Moments

Emily has developed a love for small spaces.  She hides behind the chair in her bedroom or climbs into the laundry basket.  Sometimes she brings things with her and hangs out by herself, but often she wants to have a really intense game of peek-a-boo. In the case of the laundry basket she likes to give high-5s through the mesh.

We had visitors last Thursday! Elise, Cammie, Clara, and Teagan arrived at 3:30am and left at 3:30pm. It was so fun to watch Emily and Clara play together and talk with two of the most incredible women I know for a few hours in person. Emily is the only one that got much sleep Wednesday night, but her bedhead represented the state of the rest of us.

If you only have 12 hours together, frozen yogurt is a must.

Emily has learned the joy of horsie games and being bounced up and down.  She often comes and plops down on us for a quick ride.  She is also developing a bit of a forced laugh and keeps the giggles going while she is climbing on us.

These white shoes are too small for her and it takes great effort to actually get them on her feet.  Despite the discomfort, she loves them and insisted for two days that she wears them non stop. I got them off for a nap but the moment she woke up they were back on.

Emily loves animals. Any time we go outside or go near a window she diligently looks for and signs bird, pointing out any she sees.  We’ve started going on bird hunts on our walks and pause to look at any we find.  Last week we looked out our office window and 8 birds were just sitting in the tree. We spent about ten minutes watching them until the kids got off the school bus and they flew away.

We went to our very first super bowl party this year and stayed until halftime. Emily joined in the celebrations, eating pizza and watching tv like the grownups for a few minutes.  She and I actually spent the majority of the first half playing with toys, putting them in a basket on her arm, and saying goodbye to her as she went on a walk to the kitchen.  After a few rounds of her heading out into the world on her own, she invited me to join her, so we took adventurous walks to the kitchen together.

Andrew came home with all the ingredients for s’mores last weekend.  We put Emily to bed before starting our date and roasted the marshmallows over the gas stove.

This was Andrew’s first ever indoor s’more, so it was a bit historic. Naturally we had to take a picture of the first bite.

Emily is sooooo fun. Last week she went through a few days where the necklace was a must (this is following the shoe days). We play a lot of chase in our home, because the downstairs is a circle with the laundry and furnace in the center.  She has gotten really good at the game and sneaks up on me enough to truly startle me.  I paused mid game to snap these pictures as she runs around the corner and find me and runs away. These are truly Emily.

I asked her to smile and this is what she did. Oh I love this girl!

Andrew has been coming home for dinner most nights this semester. Emily gets really excited when he walks in the door (so do I!). Two nights ago while Andrew and I were talking and he was taking off his winter gear, Emily quietly tried to put on his backpack.  After struggling for a few minutes, Andrew helped her get strapped in.  They then posed for a selfie together and did the exact same smile preparation. It was so amazing to watch how similar some of their mannerisms are. I love these two.

Emily and I had a day of errands yesterday morning. She only took a micro nap (20 minutes) and she’s been teething and not sleeping at night so by yesterday afternoon I was exhausted.  We spent three hours in the office where the sun shines in, listening to Gossamer by Lois Lowry, just hanging out together.  I laid on the floor and she climbed on my back. We colored. We played with beads. We drummed.  She spent a lot of the day fascinated with her hair tie (this has been going on for a few days and I’m very curious to know what she is thinking about it as she studies the elastic). We ran to the library in the late afternoon, made dinner together, and by 5:30 we both hopped into our pajamas.  She liked taking selfies so much with Andrew the day before that we did them again. She kept asking to take more, so here are two of the twenty we took that she posed for with me.

We’ve been working on filling in the gaps in our signing repertoire recently. I’m amazed at how fast Emily soaks up the new signs. She was really excited about “table” and she would touch the table and sign, touch the table and sign, over and over again. It took awhile before she was ready to go to bed.  Yesterday while we were running errands she saw some chairs and signed sit.  I put her in chair and she sat there for a few minutes, just looking around like she wanted.  After a while she looked over, signed all-done, and joined me back at the counter.  It is amazing to watch her vocabulary quickly expand and it is incredibly  helpful in our day to day life.

Emily doesn’t really have any words yet, but as I was laying her down for a nap and said “I love you” like I always do, she whispered a version of “I love you” right back.  Now that is a moment I hope I don’t forgot.  We sign I love you to her and she responds by waving her hand.  It is her way of saying good night and I love you.  It is also her way of asking people to leave or asking me to hang up the phone.