Emery Update! {17 Months}

Emery is 17 months old!! I just can't believe it. I wanted to do an update on all the new things going on with her because so much is changing. It was a *huge* relief to finish her monthly updates once she turned one, because seriously, those took me a sweet forever.  I'm talking like several days worth of Emery's naps. {And it only took me 6 months to do this one!} I'm *so* glad I did them, because there are just so many sweet little memories, but I'm definitely going to do them a little less often now. She has changed *so much* since her first birthday, so I figured it was time to do an update on our sweet girl!

- At her 16 month appointment, Emery weighed 24 lbs, 6.5 oz and was about 34.25 inches tall. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 95th for height. Our doctor told us that she's in the 25th percentile for height/weight ratio, so it looks like she'll be tall and slender.

- Most of her clothes are 12-18 month. There are several 12 month things that she can still wear, but some of them are getting a little short because she's so tall! ;) She recently outgrew all her 12 month pajamas, so she's wearing 18 month or 12-18/18-24 month pajamas. She's still in size 3 diapers.

As usual, Emery is still "consistently inconsistent" with all things sleep. We've gone through several little rough patches with sleep because of teething and another ear infection in April {stupid molars}. Waking up in the middle of the night, waking up super early, short naps, fighting naps, all of it... We've also had a hard time figuring out her naps. There were times I thought she was ready to go down to one nap, but every day we tried, she'd sleep for an hour and a half at the most {usually less} and then be so tired we'd have to put her to bed at 6:00. Not a great schedule at all for time with Daddy. :( We decided to try a different two-nap schedule where she would wake up between 7:00-7:30, I put her down for her morning nap between 9:30-10:00 and I didn't let her sleep past 11:00. Then I laid her down for her afternoon nap between 1:45-2:00. On a good day, she'd sleep for a little over an hour, and then she'd be ready for bed around 7:00-7:15. That schedule worked pretty well for several weeks, but then she started taking forever to go to sleep for the afternoon nap and bedtime, so we decided to fully transition to the one-nap schedule. It was hard getting there, but I can finally say that she's really doing great with it! Most days, she wakes up between 7:00-7:30, has lunch around 11:30, I lay her down around 12:30, she'll sleep until about 2:00, and she's ready for bed by 7:00. For a while, I was kind of stuck on thinking that she needed at least a two hour nap, but I feel like since she sleeps for 12 hours or more every night and she's not really fussy during the day, an hour and a half is enough for her. Of course, we still have hose days where she wakes up super early, naps for only 45 minutes or fights her naps like crazy, but those are becoming a little less often.

Emery has been getting one tooth after another for the last several months! And molars, oh my goodness. The first one was the worst. She had fevers and an ear infection for almost a week. Then she got the others and was just fussy for a little while. She now has four teeth on the top, four on the bottom, and four molars. The last time we went to the doctor, she told us that it looks like all four of her canines were coming in, but they haven't cut through yet.

Our girl is usually a pretty good eater! She definitely has become a little pickier in the last few months...inspecting things closely and downright refusing to eat some things, but she really does like a lot of the things we give her! She eats ham, turkey, sausage, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, bananas, clementines, pineapple, pasta, crackers, guacamole, rice, corn, peas, green beans, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, and applesauce. Her favorites are still cheese and fruit! She will eat broccoli, spinach, and zucchini if I sneak it in some cheesy orzo or something like that. She used to not like chicken, but Chick-fil-A grilled nuggets changed her mind. We went to Chick-fil-A the other night and she ate an entire kid's meal! She is pretty picky about the type of chicken she'll eat, though. Some kinds she'll gobble right up, other kinds she spits right back out. Breakfast is probably the hardest meal because she doesn't like eggs, toast, pancakes, or waffles. I have tried all of them several times, and sometimes she'll eat a few bites, but you can tell she's just not crazy about them. I made some mini banana blueberry muffins for her and she did like those. She *loves* candy {and knows right where it is at Nana's house}, mint Oreos, mini M&Ms, York peppermint patties, and Mommy's Starbucks. :) She will perk right up when I ask her if she wants a snack {"na"}. She still loves Yogurt Melts, applesauce pouches {she can finally hold them herself to eat them!}, Goldfish, crackers, and animal cracker cookies.

