Ahh! Can you believe we're only a month away from a first birthday!? This time last year I was starting the longest month I've ever experienced. This year, I'm sure it'll be the fastest month I've experienced.
This month I've been a little sentimental. Holding her a little longer after she falls asleep, taking a few more pictures and indulging her with a millionth 'walk' around the house. Her little personality is exploding. She's unbelievably endearing and cracks us up constantly. She loves to play and dance to music. Her favorite activity is of course still 'walking' and she's getting stronger and has better balance (but still not trying to take steps on her own). She's all over the place with crawling and pulling herself up on things. Sometimes I'll catch her looking like a little chubby baby but she's so quickly turning from baby to little girl, right before our eyes.
As far as milestones go, this was a slow month. She did get her fifth, sixth and seventh teeth though. All in one week with her sixth and seventh in one day! Her eighth tooth is close but taking it's time popping through. She still weighs 20.4 pounds and is 29.5 inches long. She is also still wearing 12 and 18 month clothes and hasn't changed snaps on her diapers in awhile. She still occasionally uses the signs for all done and milk, but after the new wore off of those she cut way back. We're still working on more, please (basically using please for: I want) and diaper. Emerson is also into routines lately. After we change her diaper she waits for me to say 'all done' and then she gets up/I pick her up and we look at the things around the changing table. She switches the order up some but we have to visit her newborn pictures and say 'ba-by', her stuffed bear, bunny and lion, and then her stuffed Peter Rabbit. Then I say, 'where is _____' and she looks at whichever one I said. She cracks up after finding each one, which always cracks me up too. It's fun to see her understanding more of what we say.
Emerson still loves to 'give tastes' of everything and (so far) enjoys sharing everything (on her terms). If she sees you looking at her she'll almost always hold out whatever she's holding to give you a taste, wait for you to make the tasting noise and then take it back. She's also getting a little spunky and snatches things or throws them as quickly as she can, with a little look on her face that sort of says 'I own you'. She still loves to pound things and pick up anything possible with her pointer finger and thumb. She doesn't eat much, unless it's something new, but is getting really good at taking bites of things.... and then spitting them out.... She manages to swallow some of it though, as evidenced in her diapers. Some of the things that she has eaten more than once (and seems to enjoy) are: beets, asparagus, salmon, sweet potato, blueberries and onion (cooked and raw!). Emerson also takes her fermented cod liver oil like a champ! She loves the stuff even though it smells and tastes super fishy. I give it to her via medicine syringe and she always happily sits there and sucks it down. The rest of my offerings get tasted once or twice and then mashed, smeared and tossed. She also is at that stage where she puts every little speck from the floor into her mouth. How does she see all those things!? For now she's good about spitting them out (via raspberries) if I ask to see whatever it was, which is kind of rude but effective at keeping her from eating random things. She's started to do it without me asking and basically rats herself out.
Here's a clip of her 'dancing' and giving 'tastes'. This is kind of a good glimpse at her personality right now. Also a clip of her eating beets.. because she's cute :)
She's a busy, happy and sweet little girl. Loves to 'work' or play by my side, loves to 'dance' to music and loves it when daddy comes home. I've said it before but I'll say it again. I miss the tiny but I love seeing who she's turning into. She blesses our hearts abundantly!
And now for picture overload. This monthly picture thing is getting hard! She was even less impressed with my attempts at a smile than last month. I'll be surprised if I get her to sit for a picture at all next month! As much as I love looking back through them and seeing her expressions etc, I'm starting to be okay with the end of monthly pictures just because it's a challenge to get her to sit still in the chair!
Her newest thing.... ugh.... picking her nose.
Bribes.
Telling me something important and looking so old doing it.
Her other favorite thing lately.
HA! I don't know what's up with this face!?
She was not impressed with any of my noises. No smiles for mom (until I pulled out the cell phone front camera and then she could see the cute baby.. she'll always smile for the cute baby).
We've SO enjoyed the spring weather and all the extra time outside.
She likes to walk in the grass... and eat it.
Sometimes I need a reminder that she's actually still pretty small.
One of the few things that will keep her occupied independently for awhile. She loves taking toys in and out of the basket and she loves that little red bucket. She keeps trying to climb into the basket,
which should be interesting if she does.
Silly girl
We're still working on 'gentle'. Poor flowers. I was dead heading, she was just killing.
Running errands on a windy afternoon. Silly girl LOVES the wind!
Cell phone shot during the photoshoot. Soo not into it.
11 months going on 2.
She will finally keep sunglasses on if we're out in the bright sun
(but takes them off the second we get inside)
Chilling with grandma
We went down to Walla Walla to visit my aunt and uncle while
they were staying. We had such a super lovely evening. I loved this
chair with her outfit. |I wish I'd had my big camera to take some pictures.
Looooooooves doing this.
We're pretty big fans of the selfie.. I know, I know.
This Mother's Day we had the pleasure of my parents coming to visit us (which I think they did last year too but I didn't blog about it?). I've discussed how amazing my mom is before. Another thing that my mom is amazing with is moving. She rocks at helping me set up our new digs, especially the kitchen. We're moving in a week (a week. AGK.) so my mom and dad came for the weekend to start the process, my dad is going home for part of the week to work and coming back later to finish helping us move. My mom is staying for the week to help because she's amazing.
I'll preface the following excitement with a little disclaimer that although I think that it's a good idea to take a day and appreciate our moms (like I said, mine is amazing and totally deserves the recognition more than once a year), I really think that Mother's Day (and Father's Day etc) are kind of just greeting card holidays. Commercialism! Not that I'm trying to get out of getting a card/gift or that I don't want to bless my mom but I just think it's one more way we're exploited by marketing etc. So in my attempt to keep it in check, Blake doesn't have to get me a card and/or gift. However, I'm not opposed to using the 'holiday' to make a fun memory or have a fun experience together. Case in point - I've been looking for an excuse to have a tea party so what better excuse than Mother's Day!
We booked a high tea at a local tea store for my parents and us. The store is classic. Every square inch is filled with Victorian decor or tea paraphernalia. Emerson slept through the first part but when she woke up she sweetly sat on my lap until the end when she switched to Papa's lap. She was great! We decided to have a couple of extra pots of tea (we're tea junkies and the tea store owners know we're loyal regulars which I guess it has it's perks) and that was longer than our little 10 month old wanted to sit around. So Papa took her walking while we finished our last few sips cups. Ahh. It was perfect! I loved every second of it!
Enjoying her baby-sized tea spoon
They have a bunch of fun hats for tea parties (if you want them).. grandma couldn't resist.
Emerson wanted nothing to do with it though!
Our tray of goodies - and they were good!
We had our two favorite teas - Ginger Peach and Creamy Earl Gray (by Market Spice Tea, no other 'cramy earl gray' has compared to theirs.. trust me we've tried several). We also tried a new tea, a Strawberry Cream White tea, and we revisited Creamy Earl Gray :). Emerson loves to share my herbal tea at home, but since this was caffeinated she only got a sip, then we switched her to water. She sure loves drinking out of tea cups though :).
