as usual, I should be doing something else

1-8 Baby, it's COLD outside. Let's go! (taken by Julia)

Hi loyal ME fans! You're in luck--I have work to do, Emelia's finally taking a nap (super late in the day, I'm sure I'll suffer later), and ... here I am to post! Oh yeah, and I have knitting tasks self-administered, piling up too.

Let me load up a zillion pictures to share. 1-7 jail-face

Benchmarks of the month include:

-Gettin air! Yup, E can now take small leaps in several bounds. We have had a lot of fun with this, lots of clapping and to-do.

1-20 reading library books!

-Making two-word sentences! Mostly, adding things to "more". And "please". This construes a sentence in baby-world, so we think it's cool sauce. today's cute

She has added to her NO WAY and THANK YOU with "more milk" (which sounds like a German word the way she does it milch!) "all done" and well, I'll have to share em when I hear em, but it is more than this I swear. I think combos with "down" are in there.

1-20 out with Daddy! Love the many hats she has! another handmedown of cute

-new words that kill me: Hair (haw-wer), foot, hand, "eat! eat!", "soup" (foll0wed by slurping noises every. time.), bath, wawa wawa, phoooooooooooooooooone, watch (wahtz)

-she is recognizing letters and numbers more

-she finally says BYE when someone is in earshot. Very cool and social of her.

-ME smiles for the camera. Then she grabs for it. ah well.

-she can help to zip up and down her sweaters and jackets, help put on her shoes, and help take off her clothes

-first trip to a museum--with A. Caroline, Drew, and Emily. Not me or D. Bummer, but apparently the museum still stands, and everyone had a great hour! 1-13 MOOOOO

I heard she tried to clean up the place. I try to get her to help clean up her messes at home, but my goal is not OCD! yipes

-use of fine motor stuff is getting better-hand position on markers and utensils is getting awesomer (a word. shush), with more refined use of them.

-teeth! there are 3 more, canines, that have arrived this month. With much whining and random no-sleep nights.

1-9 drawing in the cat room. Super exciting change of venue

When she wants to, of course, Miss E is a tad willful. ahem.

1-7 uber writing skillz

-It has been established that ME will NOT tolerate toe nailpolish! Caroline got to 6 toes, then suddenly E noticed and melted a bit. Covering with socks worked for a day, then 2 nights ago OMG OMG she could NOT move until I got it "ohff!"

1-18-she LOVES her stuffed animals. Each one gets randomly dragged around, put in the toilet, kissed, mauled (and cleaned then set to dry on the radiator). And yes, her halloween.part2 costume is still comfy and warm! don't judge.

1-6 Hair! it's crazy, and I cut it again this past week.

As predicted, I hate being away until 6pm most nights. ME is in good hands with Daddy (duh), and two sitter-aunts. Still, it sucks big time. I try not to talk about her at fieldwork, as it's super unprofessional, and as much as I really like the folks there, I have to recognize we are not friends. Maybe someday, but I'm a student, yo, and in a position to behave myself more than I usually do.

1-2 I think. Mostly, she ignores the mallet and pushes them through.

I have developed even more of a respect for those that deal full time with the Autism and special needs community. I don't know that I'll be a member of that group, and they are a strong group indeed. I just don't know what my future holds yet. Plus, I'm still keeping to a goal of working part-time (as long as we can afford it).

1-13 the Fisher Price saga begins with a farm...courtesy of Nana Caroline

So things are overall good. It's cold and icky, but we still try to get outside. A warning to you in warmer climates: I may show up one day!!

xo

P.S. 5pm and still napping. Yipes. Time to walk around the hood until dinner!

so fired

1-2 random hilarity on the tabletop
Wow. It's been a few weeks, and I have not posted!!

As I am currently a tad bit too tired and weak-sauce to do a post that is deserving of her ME-ness, enjoy a pic snak

1-3 reading to the ever-elusive, yet always just-outta-reach Kudra (and actually, as it's all animal sounds, E kinda does read this one herself! Most times, she makes up stories *and* words)

xo

1-2 Mohawk time with the hypoallergenic we-suck bubbles

01-01-10

Welcome all to a new year! We have high hopes for this year, what with me finishing school, D in a new job, and E growing and learning!

No pressure.

12-22 what? you don't do this?
FEET. nuff said.

12-21

12-18 ouch. how do they DO this?
12-17 in the stroller

Since I posted last, E has done so much. I've been home, enjoying my time to sleep in a LOT and hang out with Miss Whinypants. She has gotten quite clingy and mom-centered. This works ok for me most of the time, but can be exhausting for those others in her life. Like D. Crazy girl. Once I'm out of sight, E's happy and silly again of course, so it's all for show to impress me I guess.

climbing in, on top of, around is a new trick 12-14

APPLE! 12-14 (new faves)

hangin out at the doc's for a check up 12-14

E's been sleeping pretty well, now that she's sleep-trained US back into her old ways of holding her to sleep. We still win overall by getting her into the crib for half of the night though, and it really actually gets us more sleep overall I think. 12-16 reading to me

12-16 climbing random neighbors' stairs

Once I'm back into the school/internship swing I'm sure I'll need this cuddle time as much as her anyway. She's growing and will soon be toddling off to bed by herself. I see E being a stuffed-animal cuddler, or even the cats as she gets older too. (right now, she'll grab my hand, say "meow", and pull me to where there is a cat and she'll live vicariously by watching me pet the cats)

ME has been social, seeing a lot of our friends and neighbors--our downstairs neighbors finally got to see her run instead of just hearing her pound away (and gifted her with hat and Poohbear as well!). We love our 'hood, but wish it were closer to our too-distant family and other close friends. Such is life...the power of the internets will keep the world close. Will be interesting to see E grow up in such an interconnected world. 2010...wow.

