Three Cheers...

...For THREE steps!! Yep, our little ladybug took her first steps tonight. It was an added bonus that Josh and I were both right there to witness it. She has really been making progress lately with her balancing so we knew it would be soon. We were just sitting on the floor and I had Emma in my lap and she stood up and took three steps towards Josh. Then she fell forward into his arms. She thinks it is more of a game to just fall face forward into us because she knows we will catch her. She laughs hysterically when she falls.

Then later on tonight we were upstairs with her and she did it again! She hasn't taken more than 3 steps at a time, but we're getting there.

I found out on Wednesday morning that I had strep throat. Not the best news especially since it is very contagious and I didn't want Emma or Josh catching it. Thankfully Josh was able to come home from work and stay with Emma on Wednesday and today. I started the antibiotics on Wednesday afternoon so by this afternoon I wasn't contagious anymore. Josh still quarantined me until tonight though just in case. Thank goodness he did or I might have missed the exclusive first steps!

A Shopper in Training

I bought one of those little shopping carts for Emma today. To say that she really likes it is a total understatement. I thought it would be good for her to be able to walk around without the help of us and learn to balance more on her own. It is definitely working. She has wanted to play with it since we got home. In fact, she used it so much that she wore herself out and took a 3 hour nap. I consider this money well invested!

Our downstairs makes a circle and I followed her around no less than 20 times today. Here is a short video of her with her shopping cart. She always looks back at me when she gets to a dead end. I think it is to make sure that a) I'm watching and b) to make sure that I am noticing she is stuck and for me to come help her turn around. It looks like she is ready to shop to me:



Before we got the cart, she was standing up for a short spurts without holding on to anything. But now, she is standing for long periods of time and balancing herself great. I think the distraction of all the toys and music right there at her fingers makes her forget to hold on so much. I don't think it will be long now before we have an official "toddler" on our hands.

Here is an action shot that I took of her:


I could never get a video of her from the front angle because as soon as I'd set the cart in place and walk back far enough to video, she'd already be right in my face. So, here is a video from tonight that Josh took after I did the set up.


She was also really cute playing with her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse shapes today. She kept fishing out the shapes, putting them in, then turning around to make sure I was watching, and then she'd clap for herself. So sweet.

What the Future Holds

Nobody knows exactly what the future holds. But here are a few possibilities that I have come across the past couple of weeks...

A future veterinarian - she squeals at the sight of any animal, especially her Nala. And she is so sweet and gentle with them. The other day at breakfast she even shared her cheese toast with her toy cow. How sweet is that?


A future CPA like her mother - Emma loves playing with my calculator and perks up anytime they start counting on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:


A future engineer like her father - she is fascinated by electricity and power and it makes her day when I let her turn the lights out on our way out of a room:


A future musician - she stops what she is playing and turns towards any music she hears. These are videos I took of her as I put the instruments in her hands for the first time:



What I can pass along for sure are some things that have happened in the recent past. Last week we transitioned to one nap a day and I consider it a success. Typically she will take a 2.5 to 3 hour nap starting at 1:00. The trick is that she just has to have a snack when she wakes up so she isn't hungry for dinner really early. That way, her dinner can stay at the same time and she sleeps all night and keeps to her original wake up time.

Of course this isn't always the case. Yesterday Jaime came to watch Emma for a few hours and Emma never napped. Her schedule was thrown off because she took about a 25 minute nap on me while we waited for our food at the Pancake House after church. She slept through all the noise but as soon as food arrived at our table and she smelled the pancakes, she perked right up. She loves pancakes and really enjoyed the sausage!


She is also leaning towards wanting to take those first steps. She is standing up unassisted a lot more lately and for longer periods of time. I think she's still working on her balance and trying to make sure she's prepared before she takes off walking. I'm pretty sure she gets that need for safety from me because, let's be honest, Josh doesn't have those types of thoughts. We're working on the walking, but we're not in too big of a hurry to cross this milestone.

Another cute thing she is doing is cleaning up after herself. She'll take everything out of her basket or her toy bin and then slowly put them all back in. Once she is finished putting it all back in, she claps for herself. Granted, she always takes them back out again, but it's a start!

Lastly, since she is so independent, she wants to feed herself not only with her hands but with a spoon. She's started to do it and although it is messy sometimes (especially with yogurt), I know it's good for her to learn. It's so funny though to watch her pick up peas or carrots one by one and put them on the fork so that she can put the fork in her mouth. Adorable!

