Happy 13 month birthday, Emily.

I know I can’t go on writing these monthly updates forever. It’ll be a little strange (and monotonous) to write a bulleted list of the things Emily accomplishes during her 74th month. But it doesn’t feel like the right time to stop just yet. I was considering it. One year would have been a perfectly good candidate for changing this update format. But she’s growing up so quickly and surprising us so often that I feel it would be a crime to not continue documenting her achievements for all of you who don’t get to see her as often as you’d like. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them.

Toddler is such a neat word. It really describes not only their style of walking but their whole lifestyle in general. Bopping around penguin-like from place to place without a care in the world. Good times. Here’s what our little toddler has been up to this past month:

• As expected, Emily’s walking is improving. So much, in fact, that she often walks with me to the supermarket! She loves the freedom. In addition to the normal walking and running, Emily has been seen walking backwards (but not moonwalking) and performing pirouettes with her arms over her head. She likes to spin until she gets dizzy and falls down. This is apparently like magic mushrooms for toddlers.
• It took a whole year, but Emily is finally loving the peekaboo. The two major variations of the game consist of her covering her eyes with her open palms and then throwing her hands out to the side while her mouth hangs open in a smile waiting for you to shout “Peekaboo!”, or her hiding behind the curtains in the front room and then quickly peeking out with the same look of anticipation. This is much fun until about the 14th “peekaboo” or when she insists on playing while in her highchair at dinner time with her hands filled with food. Avocado in the eyes = game over.
• She started with “Mamamama” and quickly moved to a crystal clear “daddy” (which is her new favorite word). But we were never 100% sure if she knew what she was saying. Well, the other week, she was at Juls’ house playing with her son Charlie. Emily started saying “Barley. Barley”. We were all like, “What?”. So she tried again: “Arley. Arley!”. Blank looks all around. Then she pointed right at Juls’ son and said, “Charlie!”. There may be hope for her yet.
• At 13 months of age, we are currently in the process of weening Emily off of breastfeeding. It’s been three days now that she hasn’t had a hit on the old boob and it looks like this should be a piece of cake. We weren’t 100% sure if we should press the issue after only one year – Jan believes that the amount of time spent breastfeeding and the likelihood of developing allergies are indirectly proportional. When she was a baby, Jan breastfed for about six months and now has a plethora of annoying allergies while I breastfed for about six years (kidding!) and never have to carry a handkerchief. It’s a moot point, though, because Emily decided for herself that 12 months was just right for her. She’s rocking the formula now but has already had some favorable experiences with soy milk. Once the hormonal fluctuations dissipate, the boobs will once again be mine! Mwa ha ha ha ha!
• She’s been removing them for months, but Emily has finally started putting the colored blocks back in the appropriately shaped holes. The blue circle is easiest. The orange rectangle still gets her a bit frustrated.
• Speaking of getting frustrated, little Miss “I’m the center of the Universe” isn’t handling rejection very well. If you dare to stop her from turning on the oven, climbing on the subwoofer, smashing the keys on your laptop, or ripping up some papers from work, you will be met with the scream of a grumpy little tyrant. She’s even mastered the whole “go limp and fall to the ground when someone grabs your hand and you don’t want them to” thing.
• Imaginative play is going wild. Emily will pick up a mobile phone, flip it open, hold it to her ear, say “hello”, and babble out a proper conversation which appears to be comprised of her making fun of whoever is on the other end. Emily will pick up Patch The Dog (one of her larger stuffed animals), talk to him for a while, and then make him jump up and down while Patch responds. Emily will also dump out the contents of her tea party bag, hand you a tea cup (and occasionally a saucer), pick up the tea kettle, pour you a cup of tea, wait for you to drink it, and then pour you another. This last game really freaked me out when Emily did it for the first time after only having seen us do it once.
• Just yesterday, Emily started kissing. She’ll even give you a kiss if you ask for one! Her timing isn’t perfect yet – the kissy noise will usually come way before your lips actually meet, but it is the sweetest thing in the entire universe.

Zoo face!

Yo feet’s too big.