After several days of thinking that Emerson was running a fever from her most recent set of vaccines (and wanting to hop on the delayed vaccination bandwagon despite all my education...), she kept getting worse and worse. She had the smelliest breath ever and wouldn't eat or drink anything for two days. She was pretty traumatized to have her throat swabbed at the doctor's office and immediately started waving bye to the nurse because she wanted her to get the heck away! Her strep test immediately came back positive - very rare for her age. Her gums are swollen and bleeding and she has sores all over her tongue, it is so sad! She has been so pitiful, snuggly and sad since Thursday. When she woke up this morning I thought maybe she had turned the corner because she ate for the first time, but by 11:00 she was very puny again. Poor kid. While my heart has been breaking for her, I have also been loving all of the snuggle time that I have gotten with her morning, noon and night - she is such a cuddle bug. Normally she is so busy that she will come over for the occasional hug and/or kiss, and will sit in my lap to read her favorite books; but mostly likes to be running, dancing and climbing all around.
Since pictures of sick babies are pitiful [though I did snap one of her on the table at the doctor's office in her diaper crying and snuggled in our bed drinking a milkshake in her pajamas at 9:30pm!!!], all of the pictures here are from earlier this past week before she got sick when we played at the park and around the house. The sky was about to open up with rain this afternoon while we were at the park and it was super windy - Emerson loves when the wind blows in her hair (see below) - it totally cracks her up. I cannot say enough how ready I am for spring and at the same time how much I dread that it means summer is coming sooner. I need a summer getaway home. Hopefully it will be in Stowe, Vermont since I registered 852 times to win the HGTV home! Keep your fingers crossed...you can all come and stay!
Once it started raining, we headed home and snuggled in with our favorite books - just more proof that she really will sit and do this for so long, and she definitely has her favorite books. I'd put the "First 100 Words" book (on the right) in her top 3 favorites - she can name/make the sound for/act out probably 95/100 of the things in this book and she likes to read it over and over...and over again.
Hopefully her delicious pink medicine that she's living for right now will kick in completely soon and she'll be back to herself. Until then, we'll be busy snuggling for the rest of this rainy weekend before we have to head back to work and start the week again!
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!
Why is it that naked babies are so cute? ...and that we are not so cute naked once we grow up? If anything 'good' came out of the fall of man (hopefully you all know this is sarcasm), it is that Adam & Eve decided to cover up and thus clothes were born. All the same, babies and toddlers are so dang cute when they run around the house naked - even at the risk of having to mop up after an accident, which we (knock on wood) haven't had to do yet. So this is an old video of Emerson, and sorry that I didn't know when I took it that I couldn't rotate videos on my phone or on YouTube, so turn your head sideways - or your screen if you have a laptop! - and enjoy this precious little girl doing what she does best - unloading her diaper caddy. A definite favorite past time around our house. I think my mom is the one who first let Emerson do this - thanks mom...
It's of equal importance to Terry and I ... maybe and to Uncle John, that Emerson does not get my motor skills. It's always a joke to anyone that knows me that part of my job includes teaching children motor coordination skills. Since I have none. And got to stay home from almost every field day of my elementary aged life. And the ones I had to attend I cowered through. So we are starting young ensuring that Emerson gets in some good practice.
Please also notice in the background the sweet kitchen that my mom gave Emerson for Christmas. She loves it and can often be found stirring up something in a pot with her spoon. Or the best is when I go to pack her lunchbox and I find a cloth baked potato or watermelon slice that she has put in there while playing at her kitchen. As a sidenote, we love this little lunch pail. I love that it is old school, and that it is the perfect size for the containers I send her lunch in...that can be for another post; and that when you open it up, one side of it is a chalkboard so we can write her love notes.