Riddle Me This

How does less napping during the day equal needing to sleep less during the night? She normally doesn't wake up until 7:45 or 8:00, but this morning she was wide awake at 6:30. I don't think I have any chance of keeping her awake until after lunch today to keep up with the one nap experiment. She's already getting the sleepy eyes and it is only 9:00 am. I knew this one nap transition was too good to be true.

Mother Goose

Today Emma and I ventured to the library for Mother Goose story time. Emma loved it. They sing, dance, read, have puppets and even have a snack at the end for them...what's not to love about that? She danced every time they sang and she followed along as best she could. For one of the songs, all the kids were able to get little beanbags and shake them and put them on their head, etc. She shook every time they said "shake" and she put it to her head when that part came around. Emma also loved clapping at the end of each song. All the kids were so cute clapping for themselves and each other. We went with our friend Martina and her son, Colton, who is super cute. He has been going to the story time for a while now, so he knew the ropes. The class was great because all the children in the room are 12 - 24 months. Therefore, it isn't a big deal if one of the kids gets up and crawls around. Just makes it easier on the parents. Thanks to Martina for inviting us! I tried to get a picture of Emma and Colton together, but Colton knew it was time to go and he was ready to go and get some lunch. So, here is a picture of Emma playing - notice she has surrounded herself with paper. Shocker!



I also decided that this week I would experiment with one nap a day. Prior to this experiment, she took two 1.5 hour naps each day (one at 11:30 and one at 5:30). Yesterday I moved up her breakfast and lunch and had nap time at 1:00. She slept for 2 hours so it went well. I could tell she was sleepy earlier than that though, but I figured if it went horribly wrong, then we'd switch back today. She also got a little sleepy around 6:00 but then she got her second wind and stuck with her usual bedtime of 9:00ish. All in all, a success! We'll see if we can keep it going today. So far, so good...here is a shot I just took of her on the Emma cam snoozing away.

Kiss, Kiss!

Emma started giving us kisses a while back...the kind where she just has her mouth open and darts at your face. It is heartwarming. Lately, she has been getting better at it. Now, if she's awake, she gives one to Josh before he leaves for work in the morning. Cute! This weekend I reached a record topper though. She has really been wanting to use regular cups instead of sippy cups. I guess she feels like she should be beyond that now or something. So on Saturday after lunch I took one of her new ladybug sippy cups and took the lid off, put a little water in it, and handed it to her. I sit here and I can't even think of a way to describe the excitement that came over that little girl's face when I placed it in her hands. I can say this though - she was so excited and grateful that she looked up at me and said "Mama Mama" and then leaned up her head and puckered her lips together. She was giving me a kiss! I leaned down and kissed her. Probably one of the sweetest moments we've had! She proceeded to drink out of the cup and each time she would dump some down her bib. But she wasn't scared or wanting to stop. Quite the opposite. She was ready to take on the new challenge. She got better and better with each sip. In between each sip she had that same joy, excitement and love in her eyes...and EACH time she gave me a kiss! How sweet is that? I got a record seven kisses in a row from that little girl. Needless to say, she'll be getting water out of that cup today too!

Although Emma has been extra sweet and loving, she does have a little bit of a runny nose. It started Friday but I have seen improvement each day. Since she hasn't felt 100%, she hasn't been eating as much the past few days either. She also doesn't eat as fast since her nosed is stopped up. By the end of the three meals, I feel like we sit in the kitchen at her highchair for a large portion of the day. On Sunday after church we went to brunch and Emma had pancakes for the first time. She didn't hate them! haha She actually loved them...she also loved the bites of omelet that Josh gave her and the potatoes that I gave her. I'm not sure if she was just extra hungry because we were a little past her schedule because of church or if she was feeling better, but she ate great yesterday! She is getting better each day, but I'm praying for this little cold to be over quickly!

Speaking of prayer, I want to update you on a few prayer requests I mentioned previously. Our preacher had a stroke on Christmas Eve and he has been in the hospital and now in rehab. He is doing better, but he has a very long way to go. His doctors say that he is their miracle patient because of the tremendous progress he has accomplished thus far. Also, my friend Leah had her third detached retina on Christmas Eve and she has since had surgery on it. She has been pretty uncomfortable and she is going back to the doctor on Tuesday for a check up. He gave her some drops for the pain and they seem to be helping. I ask that you continue your prayers for both of them. I have one extra prayer request today. Our friends, Jaime and John, are starting IVF this month. Please pray this goes smoothly and that Jaime gets pregnant the first try!

