Happy 1 1/2 year birthday, Emily.

I’m so glad that all those people were right who told us that it just keeps getting better the older they get. I’m having so much fun!

A playmate! I finally have my very own tiny little playmate to cavort with. Silly dances, rude noises, ridiculous faces. Sure, I’ve got Jan and she’s OK. But she gets a little too serious sometimes. Emily has more of the Zamrycki wackiness in her. Emily’s also easier to throw.

We’ve been very fortunate to be able to have Jan stay at home with Emily up till now. My job at HP permits this full-time-mom option and we’re loving it. But there comes a time in every little girl’s life when they must leave the nest. With the goal of obtaining more exposure to other kids and the Catalan language, we’re looking to have Emily start some sort of daycare come September. And that means that we have to start vying for a coveted opening in one of these centers now. The whole guardería thing is actually quite complicated and probably deserves it’s own blog entry. I’ll see what I can do about that.

Backpack

There’s no stopping this little girl from growing up. Another month brings another list of changes and developments. Here are a few of the highlights:

• I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but Emily practically recited the entire alphabet the other day. I’m sure she had no idea what she was doing but, while watching an episode of Brainy Babies (which has recently surpassed Baby Einstein on Emily’s favorite videos list), she repeated each letter after they were said aloud on the TV. Verbally repeating sounds, in general, is just now starting to get interesting. Granted, she did repeat the letter “I” for each letter from I though N, but I swear to god she skipped one somewhere along the line and was actually saying the next letter before it came up for V through Y. I’ll have to perform some more scientific tests to verify my observations.
• We officially have ourselves a bouncing baby girl. Emily’s favorite pastime is jumping. Jumping from the couch to the floor, from standing to her knees, from standing to her bum, in the tub, on the stairs, on the bed, and on the couch. It’s all jumping all the time.
• Jan is extremely happy to see that Emily has finally discovered her love of books. She’s always enjoyed pulling them off the shelves and flicking through the pages, but only recently has she chosen a book, carried it over to the couch, and spent the next three minutes reading aloud. We can’t understand a word she says when she’s in this book trance, but she reads with such emotion!
• After much trial and error and determination, Emily is finally on her way to mastering the acts of climbing and descending stairs without the use of her hands. She has always been attracted to stairs. So much, in fact, that we actually avoid walking down certain streets in our neighborhood because there are many stairs there and we know it will take four times longer to get where we need to go if Emily spots them. Last month, every stair climb would begin with an outstretched arm requesting ballast. 85% of all helping hands are now swatted. This is between her and the stairs. And gravity. And coordination.
• We understand and expect Emily to test all of the nuances of all of her senses, but recently we have been surprised at her desire to tackle everyday activities with fewer senses; particularly blind. It started the other day when she casually closed here eyes at dinner and proceeded to pick up her food, shove it in her mouth, and chew with her eyes shut tight. She did this for a few minutes. It was fascinating. We have since found her walking, dancing, and even climbing stairs all with her eyes closed.
• Emily’s dance moves are becoming more and more… eccentric. The newest craze invloves rocking back and forth, balancing alternately on each leg, leaning further each time until she eventually falls over to one side. Another family favorite very much resembles “The Monkey” but with far less coordination or grace.

In the tunnel

For all of you interested in engaging Emily in conversation but not aren’t sure what level of discourse to expect in return, here is a list of words that you can expect to hear:

I know that you can’t all see Emily as often as you may like, so here is a virtual trip to the park with her. Enjoy!

And finally, to commemorate the momentous occasion, I offer you a splendiferous collection of amazingly lifelike Emily photos from the past half year. It’s amazing (and scary as all hell) to see how much our little girl has changed over the last six months:

Click here to see a slide show of the new photos.

Click here to view the photos in their natural habitat on my Flickr page.