Happy 14 month birthday, Emily.

I’m really looking forward to the next few months. Emily has begun a wonderful stage in which she is refining her sense of humor. Whereas before she would laugh at funny faces or noises that we made, she now takes it upon herself to try and make us laugh! And she’s very good at it. This newfound awareness is a double-edged sword, though. We can also see the gears turning in her head as she plots and schemes. It’s fascinating and terrifying all at the same time. The world will be a much safer place when Emily finally recognizes and responds to the word ‘no’.

Halloween aftermath

No major developmental milestones to report this month. Nothing as momentous as a first step, first word, or first novel. There were quite a few minor ones, however. And they’re lovely. Here’s what our little tiger has been up to recently:

• First it was three times a night. Then for a while, Emily was waking up twice a night and needed attention. Then there was a long period where she woke up for a feed once every night. We are proud (and eternally grateful) to announce that Emily is now sleeping through the entire night. From dusk till dawn. It is a blessing for which we have been eagerly waiting. Some other parents inform us that their kids slept through the night from day 1. We hate those people.
• With great power comes great responsibility. Now that Emily is walking and running and jumping and climbing – always pushing her limits – she is also falling with greater frequency and force. Just the other day, Emily fell off our bed, the sofa, the subwoofer in the living room, and slammed her head against the kitchen door and now has a black and blue mark the size of a tennis ball on her forehead to show for it. Jan has introduced me to arnica cream.
• Emily’s vocabulary is growing. Her lexicon is currently comprised of the following words:
  • ‘more’
  • ‘ball’
  • ‘ear’
  • ‘one’
  • ‘bye’ (with a charming southern drawl)
  • ‘B-B-B’ (aka, Big Brown Bear)
  • ‘daddy’ (with an amazingly cute pause between the ‘da’ and the ‘ddy’)
  • ‘Pooh’ (as in ‘Pooh Bear’)
  • ‘ow’ (meaning ‘flower’)
  • ‘ow’ (meaning ‘shower’)
  • ‘ppphhhhhttttt’ (elephant noise)
  • ‘ua ua ua’ (duck quacking)

  The other day, Emily pulled down every book of hers off the shelf and flipped through every page looking for every picture of a duck that she could find with the intention of quacking at each one.

• We’re also making progress in the department of nonverbal communication. After months and months (and months) of expressing the concept of ‘no’ by flailing her arms, screaming, and dropping to the ground, Emily has learned the graceful art of simply shaking her head ‘no’ to express dislike. We all prefer the new method.
• The plan is to avoid daycare for at least another year. The more time spent with mommy the better. That does mean that the probability of mommy going completely bonkers increases dramatically. So it’s probably a good thing for both of them that Emily is taking some classes. On Mondays, the girls go to belly dance class. Emily enjoys having an excuse to perform her spin-till-you-fall-down pirouettes. Tuesday is music class down by the park where she’s happy and she knows it. And Thursday has the girls attending art class here in Gracia. Jan brought home their first piece of scribble art last week and a tear almost came to my eye – until I found out that Jan had drawn it.
• I am astounded by Emily’s level of comprehension – or “tricks” as I like to call them. Ask Emily for a cup of tea and she will get a tea cup from her tea set and pour you a cup with her tiny tea pot. Ask her where Cookie Monster is and she will go into her tent and root through her pile of stuffed animals before emerging with said monster. “Go get your shoes” has her running off and coming back with, yup you guessed it, her shoes. Ask her to jump and she’ll bounce up and down like there was no tomorrow. Hold up one finger and she’ll do the same, look at her hand, and say, “one!”. “Where’s your ear?” and “Where’s your nose?” are old hat. I really need to get some of these on video. Maybe next week. One thing’s for sure: I am so looking forward to Simon Says!

Ruby slippers