Yay for Friday! I thought I'd do a little "Five on Friday" during nap time today. :) Here's a little peek into our life lately. One.
I started Kindermusik classes with Emery last week. She *loves* music, almost always saying "uggie" {again} when a song ends, and she's super shy in new situations and around people she doesn't know very well, so I'm hoping these classes will help her come out of her shell a little bit. She seems to really like it, except when she has to give back the ball. I took this picture at our first class after she had to give the ball back. She cried and then eventually went over to my purse to get herself another "ball" {my chapstick}.
The classes are close to Daniel's office and they end at 11:00, so it's perfect because we can meet him for lunch! We got her pasta and she made the biggest mess she's ever made. We tried to control it at first...wiping her hands, feeding her with our forks, and it just wasn't happening...so we just let it go. First of all, thank goodness for baby wipes. Secondly, I put her straight in the bathtub when we got home! {And her high chair cover in the washer to soak!}
We had our second Kindermusik class yesterday and she definitely seemed more comfortable. She even danced! :) The classes are at the church where Daniel and I got married. We went there while we were dating and until we moved across town...lots of sweet memories in that place. Yesterday as we were walking to our classroom, I stopped and took Emery's picture in the same spot where Daniel and I first saw each other on our wedding day. <3
Two.
We officially started our Christmas shopping yesterday! I am determined to get it all done much earlier this year! Mostly so I can enjoy the Christmas season more, but also because I love a Christmas tree with a ton of wrapped presents under it, so I want to have lots of presents under there as soon as possible! :) The first thing we bought was Emery's "big gift"...a kitchen! I've had my eye on it on Amazon for a while now, and I saw the price drop by $40 the other night! Daniel was outside, and I was going to order it as soon as he came in and could talk to him about it. By the time he came in, the price was back up. What in the world?! Well, thank goodness for camelcamelcamel {say what?!}. Yes, you read that right. It's an Amazon price tracker that emails you when an item goes down to a price you specify. So, that night I set it up to track the kitchen and I got an e-mail the next morning that the price was back down so I ordered it! Yay! The price only went down for a couple of hours again. Emery loves to play with the kitchen at my sister's house, so I know she's going to love it! I can't wait to play with it with her! Now to find some fun kitchen accessories! :)
Three.
September is a huge birthday month in our family! We have several family birthdays and Daniel and I both have birthdays next week! My mom's was yesterday, so we celebrated with dinner at my sister's house. Emery even colored Nana's birthday card!
We got to pick Vanna up from her piano lesson at church before the birthday dinner yesterday, and Emery discovered this little raccoon in the preschool lobby. She's obsessed with "beeping" noses right now, so she was touching it's nose and saying "beep, beep". :)
Happy birthday, Nana!
Four.
I started a new Bible study at church last week and I am loving it so far. It's Hosea: Unfailing Love Changes Everything by Jennifer Rothschild. Redeeming Love is a book by Francine Rivers that's based on the story of Hosea, and ever since I read that book several years ago, I've been fascinated with the story. Well, Jennifer Rothschild is an amazing teacher and I'm learning so much about God's love for me and my identity in Him. I've highlighted so many parts of the book, but I just love this:
"To be chosen by God means you are His first choice and His best choice. He didn't shrug His shoulders and say, 'Well, I guess I'll take her if no one else will.' No. When Jesus' hands were nailed to a cross, His fingers pointed to you--He chose to die for you. He chose you and He chooses you every day. He doesn't love you because you are cleaned up, religious, or even because you are a Christian. He loves you because He is love."
I was doing my Bible study the other morning when Emery was awake and I started to feel guilty about it because I thought, "I should be playing with her". Let me tell you, "mommy guilt" is a huge struggle for me. Then I came to my senses and was like, "What am I thinking? She absolutely needs to see me reading and studying my Bible!!" And what do you know, she climbed up on my lap and sat with me while I read. That was a precious gift.
Five.
Emery has become quite the little block stacker. She used to love it when we would stack blocks for her so she could knock them down and we'd say "boom!" Now, she will stack them herself, knock them down, say "boom!" and laugh like crazy. She's stacked all 12 of her blocks before! It's so amazing to me to watch her be so careful and make adjustments so it doesn't fall down. She's also started counting. She'll say "one, two" pretty consistently, then she'll say the "s" sound when it's time for six, she says "eight" almost perfectly, and she'll usually say "ten!" It's so funny how she matches our tone when she counts. Whenever I count with her, I say the numbers really slow and kind of sing-songy {especially ten}, and now she does it! She's just learning so much every single day! It makes me so happy and so sad because she's growing up too fast!
