16 months

While I love the 'new era' of "smart phones," one of the more annoying things about them is when I forget to turn the sound off on my notifications at night and the 800 random emails I get everyday come through at 3a.m.  (i.e. Gap, Old Navy, Groupon, My Baby at __ Weeks, etc. etc).  I guess that when I was pregnant I signed up on many of these sites for weekly updates on how Emerson is growing.  The first few weeks and months I really enjoyed reading these and reminding myself of things that I should have been working on with her.  These days though, they aren't quite as entertaining because development is somewhat running together; and while there are clearly many more 'big' developmental steps for Em to meet, it's not the same as waiting around for rolling over or crawling or walking.  But last night, when my email chimed me awake about "My Baby at 15 months 4 weeks," I had a mini breakdown.  Seriously, how on earth is she 16 months old (almost)?!  At her 15 month check-up last month, our nurse was saying something about Emerson 'almost being two.'  I can barely wrap my mind around the fact that she has already turned one, much less that she will be TWO this year. 

All that to say, there are so many things that our '16 month old' is doing that blow my mind everyday.  It is so fun to communicate with her and see her personality.  She is such a trip, and I live for my weekends at home with her.  She loves to snuggle and loves to rough house both with dad and with me.  She is happiest hanging upside down, being thrown into a pile of pillows, reading books, and/or playing outside with sidewalk chalk.  She is still loving to use sign language and is great about asking please which we are SO thankful for as it has helped us avoid ever really having a meltdown yet when she wants something.  She has a ton of other words and it's hysterical to hear her talk. 


Two current favorite stories about her words are: 1. As I have referenced, Salem has been....toeing the line...around our house a lot recently with a recent unmentionable experienced where she jumped over the farm door in her room and went to all of the rooms in the house where she isn't allowed.  We'll just say it resulted in having to have the carpets cleaned and they may ultimately have to be replaced.  So several times Emerson has watched us shake our finger at Salem and say "bad dog."  We reserve this for serious infractions, I promise.  So the other day we walked in the house and Emerson walked in in front of me as I got the mail and I could hear her in the living room saying "bad dog!".  She was standing on the carpet looking at a pile of wrapers from granola bars that Salem had gotten into and eaten - Salem wasn't even in the room! - but Emerson knew she had done it, and knew just how to 'correct' her for it.
2.  She loves when we whisper a secret into her ear, and in the past few weeks, if we whisper "I love you" in her ear, she will whisper back to us, "la la la."  It will melt your heart every single time.

Pictures & video from our weekend (sorry again about the video being sideways) - Emerson loved washing the car and even sang her song that we sing when we wash her hair about the car "wash, wash, wash (your hair) (the car)...." - the video stops being very cute after she sticks the rag in her mouth at about 50 seconds in :)  We aren't sure if she or the car ended up with more water on them by the end of this experience.  Her favorite part was just dipping the rag in the bucket and watching the water drip off!