Emelia at 22.5 months

Suddenly, another six weeks have gone by. I may be biased, but I do believe I’ve made the cutest baby in existence. She has this little face, defined, because she’s nuts and runs all over the place, so there’s minimal fat (except of course some deliciousness in those cheeks, but they still aren’t as fluffy as Olivia’s were at this same age).

Emelia has the sweetest smile and more facial expressions than I can keep track of. She’s very vocal even if 95% of her speech is gibberish. She does love to holler out, “Ma MA!” when she’s asking for me.

Since we’ve had a slew of babysitters coming in and out (our desire for a regular babysitter just wasn’t going to happen apparently) I’ve noticed she has been doing a lot better with new people. It used to be that every time someone came, whether they’ve been there before or not, she’d slink against me and cry. Now, while she’s still very much shy and reserved in the beginning, she warms up pretty quick and hasn’t cried in a while. Progress! And then of course when she starts daycare here in less than a month, it’s all going to change.

Nicknames: Meals, Mealie, Jane, Emjay

Weight: About 24 pounds

Length: 

Diaper size: 4

Shoe/clothing size: 5/ 18-24 months

Teeth: 19? Does that sound right? I can’t keep track anymore because a bunch of them all started coming in at once. Maybe we can just go with: she has all of them now except for her two-year molars.

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Eating

If we have a babysitter here for the day, Emelia will nurse about four times, more if there isn’t one. The girl just really loves to nurse, trying to trap me whenever I sit down. She has pretty good nursing manners though except when she wants to nurse and I don’t want to. Then it’s lots of pokes and grabs and screeches and tears. But if she’s nursing, I can now count down from five on my hand and when I get to one and go, “Ding, ding, ding! Alllllll done!” she will happily slide off my lap and go toddling off.

But she’s great at drinking the whole milk and water from her cups. We’ve been working on giving her these toddler cups with lids, and usually, she sloshes it all over her chest, and it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

I talked about her getting rashes from shrimp in my last update, but so far, she’s continuing to be fine after shrimp. She still won’t eat deli meat, chicken, or burgers, and we’ve tried Rice Crispies and that was a huge no, too. She does like: meatballs, cheddar and apple sausages, buns, spaghetti, taco shells (she actually hasn’t been a fan lately of tacos, which is really sad), Greek yogurt, cheese, macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs, mini muffins, pizza, sweet and sour sauce, fries, and shrimp fettuccine alfredo. There’s a lot of things that are a hit or a miss. One day, she’ll scarf tomatoes, and the next she won’t have anything to do with them. She does enjoy Cheerios in milk in her bowl with the straw so she can slurp out the milk. Oh, and ice cream. And fruit. She’s a huge fan of fruit like her sister.

Daycare’s going to be hilarious because she’s going to have a wide variety of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, so we’ll see the things she grows to like there.

Sleeping

Emelia goes down around 7:15 PM and loves to sleep with her Dumbo and sometimes Monkey. I kept Olivia in a sleepsack much longer, but with Emelia, I wanted to start having her get used to not having one when she takes her naps at daycare. Really, the times she’s worn them, half the time they’re ripped off and thrown to the floor anyway. She’s also in this stage where she can be sleeping peacefully on me in the glider, and then I’ll delicately lay her down in her crib. She comes alive, arching and thrashing and I practically drop her the last foot into her crib. Up she pops, crying, standing at her crib and I put my arm around her, kissing her head and telling her to go to sleep. She quiets until I leave, and then she wails a bit. Every time. It would be much easier on both of us if she just let me lay her down all lovingly, but no. She wants to make this difficult.

Still, she does mostly sleep through the night, usually waking around 7:30 AM, but sometimes as late as 8:30 or later. And while she loves the thought of brushing her teeth, she usually lets me brush them for about three seconds before she’s shoving my hand away and clenching her mouth shut. She does like to practice her swish and spit with Chris. She has this little purple nightgown and then we brush her teeth and read her books and I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced something so adorable in my life. She has an appointment her first, with the dentist at the beginning of September.

Naps are a hit or a miss. She loves to poop not long after putting her down and if she does, good luck getting her to actually go to sleep. And sometimes she just spends the entire hour and a half running laps around her crib. So we’re definitely on a nap strike and I’m just here waiting it out.

Milestones

This kid falls down constantly. I honestly am not sure if this is something physical therapy needs to intervene in for or what. Maybe she’s just clumsy, but I don’t remember it being like this for Olivia. I will watch her when she’s walking fast or running and I just feel like she’s going to constantly trip over her own feet. And when she does trip, she falls hard. No tears, but dang, it’s a commotion when it happens. Sometimes I swear I can see her walking differently on her right side, stiffer, and I think that leg gives out more. But it’s something I’ll bring up to her pediatrician when I see her.

