13 Months

This girl! I couldn't possibly capture in words all the joy, entertainment and energy that goes on around here.

Despite her ability to walk independently, she still really enjoys and prefers to walk holding a finger. It's the first thing she asks for the minute her eyes open in the morning after saying 'hi'. She says and signs 'down' ("dow") and grabs my finger. If I don't quickly follow her she throws herself on the floor and wails. Then we toddle off downstairs and to the backdoor. She asks to be up and go out, then 'dow' again and we toddle to the nearest bed of rocks and sit an play with rocks for awhile until it starts to get too hot (or we get hungry). Our typical morning routine.. and we repeat this scenario several times a day.

Her language is exploding. As she learns words, she's also started using signs more, often pairing her verbal approximation with her sign approximation. She can do each sign fairly precisely but tends to just waive her hand for most of them. Here are some of her words:

• Hi - still her favorite and most used word, usually accompanied by a wave. It means everything from a greeting to, hey look at this, I love you, and 'what? I'm not supposed to do that? let me distract you with my cuteness'. 
• Buh - Her generic word for absolutely everything that doesn't have a word yet. She says, 'buh' and points, saying it louder when you don't guess what she wants.
• BO! - Any animal, or maybe possibility of an animal
• By - Bite, this one she uses correctly, but also sometimes uses it to ask to nurse
• Ma - Milk (which she kind of signs too) We call it 'mamma milk' so sometimes she says 'mam'
• Dow - Down, also signed (with our made up sign) and seems to be synonymous with 'walk' (which she can't say verbally but gets her point very much across by grabbing your finger and grinning wildly.)
• Bye - standard usage, however, she uses it very sparingly. Most often she just waves bye.
• Baa - sheep
• Meow - cat, actually this is just the noise, but she uses it consistently when she sees a cat
• Mama - Mommy. She doesn't use this very often, but usually when she wakes up in the night or if she wakes up upset from a nap, and when she gets hurt, or if she finds herself alone in a room and occasionally when she wants my attention. 
• Da - Daddy. Sometimes, dada, often she says, 'hida' for hi dad :). She also uses it to get his attention sometimes. 
• Whoa! - Standard usage, whenever she is pleasantly surprised by something.
• Ya - Yes. She only occasionally says this verbally, but she shakes her head yes more often. 
• Bu - book. It's faintly different from her generic 'buh' but even without context, I can tell when she's saying book. 

She also loves to sit and read, and play with toys (even if she prefers rocks or better yet, dirt), and she's still a bit of a momma's girl and doesn't often leave my side when it's just the two of us. She completely adores our neighbor girls too and they are gracious enough to play with her and walk her around frequently. 

This is a long one, but pretty cute.

As Emerson gets older and more independent, she also gets sweeter. She spends more time in our laps or snuggled up in bed, just for the sake of snuggling. She gives tons of kisses and tickles and zerberts! However. she also has sass. If you don't get up and go pretty quickly after she tells you she wants to walk, then she throws herself on the floor, folded in half and wails. Tears and all. She also protests severely with loud, high pitched cries at various instances. We find ourselves saying, 'too loud' quite often. Ahh the joys of parenting. 

It is just so fun to see her learning and growing before our eyes. She weighs about the same and I didn't measure her, but she's grown a little. She still has chunky legs and wrists and those cheeks!! She has finally take to eating and I'm not trying to convince her to eat anymore, she actually asks for 'bites'. Her favorite food is sprouted beans, closely followed by toasted coconut flakes and spirulina chips. 

In the car, saying hi to daddy up front

Telling us about an animal 'BO'

(bribe: kitchen timer)

"Hi daddy!" 

half squawk, half laugh 

Daddy is funny

Checking out the new calf

Walk, walk, walk, walk..

I'm just licking it, I promise.

I'm just tasting it, I swear.

I may have been playing in the dirt...

We've been enjoying a few afternoons at the park with some splashing in the river!

POP!

She loves these sunglasses! We're channeling a little Hepburn here ;)

A mini tea party with our neighbor

At the park again on a playdate. She LoVeD this until clean up time!