11 months old

So, Emma has been walking for a month now. She hardly crawls anymore. She was getting quick at it too. But she is quite stable as she walks. She even tries to climb some. Plus, after a few days of looking at the stairs she climbs them like she has been doing it forever. Ugghh. Where did my little baby go?! Too fast...too fast!





She follows Emmitt everywhere. He can't get a minute of peace when she's awake. She'll pet him nicely sometimes. Other times she'll lay on him or by him. Poke at him. Steal his rawhide. He is such a good dog with her. So patient and gentle. She likes to play in and dump his water dish too. She tried drinking out of it by being like him - on her knees trying to slurp the water. Funny but gross! She is observant and a quick learner.




Emma loves to stand at the door window and watch Emmitt outside. She'll copy me talking sternly to the dog like if he is eating something he shouldn't eat outside. It's funny.

She loves being outside and feeling the wind. She doesn't mind the grass and watches the trees and wants to touch the flowers. The other day there were a couple birds in our yard and she was on the grass. The birds were chirping and she 'talked' back to them as she watched them.




Emma still says 'dada' quite a bit. She'll said 'hi dada' some. She's taken a hiatus from saying 'mama' or anything else. She doesn't sign for milk anymore. She just likes to bash her head into me.

She continues to dance to music. We realized that some of her movements were like when I would do movements for "Itsy Bitsy Spider". So cute especially the "washed the spider out" part. She waves her arm sideways.

She sometimes likes to be still. We find her 'reading' books quite often lately. She points to things in the books like we do.






She continues to wave goodbye and will wave first when she sees Blake at the door leaving for work.

Emma loves to shop and ride in the shopping cart. So many things and people to see and try to touch.

She's got 7 teeth. I think she looks like a chipmunk with her big front teeth with a gap and she scrunches her nose. We think she has grown taller too. We need to lift her higher to put her in her crib. She is almost as long as her changing table pad. Of course, her clothes fit differently too.


She is eating more finger foods. She has always been real good at picking things up. Cheerios, Gerber puffs (banana or sweet potato), chicken, cheese, melons, apple made her choke, banana, carrots, potatoes, fries. She even likes to pick up her yogurt that I thicken with oatmeal or rice cereal. What a mess!

She likes to share her Cheerios with Emmitt.

We are enjoying our little girl at this stage. We can tell she understands a lot of what we say too. Of course we think she is so smart, so cute, and so strong. And so curious, so independent, and such a busy little bee.

10 months going on 10 years

Wow, time flies! I just reread her 9 month old post. Those things she was doing then seem part of every day life now.

She not only crawls quickly, but she stands and has taken up to 6 steps by herself. She looks so proud of herself and almost amazed at what she can do. It is a whole new world. Plus, I think she has grown in length.

Sometimes Emma will know that we are probably going to take something away from her that she shouldn't have so she tries to crawl away quickly. It is kind of cute now but this defiance will not be cute when she is older. We are trying different ways of doing things like having her hand us the piece of garbage or trading something.

Emma absolutely loves Cheerios. During church she likes to sit on the floor with her cup with the non-spill lid and eat. I think she would continue to eat forever if we let her or the cup didn't empty. We are trying to give her more chunky foods. She still likes the pureed ones. She likes shredded cheese and banana and apple pieces too.

She is trying to laugh more on purpose. She is starting to giggle more too. If only she would put the two together but when we are laughing she tries to copy us.

She still likes to dance but now she can dance and clap her hands while standing. Lots of multi-tasking!

A fifth tooth has broken through. It is to the left of her top teeth. She likes grinding her teeth together sometimes. A funny thing is that she likes to take a bite out of the Cheerio like you would take a bite out of something. Emma girl likes to figure things out.

9 months old

April 8 with Pooh Bear

Easter

This is where she liked to sit for a few days. It was the previous location of the laptop computer.

Ok, so Emma is about 9 1/2 months old by the time I am writing this.

At her 9 month appointment with Dr. Greek on April 12 she weighed 21 lb. 7 oz and was 27 in. So that makes her about 80th percentile in weight and 30th in height.

Emma is now crawling. We weren't sure if she was going to skip crawling because she started walking along the furniture first. But now she does both. She lets go and stands for quite some time and looks at us proudly.

She finally started babbling. Emma says "dada" really well. I also hear "mom" "mama" especially when she is upset.

She absolutely loves cheerios and can pick them up and eat them quite well. Emmitt especially loves the ones she drops!

She has gotten 2 more teeth. The two upper front teeth. They are sharp! They have a gap in between them so I hope that changes a little as she gets more teeth. She will hold a cheerio and bite a piece of it off sometimes. I think she likes her new found ability.

She is enjoying books, especially "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". She is starting to grab a book and hand it to us to read to her. She will look at them alone too. Quite often she will wake up from a nap and start playing with her stuffed animals in her crib. I will open the door and she is sitting surrounded by them and she gives me a big smile.

She likes to pinch, pull hair, and bite.

