. But she's not always the best listener. Not sure if it's her age or if I need to be more stern and teach her to pick up after herself when she makes huge messes.
Not sure if you remember the pink tutu photos from December. Emma hated being in her tutu. I tried again this past week and she got really upset again. I think it's a little too much fabric. So I was surprised when we were at Costco the other day and my mom got her a Minnie Mouse dress and she loved it. She wanted it on immediately. Ever since we bought it, if she sees it around the apartment, she has to put it on. Tonight, she even put the dress on over her pajamas :-)
She still loves bath time. She always tries to suck the water out of her washcloths, so we have to be sneaky and get the washcloth out of the tub as soon as it has soap on it. She loves taking showers with us as well. If she knows we're in the shower, she will have a complete meltdown if you don't let her in the shower too. I guess it's a good thing summertime is here. She's already had a lot of time with the baby pools and hoses at Suds and Pops house. Fun!
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