Here are a few pictures of Emma from this weekend:

This is her new stance


Having fun on her airplane

The War on Pillows

Ever since Emma started to stand up and have some balance she has decided that pillows do not belong on sofas or chairs. She will stand up and pull each one down. Her favorite ones to pull down are the ones off of the couch in our house. There are four pillows. If I put them back up, she just takes them back down. If I leave them on the ground, she struggles to get over them. If I move them and put them somewhere else, she seeks them out and pulls them from where ever they are. I thought about just putting them in a closet somewhere but then I never do. I also think that Emma enjoys this war. It's like her mission each day...most of the time, it's several times a day. I made this video to demonstrate although I wasn't quick enough with the Flip to catch her taking the first pillow off...but don't worry, I can attest that she did it with vengeance and pride!


She also has the same type of battle going on with her socks. I have to put shoes on for her to keep her socks on. But sometimes she can get the shoes off too. I had to buy new socks recently because the other ones were getting stretched out! I found these bunny slippers in her drawer and I'm hoping since she has the battle against socks, these will keep her feet warm. Aren't they cute?






Emma has gotten 2 new teeth over the past few days (possibly three but it's hard to tell because she won't open long enough to really look). That puts us up to eight total teeth. One of them came up on Monday and then one I noticed yesterday. She's going to have a full set soon enough! And as an update to my earlier post about biting, I am happy to say that we have had no more incidences like that!

She has gotten a little temper though. She knows when we say "NO" that we mean it. She sticks out the bottom lip and cries. We have to just let her cry and throw her arms around when it happens. It only last about 20 or 30 seconds thank goodness. The really good news is that she does in fact stop doing whatever act got her into trouble and she stops before the temper tantrum starts. It's funny though because when we say no to Nala, it doesn't phase Emma at all...sometimes she even laughs when Nala gets in trouble which is the kind of humor I can only assume she gets from her father. But it is nice to know that she understands when we are telling her no. And although she is still too young for me to expect her to never do these acts again, I think it's laying the ground work that you have to have in order for discipline in the future to work. We'll see! I feel like in ten years I might need the help of Supernanny or something.

Picture This...

...It's a calm Wednesday morning and Josh has just left for work. I said goodbye to him and Emma has decided for the first time in weeks that she's going to sleep a little bit later. I'm closing my eyes in hopes that I'll fall asleep for a few minutes before Emma awakes. Sounds nice, right?

Now enter our cat, Nala...with her meow that makes you KNOW that there is something wrong. She has a chipmunk in her mouth and she waits until I sit up in bed and look at her to drop it. The chipmunk is possibly the largest chipmunk I have ever seen (and sadly I've seen LOTS). The chipmunk runs under the television stand and Nala takes her stance in front of it. I try to see how I could catch it. First I run through the normal routing. And yes, I think it's a bad sign that we have a normal routine. I close the door to our closet and our bathroom so that I at least know which room it is in. Then I close the door to our bedroom and put a towel in the bottom door crack so that it can't get out. I can get the birds, moles, lizards or whatever else she hunts outside but chipmunks are just so hard to get. They are fast and they can wait you out. She has never brought a chipmunk in when I'm home by myself. Ugh. I had to break down and call Josh. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't have a chipmunk running around with Emma on the floor, now could I? He had just gotten to work and he had to come back home...good thing we only live 10 minutes from his work! In the meantime, Emma has awoken due to the incessant meows and me running around looking for towels, closing doors, and calling Josh.

I left Nala in the bedroom so that she could keep an eye on it. That way as soon as you go in, you know where it is because she has her stance and she is staring at whatever creature it might be that day. Josh went in with his flashlight and there were crashes and clanks and meows coming from behind the closed door. After about 10 minutes, he emerged and took the chipmunk outside. There was no way I would have ever caught it, so it was the right decision to call him. Thanks Josh for coming to save me and Emma this morning!

Now if Josh would just make sure the back door is closed when he leaves in the morning, we won't have to go through this again.

Nala Love

We brought Emma home on January 2, 2009. We were all so excited to welcome her to her new home...everybody except our cat, Nala. Before Nala even saw the baby, she sensed something was different and literally ran to the bedroom and hid behind our bed. She kept her distance for several days. She finally started to warm up to Emma after a few weeks. Now that a year has gone by I am amazed at the bond they share.

Emma's first words were Mama and Dada. But shortly thereafter she started saying Nala. If Nala comes into the room, Emma squeals with joy. And surprisingly, if Emma is in the room, Nala trots over and rubs up against her. I love that they can coexist on the floor and sit right next to each other without Emma feeling the need to grab at her...I'm sure Nala appreciates this too. Every now and then Nala will feel the need to be by herself and she will run out of the room, but this doesn't happen as often as you'd think it would.