Just when we thought she would walk on her knees forever, Emery decided to take her first steps on June 28th at 15.5 months old. Just like when she crawled for the first time, she walked for the first time when Daniel and I were both home and watching her. She was bringing me the watermelon from her picnic basket, and took 4-5 steps to me! Daniel and I both looked at each other, shocked, and then we both made complete fools of ourselves cheering for her and trying to get her to do it again. I think she surprised herself, but was pretty proud of herself, too. She hasn't stopped since and is getting close to running now!

{Turn down your volume if you watch the video because it includes a very excited mom squealing!}


We have pretty much eliminated Emery's Wubbanubs except for nap time, bedtime, and when she's in the car. That still seems like a lot of time, but she really had them almost 24/7 before, and now she doesn't have them for any of her awake play time during the day. Every now and then she has a fussy day, and I'll give them to her, but she's really done so well with giving them up for the most part. The next question is, *how* am I ever going to get her to sleep without them?! I'm not going to worry about that for a while, though!

Emery can understand so much of what we say now. It's so amazing! I can actually ask her to do something, get something for me, or show me something and she'll usually do it!

She can point to/show us lots of her body parts--hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, arms, tummy, belly button {she loves to tickle our belly buttons!}, legs, feet, toes, and "bottom side" {that comes from this book}.

Her language has been exploding lately! It seems like every day she's saying a few new words!

• All gone {she says it every time she sees an empty container}
• All done {she says this when she's done eating}
• Okay
• Cracker = "cacker"
• Hello = "hewo" {everytime she sees or hears a phone and sometimes just randomly}
• Out {when she wants out of her high chair/swing/car seat, or if she wants me to take something off like her shoes, bracelet, etc...}
• Outside {she *loves* going outside and will sometimes stand at the window saying "outside"}
• Up {when she wants us to pick her up, or if she's being held by someone and wants to move to someone else, she'll say "up" to that person}
• Ellie = Ewwa
• Wubby = WuWu
• Kit Kat = KatKat
• Bow = a bow or a boo
• No {*lots* of this one!}
• Elmo {usually when we're changing her diaper because there's a picture of Elmo on some of her diapers}
• Yes ma'am = mama {usually she says this laughing after she's gotten into trouble}
• Ball = bo-bull or "a ball"
• Open
• Shoes = zoos {She *loves* her shoes!}
• Jesus
• Love you = luyou <3
• Down
• Hot {mainly just the "t" part}
• Pretty {when she sees my jewelry}
• Amen 
• Eat = et {she'll go over to her high chair when she's hungry and say "et". If we go to my parents' house, she immediately goes to her high chair there and says "et" even if she *just* ate!}
• Cookie
• Yucky {she just makes a sound for this one and she does it every time she sees our shoes}
• Bath = ba
• More = mo
• Boom {every time she falls down or knocks over toys}
• Again = it used to be "ugga" and now it's "uggie"
• Oh no
• Night night
• Yeah {She just started saying this one last week, and I think it's my favorite. I love that she can answer my questions now!}

She can also do the animal sounds for cow, duck, elephant, monkey, pig, dog, horse, sheep, and snake {I'm probably forgetting some}. She can sign please, more, and thank you, and she'll blow us kisses every now and then.

Most days, Emery really plays with pretty much all the toys we have out. Of course, some days she seems to not care about playing with anything except the things she knows she's not supposed to play with! She still loves her stride-and-ride elephant and used to push it all over the house while she walked or walked on her knees. She still sits on it sometimes, but doesn't go crazy bouncing like she used to. Now she prefers to have us pull her around the house on it {she'll sit on it and then sign "please" or say "yeah! yeah! yeah!"} and she also likes to scare us to death by standing on it. The other night we heard her giggling and looked over to find her standing on it with her arms out like "tada!"

