Emery Tracker: Month Twelve

The Story
Allllright, it's April now and tomorrow my sweet baby turns 13 months old.  So... I guess it's time for me to go ahead and put her last one year-related post in the books.  I have been putting it off because I think it makes it real.  One could argue that last Sunday when she decided to 1) try to put her sippy cup in the trash can, 2) dropped her father's keys (with fobs) into Lola's full water bowl and 3) dropped a magnet down the toilet might have really cemented toddler-hood.  Alas, I will bite the bullet and fill you in on her 12th month of life.  Heaven knows it was a fun one!

This lady thinks I am going to start taking a sippy cup.  HAAAAA- she's so cray!

The biggest development this month was... drum roll... she took her first REAL steps.  She took them on February 7th.  When I showed up to pick her up from school, she was standing in the middle of the room with an audience of 4 teachers cheering for her.  Her main teacher told me that she had been walking.  Obviously, I was pumped.  We all were coaxing her toward us so I could see her showing off her new skills.  She scanned the room and immediately started crying.  Baby girl hates being the center of attention as much as her parents do.  Despite being incredibly fussy, I was successful in getting her to take a few steps as soon as I got her home.  Thankfully I caught it on video because she was pretty stingy with flaunting her new moves for quite a while.

She spent most of the month sometimes taking steps, gaining confidence, walking more and more, but by her birthday it still wasn't her main mode of transportation.  Obviously I'm a month out and let me assure you- she is a WALKER.  When she is headed somewhere she shouldn't go, I feel confident she could give the olympic run walking team a run for their money.  By 14 months she will probably be a runner.

You did say there would be banana after this, right?  Just want to be clear.

I can't even express what a heart-warming feeling it is to see your baby take those first steps.  It was probably my favorite milestone so far.  She was SO PROUD of herself.  It also made her so happy to be able to walk around like the big girl she has always known she was in her heart.  I just love it.

Let me think what else happened this month... our little angel has really channeled her inner Nonnie.  Anyone who knows my Mom knows she is the queen of consolidation.  If you spent any time at our house growing up you probably know that you would go to grab a granola bar from the granola bar box and find... teddy grahams, or something else that fit in the box, mixed in with the granola bars.  Nonnie is not one for excessive containers when one can house multiple things.  Emery must have inherited this gene in spades.

Emery loves to put things in other things.  This month she not only experimented with what kinds of things fit in what spaces, but she has some pretty serious opinions about where things go also.  Often times Ryan and I find the SAME object (for instance a red ball) inside a space it doesn't go.  Not a blue ball or a shape from the shape sorter.  She clearly thinks certain things go in certain places and it's really funny.  She puts her sippy cup back into the space for it on the tray of her high chair 99% of the time.  I don't know, maybe all babies are like this?  I find it hilarious regardless.  Silly little toots.

Is that another...?  No...She wouldn't...

Another thing that kept us in stitches this month was that she insists on picking up the biggest, heaviest things she can find and carrying them around with her.  She must have some aspirations to revive and star in American Gladiators.  She regularly totes around Ryan's work shoes, which are a solid 75% of her height.  A lot of the time we have an extra package of water bottles on the floor next to the fridge.  She will toddle around with one in each arm.  She's also been known to try to pick up the entire package if there are 4 or 5 water bottles in there to drag around.  I have to applaud that level of strength & determination.  It sure doesn't come from her mama.

Emery loves to be "chased".  It usually entails Mama clomping around like a big idiot and pretending to run really fast while moving at a snail's pace.  So in hindsight maybe she really is just laughing at me.  I'm going to pretend she likes to be chased though.

While she doesn't say any real distinguishable words yet, the tiny diva definitely amped up her babbling this month.  She says "da" a lot.  It miiiiight mean "that" because she usually uses it when pointing at something, but I wouldn't swear to that.  Her babbling is hilarious because she changes intonation and expressions.  She will raise her voice and start babbling super fast and it really seems like she is bossing her toys around.  It makes Ryan & I giggle.  Maybe Aunt Julie will get her wish and this little one will be sassy with a smart mouth.

ACK.  She did.  MOM!  What are you thinking....

It would be an Emery update without a challenge, would it?  The ONLY challenge the boogie presented us with was the sippy cup.  Ryan and I spent most of the month, and our budget, on trying to get this child to take a sippy cup.  We tried, I kid you not, 8 different kinds.  Ones with handles.  Ones without handles.  Ones with the flow control.  Ones without.  Ones with short straws.  Ones with long straws.  Basically we Dr. Seussed the sippy cup market.

