independent woman

Tonight, I walked in on Daddy and Emma practicing walking with her learning walker.. the rest is history...




more proof of the steps...

10 months

Motor Skills:
Emma still hates crawling. She has done it once but cried through the whole process. If we put her on her belly on the ground she "army crawls" (drags her body with her arms) across the floor to what she wants. Hey, whatever floats her boat and can get her what she wants. When she's sitting on her bottom, she will do circles to see and/or get the things around her. She has monkey arms that can reach very far :) Her new favorite trick is to pull anything she can reach into her crib to play with. When we are on the bed she will do the army crawl and some other moves that are very similar to crawling to get between mommy and daddy (and Dolce if she can find him under the covers). She wants to be up walking with our hands all the time and throws some major fits when she doesn't get her way. She pulls herself up any chance she gets and she is very good at dropping things from a standing position and then bending over to pick them up. She can stand all by herself until she realizes she is standing all by herself and she freaks herself out.
BUT the biggest news is that TONIGHT she walked with her learning walker ALL BY HERSELF!!!! (video to come after this post)

Sleep:
Some days Emma can make it through with only one nap and some days she can't. I try to keep her on a good routine and that usually includes two naps but on days we have appointments, plans, or special things planned we can usually skip one of the naps as needed.

Eating:
Emma has 6 teeth now. 4 on top and 2 on bottom. She is the best eater (knock on wood) and she will typically eat just about anything. She even munched on a radish on Memorial Day, yuck! We try to let her try anything we are eating or anything available to us so that she can explore food. She is still mostly on baby food but she loves table food as well. It's that transition period that is the hardest. Next item on the agenda is to let her try feeding herself. I will for sure get this on video because I'm sure it will be memorable :)

Communication:
Emma is an imitating machine lately. Anything we show her how to do or anything she sees me do she will do. Every time I shake my head at her daddy she does it to. It is so cute :) She holds her phones to her face several times a day to "call nana" and when I'm brushing my hair she will grab for the hair brush and imitate on her hair even though she has very little hair to brush. If I cry, she gets sad. If I'm hurt, she gets upset. If I laugh, she laughs. She is full of personality these days. She is getting better at saying mommy and daddy and understands which one of us is mommy and the other daddy. She will wave bye-bye and hi. When she knows she isn't supposed to do something (like put her mouth on the grocery cart handle) she will shake her head no no before she does it. She definitely understands and HATES the words no no :) She points to everything she wants now and grunts. And babbles constantly. She also has become a great screamer, she really knows how to express herself. When she is mad she sticks her little chin up and clamps down her teeth and whines or she will try to find anything (a finger, arm, nose haha) to bite. She has quite a bite and leaves some good bruises so we are trying to nip that in the butt.

princess duck

In April, Emma got a package in the mail from Papa and GG Odom. Inside was a letter, a flyer for the duck race mentioned below, and a rubber ducky. The rubber ducky's name is Princess Duck and, as you can see, she wears a crown and holds a wand. Perfect gift for our little "princess". Emma instantly fell in love and given the choice of any bath toy she always chooses Princess Duck.





GG and Papa adopted Princess Duck and on June 4th (today) her friend Ernie will race in honor of Princess Duck and Emma in the Duck Race. There will be over 30,000 ducks in this race, so let's all cheer for Ernie today..........



But June 4th has an even more important meaning, especially for GG and Papa, and I'm so happy they shared this with Emma. On June 4, 1953, Papa and GG had their first date. That is amazing and very admirable.
Happy 'first date' anniversary to Papa and GG :)