She loves to watch this video in my lap and laughs hysterically when the blocks fall over! :)
We just had the *best* long weekend ever. We packed in so many fun things...I'm always so sad to see these long weekends come to an end.
Both of us have birthdays in September, so our long weekend started on Thursday night with an early birthday celebration at the Sam Hunt, Hunter Hayes, and Lady Antebellum concert.
I'm still really puzzled about why Sam Hunt had flowers on his logo?!
It was so, so fun! They were all really good, but Lady Antebellum was just amazing. You know how some singers are just not that great live? {I'm looking at you, Rascal Flatts!} Well, Lady A was amazing. They didn't miss a single note!
And at one point, they walked out into the crowd and played a few acoustic songs.
Emery spent the night with my parents since the concert ended so late, so Daniel and I pretended like we were dating again and went to McDonald's for a midnight treat. {We regretted this decision. McDonald's is terrible. Chick-fil-A, you need to stay open late because you never disappoint us.}
The next morning we slept in {yes, 7:45 is now considered sleeping in for us} and went out to breakfast before going to get our sweet baby. We always miss her so much! She had so much fun at Nana and Gampa's that she fell asleep on the short drive home...snuggling with the new bear they got her. She *loves* this bear and calls it "Boo"!
We pretty much hung out together at home all day on Friday. I love laid back time at home with my little family. I also decided that September 4th isn't too early for Halloween jammies. :)
We took it easy again on Saturday. Daddy did a little more babyproofing...with Emery overseeing, of course.
Emery loves to play peekaboo in this little shelf under our kitchen table. We did a lot of that and got to hear lots of sweet giggles.
This girl loves her bear and her blanket. This is just so sweet to me.
So, Saturday was a pretty big day in Alabama...it was college football kickoff day for Auburn and Alabama!!! We did a little photo shoot with Emery in her cute Alabama football shirt. I mean, I love this picture so, so much.
Daniel got some pretty precious pictures. It's always *torture* for me to narrow down pictures and pick which ones I want to print. It's like my least favorite thing to do.
Touchdown!
Once Emery was in bed, we ordered pizza and watched the game! I ended up redoing our chalkboard during the game. I've had this verse on it for the last few months.
I've been wanting to put our fall bucket list on it, and I love how it turned out! Yes, I realize the overwhelming majority of things on this list are food related. What can I say? I love fall...and all of the food that goes along with it!
Click here for my chalk art tutorial. :) Click here for my blank printable fall bucket list.
We all took naps on Sunday afternoon...and on Friday, Saturday, and Monday, too! Long weekends are the best! It felt so good outside on Sunday night, so we went out for Mexican food and ate out on the deck.
You know that Sunday night feeling when the next day is a holiday...it's just the best! Emery seemed to know it was a holiday and slept until 8:00 and then we all had pancakes for breakfast. She used to not really care much about pancakes, muffins, waffles, etc...but she seems to be starting to see the light! Ha!
Labor Day morning swinging... She just brings us so much joy.
We wanted to do something special with her that afternoon, so we took her to Itty Bitty Magic City at McWane Science Center. Apparently, lots of other parents had that idea, too, because it was a little nuts, but still a lot of fun! Emery totally knocked down a kid's Lego tower while we were there. We stack blocks and knock them down all the time at home, and I could see what she was thinking as soon as she saw it, but I just couldn't grab her in time. I felt bad for the little boy, but it was also hilarious!
Daniel was like a kid in this place. I *love* seeing him play with her and teach her things! <3
She loved rolling balls down this pipe and then peeking at Daniel through the hole.
Hesitantly milking the cow...
She walked back and forth across this bridge probably 20 times. My big girl...
She also went down a slide for the first time, too. She didn't cry, but when we asked her if she wanted to do it again, she said "no". :)
I'm in love with those little curls.
We went to Jim & Nick's for some Labor Day BBQ that night. It seemed like the right thing to do. ;) We introduced Emery to the cheese biscuits and she was definitely a fan! She was also a fan of the lemonade and would bounce up and down reaching for it.
And just like that, our weekend was over. Long weekends are so much fun until they're over. :) I'm so thankful that I got to spend so much time with my sweet little family. <3
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!
