Tuesday, March 1, 2022

22 Months

I was thinking I would just wait until she turns 2 in April to do an Emmy post, but there's just too many things I want to remember about this sweet girl that I figured I should do one now as well. 


I want to remember how we walk around our neighborhood with her little stroller. Sometimes with Wolfa inside, sometimes a baby, or days like yesterday when she was adamant that we push the stroller with no one sitting in it. Also, the walks where she leaves the stroller halfway through and I end up carrying it back home as we walk. 

It's also a big deal if she keeps her gloves and hat on (wearing her sisters hat above, haha) for an entire walk. We haven't walked as much (her walking with her stroller or walks with her in her stroller) with the cold because I just can't get her to keep those dang gloves on! Or a blanket over her if she takes them off. I've started to be able to get her to wear a pair of my cotton gloves, so big on her little hands, but it's something! 

Then there was the afternoon back in January where she refused to nap and then fell asleep in the stroller at almost 4 p.m. as we walked home from picking the big kids up from school. That's one way to get her to keep the blanket and gloves on! Ha! 

Other than the day above, she really is a great napper (thank goodness since that is when I do my schoolwork). I already dread the day when those blessed naps come to an end, but we'll deal with that when it comes :). I usually put her down around 12:30 (give or take) and she takes a solid 2 hour nap, sometimes a little more. She's also a pretty solid 7 to 7 sleeper. Lately she will talk or kick around in her bed for awhile after we put her down, so who knows when she actually falls asleep, but we put her down around 7. In the morning she'll do the same until we come get her. 

Oh the bottle. I really need to help her ditch the bottle but she loves it and I just haven't wanted to fight that battle. The first thing she says when she wakes up for the day or from nap is "wilk" while also signing it. I've given her a sippy cup with "wilk" a few times and it's definitely not the "wilk" she is attached to, it's what it comes in. I gotta just do it... and someday maybe I will, haha.


Other habits that might not be considered the finest... She is the cutest little TV watcher. She sits up nice and tall on the couch with a stuffy in her arms, or will wrap a blanket all around herself and it is the cutest thing.


She got hooked on Cocomelon, which I purposefully tried to do in hopes of it saving my sanity on our flights to PA (it helped a little), but now if she hears anyone say the words Coco she lights up and squeals "coco!" all the way to the couch, thinking she will get to watch a show. My Mother-in-law was talking about a dog named Coco once and Emery heard and sure enough, bolted right to couch. 


And while we're at it... they don't usually eat on the table, not so sure what was happening this night of scarfing pasta right before bed, but why not. 


After a few times of BelĂ©n requesting pictures after church, Emery will now sit on the grass after we walk home from church and just start saying CHEESE. 


Garbage day will forever be a favorite. I love it when we are inside doing something and she hears the truck. She runs right over to the window saying "UCK!" 

Flying with a 20 month old toddler is not for the faint of heart. She loved running around the airport early in the morning while waiting to board our flight. 

She watched some shows on and off, but mostly climbed around the plane (thank goodness both of our flights--there and back--were quite empty). 

Taking the plane pamphlets out and then putting them back in gave us a good 15 minutes of entertainment which was great. 

Our flight was later in the day on the way home and she was getting wild. After quite the battle I got her to fall asleep, but sadly it only lasted about 30 minutes. It was a good reset for her at least. Phew! I felt like I deserved a gold medal after those flights. 

Because this is how we both felt by the end. 

Pretty views were my prize. 

A few more pics from our travels:




These pictures are a little backwards but I'm too lazy to switch them all... here we are saying goodbye to grandma with the Baltimore Crab. 

Goodbye to these guys.



These two were the cutest trying to fist bump each other in the van. 


Fun at the Farm Show.

She didn't leave me much milkshake...

With the butter statue. 



Pretend closing her eyes. 

Learning the ways of climbing over the changing table to get on the couch.

I was trying to think of favorite foods or foods Emery doesn't like, but can't really think of any. She eats most things, or at least tries them. Lately, she really loves standing by the pantry each morning, begging for gummy vitamins.

Yogurt face!

Ducky kisses. I love when she goes around the room giving each of hugs and kisses or high fives and fist bumps. It's the best.

I love that she calls her applesauce pouches "salsa" and that she calls her fingers her toes. She'll stick out her hand when I have a bottle of honey out and yell "Toes!" wanting me to put some on her fingers. She used to say thank you, but now says "el-come!" Maybe some confusion with when to say which, haha. 

She loves looking through our family photo albums and can often be found on the couch quietly looking at them, pointing out the people in them she knows.

