Memoirs of a Martin: Emery Tracker: Month Eleven

The Story
Another month, another few weeks of negligent tardiness. I am sure you all have been chewing your fingernails to the bone in anticipation, huh? Never fear- Ryan dearest has put me on warning that after we hit the big 1 year mark, "we" are not doing this photo shoot business once a month any more. That should save your fingernails. (I still plan to do it every 3 months though. Put the Kleenex box away.)

Month 11 went back to the post-6 month usual state of affairs. It seemsEmery got a lot of the channeling her inner Beyonce/Mariah out of the way in month 10 and decided that being a Diva is hard work. She periodically returns to that dark place, but normally a solid look-how-funny-this-cup-looks-on-Mama's-head or a few rousing games of let's see what Daddy can pop out from behind/over/through do the trick.

My little pudding pop. Someday the fact that I wrote that will horrify her.

This month's main theme was that our tiny love has places to go and things to DO. The quickness with which she moves indicates that she takes her To-Do list just as seriously as her Mama does. This has resulted in so many fun new developments in the month. First, she learned, seemingly out of nowhere, how to put the little balls in her hamster wheel toy. Sure Mama tried a few times to show her how to do it but it was usually met with... absolutely nothing... not even eye contact. Typically as soon as I tried to show her she moved on to the next toy. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere one evening at home she put it in there like it was the most natural thing she had ever done. Obviously I got overly excited, clapped and cheered like she had just won the Nobel peace prize.

This month she was a champion stander. She seems to prefer standing to sitting for sure. She's nearly always pulling up on something, cruising between things, or just standing in the middle of the room grinning at you. I saw her take quite a few "side steps" towards the end of the month. She can climb stairs like it's her job. Thanks to the magic of a spindle on an angle, we are still in search of a functional baby gate. In the meantime Mama gets some cardio in chasing her majesty the Gigglebox.

Wearing pearls combat style is so hot right now. This accessory doubles as a place to store your bottles.

Emery also started "sharing," again, out of nowhere. One evening when she was eating puffs she just took her little fist full of puffs and shoved them in Ryan's face. This was obviously accompanied with the biggest grin I've ever seen in my life. Since then she will try to "share" just about anything with you. It truly melts my heart. Case in point: baby girl has a bunny from her Aunt Julie that she sleeps with. As soon as you put her down, she snuggles up to it and if you ever go into her room to check on her in the evening she is without fail spooning it. Basically in baby world, it's her prized possession. In the morning when we go to wake her she has the awareness of... well, her Dad in the morning. She is so out of it she can't even manage to sit up, but the first thing she does is try to give her bunny to you. Makes. My. Day.

This month Emery has also become more "vocal." She doesn't say any words but she does seem to have an understanding of language. She didn't seem to babble as much this month but makes what Ryan and I refer to affectionately as "dinosaur noises." My love bug can make some seriously prehistoric screeches, squawks and sighs. She has a "thinking" one (tssk tssk tssk in varying quicknesses), an excited one that I can't even type and a questioning one that I also can't type. Look out Jeff Goldblum- Jurassic Park 5 might just star a Martin.

Infinitely happier than she was 9 months ago at this time.

I know I'm a broken record, but I don't care- this month was better than all those before and thinking about those to come makes me so, so excited. Love you more than all the times you try to swat me when I give you a kiss, little boogs!

The School Stuff
This month at school went well! Ryan started a new job in January and he and I have a good schedule going now. He drops her off and I pick her up in the evenings. I think it makes life more predictable for both Emery and her teachers which was a little hard at first but now is probably benefiting everyone.

I know her teachers made some funny comments this month buuuuut since I did not write them down, I've since forgotten. #mamafail.

Oh, were you thinking I would stay put? Fat chance, crazy people! (Look how big she looks!!!)

The Stats

Height: 29.5" inches (81st percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 0 oz (65th percentile)
Head: You know I have no idea.
Diaper size: 3
Clothes: 9-12 months & some 18 months
Shoes: Still a size 3. Mama had to find some with better treads because she was collecting incident reports like Pokemon cards.
Milk: She's started having about 6 oz every 4 hours. I continued to pump for month 11 but didn't feed her myself any more.
Solids: Emery tried lots of new foods this month because at the very end of the month she started having lunch at school. Isn't that crazy?! My baby eats school lunch, and apparently looooves it. Those Boarman/Martin genes are hard at work.
Firsts:

Felt her fourth tooth coming in- the top right one next to the middle 2 (January 16th)
First time to purposely put the ball in her toy (January 17th)
First time "sharing" (January 18th)
First time eating school lunch (February 4th)

Games: She is starting to love peek-a-boo, funnily enough. She's always basically ignored it but this month she discovered that if she's the one leading it, she finds it funny. Once again- her parents are NOT funny.
Favorite Toys: Mama's keys are hands down her favorite, but she also loves her Hamster Wheel that sings the A-B-Cs and using the Minnie car that Aunt Tiffany got her as a pseudo walker
Songs: Really whatever is on the radio when I pick her up from school. Mama tries to make the trip home into a sing a long. It's usually more of a scream a long. One day, right?
Sleep: Amazing sleeper this month- when we have her at least. She normally went to sleep between 7:30 & 8:30 PM (dependent upon how fussy she is after school) and sleeps until we wake her around 6:30 AM. She will sleep until some time between 7:30 & 8:30 AM on weekends. When we have her she will nap 2x a day for about 1-2 hours a piece. At school she takes 0 naps. At most 1 20 minute nap. It makes the evenings after work rough for all of us.
Other Notables: I have never really noted it on the blog before, but she seems to favor her left hand a lot when she's eating. I'm curious to see if this means she is left-handed or if maybe she just eats left-handed? Ryan does some things with his right hand and some with his left... so maybe she just inherited his touch of ambidexterity?