She loves stacking her blocks and gets them up decently high before they go off-kilter and crash down. She loves throwing balls of all sizes and loves to help water the flowers.

Oh, I love asking her to name body parts. Especially her hands because she holds them out and kind of twirls them around. She points to her eyes, ears, mouth and nose, belly button (lifting up her shirt is her favorite), feet, and hair.

She also loves reading books with us and has a pretty good attention span for them most of the time. She loves her flap books right now, especially one called “Where Is Baby’s Belly Button?”

While she slides down on her belly going downstairs, she’s now all about holding the railing and walking up the stairs. Lord, help us all.

And the doors. They all must be closed at all times. Always. I don’t necessarily consider myself a claustrophobic person, but there’s something about your kid shutting the door to whatever room you’re both in that immediately makes you think you’re locked into a stuffy room that’s slowly closing in on you. So that’s been really fun.

Outside, she’s been liking to play with her ride-on toys, especially the cozy-coupe. Running down the inclined driveway at Mach 10 is always enjoyable too. She climbs everything and falls off almost everything. I can’t keep up with this girl.

Communication

She’s finally saying words!!! Not to the volume at which is expected of her, but still. She now says:

• Mama
• Dada
• Buh buh (Bye bye)
• But-ter (Butterfly
• Ada! (All done)
• Mon (Monkey)

She can also “bark” when you ask her what a puppy says. Oh, and rawhring! like a lion. She can do that too. So we’re up to 7? Though I can tell when she’s trying to call for Olivia. “AHHHHH!” she’ll call out and I know it’s her call for her sister. And then there was this one time when Olivia called from downstairs, “Emelia!” And Emelia hollers back, “Ahhh!!!” and Olivia goes, “Come here!” and the baby replies, “Ahhh!” and takes off running to her.

In fact, because I don’t tend to count Mama and Dada as first words, because she’s been saying those as babbles for months now, “butterfly” is her first official word. Let me tell you about it.

I was at my mom’s house Friday the 6th and we were having lunch outside. A butterfly flutters past and Emelia pointed up at it and very intentionally said, “BUT-TER!” I died. It was so sweet. And so weird for an actual word to come out of her mouth.

Her two-year well-child check is in October and I plan on asking her doctor about her speech.

But oh she points. Up! Down! Look at this! Look at that! Olivia did the same thing. She points for everything for getting her point across. (No pun intended.) She’s recently been into pointing at things, and when I name them for her, she gets this satisfied smile on her face.

She really does comprehend a lot. And she pays attention. Chris will get the broom out periodically when he’s doing a sweep for toys under the couches and Emelia has been watching. The other day she lost a block under the couch. I mean, it was right there though…right where I could see it, but there she goes, off to get her little broom, and then she brings it to the couch and sweeps it under, missing the block by a mile.

Activities

Not a whole lot. She does love to swim. I got her this $5.00 floaty that she can sit in and play with her sister which she loves. But she also loves when someone holds her and swishes her around the pool. I was surprised the first time I realized she could technically touch the bottom with her feet planted on the pool floor.

She’s been loving our walks and insists on getting out and walking with us as much as she’s allowed. We’ve done a few walking trails and she loves being out in nature just like her sister.

Emelia’s going to be heading to daycare in less than three weeks and I’m not ready for it. I mean, I’m looking forward to having four whole days to myself to get my work done, and for her to be around other kids. But I’m dreading the sicknesses that she’ll be bringing home, the stress of figuring out how to keep her home when she’s sick while still making my deadlines. When one kid gets sick, the other follows. But I know this daycare experience will be good for her. It’s just going to be a rough few weeks of everyone adjusting.

Health

For a girl getting six teeth all at the same time, she’s been remarkably agreeable to it. Not much else to say there.

She did catch her sister’s cold about two weeks ago, with a fever, runny nose, and congestion. We gave her Motrin for a night or two for comfort, but since then it’s been a drippy nose and a wet cough. We did lose out on a sitter for two days which was stressful because that week I had three deadlines. Chris ended up taking a day off so I could play catch up while I wrangled the kids the other day. But besides a runny nose and slight cough, she’s on the mend.

Likes

Music, dancing, balls, blocks, her babies, playing in Olivia’s room, taking walks, blankets, closing doors, taking showers, Doc McStuffins, Bluey, going outside, pointing, giving high-fives, sitting on chairs and benches, and baths.

Dislikes

Being put back in the stroller when she wants to walk, getting her hands dirty, when you don’t let her shower with you, and not letting her nurse when she wants to.

See more of Emelia’s monthly updates here.