Emerson LOVES to read. We read 3 books every time before she goes to sleep both at nap time and at night - we're a little rigid in our schedule...but at least it seems to have worked GLORIOUSLY since she is a great sleeper and sleeps from 6:30pm - 7am every day. Sometimes we like to get crazy and switch up the order and even the books. We always read Goodnight Moon, but the other two books we change out every few weeks when she starts to get tired of one or when we get a new one that I am excited about. Our whole family can recite Goodnight Moon from memory, so that one is easy. Recently, my mom gave us one of my old books called "I Can Read" which Emerson loves because we point to our nose, mouth, tickle her back, wave our hands, stick our feet up in the air, and point to mom and dad. We tend to only read these books at bedtime so she knows it is bedtime, but recently she has really enjoyed climbing up in the rocking chair and reading them to herself during the day [after having chosen some winter boots from Bella that are two sizes too big currently that she would please like to wear with her shorts and tshirt during the gloriously warm weather that we had this weekend]. Beth also started reading Corduroy with her this past week, so we've added it to our lucky bedtime 3 - I ad lib this one, so it's different each night, which Terry really enoys. Emerson's favorite part is the dramatic 'pop-boom-bang-crash' that Beth started with her when Corduroy pulls the button off the mattress and crashes to the floor. We get a great belly laugh out of her every time.
Nevermind the Pottery Barn chair her size that we got her for her room that is her size - she mostly loves the big chair that we sit in together for story time at night and even tries to rock back and forth to get herself moving.
We had a great weekend this past weekend with Laura in town and the gorgeous weather, several trips to the park - including Emerson's first picnic...and two trips to Yoforia. God bless frozen yogurt. This family is ready for spring to come and to spend more time outside!
In case you wonder what we've been doing for the past few months, here we go....Emerson was a chicken for Halloween and she wore part of her costume for Halloween that Mom made but made too small on day #1
...then she wore the whole costume on day 2 after Mom re-made part of it...it sort of fell apart by the end of the night
Turned 1 and got to eat cupcakes or birthday cake THREE days in a row
Here was her first cupcake - she ate EVERY. SINGLE. BITE.
Went shopping for our Christmas Tree and loved finding all of the little ornaments on it! Her favorites were the Santas and she perfected saying 'ho ho ho' every time she saw one!
The tree skirt made a great dress for Em!
We went to a Christmas light display late one night at Lowes Motor Speedway
They had a little petting zoo area which Emerson loved!
We cheered on the Mountaineers of course...
Enjoyed celebrating a great Christmas with family. Here she is at her new table from my mom which is so sweet and she loves having her own place to sit and play, snack, and draw!
....had a WHITE Christmas!
Emerson was less than sure about the snow
She gets lots of smooches from her daddy who is trying to capitalize on her not being embarassed yet by this!
We're working on self-feeding. Here is how well it went with hummus one night...not sure if she actually ate any of it or just face painted. The spoon got ditched early in the process.
Ditto on the yogrt. We love this Trader Joes yogurt for the record.
Emerson loves Salem and loves to pet her, sit with her, give her treats, feed her a bone, throw the ball with her....and shake her finger at her and tell her 'bad dog,' we don't know where she learned that one...
We met Bella & her mommy in Emory for a fun quick weekend get together, these girls love playing together, especially in the bath!
Emerson always loves her bath - especially if there's someone to play with in there!
Terry's brother David and family moved to Charlotte from LA and spent a few nights with us when they got here - what fun having cousins around! Mikayla and Emerson are just one week apart!
She loves reading books - especially ones with farm animals or flap books! We snuggle in bed or on the couch most mornings before she leaves for Beth's and we leave for work for some reading time. It is the best.
This girl could not be cuter.
So if you've been wondering what we could have been doing that has kept us too busy to blog, here are just a few of the things. We cannot believe that our little peanut is 15 months old and walking (running!!!), talking, and showing us her precious personality more and more every day.
Hello to all of you who used to read this blog about my family and me. Mom had taken an (obvious) hiatus from the blog for awhile with a 'resolution' of sorts to start again in January. She's non-committal and can't decide if she's really willing & ready to commit again...but she's thinking about it, so don't give up on her quite yet. We'll let you know. In the mean time, here is my parents' favorite ever picture of me. If you have been wondering what kind of kid I am now that I am growing up and you haven't gotten to see much of me because no one has been telling you about it on this blog - well this cheesy smile pretty much sums me up!
xo - Emerson
