Sunday, December 21, 2014

18 Months

This is the age where I stop giving her age in months. Now she's a year and a half. A full fledged toddler, except when she's sleeping and still looks like my sweet baby girl.

Sleeping or not, this girl is still pretty sweet. She keeps me pretty busy (which is why there hasn't been a monthly post in awhile) and I can't even begin to describe all the growing she's done lately. I'm pretty sure she learns something new every hour.

I couldn't begin to give a list of her newest words, I can't keep track of them all. I will give a few of my favorite pronunciations though (you'll see I'm too lazy to use the real deal phonetic transcription).

  • Daddy: 'Da-die' 
  • Okay: 'oh-toe'
  • Owie: 'ow-wow'
  • Uncle: 'untle' 
  • Emerson: 'unyun' (sounds a little like mumbled 'onion')
  • Jammies: 'jib-jim' 
I'll also give you a couple videos of her vocabulary taken at the beginning and end of November. 





We still have just 10 teeth which includes only two molars.. we've been working on a third molar all. this. time. Emerson went through quite a growth spurt. She shot up and was so lean for awhile but now she seems to be done growing up (for the time being) and is filling back out again. She's just about 22 lbs and I'm sorry to say I haven't measured her in quite awhile! I'll try to do it and update this post.

Emerson still loves rocks, books, and her latest love: babies. She's obsessed with them, mostly because of my niece, Ellie. This may or may not come in handy later (... and I mean that to say she might adjust to having a sibling but she might try to be too helpful. This is not saying I'm pregnant but we do hope for a sibling eventually). She also loves to 'help' me cook. She does this best by stirring some water in a jar for me. 

She continues to be a good eater and goes through phases of favorites. Currently, she loves: sauerkraut, butter (still), cheese, apples, eggs and sauteed spinach. She has also recently started really liking fruit, which she used graze over. Bananas, mandarins, oranges and pomegranate are top on her list. In addition, she's getting really good at feeding herself these days. I can't tell you how much I love that. It means sometimes I eat warm food ;). 

My spunky girl is full of personality. She's so sweet but also so sassy. She seems to know she's cute and works it. Cocks her head to the side and bats her eyes. Says, 'hi,' all coy-like until you relent to her request. She also adds a sweet little 'please' now. She is really shy, which kind of surprises me, but gets sooo hyper and excited when people come over to play. 

At some point in the last few months she's really accepted and embraced the word 'no', which really upped my parenting game. We're still working through it but she responds well to the prompt, 'okay, mama' when I give her a direction and she says no. She repeats back, 'oh-toe' and scurries off to do it, usually with a smile on her face. It's pleasantly surprising. 

She is still pretty good about telling me when she needs to use the potty, and she's so far very accurate (i.e., when she says she has to go, she really does.. for the most part) but also doesn't always tell me when she has to go pee (which is why she still wears diapers!). She's occasionally dry after a nap but not often enough. 

We are currently night weaning, a week and counting. I'd noticed subtle changes in her lately that made me think she was ready. We've tried a few times before, even just to cut one feeding, and the results were heart shattering and didn't last long. This time is different. She was ready, could understand, or something. She still wakes up when she usually did but in 10 minutes or less (on average) she's back to sleep without milk (and in her own bed). She whines a little and once or twice has gotten mad, but all-in-all, it's going well. Now for her to start sleeping through....

We have pretty simple days: eat, play, read, nap, run an errand or maybe a playdate, do some housework, and welcome daddy home. She still loves to be my shadow, the busier I am the more she wants to be held or sit next to me on the counter. She is constantly bringing me toys/books/spices or whatever else she finds to get my attention. In the process of bringing me the object she usually finds something along the way and drops the original thing to pick up the new thing to have me see that. Once she gets to me in the kitchen she sees the fridge and drops the second thing to ask me to open ('opah') the fridge. It sounds something like this: 
"Oh! Mama, mama, mama, mama! Oh! Oh! De! De! Mama! Oooh! Shoe! On! On! On! On! On! Mama! On! Oh! Opah! Opah! Opah! Opah! Peas. Peas. Opah! Up? Up? Up? Up?" That's all in about one minute. She's nothing if not persistent. ;) And she rarely slows down.

Gosh I love her!

Here are a few pictures.. She doesn't mind the occasional picture, but she appears to all but hate the chair pictures now. Which is why you might not see any more until she's two ;).



Her latest thing: hands behind the head.

This is how she really feels about these photo shoots. Fake tears, fake I tell you.




My pomegranate lover.

At the library. This little guy wouldn't leave her alone after awhile.

My sweet girl. 

Oh and she also loves peas.
She loves the swings.

And she loves the chickens and 'outside'. 


Weekend in Seattle

A few weeks ago we made it to Seattle for a weekend with our friends. It's been a while since our families have all been together. These daddies work hard! 

We made sure to plan a weekend visit that coordinated with a surprise 'sprinkle' shower for Whitney and baby Stella. However, we didn't get any pictures of it! There was plenty of pink though, you can be sure of that. ;).

After the shower and dinner we went to the Woodland Park Zoo for Wildlights. It was fun, a little rainy and not as big as we expected but still we had a great time with great friends. The kids seemed a little glazed over at first. I think Emerson was more intrigued by people watching for the first half of our time there. Eventually she perked up and started talking about the lights. 


Big camera family night selfie. with flash..

Mel, Patrick (the blur), Whitney and Lincs

Emerson's favorite exhibit.. the rocks.





The next day, we went to Bothell Country Village to do some Christmasey things. There's a little train ride, reindeer, and some cute shops. 

Lincoln was SO looking forward to the choo choo ride but I don't think Emerson knew what to expect. In the end the both enjoyed the experience (it was past nap time so there was some expression of emotion before the train ride started) ;). It was pretty cute to see how much they enjoyed it once it started rolling though.




Near the reindeer there was a sweet little merry-go-round. The kids loved it! Or so I gather from these pictures that Whit took.. I might have been down at the tea store getting some gifts and drinking a sample or three.





It was so nice to spend some time with these dear friends! It's so cute to see these kiddos growing up and having fun together!

The Zoo!

We try to have a playdate with our friends once a month. Our October playdate was at the Woodland Park Zoo. This was Emerson and my first trips to this zoo but Lincs is an old pro. He goes with his dad pretty frequently. 

It was such a fun day! I'm a sucker for the zoo anyway but Emerson is so in to animals (and rocks) that I figured she'd love it. 

We had a good day with so many of the animals out and about to see. The kids were super cute as usual and Whit and I got in some good chatting. 

First up... I think it's the cheetah.

checking out the ducks and flamingos 

The jaguar was pacing for us to see!

Poisonous dart frogs I think


Look, a bird! 'Tweet, tweet!"

Another bird!

Red pandas

We had fun watching the gorillas!


And the penguins were pretty active.

They were noisy!



Checking out the kangaroo

The bears!

Snacks and an owl.. oh and sweet smiling faces!

Emerson slept through the elephant


The Mr. Lion!

Emerson almost missed these guys but woke up just in time.


I just love these sequence of pictures! I'm sure Whit will appreciate me posting them ;)


So cute!



Going in for a hug and a kiss

Group photo at the giraffes 


It was a perfect fall day!
We just love these friends so much! It's always worth the drive to get to spend some time with them, no matter what we do together. I have a feeling this won't be our last trip to the zoo!