Finally, as I sit at 13 months, I can say we have officially conquered this hurdle.  How did this happen, you ask?  One Friday at school I picked her up and her teachers said she did great with the sippy cup that day.  Trust me- this would be unusual.  So I get her home, unload her things and discover that- this is not her sippy cup.  I washed it and gave it a whirl and sure enough- Emery loved it.  What was this magic cup?  Oh, only the cheapest possible sippy cup.  It was a take and toss cup that you can buy 5 for $3.  She made her Daddy so proud.

Overall, this was an incredible, incredible month.  As sad as it makes this mama to kiss infancy good bye, I am even more excited for all that toddler-dom holds in store for us.  Thank you to all of YOU for helping us all survive this year- both the ups and the downs.  Your love, support and generosity keep us going!

Get off.  Get off.  Get off.  Get off.  Get off.

The School Stuff
This month at school Emery's teachers had lots of funny stories.  One day when I got to school one of the ladies at the front desk commented on Emery dancing a lot that day.  I passed another teacher and she commented on how Emery likes to tap her right foot to music.  Then when I walked in, her afternoon teacher asked if I had Emery in dance classes.  I don't know what kind of moves this kid is busting out at school, but they must have been impressive.  They also must look nothing like her mama's after a few glasses of wine.  Or I hope anyway.

One afternoon when I picked Emery up her teacher told me that Emery had done the sweetest thing that afternoon.  Her teacher had one baby across the room in the rocker feeding her.  One of Emery's classmates was in a bouncer and started crying.  Emery toddled over to the bouncer and started playing peek a boo with her friend to cheer her up.  Seriously, does that not melt your heart?

When Ryan drops Emery off in the morning she has had some separation anxiety issues.  Luckily she is obsessed with bananas.  Almost every morning Ryan walks her around for a little bit, she starts fussing when she can tell he's about to leave, then her teacher pulls out a banana and Emery barely even remembers she has a father.

Why hello there.  Again.

Which I guess brings us to the next thing her teachers tell us.. she LOVES to eat.  I am not exaggerating when I say that her teachers, all of them, have told us no less than 3 times a week how much our child loves to eat.  One day one of them proudly told Ryan that the day before they had tuna and none of the other babies would eat it but Emery scarfed it down.  Maybe she really does dream of being an American Gladiator.  Sweet, silly goose.

This next story is actually post 12 months but who knows if I'll remember it when I do the next post so we'll stick it in here.  One morning when Ryan was dropping Emery off her teacher told him how one of the teachers who feeds the babies does a prayer with them first.  Apparently during this time Emery likes to put both hands up over her head a la Notre Dame's Touchdown Jesus.  Seriously, where do they pick this stuff up?

I know I have said it before, but I feel so thankful for caregivers that so genuinely seem to love and care for our tiny monster.  It makes the struggle of being a working mama just a teensy bit easier.

I'm not sure what was so hilarious.  Clearly not Ryan or I.

The Stats

• Height:  30.25" inches (86th percentile)
• Weight: 20 lbs 13 oz (56th percentile) 
• Head:  18 in (73rd percentile)
• Diaper size: 4
• Clothes: 9-12 months & some 18 months
• Shoes:  I think she's a size 4 now.  It is kind of hard to tell because her feet are pretty "plump," so sometimes I think length is okay but we just can't quite get those Shrek feet in there.
• Milk:  She's started having about 6 oz every 4 hours.  This month we finished our BM stash and finished the month out on formula before introducing whole milk.  Mama definitely cried on the last day.  It was a loooong, challenging journey!
• Solids: Emery tried lots of new foods this month.  As noted in the school section, she loooves food.  By the end of the month Ryan and I are basically feeding her leftovers of what we eat.  We only feed her leftovers because we normally try to get her to sleep before we make dinner.
• Firsts: 
• First REAL steps (February 7th)
• Felt sixth tooth- top left next to her middle 2 (February 9th)
• Last day of breastmilk (February 13th)
• First time we saw her take an actual sip from a sippy cup (victory was short-lived) (February 14th)
• Games:  Likes being chased.  She also likes to speed up when she knows that you don't want her doing what she's doing- e.g. climbing the stairs.  She also still loves giving you things and you giving them back.
• Favorite Toys:  She still loves keys.  She also loves the balls that go in the Hamster house.
• Songs:  (Same as last month) 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:  (Same as last month) 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 1 or 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 am hooked on this kid.  For serious.   Parenting really is all it's cracked up to be.

And so the sun sets on the first year.