First of all, can I just say:
WE HAVE A BABYSITTER OH MY GOD WE HAVE A BABYSITTER.
And it’s been glorious. Marvelous. I get things done. Gobs of things. I take on more articles. More clients. I can finish an email without chasing after a baby midway through who’s run off with the headset again.
Emelia is an adorable, funny, happy-until-she’s-not, little darling who is unsure of everyone she doesn’t know except babysitters that like to hold her and carry her around. She loves racing around the house, playing with her pop books, going on walks, going outside, and playing with Olivia when she’s allowed.
Nicknames: Meals, Mealie, George
Weight: ?
Length: ?
Diaper size: 4
Shoe/clothing size: 4/ 18 months-24 months
Teeth: 15 (10 upper, 5 lower)
Eating
I have to say, weirdly, baked beans, the meatball part of the spaghetti and meatballs, along with most fruits are her favorite things to eat. She does like macaroni and cheese, yogurt, berries, cherries, bananas, peaches, certain types of pizza (Dominos, and frozen pizzas. All other pizzas are pretty much picked over.), scrambled eggs, pancakes, cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, and chicken nuggets. Emelia wouldn’t touch hard-boiled eggs, but lately, she’s been eating them, though it’s only the white part.
In her 19.5 month post, I talked about her breaking out in a rash after eating shrimp, but she’s had it a few times since and there hasn’t been an issue.
I love her table manners. She is great at using her fork and spoon, loves to have a napkin to wipe her mouth with, and when she’s done eating, she neatly stacks her utensil and cup on her plate and hands it to you. She likes to climb into her highchair and Olivia buckles her and gets her bib on.
She’s really good at drinking her whole milk from a cup as well as water, actually much more than Olivia did at her age. But nursing is still her jam and any time I’m sitting down, she’s there, ready to go. It’s actually really annoying and I can’t enjoy a cup of coffee outside my office unless I’m sitting at the kitchen table where she can’t get to me (and believe me, she tries sometimes). She basically nurses about five times a day total since she’s sleeping through the night.
Sleeping
Luckily, Emelia sleeps through the night now, though sometimes her first wakeup is at 3:30. But she’ll go down around 7:00 pm and sleep until about 7 to 8:00 am. I think she’s been going through a developmental leap because she has been crying when I put her down at night and at naps and takes a bit to go to sleep.
She’s been going through a stage where she’s been refusing her naps completely. Usually, she’s pretty good at least hanging out in her crib for an hour or so regardless, but seriously. I’m waiting for this to be over. Since she’ll be starting daycare here at the end of summer, I’ve been having her sleep without her being in her sleepsack during naps and she’s been doing great.
Milestones
She loves running even if she’s clumsy and falls constantly. All the time. Bumps and bruises all the time. Of course, even when she falls out on the street outside and gets a little bitty scraped knee, she rarely cries. She’s great on the steps, even though she likes to skip the last step and fall on her face a few times a week. This kid is daring and will do all sorts of things she shouldn’t be doing like going down the stairs on her butt, climb and walk all over the furniture, and stand on chairs.
We’ve regrettably had to lock the garbage can because she was throwing so much stuff away. We can’t find our amazing vegetable peeler anywhere that we’ve had for years, and can only assume it meant a trash can fate by Emelia at some point. So the garbage is now locked up and it’s super annoying, but what are you going to do? At least she likes to do chores. Her favorites are sweeping, using her wipes to “clean,” and watering my flowers with her bitty watering can.
She still loves balls of all sizes and gets such entertainment having us throw them so she can go get them and bring them back to us like a Golden Retriever.
She loves going outside and will bring us her shoes whenever Olivia goes out the front door. If that fails, she brings me my sandals wherever I am in the house. And if that fails, she sobs inconsolably.
I love that’s she getting so good pointing to parts of her body when I ask. Her nose, eyes, lips, hands, feet, belly, hair, ears. Her hair is my favorite because she reaches up to stroke it when I ask her to show me her hair.
Communication
Emelia still isn’t talking. Her communication and speech have definitely changed since the last update, however. Her babbling is more conversational, there are more intonations and facial expressions. She’s really talking to us, but we have no idea what’s she’s saying.
She says, “Mama,” “Dada,” a version of “Daddeeee!,” and her babysitter swears she heard some version of “Play” when they were at the playground. Needless to say, it’s something we’ll be bringing up with her pediatrician here at her two-year check.
But she likes to point at everything. And she really comprehends a lot. We try to explain to Olivia that just because Emelia can’t talk doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand. For instance, the morning we had our first sitter come over, I was nursing the baby and it occurred to me to tell her that a babysitter was coming.
“We’re going to have a babysitter come play with you today,” I cooed to her as she furrowed her brow at me, “Her name is Madyson and she’s going to come here while Mama and Daddy are working.” But of course she clung to my legs and sobbed when I tried to escape to my office later that morning.
Activities
With ECFE ending, she no longer really gets to see other kids unless we’re at a park. But their babysitter has been taking them out to the playground and Emelia loves running errands, especially if she gets to stand in the back of the cart. She loves the toy aisles at Target (the extent of our entertainment) and “helping” us grocery shop.
Our pool is set up in the backyard and she has a lot of fun in it. Recently, I found a floaty that goes to age 2, and it was $5 and allows her to float around near us without us having to constantly hold her. She can touch the bottom of the pool and she seems too little to me to be able to do that.
We were able to get out on a few outings so far this summer, and she definitely loves adventure. I love taking these day trips with the kids.
Health
The second week in June she caught a horrible stomach bug—her first one—and vomited 11 times between 2:30 am and 6:00 am. It was awful, but she bounced back real quick by the next morning and was doing well drinking Pedialyte and nursing.
We’ve been having to give her Motrin before bed at night for what we think is teething. She can have days of being really screechy and I think it’s just a bunch of her teeth coming in at once. I actually was wondering if she’s going to even have some of her teeth because they were taking so long to come in but now they’re slowly but surely coming.
Likes
Playing outside, nursing, throwing balls, climbing furniture, sweeping, having books read to her, brushing her teeth, her Dumbo, going for walking, slides, her Little Mermaid couch, Olivia, Toby, running around on the deck, the anticipation of eating, playing with her farm set, taking showers, Duplos, dancing, music, and bringing us our phones.
Dislikes
Getting put in her crib, when the babysitter first comes over, diaper changes, grass on her feet, and when I won’t nurse her. And pretty much anything else that displeases her depending on the day.
The pool is set up, and Emelia has been loving the sun, water, and outside toys. Summer is already going by too fast.
See more of Emelia’s monthly updates here.
