Emilie's Birthday!

As with Emilie's previous birthdays I decided to take the day off work to spend the day with her on her birthday. There is only one more birthday I can do this before school will consume her birthday, so I am going to take advantage of this for as long as I possibly can. I can't help but feel that her special day is a special day for both of us. Not only do I celebrate the day that she entered this world, but I celebrate that day since it was the day she made me a mother.

We decided that we would make the day low key. We've started a tradition last year that we would have her gifts ready to give her in the morning as soon as Andre got home from work. She loves Doc McStuffins so we got her a stuffed Lambie and a doctor bag. She loved it and continues to give everyone "check ups" long after getting the gift.

Andre had to work late that night, so he wouldn't be home for dinner, so we had my mom and grandmother over for dinner and then Carrie, Darren, and Josh came over afterwards for birthday cake. We've found that we really like a low key celebration on the actual day and then we do her birthday party for her and her friends afterwards.

Andre and I really hadn't decided what we wanted to do for her birthday party, but back in January Emilie started to talk about her party from last year and how she wanted to go back to the same Indoor Playground and how she loved the homemade Elmo birthday cake. The one thing I knew for sure was that I was buying a cake this year. I was NOT making another one. The bonus for having her birthday party at the same place is that we knew the routine by now,  and we knew the kids would have a blast, so we booked it.

As predicted Emilie and her friends had a blast at the Indoor Playground. We went with Little Goobers, just like last year. They are one of the only ones in our area that does a true private birthday party. Since the majority of the party goers were between the ages of 1 and 4, we didn't want the stress of having to hover the entire morning making sure some rambunctious 10 year old was going to mow them over. They can run around the entire place and we can sit back and drink our coffee knowing that they are safe. It's really a win, win.

 We opted to wait until we got home to open gifts because having to round up all the kids to watch Emilie open gifts just seemed like more work than it was worth, and we only had the place for 2 hours, so we wanted them to have as much play time as possible. Emilie loved all of her gifts, she is a blessed little girl.

Dear Emilie (18 and 19 months)

Dear Emilie,

There is no denying it now, you are my big girl now. You are now officially closer to 2 years old than you are to 1 year old.

Even though you are a big girl, you're still my little big girl. You had your 18 month doctors appointment, and you were 21lbs and 11ozs, and 31.8 inches tall. You continue to be a tall little string bean. I think you are going to take after your Papa. You received your last two vaccinations. You were such a good, brave little girl that day. I think it helped that your Great Baba surprised you with a little treat after your appointment.

I won't lie the last couple months have been a little difficult for your Mama. You are no longer my baby, although I still call you that. You are a big girl. You run, and laugh, and talk and play. You throw temper tantrums, and go for days on end where I think the only word you will use is "Noooo!" Thankfully you still love your cuddles, and you think that every boo boo can be magically healed with a kiss. I hope that you continue to believe that for a really long time.

There were a couple months that I didn't know when you would ever really start talking. Now you talk all.the.time. You repeat so much of what we say, and pick things up so quickly. We have to be very careful what we say around you for fear of you saying something bad! You still use some of the signs that I have taught you, but you much prefer to use your words now. There are so many words that you use now I can't even remember them all. There have been a couple times you have put two words together in little "sentences" even though I know it is much too soon for that. You have said "Hi Mama!" and "Oh baby!". We're currently working on please and thank you. You have mastered please "pease", so now it's on to thank you.

You love your baby, and baby buggy, your Mega Blocks, your cousin Josh's talking Elmo, balls, pointing out your family in your little photo album, and your play kitchen. You are forever pointing out the "car car's" on the road, and when you're playing outside you will stop whatever you are you doing when you hear an "a pain" (air plane). You love air plane's.

As much as I will miss you not needing me for everything it is really fun right now. It's fun to watch to you play with you cousin and your friends. You are discovering so much about the world around you and desperately trying to tell your Mama and Papa all about it.

Our summer so far

What a difference from last summer! We thought you were fun last summer, this summer it's incredible all that we have done, and that you do.

You showed us how much you love a good sprinkler on a hot day:

           
           

You got your first baby buggy, and you love it :)

We said good-bye to our Corolla. It was sad to see the car that brought you home from the hospital leave us.

We went swimming!

You demonstrated your love for yummy slushy (virgin) drinks.

You "helped" your cousin smash his smash cake.

You fell in love with the splash pad at the park.

You had your very first ice-cream cone.

You helped water Mama's roses.

There have been so many exciting things happen this summer. The good news is that there is still one whole month left of the summer to go! I wonder what new things are still in store!

11 Months!

It seems like ever since Emilie turned 9 months old she has just developed at lightening speed! Before that it seemed like things were more gradual. Every new milestone was a thoughtful process. Something that she worked very hard at. Then she turned 9 months, and suddenly she was crawling, and climbing up onto things. Things have been so much busier since then!

Now she not only crawls, climbs up on to furniture, cruises along furniture, she climbs up the stairs, and will stand on her own for a few seconds before she slowly and carefully sits down so she can crawl off to her next adventure. She is fascinated by books,  and will look through them on her own while we're changing her. She loves putting things into things. Her new favourite toy is the Tupperware Shape-o ball! She loves to open and close doors, and discovering what fun things are behind the cupboard doors in the kitchen. She initiates peek-a-boo, and claps her hands when she knows she's done something good. She's also trying to use a spoon when eating, but always quickly puts it aside since her fingers are just so much more effective!

So many changes, and we know so many more are around the corner!

