February

February 1st! Happy 11 Months!

Emersyn started her first swim lessons last month and finished up this month. Cousin Ainsley and neighbor Griffin were there to enjoy the pool along with her. Emersyn loved the water and enjoyed being around all of the other kids. She was too young to understand the instructions to kick, paddle and blow bubbles, but she didn't have a choice when it came to dunking. The first time we had to do it, it was a little tough on my end to actually put her under. And who knew that there are instructions as to how to properly dunk a child. At first Emersyn coughed and whined after going under. As the class went on she started to get the cues for dunking (and she was scared so she would start to cry a little) but she also recovered better. Griffin, on the other hand, was terrified of the teacher and anything that reminded him that he might get dunked. Ainsley was the superstar of the class since she was old enough to understand the instructions, but young enough that she wasn't crying throughout the class like the rest of the kids. It was a lot of fun to have a different way of spending some time together.

At this point Emersyn was starting to have a lot of opinions about things. She had some definite favorites. Pretty much anything soft and cuddly would draw her attention. She would snuggle any fluffy stuffed animal, but her prize animals were her kitty-cat blanket and her pink bunny. Her favorite blanket was a light and dark pink zebra stripe blanket given to me at a baby shower in California. If the blanket was in a pile of the floor she would lay on top of the pile and snuggle it or roll on it, like she often did with her stuffed animals. While feeding her a bottle she liked to rub the blanket on her face and lips.

Emersyn was also her own favorite person. She enjoyed looking at her reflection in any shiny surface. During bath time she would make faces in the silver drainage cap underneath the faucet. Lots of times she would give herself loves with an open mouth. After bath time, all wrapped in a towel, I would let her check herself out in the mirror before we would leave to get dressed.

Emersyn was getting better at feeding herself and eating more foods. She was still eating baby food at most meals followed by finger foods. One of her favorites to feed herself was bananas.

She also gobbled up vegetables out of any soup or spaghetti dinner.

As the month progressed Chris and I thought for sure Emersyn would be walking by her birthday. She was very skilled with the walker and could steer it and adjust the direction better, as opposed to only being able to go in a straight line until she hit something. She had fabulous balance and could stand easily on her own. Her first couple of steps were trying to get to the ottoman from the desk chair. More and more often she was taking short segments of steps on her own. It seemed like there was more of a mental barrier for Emersyn than a physical one. Sometimes she would take the few steps that she was used to and then stand still as if she was thinking things over before she decided to drop down and just crawl. Chris and I had no qualms about when she would start walking, the tough part was seeing her be so close or seem so capable and then just crawling instead (I'm sure there will be more instances where we have those feelings in the future).

Emersyn was becoming more of a social girl. She loved seeing other kids and would get so excited when playtime included playmates. Sometimes she became so enthusiastic that she was overwhelming to the other kids. And sometimes it was the other way around. On Valentine's Day I watched Holden Brewer while Ashlie worked. Emi was thrilled. It was one of those cases where Holden was in an unfamiliar situation so he was a little quiet, and then Emersyn was a little bit in his space. And when that happens Emersyn wants whatever toy the other kids are playing with, even if it's something she hasn't been interested in for a long time. Emersyn kept trying to take things so I was playing referee for a bit until the excitement wore off a little. Because their play date happened on February 14th, I would consider Holden Emersyn's first Valentine.

The babbling and chatter continued this month. I enjoyed hearing her baby-talk conversations. She did add a few more actual words into her vocabulary: ducky, kitty, cat, and baby. It seemed like Emersyns ability to understand was increasing tremendously and I was hoping that I was providing enough stimulation to keep up. Her understanding capabilities and her mimicking tendencies were surprising. Emersyn was able to clearly identify her nose versus her mouth, and she knew where her tummy was. She loved to play Patty-Cake and could do the actions, although she often skipped the 'roll it' section to go straight to 'throw it in the air'.

Emersyn had an affinity for music that got her body moving. While playing a game on Grandma D's ipad a song played by the violin came up. Emersyn lifted her arms in the air and started moving them back and forth slowly and reverently. After that any time that particular song came on she would do the same thing. I don't know how babies know to do some things, but the violin music clearly moved her. Church hymns started getting some dancing as well. Her moves gradually increased until she was dancing with her entire body to the music, and sometimes even just to the tune in her head.

One day while cleaning Emersyn's high chair I set it on the floor. It immediately became the most interesting toy in the room. Emersyn would climb in, sit there for a minute and swing her foot, and then get back out. From that point on Emersyn had a thing for sitting in chairs. I pulled out the small chairs I had on hand, but they were too unstable for her to play in without having to be right there. I looked in a lot of places, but was unable to come up with the perfect toddler chair.

We spent President's Day weekend up at Bear Lake with the Sonntag family. With the unusually small amount of snow this year everyone decided to forego skiing and spent a couple of days sledding instead. Emersyn loved to sled. The faster Chris went the more fun she had. I tried to pull Holden, but I don't have the same sled pulling skills as Chris, and Holden didn't seem to like it as much. And, it was a real workout to run in the snow while pulling a sled with 20 pounds in it.

I accidentally put her shoes on the wrong feet.

Emersyn really just liked to move anywhere fast. Aunt Jan came up with a fun idea to pull Emersyn around on a giant stuffed duck. She loved it, but it was tiring for Jan. Emi would lay on the duck and wiggle when she wanted to go for a ride.

We took a few trips up to Snowbasin throughout the winter. Sometimes to see Chris working in the clinic or grab lunch with him.

Kissing the moose.

We spent a couple of days at the Dew Tour watching the events and enjoying the happenings. Emersyn was a superstar baby and handled to cold and noise well. We had her in a baby backpack that her chubby legs barely fit through. When we went to watch the men's skiing halfpipe finals it was at night. We wanted to make sure she stayed warm so I wore the baby carrier and zipped up Chris' down coat around us. We looked more like a two headed monster, but it was a good way to keep warm.

Emi spent Valentine's Day with Holden. Ashlie had to work so we watched him for the day. She was so excited to have someone around that she kind of invaded Holden's space. She sat really close to him and wanted whatever toy he had, even if it was one that she previously wasn't interested in. I consider Holden Emi's first Valentine.

Still taking 2 naps

Growing - moved up to size 3 diapers