Yogurt and the spoon

Learning to use a spoon to eat one of her favorite treats. She looks so out of it. Cracks me up.

Santa's helper and the Christmas tree

All gone

Usually when I'm finished giving Emily a snack I put whatever container it's in aside and tell her that it's all gone. Now when I put the container aside she shrugs her shoulders,puts her hands up, and says "gone?". I'm lovin it.

Pre Christmas 08

Random stuff

Well, Emily changes a little bit every week. Lately she has been using the words she knows on a more consistent basis. She has also learned a couple new words. One is night night and the other is duck. She has the "Five Little Ducks" book and loves it. That's where she picked up on the word duck. Also,if she is upset I will sometimes sing the song from the book and she usually calms down. She is also working on thank you. She makes the voice inflections for it right now. Her two favorite activities right now are putting objects into larger objects (i.e. buckets, bowls) and bouncing on her butt. Just put a crib mattress on the floor or let her get in your bed and she can bounce for hours. Emily also delights in feeling water running through her fingers. So, at the beginning of baths she just holds her hands underneath the faucet while the tub fills. Once the faucet is off she requests that I take a cup and pour water on her hands. Lately she has been requesting me to do things she likes if she thinks I can do it better than she can. I'm really enjoying that. She has also been repeating what I do more and more. Such as after I was done aspirating her snotty nose today, she took the aspirator from me and stuck it up her nose. Which if you know how much she hates things up her nose you'd understand that that is pretty funny. She also learned how to pucker her lips yesterday after watching me. Another trick she is working on happened yesterday. She was in her high chair eating her breakfast. At some point she was done eating and instead of letting me know she wanted to get down she decided she would just entertain herself. She generally kicks her feet and will move her high chair in the process. This time she decided she was going to go somewhere. She moved her high chair all the way across the door frame (which is big enough for two doors). It was funny because I wasn't paying attention so when I looked up she was not where she was supposed to be. It's time to apply the brakes on that sucker (the high chair, not Emily). Other than all of that, we had a good Thanksgiving at my parents' house. We discovered that she likes stuffing. We also had a good time visiting with Josh's family on Friday. He got to see his sister and 2 of his cousins that he hadn't seen in 15 years or so. Well, I must get going because Emily decided to empty the shoe basket while I wrote this blog.

Christmas pics 08

 

Emily Jane and motherhood

I thought I'd reflect on this past year plus a couple of months. In this past year I have learned a lot about who I am and what kind of mother I can be. Honestly, I was scared about being a mother. Putting it off because of a fear that I wouldn't make a very good mom. I wanted to have children but I just didn't trust myself. I have an issue with having patience. I don't have much. It's an unfortunate trait I inherited from my dad. Anyway, I didn't think I would have enough of it to raise a child. In anticipation for our new arrival 14 months ago I was really excited to welcome her and I knew that I had to try my hardest to be the best mom I could be because ready or not she was coming. For the first few months I discovered that being a mom comes so much more naturally to me than I could have ever imagined. Don't get me wrong, my patience has been tried and there are quite a few times I have doubted my abilities. But all of this is greatly overshadowed by one of the most special kinds of love one could ever experience. The pride you feel helps too. She has taught me how to be patient, how to love unconditionally, and about one of the purest joys on this earth. That joy comes from experiencing her laughter, watching her learn, and feeling her love. She has made it easy to learn these lessons by being so sweet,funny,and patient with me. God knew what He was doing when he gave me such a precious daughter. She has taught me so much in such a short time and she has made me a better person for it. I still make mistakes but with each day my love for her grows and so my determination to be a good mom grows. I have been blessed and am glad that motherhood is no longer something I fear. It's something I cherish,love,and am so very thankful for.

Word and tricks of the Week

Ok, so Emily has been saying her version of doggie for months. It sounded more like daddy but she would say it when referring to her doggies and so we counted it. Well, today I am wearing a Big Dogs t-shirt. It has a cartoon drawing of a dog on the front. Emily saw it and pointed and said her version of doggie. I then pointed at it and said doggie repeatedly. She then began to press in on the doggie on my shirt and said doggie over and over while jabbing me in the chest. But this time she said it as clearly as I was saying it. I was so proud. Not only because she finally got the pronunciation right but that she knew that that was a doggie on my shirt.

Emily has a few new tricks this week. One is something that she has been doing for a while but has been doing it more often lately. She likes to mimic the things I do. Such as if I pound on a table she will, if I put something on my head she wants it so she can put it on her head, if I put something in my mouth she wants to put it in her mouth, etc. One day I had the end of a pen in my mouth and she put it in her mouth and held in there exactly how I had. Another thing she did that I thought was cute was when I was combing one of her doggie's hair the other day. When I was done she wanted the comb so she could comb the doggie's hair. Another trick she does is a game of trade. If she has something in her hand but sees that I have something that she wants more she'll hand me what she already has and takes what I have. She also likes to play a game of keep away. She finds this game to be hilarious. Her last trick is that she can now get on and off her rocking zebra without assistance. She was just getting off by herself but can now do both.

Trick of the week

Emily can finally stand up from a sitting position without holding onto something. She's been holding on to things to stand up for months and has been trying to stand up without holding onto anything for a couple of weeks now. She finally got it done tonight. At one point she stood and immediately began clapping for herself because I had been doing that every time she stood. She also twisted her torso from left to right without moving her feet (like the inside of a washing machine) and can stand for at least 10 seconds or more. I'm so happy for her building confidence. She's been strong enough to do this for a while but just lacked the confidence in herself. So it's good to see her take a chance and succeed.