Emily’s hair is now long enough to fit into a ponytail. With her curls it doesn’t look to be as long as it really is. She is pretty good to leave her hair up in a ponytail when put up, but that doesn’t stop loose hairs from falling. I’m afraid the photo doesn’t do her justice for how cute it looks and how it seems to fit her personality. When I took this photo she was opening and closing the door as a game.

(20 months) Emily likes to act out the things that Mommy does. In this case she is laying on the couch like Mommy does with her pillows and blanket. In this case, she is also watching TV. We play “nap” and then “wake-up”.

Emily loves her Daddy! She will roam the house while he is at work and if she wants him she just starts yelling out “DA”. I’ll tell her that he is at work and will be home later. This week when she did this I called him on the phone and let her talk to her Daddy on the phone. She sat on the couch, held up the phone up to her ear, and just jabbered to him. After a few minutes she slowed down and I told her to tell Daddy goodbye and give Mommy the phone. She told him “bye-bye” and gave me the phone.

We have been making some home improvements in expectation of our next little one. On Saturday, Emily went to play at Grammy’s house so that we could get some concentrated work done. Robby said goodbye to Emily on the back porch when we left. When I brought her back she looked up at the porch to see her Daddy. When she didn’t see him she called out to him by calling out “DA”. She put her two hands on either side of mouth to amplify herself and called a few times. He didn’t hear her, but we walked around to the open window where he was working and she saw him inside. She got so excited and called out again. He came to the front porch and met her as we came in.

It is such a joy to watch her excitement and expression of love for her Daddy. I pray that she will always have such unabashed love for her father and will be willing to show it. I also pray that my heart will call out to my Heavenly Father with the same excitement and love as Emily is demonstrating.

We knew it would happen we just didn’t know when. Today Emily told Mommy that she was hungry and ready for dinner by taking Mommy’s finger and leading her to the kitchen. While I was fixing dinner we were busy and not watching Emily as well as we usually do. Then it happened . . . I turned to look for her and I saw her climbing up her high chair. She was standing on the foot-rest holding onto the small fixed tray and about to climb into the chair. She had climbed up a piece of furniture. Normally the only indication of climbing comes with her trying to take a shortcut to a toy by getting off of furniture incorrectly, but that isn’t what she did today. She was just ready for dinner and she was trying to help us get it to her faster. Mommy is going to have to keep both eyes on her as much as she can.

(19 months) Emily has several ways to communicate with her outside world. I thought that it would be good to document what she is doing at this point.

Actions – Emily has several ways to comunicate with us through actions. If she wants us to do something with her she takes our hands and leads us to the location of what she wants. She will sometimes get Mommy out of a chair and then get Daddy and take him to a baby gate expecting Mommy to also follow. Emily will also bring books and toys to you when she wants to play with you. Lastly she loves to dance to music. She dances when encouraged, but also on her own when inspired by the music.

Sign Language – Emily will sign to us to communicate her needs and wants. Some of the words are based on our expected response or just to tell us information. The signs she is using right now are: juice, milk, please, baby, and more. She also nods her head yes and no. Her head noding is more accurate than her choice of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in words. Her favorite request is to ask for juice.

Words – Emily has been talking for quite a while and has more words than we can understand. She loves to babble, but I think there are real words imbeded in her babble that we just do not understand. When she doesn’t have her pacifier in her mouth she babbles even more. The words that she uses fairly often and are understandable are: thank you, OK, Da or Daty (Daddy), all done, yes, no, hi, shoes, bye-bye, think-think-think, and oh boy. As much as I would enjoy it she hasn’t added Mommy to her daily language. ‘Think-think-think’ is a phrase used on the Pooh and Tigger cartoon. ‘Oh boy’ is a phrase used on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse by Mickey. She uses ‘oh boy’ appropriately, but only uses ‘think-think-think’ when the show is on.

Each week we see something new in Emily as she learns to be more of an individual. Her play is becoming more developed and very entertaining (most of the time).

In an effort to reduce obstacles for Mommy as her tummy gets bigger, we changed the baby gate layout in our house. Previously we had our living room divided to give Emily some safe play areas where Mommy could leave Emily and not worry about her safety. This required Mommy to step over the baby gate a lot. We have now set baby gates at the doorways leaving the living room, giving Emily much more freedom. Emily has loved her new freedoms and access to more toys. Mommy has trouble multi-tasking while walking and has proved that even with the new layout that stepping over anything is bad.

I have found that Emily is more open to learn new things from other people and children than Mommy. We have had trouble teaching Emily to bite food to get a mouthful. While we were on our vacation my cousin’s daughter Annmarie was having a snack while sitting next to Emily. She introduced a whole banana to Emily. She helped Emily learn to hold the banana and how to ‘chew’ on it until she figured out how to bite. Now I can hold the banana for Emily and she can take bites for herself. She is still learning quantity control, but she will figure it out eventually. Thank you Annmarie!

Yesterday, when I put Emily down for her first nap she was not inclined to fall into a deep sleep, so she didn’t get a long nap. So when it was time for her second nap, I decided to let her play a little longer to get really sleepy. In the 30 minutes I was going to wait, I fell asleep on the couch. I was awakened from my nap by Emily climbing up on top of me. She likes to try to sit on my big tummy. I helped her sit on the couch and lean up against me. The next thing I knew, she had laid down on the couch by herself and went to sleep. She continued to sleep for about two hours. I was stuck for a while, until she moved and quit laying on top of me. Then I was able to get up. I really wanted to take a photo of her, but I was not about to wake her up. It was very sweet to get to watch her sleep!

When I got Emily up from her first nap yesterday, she had been playing for a few minutes. She managed to get her arm out of the arm hole and through the neck hole of her shirt. I had to take a photo of this—once I quit laughing. She hasn’t figured out how to take her clothes off yet, but she is trying to help me get her dressed, so it won’t be long. In the photo you can see her two new bottom molars.