Big Girl Bed

After repeated incidents of Emily climbing out of her crib, we couldn't put off the switch to a big girl bed any longer. I was dreading some long nights of walking her back to bed over and over, and some nap-time fights, so I was pleasantly amazed that the transition has been almost seamless.

She fell out of bed the first few nights, so we put the bumper back in for a little extra stability. She only climbs out if she is upset about something (like last night when the heater in her room stopped working... great timing, since it was about 20 below outside. thank goodness for extension cords!) or when I occasionally try to put her down for a nap before she's tired enough.

Today, she slept in the car on the way home from a huge grocery shopping trip, but I had a lot to do, so I tried to get her to go right back down. Half an hour or so later I heard noises in her room - I found her holding her Eagles tshirt, wearing a pair of jeans on her head, and grabbing the broken top drawer of her dresser. Sigh. It looks like we have a super glue project to go along with the electricity issue. Next, she spilled my coffee all over the kitchen floor. Apparently she can reach things on the counter now. It's definitely a Baby Einstein afternoon!

Holidays

Alasdair took Christmas Eve day off & we spent it tromping around in the snow behind our house. For the Christmas Eve service, our church rents a little wooden chapel. It's heated by a wood stove & the only instrument was a harp; very beautiful and cozy. We drove straight from there to my parents house in MA, where we spent Christmas Day with my whole family. The highlight as always was watching Emily play with her cousins. The girls are old enough now that they really remember each other, and Emily loves baby Daniel.

(Visiting Great Granny Ware Christmas afternoon)

The day after Christmas, we drove to Philadelphia...almost. We 'd heard there would be snow, but weren't too concerned about it. Oops. We spent the night in a hotel in NJ and made it to Philly on Monday for Christmas take two with Alasdair's family. We spend the week hanging out with family & visiting some good friends.

(Emily kept asking me to clean the frosting off her hands, until I told her to lick it. Her lights lit up, and with a "yummm" she immediately started scraping off the roofing.)

This was the first year that we didn't have a New Years reunion with our college friends... but lucky for us a few other Dartmouth couples live in Philadelphia now, so we spent the evening at the Leanders' with the Chens.

Ps. I used to think it was so weird when parents talked about this in public... but Emily did her first poop on the potty this week. It was a fluke, since we aren't potty training yet, but Emily is very interested... so maybe soon. She also came out with the phrase "I did a poo" which she repeated over & over since it got such a great response. Also somewhat of a fluke, since she definitely doesn't understand pronouns yet. :)

Hugs & Nuggles

Emily has hit a very affectionate stage, and it's soo sweet. She'll climb up behind me on my chair, drape herself over my shoulder & say "hug". Once she has you in a hug, she'll often hold on tight and say "nuggle" (snuggle). She hugs books that have pictures of people she loves. She snuggles her pretzels. She tries to hug our neighbors horses (through the window & across the field). When she is upset or hurt she will hold out her arms & say "sad...hug!". Here she is watching the Patriots with Austin.

Things Emily Is Into: December 2010

'No (Snow)

I finally got Emily snow pants, and we've been out in the snow every day since. The few inches we have on the ground are just enough for her to tramp around in. Here she is with Dada on a family walk.

Banket

Becky visited in November & introduced Emily to reading under a blanket. Since then, every time Emily is read a book, she insists on a "banket".

Petzoo

Alasdair bought a giant bucket of preztels at BJ's a few weeks ago, and Emily is obsessed. Every time I open the pantry door she starts asking for them. I've been using them to keep her happy in the car - now she asks for one every time I put her in her carseat. The child who eats like a bird will walk around with petzoo's in her mouth all. day. long.

Fwends

Emily has started to gravitate towards certain other kids. Our church here is full of kids her age, which is super. When we pull up to our friends' house for community group, she starts talking about "Ell-eet" (Elliot). She'd been in a phase of sobbing every time I left her in the nursery... then this last week her friend Austin came over to see her when we walked in, and she saw another little girl she likes & her eyes lit up. I was able to leave her there with no tears!

She's into so many things these days that I can't write about them all. Some others that come to mind: chopping her wooden fruit, stickers, dancing!

Hat!

Emily is very into hats right now and can put them on her own head. Here are a few. (There are a few more in the December album.)

(ok, not technically a hat)

Yesterday during our family walk in the snow, Emily (who was already wearing her own hat) looked at me and announced"Hat. Have it." and happily wore my hat on top of her hat for the rest of the walk.

Stats

Emily is exactly 1.5 today. Sometimes I can't believe how old she seems. She's doing a lot of pretend play (feeding her stuffed animals, talking to herself) and really interacting with me.

We celebrated with her 18 month checkup. Emily loves th

e doctor's office. There's wooden rocking horse in the waiting room, which she's now big enough to climb up on and rock herself. She runs around the exam room and looks at everything. The best part was the brightly lit fish tank in the lab room where she had blood taken (by a woman who must have been in training because she took forever & got blood all over E's hand!). Thank goodness for the fish distraction. The office also gives each child a book at every checkup.

She's still tall. :) 33.75" I think they said. They also weighed her in kilograms (why?).. 10.5... which, according to google, is 23 lbs. She got to stand on the big girl scale. The doc isn't worried about her low weight yet, but did encourage me to feed her nice high calorie foods. Good thing she likes to eat peanut butter by the spoonful. :)

She was so tuckered out by the excitement & the shots, that she slept on my shoulder while I grocery shopped!

I don't have any new pictures to share, so here's one on the eating theme from Granny's house last month.

Books!

Have I mentioned lately that Emily is into books?