Emma is just growing and growing!  I guess that is what babies do.  To think that in just over a month she will be one year old.  My little baby won’t be a baby much longer!  I just thought that I would take a moment to update everyone on all the amazing things Emma can do now.

Watching Little Einsteins
Almost everyday since Emma was around four or five months, we would watch Little Einsteins on the Disney channel.  At the beginning of every episode, the characters on the show pat their laps to help Rocket blast off.  Today was the first time that Emma patted along with them!!  It was so exciting to see her patting along and then saying a word after they said “Blast off”!  She’s been clapping at the end of the episodes during the curtain call for about a month, but it was really exciting to see her patting with the team.

Sign Language
Kip and I have been trying to teach Emma how to communicate with us using sign language.  She is really good at “good job” which is clapping her hands.  But lately she has also picked up “all done” when she is finished eating and every now and then she’ll sign “please” when she wants you to pick her up.  (More often though she raises her arms and looks up at you when she wants to be picked up.)  She also will wave “hi” sometimes when you say hi to her.  She waves to herself for “hi” and sometimes away from herself for “bye”.  Kip also taught her how to give “high five”.  I mean, who doesn’t want a ten month old giving them five.  Next we’re going to work on “pound it” (the fist bump).

Story Time
Every night Kip reads Emma her bed time stories, and he always ends with “Good Night Moon”.  When he goes through the story and the picture is the full room view, he always points at the things that the bunny is saying good night to.  Emma has picked up that habit as well.  She always points to the red balloon first and the picture of the cow jumping over the moon second.  Then she will point at random things in the room, but it is still really cute.

Fuzz on the Floor
Emma is a pro at finding any and everything that is on the floor.  I can vacuum the living room, and within five minutes of her being back in the room she can find a single piece of fuzz that might have been missed by the vacuum.  She used to immediately stick the fuzz in her mouth, but I have been trying to teach her to bring it to me instead.  This way she learns to pick up and bring things to mommy.  It is very helpful.  We do still have to have the occational mouth check to make sure she isn’t chewing on something she should not be chewing on.

Walking?
Emma has mastered crawling and is well on her way to understanding the mechanics of walking upright.  She has actually already learned how to climb the stairs.  I found her up three steps one day when I was headed back downstairs from taking something up to her room!  Of course, we’re making sure she doesn’t get near the stairs again, they’re just too dangerous for her right now.  She can walk around all the furniture in the house and pull herself up on just about anything, including the smooth walls.  She loves to play “chase me around the house”.  We’re trying to reset her boundaries.  She likes to hold onto your hands and walk around the house.  That lets her have more freedom than being confined to the furniture and the walls, but she still isn’t motivated enough to try taking a few steps on her own.  I’m not sure if I’m ready for my baby to walk away from me yet.

Shutting Doors
Emma has also learned that the doors are a lot of fun to play with.  You can bang on them, swing them back and forth, and push them closed.  She especially likes to shut the doors on you while you are doing something in the room.  Then she realizes that she can’t play with the door anymore and gets upset.  It is really funny when she crawls around the room and goes to the laundry room door and bangs on it while saying, “dadadada”.

So those are the really big accomplishments we’ve made in the last few months.  I’m sure we’ll let everybody know how her first birthday goes.  Be sure and check out the pictures (there aren’t new ones, but the old ones are still super cute)!