Recently, Emma has figured out that if she throws a piece of food on the floor from her highchair, then her Nala will come to her. Often Nala will eat it, but sometimes I think she's a little suspicious of it. Maybe she is skeptical of any food that Emma won't eat herself. This weekend, Josh taught Emma a bad habit related to this...

I foresee Emma throwing all of her food on the floor in the future.

As we know, Emma loves paper. Apparently tissue falls into this category. I had a box sitting by the bed and she pulled one out and proceeded to rip it to shreds. We had tiny pieces of tissue all over the bed. Once she was done, she would pick up a piece and then put it in my hand. Nala was laying with us and it was like I could see the thought bubble above her head as she caught a glimpse of her Nala. She was thinking, "I bet Nala would LOVE a piece of tissue...I should share!" After that she picked up a piece of tissue and then put it on top of Nala. Nala was pretty much unphased but this but Emma was so proud of herself and she thought it was the best game ever. She picked up tissue pieces and gave them all to Nala for several minutes. Nala just laid there and let her do it. I think she likes the attention. Emma started to get a little overzealous though and it made Nala give her the look like "Okay, that's enough, I'm outta here." She got up and walked away while Emma was looking away.

We all love our Nala and she loves us unconditionally. She doesn't shed that much but somehow it never fails that each day you'll find at least one Nala hair on your outfit. We have come to call this "Nala love" because it's as if she doesn't want us to forget about her and so she leaves her mark on us. But you tell me, how could we ever forget this face??

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...but the fire is so delightful! I love this cold weather and I'm so excited that Emma has now seen snow twice. She probably doesn't remember the first time because she was only two months old and because she fell asleep while we were taking pictures.

The first time (March 2009):





Today we had some flurries. I took Emma outside for a minute just so she could experience the snow but it wasn't sticking so I have no pictures. I took some of us inside though...



Our mantel above the fireplace is bare right now because after taking down Christmas decorations, I haven't put anything back up. Nala stayed inside most of the day due to the inclement weather. I guess she got bored because I caught her up on the mantel sniffing Bob.



The cold weather apparently results in Emma being sleepy. She had her first nap at 11:00 and slept until 1:30! I couldn't believe it. Normally she sleeps until 12:30. I knew for sure that she wouldn't want to take her second nap of the day which is usually from around 5:30 until 7:00. Well, at 5:00 she started just laying down in the middle of the floor. She would be playing and then all of a sudden she'd just put her little head down. She's now been asleep for an hour already. You'd think this would affect her sleep at night but NO. She sleeps from about 9:30 or 10:00 until 8:00 the next morning. Is this my child, or what?

These Teeth Were Made for Biting

A few things to note in the new year already.

1. As noted in my earlier post, the pediatrician let us know that it was time to use a toothbrush with Emma. I just knew it was going to result in Josh holding her down while I pried her mouth open and tried to brush. We tried it this weekend and Emma proved me wrong again. I took a video of the very first teeth brushing experience...

After I cut the Flip off she wanted us to keep going so we did it for another few minutes. I think she'll have the cleanest baby teeth around!

2. Speaking of teeth...her's are SHARP! As I was brushing them this morning, she got excited as usual. She wanted to hold it. Keep in mind that she already had one toothbrush in the other hand and it actually plays music, but she wanted both of them. I let her have it but she started to want to crawl with it and I can't have her putting her toothbrush on the floor. Ewww! So I naturally took it away. She threw a huge fit and started crying. I picked her up and decided we were done. As I was walking down the stairs, she buried her head in shoulder. But before she picked her head back up, she bit me!! My sweet baby bit me. As I squealed in pain and shock, I looked at her and said, "Emma NOOO!' She cried even harder at that because she hates when we tell her no. I know she's young but I can't have her start this whenever she doesn't get her way. So I let her just sit on the ground and finish her tantrum. After about 10 seconds of me not paying attention to her, she stopped crying, crawled over to me and got in my lap. I took that as, "I'm sorry, Mama. I love you!" Apparently turning one leads to a bit of a diva attitude! I'm sure I will be working on putting an end to that for the next 20 years.

3. We also let her have a popsicle. Since she always wants to do it herself, she took it from us and fed herself. She kept holding the cold part though and then would get cold and let it go. After a few tries, she got the hang of it...


4. We went to Emma's friend Alex's birthday party this weekend. He turned one...he was born 4 days after Emma. Here they are playing with balloons. Emma quite enjoyed all the balloons that they had there and we even went home with two of them. Thanks for sharing your balloons, Alex!


5. Last year when we brought Emma home, we took this picture:


For comparison purposes, we took a picture of her a year later under the tree with the boppy. It really shows how she has grown this past year. Here she is: