Teeth and Christmas Tree

Just wanted you all to see her cute 4 teeth. And she's getting a respectable amount of hair! (On the back of her head, anyway!) And you can see our tree and decorations (for Mom).

3 Quick Photos

We were just at a friend's Christmas party last night, and another friend took these photos. The rubber chicken was from the White Elephant gift exchange. When squeezed, it made an awful sound and Emma was terrified!

In other news, Emma started walking on Friday!!! 5 steps from Dan to me, and she's been slowly choosing walking over crawling, though crawling mostly wins. And in other exciting news, today was the first time she not only made it through the entire church service in the nursery without Mommy being called to rescue her crying babe, but she was happy in there the whole service!

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Uploads from my iPhone

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Sand!

Still need to post photos from NY, and now from Denver. This little girl is well-traveled! In the past 2 weeks, she:

-got her first tooth!
-started waving, and will do so non-stop once the urge strikes
-started freestanding for a few moments
-started finding hidden objects, meaning Mommy can no longer just stick the cell phone behind her
-started showing genuine interest in solid foods

A busy week! Here's a photo of her first time playing in sand at the park.

Clapping!

No pictures, but just had to share that all of the sudden and unprompted, Emma started clapping today! We'd only worked on it a bit, but for some reason today it clicked. This evening we had a one year old over and he was playing peekaboo under a tablecloth with his parents. At one point everyone said, "Yay!" and Emma started clapping again, in proper context and with great excitement! Then she took the tablecloth and tried to put it over her head to play peekaboo, too.

This was possibly, for me, the most exciting developmental milestone she's hit so far. Clapping is really a form of sign language, and it feels like she's entering the world of big people communication and really catching on to what we're teaching her, etc. I can't believe how grown up she's getting! She is more joy than we can possibly take in.

Pictures and More pictures

At Susanne's request I'm uploading some pictures from my iPhone. Enjoy!

Emma on the Go

Just one photo to pacify my mom, and then I'll post more later. We went to NY two weeks ago and today Emma went to her first birthday party (not her first birthday), so we have plenty of photos to post.

Emma started crawling well around 6.5 months, and now her favorite thing is to stand and stand and stand. She can push herself up to standing and this has resulted in a few tumbles. She loves to drink out of grown-up water glasses and would all day if allowed. About 6 weeks ago, she kicked the binky habit all on her own (makes car rides a bit more complicated!).

Emma Meets Cousin Matthew and More...

After a long night on the plane, two sleepy babes met at 4:30 am Emma's time. Emma just wanted to hold Matthew's face.

On the beach.

Emma looks to be saying "Give me my giraffe back!" but she's really saying, "Come here, boy! I want to grab your face!" Matthew is unmoved.

Sleepy babe sacked out.

Another sleepy babe passed out. Love the sand!

Cousin Matthew, a sandy little boy. It's even in his eyelashes, yet he was not bothered. Notice his tooth!

She loves Aunt Kiki!

Mattthew loved his floatie ring! He could splash around all by himself (under supervision, of course).

Matthew saying "Cheese!" with Mama and Daddy.

The sound in Duck, NC. Actually freshwater- was closed off from the ocean by a hurricane some time back, I think.

"Let me have your face!"

My amazing birthday cake!

LOVE this photo! Both of their hands seem to be in their favorite places- Emma's in her mouth and Matthew's up his nose. :)

While she is being supported in this photo (looks like I'm pinching her, but I wasn't, I promise.), she has been sitting up all on her own for quite some time.

The heat was a bit much for this tired babe.

With Aunt Kiki.

With Aunt Katie, the lovely wife of my stepbrother, David.

Matthew chilling out on the jeep tour to see the wild mustangs.

Mama Mustang and Baby. Guide said baby was just about a week old. The egrets hang out with the mustangs in some sort of symbiotic relationship. God's creation is pretty amazing!

Another mama with an older babe.

My favorite- two playful fox pups. (Is that what fox babies are called?)

Emma, as you can see, was very interested in the horses.

"What is that little girl doing?" Both babes had fallen asleep on the ride.

The beach early in the morning. Most beautiful time of day, in my opinion.

Emma sitting pretty with her toys. She loves measuring cups!

Mama and Baby sacked out in bed. Note that Mama does not usually sleep so far from baby, nor with her back turned, but Daddy wasn't yet to bed (he took the picture, of course), so Mama decided to spread out. I think this is sweet, though Daddy will have to take one with Baby curled up with Mama, the way she generally sleeps now.

Emma hamming it up with two of Mama's old co-workers out at lunch for a friend's going away party.

It's been awhile since I last posted, but life has been busy around here!

Here are the headlines:

• Aug. 27 was Emma's 6 month birthday!
• Emma has been sitting up unassisted since just a bit past 5 mos.
• She loves to wave her toys around, flapping and banging them on things.
• Emma is now scooting, though she is best at scooting backwards. This can be rather frustrating for her as her intended target gets further and further from her reach. She is also able to get up on her hands and knees and rock, and again is VERY frustrated that she can not go forward. This means frequent frustrated calls for help.
• She's now able to get up on her hands and knees and rock a bit. It seems crawling is not far off! She is a proficient climber, using Mama and Daddy as jungle gyms to propel off.
• She also is saying a lot more consonants, and loves to say, "Bababa, wawa, nana, OOOHHHHhhhh!" with a surprised, drawn-out, "Oh really?" sort of "Oh", as if she's having a conversation. :) She has also learned to growl and growls/grunts absentmindedly while she plays.
• She is also teething, with two teeth visible below the gums on her bottom gumline. She is a bit clingier and crankier than usual, and nurses nearly all night long. But she is being a trooper! It will be cool to see her teeth, but I think I'll cry because she'll no longer be my toothless grin babe.
• Teething has produced more difficult car rides, and during one traumatic car ride on her 6 mos. birthday, she had her first tears streaming down her cheeks. Break Mama's heart...
• She's also started sitting in a booster seat with us at meals and loves throwing things off her tray. At least it's not food yet, so it's a lot easier to clean up! We did try a few little chunks of avocado and sweet potato which she only managed to get a smidge or so in her mouth and gummed it with puzzlement.
• Emma and I went to the Outer Banks, NC, Aug. 2-9. She did really well on the flights and really loved meeting her cousin, Matthew. He's a busy 17 mos. old, so he had only limited time for her, but she was sure intrigued by him! He did like to grab her feet and exclaim, "Piggies!" She loved to grab his face, and once got his hair. She's very much into holding people's faces in her hands these days, or grabbing noses, eyes and sticking her hands in your mouth for you to eat them. :)
• Over the past few weeks, people have started commenting that Emma looks like Dan! I think she's shifting from looking exactly like me as a baby to resembling him more. She also is more and more interested in Daddy these days. She lights up when he gets home and when they play together and he can almost always cheer her up. She thinks he's the funniest guy ever. She now propels herself off one of our laps to reach the other, and today she was vaulting over my shoulder to reach Dan at his computer behind me. She loves her Daddy!
• She also loves brightly colored impressionistic art. I have a poster with Prov. 3:5 in calligraphy with paisley surrounding it, and she bursts out into smiles and giggles every time she sees it. I think she recognizes the wisdom of this verse ;) ("Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.") and she likes the art. She loves our living room painting of an English garden full of bright flowers and our Tiffany lamp. I think an impressionistic flower garden room is in her future, or at least a trip to the museum. Though a babe, she loves bright flowers and paisley designs hanging on walls!