Miss Em

I know I've said it before, but I can't believe how much Emerson has changed in the last 6-7 months!!  It's so amazing to witness all these changes and all she is learning!  She can be the sweetest little girl in the world at times and at other times not so much ... lol!!  She certainly has her own mind about her ;) 

I LOVE how she says hello to all of us and her teddy and blankie.  Numerous times during the day she'll walk up to me and say, "Hi Mom!" in this sweet, soft little sing-song voice.  Melts my heart :)  She also does the same to Cal when he comes home from work and she'll often pick up her teddy and blankie and say, "Hi teddy.  Hi blankie"  and give them a big hug!!  Adorable!!!  Emerson and I also have this "thing" we do, where I say, "Emerson?" in a soft, quiet, kind of questioning voice and she looks at me and says, "Uh huh?" with a big grin on her face, to which I either say, "I love you Emerson!" or "You're so cute!"  She knows what I'm going to say every time, it's so cute the look she gets on her face ;)

Emerson also has a great love for her brother, as well as her cat and dog.  Every morning when she gets up she says, "Blake?" and walks off to his room to see if he's there.  As soon as she finds him she greets him with, "Hi Blake!"  Every night Blake has to say goodnight to her in her room.  We tried changing it up and having him say goodnight to her downstairs, but that did not go over well!  Once we got to her room she cried his name over and over until he came up to her room!  I often find them "wrestling" during the day, which I used to try to stop, but I don't anymore!!  Reason being, they are both having fun!  I worry that Em will get hurt, but she usually doesn't, and they're both laughing the whole time, so I'm learning to let them be :)  As I said earlier, Em also loves Heidi and Jazz.  She often "talks" to them and gives them many, many hugs and kisses :)  I'd say her favorite animal right now is a puppy.  She points them out everywhere we go and in every book.  "Puppy, puppy!!  Woof, woof!!"  So it is fitting that she is a dalmatian puppy for Halloween :)  And her costume also goes well with Blake's fireman costume!

I know 18 months can be a frustrating age.  There's so much going on in their heads, but they can't always communicate what they want to get across!!  Emerson's favorite way to express her frustrations is to hit ... she'll hit anything and everything in her way.  To tell you the truth, it's hard not to laugh a lot of the time, as she's hitting the pantry, the table, the floor, the couch, etc!!!  But we try not to laugh, because of course we don't want to encourage her hitting.  This is something new for us, as Blake never hit a thing until his sister came along!!!  lol!!  Thankfully we can usually stop her from hitting people by threatening her with a time out.  But I think one day soon we'll have to follow through with a time out, or she'll start pushing her limits more!!

We've had a few people remark at how well Emerson talks.  I know that at 19 months, children can typically use 6 words.  I have no idea how many words Em can use, but it is significantly greater then 6!!!  She's a little chatterbox and uses a lot of 2 word phrases as well! 

Emerson has 14 teeth and #15 and #16 are almost through.  Most recently she cut her top two eye teeth.  The next two on their way are the bottom two eye teeth :S  These teeth have caused Emerson (and Cal and I!) a lot of grief!!!  She's had her hand in her mouth constantly for the past month and is drooling so much, which has given her a bit of a rash around her mouth.  I can't wait for the bottom two to be through!!!  Thank goodness for Advil and Tylenol, which seem to give her some relief.

Emerson is loving the Come Play With Me program at the YMCA!  She LOVES music and dancing and interacting with other kids.  It's so cute how she walks up to the other kids and looks up at them and tries to talk to them!!  And I find it funny how she seems to call most kids between 0 and 2 baby ;)  It's great for Emerson to have some 1 on 1 time with me, but she also has time to wander off by herself and play, which is something she doesn't often do with Blake around most of the time. 

We love you so much Em :)

xoxo