(17 months) Emily is such a happy girl! She loves to play and swing. Emily has started imitating kissing. She will make kissing noises and she will try to place them on your cheek. Sometimes she hits, but other times she misses and gives kisses on your nose or just in the air. Emily will also put her head on your shoulder and pat your back as a hug. Nothing melts my heart faster than a hug!

She will also imitate a ‘shh’ with her finger over her mouth. One day I was shopping with Emily and she decided that she wanted to squeal loud enough that the three isles on either side of us could hear her. I tried to ‘shh’ her and she decided that it would be a fun game to imitate me. The first time she put her finger in her mouth, but after a couple of times she was getting it right. I was so glad that the squealing had stopped and that this funny little girl was ‘shh’-ing her Mommy.

(17 months) Today Emily and I made a short visit to the park. It was a hot day and a little swinging seemed to be the best plan for the day. I had Emily walk from the car to the park by herself. It isn’t too far and she loves to swing so there wasn’t anything to get her distracted from our destination. As I was walking beside her I asked her if she wanted me to hold her hand. She said “yeah” and turned to me while putting her hand up for me to hold. My heart melted! While it was very sweet, it also reminded me of how fast she is developing and learning. Some days it is really easy to miss how much she understands because she chooses not to respond to my instruction. But today it was very plain to see!

(17 months) We are happy to announce the introduction of two new teeth in Emily’s mouth. We think that they are the two top molars, but there isn’t very much of it to see at this point. It has been so long since we have seen any new teeth and she has so few we have been hoping that she would get some new ones soon! She was a little fussy this afternoon which is what made me look to see if there had been any changes. One step closer to eating like a big girl!

Emily and I went to our city outdoor pool to play in the hot Tennessee afternoon. I didn’t take my camera and get photos because I wasn’t sure that I could manage both the camera and the child at the pool. Now that I have been once I know better what to expect and will take one next time. The pool has a ‘walk-in’ shallow section with water that shoots into the pool. We started walking in at that point so that Emily could get used to the water. I sat in the water as she inspected the shooting water. I was surprised that she didn’t last very long there and actually wanted to walk deeper into the pool. Most of this section was only 2 feet so she was able to walk pretty far before the water got very high on her. At some point she decided that she wanted to walk and explore outside of the pool. I wouldn’t let her do this and she found it quite upsetting. She just didn’t understand that the hot pavement would hurt her tender feet. To offer some distraction she and I went into the deeper section of the pool and played games of spinning and bouncing in and out of the water. She was very happy as long as she was holding on to Mommy. She was not keen on the idea of floating on her back and letting go of Mommy. Swimming was not much more successful, for some reason she wants to maintain some amount of control. After a little over an hour she was tired and a little grumpy and we headed home to get a much needed nap. The whole trip was fun and we will have to do it again soon.