Today is Emmie’s first birthday which feels so special and also like a slap in the face seeing as I just birthed her last week?
UGH. Emmie is such a dear, darling little girl. She is curious and coy and smiley and soft. She’s the warmth our family needed, and we thank God every day for her.
She’s always babbling and screeching, muttering “whatisthis” or yelling “OOOH!” at all hours.
Emmie LOVES balls and gets so excited when she comes across one of any size. She’s got a great overhand and plays fetch by herself all around the house. If she is ever fussy, giving her a ball is always our first move.
She flaps her arms and hands when she’s excited, smiles SO big when her dad walks in the room, screams at the tippy top of her lungs when she’s mad, and bites us (hard) when she’s teething.
Oddly enough, Emmie likes to use our dining room table and chairs as her jungle gym. She loves to crawl between and over the chair legs and under the table bars. A lot of times she brings a ball with her and totes it around while she practices her climbing. It used to make us so nervous and we’d always try to pull her out, but she’s actually very coordinated and rarely needs our help. It’s weird and cute and entertains her for hours.
She’s not walking yet but has just ventured into the squat-stand-squat stage of the game. Each time she does it, we yell “Yay Emmie,” and then she sits back on her bottom and claps and squeals. Unlike Charlotte as a baby, she does let us hold her hands and help her practice and she laughs and laughs the whole time.
Emmie is still very, very attached to Tyler and me, but in the last month or so she has become a lot more comfortable going to and hanging out with other people (as long as she’s fed and rested).
My sister gave birth to the cutest twin boys in the world in May, and Emmie is obsessed with them. When Beckham and Knox are around, she is constantly trying to maul and crush them (out of love, of course).
My favorite thing right now is that she is sooo cuddly and cozy and loves putting her head down on our shoulders and in our laps while we are playing. She also puts her dead down on our shoulders while we put her down–that 60 seconds of rocking is the best part of the day.
Emmie sleeps from 6:45pm-5:30am. We’ve tried E V E R Y T H I N G in the book to get her to sleep in past 6am, but we are at a total loss and have kind of just resigned ourselves to it. (And by “we” I guess I mean Tyler because he always tells me to go back to sleep after I nurse her and who am I to argue at the crack of dawn?).
She naps for 90 minutes or so at 8:30am and 1pm, usually. I think I’ll tackle the early wake up issue when it’s time to drop her second nap?
Emmie is a great eater. For breakfast she has scrambled eggs, and for lunch she eats half an avocado and cucumber and some of Char’s almond flour quesadilla. For dinner, she eats the leftovers from Tyler and my dinner from the previous night.
I still nurse her in the morning, at bedtime, and after each nap, but she definitely gets most of her calories from food. We’ve started keeping a tiny Hydro Flask of water around her at all times, too.
Char and Emmie have become the greatest (and most chaotic) of playmates. Char has been very energized by Emmie becoming more solid and interactive the past few months, but it’s also produced an entirely new level of anarchy in the house. They are ALL over each other, screaming and squealing and giggling. I know this is a good thing, but I’m starting to sound like a broken record, interfering every 10 seconds from around the corner in the kitchen.
I guess I should just be thankful that my plan of very casually turning them into lifelong companions is starting to work.
We are so lucky to have Emmie. She is the sweetest girl, and I love watching her discover the world.