She has a killer fake laugh. When we are all laughing about something, she will notice and just bust in to a fake laugh, hand over her mouth and all. Then we all laugh harder and so does she.

She really enjoys the snow.



She ate a few marbles from Shae's Gravitrax set, but thankfully they came out just fine in her poo. A little terrifying for mom and dad. 

I came into the kitchen one day and she was crawling into the (turned off) oven. SO. BUSY.

In fact, church looks like this most Sundays because we get to a point (sometimes pretty quickly) where we just can't stay in the bench anymore:


She discovered the light switch in the fridge and loves opening it and pushing the light button on and off.

She went through a phase where every time we'd get her out of her crib the sheet was fully torn off. Thankfully, that has since ended. 

She is so cute with owies and scrapes. Looking at them with a very worried face, saying "owie" and pointing them out to everyone. She seems extra aware since Darin's knee surgery and seeing his big owie and the weeks of icing his knee. She would often look at his knee and then her own like she was trying to figure out if she also had an owie.


Her nap/bedtime routine has become a bit more particular. She likes to read a few books, turn on her sound machine, turn on and then off the light, shut the door and then we cuddle in the rocking chair. I used to always sing her You'll Be In My Heart from Tarzan, but now she thinks it's fun to yell "No!" when I start that song, then I go through a slew of church songs, just the first few words, and her yelling "No!" until I get to one where we she doesn't yell "No!", will let me keep singing, then points at her crib and I lay her down. Lately she will stop saying "No!" when I start singing How Far I'll Go from Moana or Circle of Life from Lion King (that's always interesting at the start, haha!)

Speaking of The Circle of Life, it is our favorite to turn on the video of that song and watch Emery watch it. When Rafiki holds up Simba, she will hold up Wolfa with a big smile on her face. Sometimes we grab her and hold her up for that part and she loves it. If comes on in the car, she will hold up whatever she has around her, a book or cup. It's adorable. 


She has the cutest little shoulder shrug/head down look when she is sad about something. She will also put her hand on her forehead and say "Oh goss," or her hand over her mouth when something is funny.

She has drawn on a few walls (her and her cousin together at Grandma's house!), she just has a magical way of finding any writing utensil that gets left out. 


She hasn't had as many instances of crying so hard that she almost passes out like she has in months past, but just last week we were leaving a building and she tripped and hit her head and cried so hard and couldn't get that breath that I started to feel her go limp in my arms and then roll her eyes back and then she finally managed a breath. Oh it's such a hard  and scary moment for me! Thankfully those moments don't happen often, just so different from anything I experienced with my other kids as they got around to that long held out breath faster than she does. 

She loves taking baths with her big sister. Also, singing EIEIO, sleeping bunnies, Wheels on the Bus, and Ring Around the Rosie. 

Hard to say what her favorite book is as she could sit and read all of them with me all day long. I've tried to incorporate a few "longer" books recently and she has especially liked We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Pete the Cat and his Groovy Buttons, and Super Truck. 

She keeps us busy, but she also keeps us smiling and laughing and we are just so happy she is part of our family. 


Monday, January 3, 2022

Books Read in 2021

 My 2021 reading goal was 40 books. Between my books and the read aloud chapter books with the kids, I ended the year at 45. Woo hoo! I made my goal.

Top 5 Favorite Books: 

(So hard to choose as I read A LOT of really good books this year!)

The Flatshare- Beth O'Leary

(This one was so fun, laughed out loud quite a few times). 

The Four Winds- Kristin Hannah 

(Hard to not love a book by Kristin Hannah, especially when the audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan. Just so good.)

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle- Emily Nagoski

(Such a therapeutic, entertaining, knowledgeable science-based book that I should probably just own so that I can highlight it all).

The Things You Can Only See When You Slow Down- Haemin Sunim

(So many amazing little nuggets of wisdom to ponder in this book. It really spoke to me). 


Other books that I read (and thoroughly enjoyed!):

With the Fire on High- Elizabeth Acevedo 

Sourdough- Robin Sloan

The Jane Austin Society- Natalie Jenner

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way- Amanda Ripley  (Still think about this one all. the. time.)

