Emilia's Journal

Emi-

You have discovered a new favorite game, Peek-A-Boo. While you have always liked when people played it with you, you now like crouching behind whatever you can find in order to pop up and giggle uncontrollably.

It is too cute!
Love, Mom

Dear Emilia,

We’re catching up on all of the recent things that you’ve been doing. We’re a bit behind on the blog. Mostly, we’re a bit behind because we already have a hard time keeping up with you!

One new toy that you love is the laundry basket. It’s clear to us that whoever told us not to worry about buying special toys was right, you’re much more interested in playing with the things that you see us using around the house.

You are pushing all sorts of things around as you stand and walk behind them. You aren’t quite taking steps all by yourself, but you’re really close!

Love, Dad

Dear Emilia,

We’ve noticed that you have an interesting habit of arranging things, specifically, you are very concerned with the placement of your cup on your high chair:

You will often make sure that it is turned just right before going back to eating your food. If I move it around, you will make sure to put it right back.

We’ll see if this follows through when it comes to putting your toys away and keeping your room clean!

Love, Dad

Dear Emilia,

Much to your Mom’s disappointment, you have stopped saying “Ma Ma Ma” and now you are constantly calling out, “Da Da Da!”

You saw me raking leaves in the yard, and I guess you were trying to get my attention!

It’s fun to hear you babbling all of the time, we keep wondering what your next words are going to be! (And don’t worry, Mom knows that you still love her. Any time you are upset, or want to be picked up or hugged, you go for her first!)

Love, Dad

Dear Emilia,

It’s been a long time since we’ve written about you here on the blog. A couple months in fact! Mom has been keeping a list on her computer about things that we need to write about, and yet every day and night seems to go by without getting a moment to add these things to your journal. We’re going to start in on a few of them tonight.

But first, (and I don’t have a picture or a movie of you doing this,) my favorite new thing that you do is put your head on my shoulder and snuggle. Mostly when you are getting tired, I’ll softly whisper “shhhhhhh” in your ear and run my hand across your head. You’ll turn your head to the side a bit and lay it down on my shoulder and squeeze me in tiny little hug.

Unfortunately, usually you then realize that I’m trying to get you to sleep and start crying, but some of the time you just lay there on my shoulder, resting. It’s a wonderfully peaceful feeling, and whatever kind of busy or stressful day I’ve had, I completely forget about it and give you a little hug back.

Love, Dad

Dear Emi-

While you have had your share of runny noses over the past few months, we have luckily been spared any major illness until now. You woke up with a slight temperature of 99F. I thought is was just teething since you started getting some swelling of your gums. When Theresa called from your daycare at noon to report you had a fever of 103F, my heart sank. You had lost that little spark in your eyes and it was so hard to see you feeling so crummy. Your fever kept going up to 104F for 2 days. We knew you really didn’t feel well because you only picked at your food! We were especially worried given the H1N1 influenza scare this year. You stopped taking medicine because it made you sick, and because you were so miserable- Dad went to 4 different drug stores at 4 am to look for some Tylenol suppositories. By the time he got back, your fever miraculously broke. In another day you started to bounce back to your usual happy self. Let’s hope we can all ward off illness for awhile!

Dear Emilia-

We are a bit behind on your blog, but that is only because it has been a very busy month! It seems that everyday you are adding new skills to your repertoire and your sunny personality. You continue to make us laugh every day and we usually spend a good part of our day making each other laugh. It also helps that you are so ticklish . . . a great way to get a hearty giggle out of you.

You are also now waving and clapping with wild abandon. You even combine the two when you are especially excited. (In this case it was dad’s pancakes getting the praise).

We also discovered you could walk pushing your little cart. When you started we put 10lbs of weights in it to slow it down, but now you are cruising all around the house or down the sidewalk as fast as your little legs can carry you. The only problem is you haven’t quite figured out how to navigate road blocks.

While you are not walking on your own quite yet, you are able to ascend the stairs at breakneck speed. Now if only we could get you to remember to come down them feet first.

You continue to be an excellent eater and have learned that you have a loyal mealtime companion in Yeti. In order to reward her loyalty you sometimes decide to share with her.

As always you have added new sounds and phrases to your vocab – including “Eddy” for Yeti, and an occasional “Uh-Oh” as well as “Hey Doe” which we decided is the Swedish good-bye, Hej Då. My absolute favorite sound that you make besides that wonderful laugh, because it is uniquely your is your whisper talking. It is like you have a whole bunch of secrets to share . . . I just wish I understood them.

In just a few short weeks you will be 1 year old and I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone.

Love, Mom

Dear Emilia,

You were a little duckling for halloween this year! We took you to a few friends’ houses in the neighborhood.

I think that you were mostly confused by the whole affair, especially when you saw other people in costume.

By the time we got back, you were sweating because Mom had about 47 layers of clothing on you underneath that costume. (In case you see this someday and think that you were overweight as an infant, don’t worry, it was just the extra clothes.)

Love, Dad

Emilia-

This weekend you got to meet one of my dearest friends, Clara, and make friends of your own with her little girl Katelyn. Clara, Kevin and Katelyn met us up at the lake for the weekend to play. While it rainned most of the time, you and Katelyn entertained us with your smiles. While Katelyn can’t crawl yet, she was very intent to watch what you were doing and you were pretty good about sharing your toys with her. Maybe next time you see Katelyn- you will both be running around.

Dear Emilia,

You’ve discovered your hands this week! Not the fact that they are there, but the fact that you can do things with them!

Today you made your first sign. We’ve been using the signs for “more”, “food”, “plane” and others with you for a while, but this morning you very clearly and deliberately put your hands together in the “more” sign.

We smiled at you and gave you another piece of food. You responded by shrieking loudly in excitement.

Also, you’ve been clapping when exciting things happen, and waving goodbye when we drop you off at daycare.

I think you are going to have a lot to say when you start talking.

Love,

Dad