baby emmy

My sweet Emmy is changing so much lately.  She took her first steps on Saturday!  She has been standing up all on her own for about the last month.  When she does that she gets all excited, starts to laugh and bounce, causing her to topple over.  So she was extra giddy when she took a couple of steps.  Maybe it's wrong, but I just haven't really been encouraging her to walk much.  For one, Jordan's been hoping to see it happen (which he did!) and two, I want her to stay a baby for as long as possible!  She'll be a toddler soon enough!  The reality that these are the last 'first steps' is so bittersweet.  Why do I have such a hard time letting go?  Why am I so nostalgic?!

She's starting to try to use a spoon but she's too impatient to work on that skill when she's got a free hand to just scoop the food into her mouth.  Just in the last week she has started babbling more.  She just learned how to say 'go' at Natalie's soccer game when we were cheering Natalie on.  And then Natalie got her to say 'Nay-Nay' that same day.  And no one has ever said 'num num' as cutely as Emmy has!  She occasionally says 'Bu bu' for bye-bye and she can wave.  And of course she says 'muh-muh' (that's me!) and 'da-da'.  She makes the kissing sound and kisses and hugs toys and her momma.  But she knows that her 'da-da' is prickly so she leans away from him at all costs when he is making kissy noises.  But once in a while, she will let him kiss her even though you can tell from her face that she is leery!

She still loves to laugh. She loves getting chased.  She is happy almost all of the time.  She dances, sings, and likes to nod her head 'yes'.  She also does this thing that Charlie always has done: she drops her head down as far as she can while still being able to look up and glare at you from underneath her eyebrows.  And then she giggles.  Actually, I think all of my kids have enjoyed doing that.  Maybe this is universal in babies and toddlers?  I had thought my kids were special :)  She loves peek-a-boo and when we scare her.  She sometimes laughs so hard it sounds like she is crying!

She has a bunch of teeth: 12 teeth in the first 10 months!  She just got some molars in.  She must have a high tolerance for pain because there was just one week where during the night she would moan and occasionally I'd give her some meds.  And then I realized after the fact that she had cut more teeth!  Needless to say, her big toothy grins are to die for!!

She is too darn cute.  I am constantly going after her chub and so are the rest of the kids. Those are the times when she's not so quick to smile, if we all bombard her at once with hugs, tickle-bugs, and kisses.  But sometimes she attacks us back with her slobbery kisses.

She takes great naps and out of my four children, she is the first that I have successfully established a bedtime routine where I can place her in her crib and she will lay down and go to sleep without me first feeding her, or with it being absolutely quiet in the rest of the house. I was way too high strung with the other kids.  I rarely laid my kids down with a bottle but would feed them in my arms, then quietly and calmly lay them down and sneak out, then I would demand that no one make a peep!  With Emmy I can kiss her, give her a blankie and pacifier, and she's usually compliant with going to sleep.  Meanwhile, the other three kids are making no effort to be hush-hush.  And that's great!

To sum this all up: I pretty much have the most perfect baby in the world!