Precious Moments doll

Emily has a little Precious Moments doll that, if you press on its tummy, will say a little prayer (the one that starts " Now I lay me down to sleep...."). The other day I said the prayer at the same time as the doll said it. Emily seemed intrigued and smiled. A few days later I discovered that she is trying to do the same thing. She'll babble in her own language along with it as it speaks and out of all the words spoken she can say "night" and at the end "Amen". That got a big smile and chuckle out of mommy.

Let's Go Tar Heels

March Madness is here and I have found myself watching games between teams I could care less about. That's when I know I've caught the fever. Of course when the Heels play it's a different story. Hopefully they can make it all the way this time.

Emily's emerging personality and some of her sweet gestures

Emily has been seeking out kisses from mommy and daddy lately. Unsolicited kisses only happen every so often and so we relish in the moments she leans in, puckers, and plants one on our lips. Something else she has been doing is walking up to me and grabbing my hand to lead her. I usually have to grab her hand and hold on tightly. Funny thing is she does it when I really don't need to be holding her hand because it's usually in our front yard when she decides she wants me to guide her. Or maybe she wants to guide me. Another thing that I thought was so endearing was when we were riding in my sister's car the other day. My mom was in the back row seat feeding my new niece, Aubrey, a bottle. Aubrey was sitting in the row in front of my mom and Emily was sitting beside Aubrey. She saw my mom holding the bottle for Aubrey and Emily decided that she would help her by holding onto the bottle as well. She did this for quite some time and only stopped because the bottle had to be repositioned.Which was out of her reach. She was being such a little mommy.

As Emily grows older and more verbal her little personality has been emerging more and more. She, like she has been since about 4 months old, is still very easygoing. She has had periods of time when she is not herself and has fussy days but for the most part she just goes with the flow.A lot of times I suggest things to her and her reply is ok. She says ok a whole heck of a lot and I know she has no idea what she's saying ok to most of the time. Don't get me wrong, she does show her cranky side at least once a day. What this looks like is a scream, a clenching of fists, and throwing her little body on the floor. These tantrums don't last long but she lets me know when mommy is working on her nerves.She is very easy to take places and she interacts with other children very well. She loves being out and about. When I take her to the nursery at church, she barely acknowledges that I'm leaving and when I return her reaction is less than enthusiastic. Though I would like to see some excitement in her face I know that it's a blessing that she does well without me.When she is around her 3 year old boy cousins they often bully her and take things from her. Usually she just shrugs it off and stares at them. Then moves on to something else. She's also a very cheerful baby. She often giggles and smiles widely throughout the day. For some reason she thinks I'm hilarious. The feeling is mutual. She's also very curious about her world and I can often see the curiosity in her eyes. She likes mimicking me and we often make a game out of it. She keeps me entertained most days.

Dance Dance

Emily has been into music for a long time now. Ever since she could sit up she would sway or rock to anything that could be considered a beat. One time when she was able to crawl and pull up by herself a commercial with a treadmill in it came on the tv. She went over to the tv and pulled up to hang onto it. She then preceded to sway to the sound of the treadmill beat. Last week at my sister's house we went outside. The wind was blowing the wind chime hanging on her front porch. She then began dancing to the sound of it. So pretty much she can dance to anything. Dancing without holding onto anything is her newest thing. I captured some of it on video. She generally dances to Elmo's World theme song. Unfortunately on the day I finally decided to capture it she didn't dance to it. But luckily (well lucky for me anyway) I caught her dancing to another song on Sesame Street. It was brief but you'll get the idea.Without further ado here is Emily and her original dance moves....

Outside and dandelions

Took Emily out on a warmer winter day. She loved walking around. Mid way through our adventure she discovered dandelions. I picked one for her and she enjoyed rubbing it between her fingers and then of course tried to eat it. From then on every time she noticed one she would stop in her tracks, say uh oh, bend over, and try to pick it.

Footsteps in Progress Update

I was on the phone on Tuesday when I noticed Emily standing in front of me. I then noticed that she was actually moving her feet forward. It didn't register that she was actually walking. I had to interrupt my conversation to let it sink in. She took like 5 steps to get from the end table to the coffee table. On Wednesday while I was at the hospital visiting my new niece Aubrey, Josh called me to tell me that Emily had walked through my mom's living room and through her kitchen, turned around and began to walk back the way she came before plopping on the floor. I don't know how many steps she took but I know for her small little legs it was a lot.I am so excited that she has finally started walking because the waiting was so hard at times.

Footsteps in progress

Emily has finally decided to give this walking thing a try. She's not walking yet but has taken some steps. This past week she has been practicing standing for longer periods of time and taking a couple of steps. Most she's done so far is about 3 or 4 at a time. She can go forward and backward.The other night she took a few steps to turn herself around. My mom was there and said that she has never seen a child try to do more complicated movements before doing the more simple ones (such as walking forward). Emily has also been taking a step or two on soft surfaces such as mattresses and couches for about a month now. Which is also more complicated than on being on hard ground. My theory is that she does this because she knows that if she falls she won't get hurt.I'll tell you what,I couldn't be more pleased. I was beginning to think she would be crawling when she's in kindergarten.:)

Cell phones

Well, I learned a valuable lesson today...never let your 16 month old play with your cell phone. Emily has been in love with cell phones since her aunt Patience came to visit in Aug 08. At the time she was 11 months and had never been allowed to play with one before. Aunt Patience was brave and allowed her to play with hers. Since then I have let her play with mine. At first I was very dutiful and made sure I watched her play with it (with the key guard on). In recent months I have become lazy and so she has been able to make a couple of calls to her aunt Angelica in Nashville and to her poppy Larry in New Jersey. Another time she did some type of multimedia transaction that got stopped before it became a headache. Anyhoo, this was all made possible because she had learned to bypass the key guard by closing and then opening my cell phone again. Well today ends her privilege to play with cell phones in our house. Others can allow her at their own risk. Today she activated the push to talk feature on my cell phone and so I had to call ATT to straighten it out. She has figured out things I have never figured out on my cell.

First, and possibly the last, Snow of 2009

Headphones

I put some headphones on Emily today. When I did she got this big grin on her face and began singing.