September!

Emma's language is really taking off. We have a set of foam letters and numbers. A couple of weeks back, she brought me the letter D, while saying Daddy. I thought it was a fluke, but then she gave me the M and said Ma-Mom. I'm not 100% sure where she learned this, but I know my mom and Steve's mom played with the letters with Emma and would write words with her crayons on her big scribble pad. When we go through them now, if I say P stands for Pops and Pierce, she'll go run and find photos of them and bring them to me. She knows tons of words. At Target the other day, she kept going up to pieces of clothing with hearts on them, and without being prompted, she would point to them and say heart. She also likes to help me unload the dishwasher. When she hands me each utensil, she will let me know if it's a fork, spoon, or knife. Don't worry, the knives are not sharp (and I usually take them out first). Yesterday, we put up orange and purple Halloween lights on our mantle above the fireplace. When Emma saw them, she looked excited and kept saying "wow!"

She's starting to put two words together, which is fun. For example, she'll say "Emma's seat" or "shoes on." It's fun to see her language developing. Her favorite word is probably "no." She says it even if you ask her something that she usually loves to do. It's cute when she shakes her head back and forth while saying it. She also loves asking for more. Except she says it "morn." There's a n at the end of it. Very cute indeed. Steve's mom mentioned that Kathy said more the same way. Fun!

Right now she LOVES her daddy. Whenever I'm home with her, she asks about him all day long. Or if we're sitting to have lunch, she'll point to her daddy's chair and repeatedly say his name. Pretty cute. At night, her new favorite activity with Steve is playing under a blanket, or as she calls it a "tent." She thinks it's excessively fun! Steve has been doing her bedtime recently, although I still love doing it. Last night I put her to sleep. She still gets a bottle in her crib at bedtime. We lay on the ground next to the crib until she finishes it, then she passes the bottle to us, and usually asks for more. While she was drinking last night, she was holding my hand through the crib bars. I absolutely adore this time with her.

Emma is still a great eater. She likes to eat what we are eating. She still loves her milk and drinks it out of a bottle. She also loves yogurt, corn, and tomatoes. It's pretty cute watching her eat corn on the cob. And I also love that she likes to eat big tomatoes like they are apples. She really likes the juice out of the tomato, just like her mama. She still loves to say "mmm" right after she takes a bite of anything that she likes.

This past week she put on her shoes by herself for the first time. It seems to be luck if she puts the correct shoe on the correct foot. But the rest of it she can do by herself.  We had always done this for her. She really only wears one pair of shoes these days. Livie and Luca sandals with a velcro strap. Anyways, she really wanted to go outside because we had deer in our front yard. She didn't want to wait for us to finish dinner, so she went and put her shoes on, and then let us know that it was time to go outside :-)

We aren't potty training her yet, but she seems to have some interest in the potty. She has peed on the potty several times now. But usually it's because she doesn't have a diaper on and is in the bathroom before bath time. If she starts to pee, we put her on the potty. Occassionally, she'll tell us that she wants to go to the potty. She'll go through the motions (although she doesn't pee), flush the toilet, and even wash her hands afterwards. I think it's just a matter of her brain catching on. I think she's close but we're not quite there yet. I'm definitely not going to push it.

Yesterday Emma had her 18 month vaccinations and her flu shot. We were two months late since she kept getting sick. We rescheduled several times. I'm glad to have that behind us. She was very upset while she got her 3 shots but she settled down quickly afterwards.

Then later in the afternoon, we went for Emma's first dentist appointment. She fought it big time but they did a cleaning, checked for cavities, and gave her a fluoride treatment. A dental hygienist and the dentist both looked at her mouth. She freaked out both times, but luckily she calmed down quickly afterwards. And yes, she picked out her outfit! :-)  She wanted to wear her pajamas, and her princess dress was the only thing I could convince her to wear instead of her pajamas. She definitely has opinions about what she wears!

September Picasa photos!