She loves her tea set, too. She opens it and closes the lid, presses the button to make the sound turn on, watches the lights, takes pretend sips out of the cups, and throws the tea cakes off the cake plate. :)

She also loves her picnic basket. Her favorite thing is to throw everything out and then put everything back in. She also hides other things in it. She's just started to be able to put the food in the right spots on the plates. Another thing we do approximately 20 times a day is her shape sorter. She used to do all of the shapes except the semicircle and triangle {she would throw those to the side}, but now she can do all of them. After she puts them all in, she waits for me to say "yay!" and then she claps for herself.

She loves her Old McDonald finger puppets {especially the puppy}, stacking blocks, knocking them down, and saying "boom!", and seriously any kind of ball or anything that is shaped like a ball. I sneak apples, oranges, and cantaloupes into the grocery cart because if she sees them, she wants to play with them!

She is *loving* books again! She went through a little phase where she wouldn't sit still long enough for me to read for her, but now she loves to sit when I read to her and she also will sit and look at books by herself. Two of her very favorites right now are Pete the Cat Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We'll read them and then she'll say "uggie" so we'll read them again {and again}. She loves to make the animal sounds when she sees their picture, and she'll point to an animal we say on the page that has all of the animals. Her Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood trolley book was her absolute favorite for a while...and you can tell by looking at it that it's well-loved. She'll hold it out to me to read to her, gives the sweetest smile when I start reading, she can point to Daniel Tiger, and she gives Katerina Kittycat kisses. She also still really likes her Karen Katz flap books, any touchy feely books, and most recently the Cat the Cat books by Mo Willems. We love to go to the library to check out books, and she really loves trying to take every single thing off the shelves!

Emery is still a big huge fan of Super Simple Learning songs on YouTube {she calls it "gaga"...no idea why}. If she sees the remote, she instantly grabs it, hands it to us, and says "gaga?" She doesn't always watch, but she likes to have it playing in the background while she plays. Sometimes, she'll lay on the floor in her Boppy and say "gaga?" It's pretty cute. :) She has her favorites that she'll stop and watch and do the motions. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus {it's hilarious when she does the wipers and crying baby!}, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider are still favorites. She also likes If You're Happy and You Know It {she'll clap and stomp her feet}, One Little Finger, and most recently, she's obsessed with Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. She'll start patting her head when she wants me to sing it. She really likes music, in general. When we're in the car listening to the radio and a song ends, she'll say "uggie" {again} because she wants to hear more. It's pretty adorable. :) She doesn't do as much dancing {shaking her head back and forth} as she used to, but every now and then a song will get her going. Now her dancing is more clapping and shaking her arms around.

Peekaboo is still a favorite and has gotten me through many grocery store trips and potential meltdowns. She'll play peekaboo with just about anything! She loves being "chased" and it makes her giggle like crazy. She's super snuggly with anything even remotely soft...I once found her laying on the floor snuggling with my dish drying mat. She loves to hug and cuddle her stuffed animals, blanket, and her owl fleece pajamas. Up until about a few days ago, she *loved* to swing. She'd stay in her swing outside or at the park for 45 minutes. I'm *really* hoping she starts loving it again! She's obsessed with phones and loves to scroll through pictures and watch videos. We probably let her do it too often because she'll snuggle in our laps and we love it! She loves to be tickled and belly laughs hysterically!

Emery loves to make us laugh! Once she's found something that we think is funny, she'll keep doing it. She loves to put things on her head and hug silly things {like her lotion bottle}, and then watch us to see if we laugh. I also love that she can bring me things she wants to do now. Sometimes I'll be in the kitchen cooking and she'll come around the corner with a toy or a book. I'll ask her if she wants to play or read and she'll say "yeah!" When did she become such a little person?? She's started putting her hands together when it's time to pray...melts our hearts every time. She gives us kisses when we take her out of her high chair when she's been in time out. I mean, seriously, heart in a puddle on the ground. Bedtime has become one of our favorite times because she's started giving us the *best* hugs and kisses. She'll hug us {she says "mmmm" when she gives hugs}, and then go back and forth between us givings lots of kisses! We always leave her room just shaking our heads with how much we love her!