Football, Cheese, and Hurt Feelings

This weekend we were in Boone for peak leaf weekend, Appalachain football, a fun weekend in a gorgeous cabin with friends, and the Wooly Worm Festival.  Oh right, just half of the other extra people in Boone causing all of the traffic that made us not get to campus until 5:00 for a 6:00 game were there for the Wooly Worm Festival!  Despite all of the traffic and getting everywhere late, we had such a fun time at the game while a sweet girl from Charlotte, who is a sophmore at ASU kept our sweet Emerson back at the house!

Emerson was a total ham this weekend (and beyond) and is really loving getting attention from people and being told non-stop how cute she is!  She's been venturing out on her own, taking as many as 12 steps at a time, so we know that a walking one year old is not far away in our house!  When you tell her that she is cute, or she meets someone new and is feeling 'shy' (don't be fooled, this is just for show!) she shrugs her shoulders up, tips her head to the side and grins.  It is hilarious.  She is pointing to her ears when you ask her where they are, occasionally can show you where her nose is, loves singing if you're happy and you know it (she's great at clapping hands and recently added a verse for 'pat your head'), can tell you what an elephant says, and started making the sound of a bear/lion/tiger this weekend - this is very helpful that I can say she can name 4 animal sounds since 3 of the 4 make the same sound!  Emerson LOVES her daddy these days especially and points to him all day long saying his name.  I sometimes try to coerce her into pointing to me and saying 'mama,' but instead she just looks at Terry, points, says 'dada,' and then does her little head tilt like she knows she's being funny.  Since I like Terry so much and love to see her love him so much too, it isn't hurting my feelings...yet.  We are getting ready for her birthday weekend extravaganza and daily think that she is cuter than the day before.  Here are some examples:

 (yes, this is what I meant by 'cheese' in the title of this blog - I mean SERIOUSLY, she is such a ham!)

(LOVED being up on Uncle Wes' shoulders!)

Her most recent 'development' is that she got her feelings hurt for the first time.  It was undoubtedlty at the same time the saddest and funniest thing she has done to date.  Other than brief crying when I leave her room at nap times, Emerson really hasn't cried in response to anything we've done (or not done) until now.  We were sitting at the island eating dinner with her last night, and because she's so into her dad right now, she kept reaching over to grab onto his arm, finger, hand, arm hair, or anything else she could get her hands on.  She reached with a little too much...zeal...and got a firm grip/pinch on his arm one of the times and Terry responded with a pretty enthusiastic 'ouch!'  I made him tell her 'no,' (calmly and sweetly, we promise!) and then she looked at me and I said, 'no Em,' and she looked down and got really quiet and her little eyes welled up with tears and she looked back up at me and slowly started crying.  She would not let Terry console her, but once I picked her up and let her lick some hummus off of my finger, she was all better :)  I wish I could convince myself that it will always be this easy to make her feel better when her feelings get hurt as she grows up.

Maybe she is growling like a bear here...or just showing her teeth...or just being her normal hilarious self!