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know- Malcom Gladwell

The Fountains of Silence- Ruta Sepetys

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whitness- Austin Channing Brown

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism- Amber Ruffin

The Giver of Stars- Jojo Moyes

The Testaments- Margaret Atwood

Malibu Rising- Taylor Jenkins Reid

Evvie Drake Starts Over- Linda Holmes

I Am A Mother- Jane Clayson Johnson 

The Lions of Fifth Avenue- Fiona Davis

The Midnight Library- Matt Haig

The Switch- Beth O'Leary 

Big Little Lies- Lianne Moriarty

The Vanishing Half- Brit Bennett

The Kitchen Front-Jennifer Ryan

The Mother-In-Law- Sally Hepworth

A Court of Thorns and Roses- Sarah Maas (Went outside my comfort zone reading this one, fantasy is not my genre of choice, but I ended up really liking it!)

Favorite Kid Read Alouds:

The Terrible Two- Mac Barnett (This book is just so funny and the audio is great. We all laughed our way through this on the way to Cooperstown last Spring).

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstilskin- Liesel Shurtliff (Big fans of a good fairy-tale retelling over here).

The Vanderbeekers of 141st street- Karina Yan Glaser (Perfect for Christmastime)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- J.K. Rowling (Of course! So fun to read HP with the kids, finally!)

Matilda- Roald Dahl (Roald Dahl is the best, so fun to watch the movie after we read this). 

Other Read-Alouds:

The Fairy-Tale Detectives- Michael Buckley

Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery- David Adler

Lulu and the Brontosaurus- Judith Viorst

Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business- Lyla Lee

The One Thing You'd Save- Linda Sue Park

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Things- Lenore Look

What Are the Summer Olympics- Gail Herman

The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet (Secrets of Droon)- Tony Abbott

Invisible Inkling- Emily Jenkins

The Girl and the Galdurian- Tim Probert

Monster & Boy- Hannah Barnaby 

May B- Caroline Starr Rose

Thanksgiving on Thursday- Mary Pope Osbourne

Heidi Heckelbeck Has a Secret- Wanda Coven (Belen is really loving this series so I have a feeling we'll be reading quite a few of these together this next year, and I'm totally okay with it! Love seeing her find confidence in her reading).

Heidi Heckelbeck Casts a Spell- Wanda Coven

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

18 Months (but really closer to 19 months at this point)

 As I look through pictures from the last 2 months there is so much that I want to remember about Emery, but I feel like she is so different today than she was even a month ago! Babies/toddlers change so much in such a short period of time! Even though some of the things that I want to document aren't things that she still does a lot today, documenting nonetheless.

My biggest take away as I look through these pictures is just how gosh darn clingy (to me) she has become. She used to play and slide and put things in containers to entertain herself. Not for long, but for awhile. Nowadays it just feels like I am always trying to peel her off of me so that I can get something done. Like, literally, she wraps her legs around me when I try to put her down like so:


Even when we are outside, or on the couch, she can usually be found climbing on me. Also not wanting to sit in her high chair, just wanting to sit in my lap. Also new and has made life pretty challenging. Hoping she's just going through a bit of a fussy/clingy week or two, because I'm exhausted! With that said, there's so much to love about this sweet girl and a lot of fun things to remember from the past months.

This feels like forever ago, but the peaches! Oh how Emery loved that peach tree. She would go grab a peach and wander around the yard chomping on it and then go back for more. She ate so many peaches this summer.





She also went through the stage of trying on everyone's shoes and walking around the house in them.

Also has found a lot of joy in putting things in containers. This was a fun activity that entertained her for a good while, but sadly entertains her less so today. Whether it was putting Wolfa in our block building:
Or her eggs in her pear container: 
Or markers/crayons in an oatmeal container: (today she would prefer to actually use the writing instrument on the table or wall or her face than take it from one place to another)
Or quarters in a piggy bank: (this one she still seems to enjoy, probably because of the novelty of it)

I've started taking Emery to an occasional story time at the library and just love that fun one on one time we get singing songs, listening to a story, and watching her contemplate the bubbles as the librarians go around the room with the bubble machine. 

She went from needing Wolfa in her face to suck her thumb, to just touching Wolfa to suck her thumb, to now just SEEING Wolfa and she will suck her thumb. 
She can sometimes be found standing at her crib touching her Wolfa and sucking her thumb.

Not sure why she was so upset this day, but I think she looks pretty darn cute, even with the long face.

A day at Ibu's house where she drew all over her face:

She was very excited about her big sister wanting to use the Halloween face paint crayons on her face. Which probably hasn't helped her understand the idea that we are trying to teach her that we don't draw on our faces...

Garbage day is the best day. I love seeing her excitement when she hears the truck coming and how she runs over to the window. She loves pointing out all the trucks, buses, airplanes, etc. when we are outside. 