Books, flipping through them herself or having us read them, have become a center of entertainment. Watching Sesame Street and Word World is also new, as it was a treat and is now a habit--she seems to benefit from the teaching on these shows oddly enough. Lots of words are now mimicked during the day, and she sings/babbles to herself a lot.

She and I spent an afternoon at her friend Melia's, and she was a treat to watch actually interacting and playing nicely all day! Since they are some of our good friends, it will hopefully become more of a habit in the future!

12-24 in snow at grandfolks' with Daddy

The 3 of us trekked out to g-ma's and pop-pop's (er, my folks) for Xmas.

It was a whirlwind for D who had to work on the 26th,

but us ladies stayed until Grandpa could drive us home on the 29th. What a visit! Full of stairs (falling down 1/3 flight only once the first day eep), decorations on the trees, playing in the snow with Corky and Daddy, 12-24

and basically wearing out the grandparents! 12-24 We saw good friends Libby and Dick, terrorized a Border's, and generally just had good food and good company. Oh and toys! and books! More plans had been made but we did enough to call it a vacation ... E ruled the roost and we all had fun :)

new words include: fly, butterfly, mananma (still, but it evolves and is hilarious), snow, boot, hat, bag, book, heehaw, EATeatEAT, more...and gosh knows what else she's saying half the time!

12-24

eating a full meal to amuse my dad 12-25 (his series of funny-faces helped)
12-25 prezzie time

12-30 "thought you said 'bonk pan'
12-29
12-28
12-27

whoa

11-23 out with Dad
11-14, finally able to wear teh Tink-erbell hat from Gma. She grabs it and brings it to me randomly.
It has been quite a month. Woops, yes, a month since my last post. Been a tad bit busy what with me finishing my classes!! woo hoo! And Darrell starting a new job, and Emelia growing and teething some more. 11-17 teef

If only we can get her to stop screeching, the world will be complete...again.

I don't know what it is, but every few months she seems to get into a not-so-amusing bout of screeching for everything. I believe it's the wonderful way it echoes in our wood-floored apartment.

Introducing new words back to us, like "Thank you", banana ("bnamamanana"), and "Pweez" and (my fave) coffee ("kuf eee"). No, she doesn't drink it, but she does like to say it! 11-21 She'll identify lots of things in her books, randomly like orange but consistently "apfel" and about all animal sounds. Her favorite to say is "mor", complete with the hand sign of tapping finger tips together. Very cute.

11-25 playing with her feet and eating "cheesz"

I am trying soooo hard to get her to say "help" instead of crying and sobbing whenever anything doesn't go her way. Wish us luck.

11-20 melted on Aunti Caroline

Napping has come and gone, then come again, and she's been working on 3 out of 4 canines (finally the upper left one broke through just yesterday). I think this has affected us all... 11-20, showing off her yoga (self taught)

Took a pause on working to get her to fall asleep in the crib until I could focus more time on it (read: afford to lose sleep). Again, good thoughts are welcome.

Grand folks were in town for Turkey day (Duck day, here).

11-26 rocking chair was a "win"-from G & G, and decorated by good friend, Linda T.

Darrell pwned us all with another feast! Emelia even ate some of it. Their visit was too short, as always, and we look forward to more! When E heard Grandpa on the phone the other day, she got all bouncy and said "Pop op papapop!" repeatedly. 11-27 I am working on fixing the webcam situation as well, as that has been feisty. I blame the internets.

11-18 crash
11-18

12-5 Steep "Santa" was a hoot (E eating on a still-wrapped candy cane) Emelia managed to be afraid of this guy at first, then warmed up after we hung out with Aunt Elf Caroline

We've had some fun walking in the bits of snow we had last week. Was too cold to go out most days (like 1 friggin degree omgz), so she's showing some signs of cabin fever. 12-7 Insert extra whining. In the meantime, E is loving her books, reading them to herself and making the funniest sounding commentaries. 12-5 flying around in circles to music

12-4 big grin She certainly cracks herself up a lot. Definitely showing signs of a good sense of humor!

I love her new habit of making silly expressions, like the side-long glance. 12-10 (she cracked herself up right after this)

I have a hard time getting them on camera, however, so you have to trust us on this one. see what I mean about her funny faces? 11-19

Yesterday, we made ginger cookies with Ezra and his mom Ashley. Caroline supervised and helped us to corral the kids so we could have fun. (more photos/some same here)

Messy fun, and I was a bit disorganized and last minute about the whole thing. I see more in our futures though, and I think the kids were happy about it! E did Ezra a favor by unzipping his jacket -- but I think he wanted it on haha.

Emelia is becoming more interested in other kids, playing around at the playground and initiating more contact. It's super cool, but scares me a bit when she tries to follow the bigger kids on trickier park things like climbing up the slides...I'll get over it, I'm sure.

11-17 various electronic toys

ok, this was brief, and I am sure I'll think of more. Enjoy the gratuitous photos!

12-3 the fan on the vacuum is always awesome
telling G-ma a story 11-28
11-28 Papop's great kisses!
xo 12-5 out on someone's lawn

ha! 12-11 she was chatting here
studying her poses 12-10

11-14 snoopy dance (with Gma on the webcam)

12-10 dancing and babbling - a snippet