Emma experienced her first Easter. Saturday we spent time with my family in town and Blake's parents came for that weekend also. We went out to eat a few times and Emma had her first cantaloupe/honeydew and shredded cheese. She does quite well in restaurants.

We took her to her first Twins baseball game at the new stadium, Target Field, this past weekend. We went to the Friday night game (April 16). She did well. She smiled, scrunched up her face, and waved at people around us. She was very friendly and distracting to those around us! :)

Emma "dances" to any music she hears. She is very aware of any music (commercials, organ at the game, radio in stores). She can't help but move.

8 months old

Emma was working on getting her front upper teeth when she turned 8 months old. I tried two "photo sessions". I couldn't get much better than this. :) She wouldn't leave the bear alone either but that is her. She is active.

Valentine's card from Blake's parents.

Loves standing and walking along couch or anything.

Valentine's card from my parents.

Valentine's Day with Mommy

New musical giraffe from Auntie April!

We weighed Emma and she was about 20 lbs. 7 oz. Emma pulls/pushes herself with her arms and legs. She is getting her knees involved a little. Not crawling as one thinks of crawling. She loves walking along the furniture, etc. She is very brave. At home she is not afraid to do anything. She hasn't ventured from the living room into the kitchen though. That day will come.

Emma tries to clap but doesn't open her hands. She has gotten a little "clap" a couple times. She watches people clap in church and other places. She noticed when people clapped in church at Christmas too. She likes clapping toys together or one hand clapping the toy in her other hand. Okay I guess she likes clapping, banging things together, and noise.

She also is getting pretty skilled at waving goodbye or goodnight. Sometimes we think she waves as a signal to us that she is tired and wants to go to sleep.

Emma slept in her pack and play for a couple weeks. We were given her crib as a hand-me-down. We wanted to lower her crib mattress so she won't launch herself over the railing. I looked up directions and there weren't any. I found that the crib was recalled. There were not any deaths or injuries but I ordered the free parts to "fix" it. Finally, she slept in her crib last night again. How nice! She did well in her pack and play though. It is just low to put her in and pick her up. Sometimes I found her sitting up playing with her stuffed animals. Cute!

Emma Joy is still in love with ripping and eating newspaper and kleenexes.

She is giggling more but it still takes a lot to get her to laugh.

She likes books but mostly ones with things she can feel or flaps.

Blake has started rolling/throwing a small ball back and forth to Emma. She tries throwing it back and gets very excited while flapping her arms. So sweet!

We gave her some broken up cheerios and she just played with them. She puts everything in her mouth but not cheerios! After a couple days of playing with them she decided to try and now she does very well picking cheerio pieces up and putting them in her mouth.

7 months and counting

Reading

Took off her own sock and wearing Star Wars shirt

Clear picture of her 2 bottom teeth

Touching her teeth with her tongue? Eating snot? Who knows? :)

7 months with Pooh Bear

Where do I start? Everywhere...that is where Emma is going! At least in the living room.

She can sit unassisted really well. She also gets around by a couple different ways other than rolling. One is scooting on her bottom while pushing with a leg she has bent back. The other way is "army" crawling with her arms. Recently she has started using her legs to push herself forward too. Emma sometimes gets up on her arms and knees and rocks back and forth also. Any day now she will be crawling.

She just recently pulled herself up to the side of the couch too. Uffda!

She still only has 2 teeth but we think she is teething. Biting while eating was and sometimes is an issue. She's learning not to do it.

Emma girl likes to play peek-a-boo. She has started covering her own face while we say "where's Emma?" and she looks and we say "peek". So fun!

She loves playing and chewing on tags on her toys or anything. Also drawstrings on sweatshirts or pants.

Emma has a mind of her own. She wants what she wants. Very determined.

She is currently sick with a cold again. A couple of weeks ago she had a low-grade fever one evening and a cold for a couple days. We thought she might have been teething because it didn't last very long. This one hasn't been a week but she is congested. Runny and stuffy nose and coughing.

I almost forgot that we have started her on "solids". We gave her some rice cereal with breastmilk first. It was pretty runny so she did fine with it. We thickened it a little later on. Then we gave her carrots from April's garden at the farm. I don't think I pureed them well enough. She kind of gagged. I mixed them with rice cereal and water and she did ok.

Next we gave her canned pumpkin. She liked that. She loved to grab the spoon. We saw her baby tantrums when we wouldn't let her have the spoon.

Then she absolutely loved the acorn squash from April's garden. Emma also enjoys mashed banana. These 2 foods are when we noticed that she says "mmmm" while she's eating.

She hasn't been too picky or messy. That time will come I'm sure. Emmitt will enjoy anything that she "drops" on the floor.

Emma will gag if there is too much in her mouth or she is sick and has phlegm which makes it hard to breathe and eat.

We tried the sippy cup but she does better just drinking out of a cup the regular way with our help of course. Eventually the sippy will be for cleanliness sake.

I have an ice cube tray with a lid that I freeze her food in. After they are frozen I put them in ziploc bags. I thaw a cube to feed her. Sometimes Emma will eat the whole serving but usually half or a little more than half at a feeding. We usually feed her while we are eating at the table at suppertime.