Missing the days where I could just sit on the porch and watch her go down her slides over and over and over again. 


She used to really love taking baths, and still does until the second the water stops running. Then she just wants out. Or on days like today, she'll get out, and then run back and hop back in the tub while I run downstairs to get something. And then a little later after she is out again and in her jammies, she'll sneak back in and hop in with her pjs on while her sister is in the tub. She's quick! 

She also really likes having soap put in HER hand so she can clean herself, and then wants you to do it over and over again. She's definitely hitting that opinionated, wanting-to-be-independent point.
Who me?

She LOVES visiting all the dit-ees (kitties) that our neighbors have and really loves it when they hop the fence and come play with her in our backyard. Her dreams coming true whenever that happens. 

She gets very excited to walk around outside and look for her siblings after school. 

She can open the fridge. Which is really cute when she puts her bottle in there when she is done with it without me even asking. Less cute when I find something like this:

Halloween with her was really fun. People go all out out here for Halloween and she would get so excited when we were on walks and she would see pumpkins, skeletons, or blow up creatures. She loved looking at the "spookies" across the street. I got in a routine with her to always check for them outside her window before or after sleep times and she could often be found looking at them from the living room window. Excited to see/hear her reactions when all the Christmas stuff comes out soon.


A bit skeptical of the pumpkin guts. 

Had so much fun walking around this super muddy pumpkin patch.


It was fun to see her in Shae's old Tigger costume. 

She had a lot of fun going to a few houses to trick or treat, but was mostly into redecorating everyone's porch decorations. She learned quickly that candy is delicious and was/is not a happy camper when she sees someone else eating it and not sharing with her (I get it). 


It's just so fun to watch Emery grow and develop. I love seeing how she understands simple commands like "shut the door" or "put this in the trash." I love seeing how the things of the world begin to click for her, like when she is done with her bottle she often times runs over to fridge and will put it in for later. She gets excited to run to the sink with her plate or bowl and reach up to push them in. Or when I peel a clementine for her she will grunt and point at the peelings until I hand them to her and she will run them to the trash. (She also has a tendency of putting things that aren't meant to be in the trash, in the trash. The other day we found Belen's baseball cap and a bowl and spoon in there. I wouldn't be surprised if there are things we will never find someday when we go looking for them b/c they made their way to the trash a long time ago). 


I love how she will run and get book after book when we are reading together (that age where book dreams start coming true for mama!) With that said, she does have a thing for destroying board books. Mostly when she is in the car, probably bored and tired of being strapped in. She bends them until they break apart or figures out a way to peel the paper off of them. It's actually pretty impressive. We've got a fine collection of "car books" that stay in the car that I don't mind her destroying (mostly because they are already destroyed! ha!)




She went through a phase where Wolfa had to be tucked in to the blanket with her. She would get angry if we didn't tuck her Wolfa in too.

Sadly, she is now in a phase where she doesn't let me tuck her in anymore. The second I lay her down for bed she starts crying and pushes away and stands right up wanting to get out. I am able to leave and she quiets down to sleep within a few seconds, but I really miss that sweet tuck in. 


Thankfully this has only happened twice, but after entering that very toddler stage of transitions being hard -- like coming inside from playing outside when you still want to be playing outside -- she cried so hard and never took that big gasp of air that we all wait for and always comes, but it didn't come! And she passed out! Just for a quick second, before she came to, but it was quite startling and a bit scary. Thankfully it hasn't happened again in quite some time. 

She loves pushing the handicap buttons when we go anywhere that has one, which is most places.

When we are walking around somewhere, I can say "hands" and stick my hand out and she will reach up for it. 


It's so fun to see her copy animal actions and actions in songs. "If Your Happy and You Know It" and "The Wheels on the Bus" are favorites. 

She's been picking up words and probably uses more than I even notice. I haven't done a great job keeping track, but a few that come to mind off the top of my head are: Dahn (done), et, (wet), ot (hot)-- love it when she touches something and says "ot!" or "et!"... there's also elk (milk), na na (knock knock) and moi (more)-- this is one of the few signs that she uses, with the occasional thank you, milk, and please sign thrown in. 

Although some days are harder than others--most leaving me feeling quite exhausted--with this busy, budding-opinionated, independent girl, I sure do feel so grateful for the time that we get to spend together. I cherish our one-on-one time. I only got a short bit of that one-on-one with Shae before Belen was born and then sweet Belen has had Shae by her side just about her entire life, which has been special and wonderful in other ways, but I really do love our Mommy-Emmy time. I look forward to lots of it these next few years.