Here are some pictures from our little photo shoot this morning:

August: A month of firsts

August was a busy month. Emilie got to experience so many new things in addition to food. Here are some pictures of some of her new adventures:

"Swimming" in a hot tub for the first time!

"Riding" on a motorcycle for the first time with her Great Uncle Kevin!

Blowing bubbles with Grandma for the first time!

Swinging on the big-girl swing for the first time!

Bouncing on the Jolly Jumper for the first time!

Getting her ears pierced!

Food!

There have been so many firsts this month, and one of them is Emilie having rice cereal for the first time. Emilie has always been very particular about what and how much she will eat. Around her 5 month birthday she decided that she was hungry.

Now, Emilie, you will have to forgive us for taking a few hours to figure this out. We weren't used to you waking up upset in the middle of the night, but by 3am, your very tired Mama and Papa figured it out and gave you a bottle. Of course you ate it up. The next day we tried giving you an extra bottle during the day so you wouldn't get hungry in the middle of the night. You wanted nothing to do with that. After all, extra snuggles with your Mama or Papa in the dead of night is much more fun!

After a week or so of this Mama decided that desperate times called for desperate measures, you were five months old, you could sit up, maybe we would try some rice cereal. So after a little trip to the drugstore to pick up some supplies, (since we thought we had another month before we had to have these on hand!) we were ready to go.

The moment of truth was here. I mixed up some cereal, and held up the spoon and you went crazy! You immediately opened your mouth and your little head started to move around like a little bird. I swear you were thinking "Finally Mama! What have you been waiting for? I was STARVING!"

You ate that cereal up like a champ! Hardly spitting any out, because you wouldn't want to waste any would you?

For everyone that missed the Rice Cereal Extravaganza that night, here are some pictures:

And since you're all so wonderful here is the video of her having rice cereal for the first time. We were having a BBQ that night so you can hear voices and see people walking around while we're feeding her.

A lean, mean, rolling machine!

Well just as I suspected, as soon as she figured it out, we can't stop her!

Every day we give her time on a blanket on the floor with some toys, to just stretch her arms and legs, along with her vocal cords! For the longest time she would roll on to her tummy, and Lord, let me tell you how much she hates to be on her tummy! So she would start to fuss, which would gradually turn into a full on meltdown if we would let it. We would go over, turn her onto her back again, she would smile, and then in a couple minutes we would repeat again.

She had managed to roll back if someone was there to give her a little momentum, but this week she rolled back to her back all by herself. I was there to see it, and I cheered her on clapping my hands, then Andre came over and started cheering her too. She was a little confused as to why we were cheering like idiots, but was happy with the attention at the same time.

Her newest trick is also wanting to sit up like a big girl. Gone are the days of reclining back. She has to sit up in her swing, her highchair, stroller, everything. We've tried her in her exersaucer a few times, and she LOVES her Bumbo too. It's so exciting to see her growing up, but it breaks my heart at the same time to see my little baby slipping away a little more each day.

We have a roller!

The exact same day that I posted about Emilie taking her time with things, the 28th of June to be exact, was the day Emilie decided to roll for the first time! I guess she decided that was as good a day as any.

She has come close again, but I guess she'll do a sneak attack for the next rolling adventure she has. Luckily I had time to yell for Andre to come and see what Emilie had done, and grab the camera before she had enough of being on her tummy.



Here is the proof in pictures:

Mommy, Daddy, look what I am doing!

How did this happen?

Some time with daddy after all her hard work.

Taking her time

Emilie likes to do everything on her own time. Some things she likes to do when she's "suppose" to do them, others, they can wait.

She verbalizes so well for her age. She is making vowel sounds, and loves to open her mouth wide and make "aaaaahhhhhh" sounds and "ooooooohhhhhh" sounds. She makes soft sounds almost like a whisper, and then catch you off guard by wailing out the next sound. She's been alternating the volume of her talking a lot more lately. I swear I see a proud little look on her face when she discovers that she can make a new sound. She has also been moving her mouth when she's making sounds a lot more too, like she discovered she has this new part of her body that she can control at will.

She's also recently discovered her feet too. She will try and grab for them during diaper changes, or just move her legs around and just stare at her feet. I think it's only a matter of time before those toes end up in her mouth!

Rolling is another story. This could partially be our fault as we don't push tummy time since she hates it with a passion. She will last on her belly for a couple minutes and then start wailing. Almost full melt down mode if we let her wait. She would much rather sit on our lap and look around or be perched on one of our shoulders to get a better view of the room.

We have caught her rolling on to her side many times though as you can see here:

I'm getting there, I'm getting there...

...and I'm done.

I think if she would just flip her upper leg to get some momentum going she could do it, but again, she just doesn't want to roll yet. I think we're getting closer though, just yesterday morning when I went to get her she was on her side while swaddled. It's coming!

A new milestone!

I know most aren't interested in every new little thing that our little Emilie does, but we are, so as a result we're going to share it all with the world!

We have a little play mat that we put Emilie on pretty much every day. It gives her a chance to be on her own, to kick her legs, wave her arms, and usually squeal with delight. She likes it so we keep doing it. There's a ring of toys above her, and since she started going on the mat around 1 month old, she's batted at these toys. First it was accidental, then intentional, and then on June 8th, she grabbed the toy and held on!

As a proud first-time mommy, I immediately ran over for my camera to document the moment for Andre who as at work (and very bummed out he missed it). Since that day she has grabbed on to Sophie the giraffe, and her teething ring as well. Oh, and my hair, every time I feed her.

Here are the pictures documenting this new milestone!

Oh Mommy, look what I just did!

Hey, this is pretty cool, I think I'll keep holding on!