Sweet and Funny Emerson!

Hello Family and Friends!

It's been awhile since I've given you an update on how BIG and SWEET I am! November means I'm 17 months old...whaaaaat?! Wow! So, so, so much has changed and I'm busting with excitement to tell you all about it:

• I run. I don't walk. I run, everywhere. I pump my arms from side to side and most times than not, my feet move faster than my arms =)
• My personality is really starting to shine. Some people say I'm sweet. Others say I'm sassy. That's a good mix, right? My parents say I'm quite the daredevil. They think I will be the first to get stitches in the family. Here I am standing on my toy airplane.
  
  
  Here I am standing on my toy elephant trying to rock climb on the fireplace.

Here I am climbing up my swing set outside. Mommy was pushing Ethan on the swing so I snuck over to the ladder and climbed on up...much to the fear of my mommy.

• I can blow kisses and always wave bye-bye when someone is leaving.
• I loooooove babies. Real babies. Any time I see one I point and say, "baby, baby, baby." I also like to go over to their strollers to see how tiny they are.
  
  
  
  
• My favorite game is peek-a-boo. My favorite place to hide is behind the curtains. I wrap myself up in the long curtains and then squeal with delight when someone finds me.
  
• I can point to (and say) eye, ear, nose, and hair.
  
• My vocabulary is expanding all the time. I can say mommy, daddy, brother (or some version of it), bear, please, ball, and ketchup.
  
  
  
  
• You might be wondering why I learned the word ketchup? That's because it's my new favorite food! Mommy discovered I will eat almost anything if it has a little bit of ketchup on it.
• I reached a big milestone at the highchair last week - I can successfully use a fork!! It's fun to poke my food and then try and get it in my mouth. I'm also really good at using a spoon...as you can see with my yogurt.
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I have a new best friend. His name is Bear. I do everything with him and he has to be with me at all times, especially when I sleep.
  
• I like to bounce up and down when I hear music.
• I've been known to eat cat food a time or two. Here is a picture of when I opened the pantry by myself and thought I'd "feed the cat."

• Now that I'm big, I want to do big girl things. Like swing all by myself. This is a picture of me at the park in a baby bucket seat...see, not happy.
  
  This is a picture of me outside on my swing set all by myself. Look at my smile! Happy girl!
  
• I love to put things in drawers and then find it. Or just leave it there for mommy and daddy to find. Sometimes I even put myself in drawers.
  

 

       

• I have a fun way of playing with toys. If I see the bucket of Legos, I dump it out. If I see a box of flashcards, I dump it out. If I see books on the bookshelf, I dump them out. This is how our toy room looks on a typical day:
  
• Remember when I was little and wouldn't let anyone hold me for the first year of my life? Well, I've come a looooooong, loooooooong, loooooooooong way and now I'll let (almost) anyone hold me! Even perfect strangers. My biggest progress has come in the nursery at church. I'm on week six and now I don't cry at all when mommy and daddy leave. And I'm happy as a clam when they pick me up! The nursery director can barely believe the change in me =)

 

• My parents still think I'm one of the funniest people they've ever met. {Almost} everything I do puts a smile on their face. Except for when I do this...



 

• But, then I do this and it's all better...

• I'm truly a happy, happy girl and feel so loved by my family. I run to the door every night when my daddy gets home from work. He tells me he loves me 1,586 times a day. Ethan gives me hugs and kisses before every nap. Mommy gives me nuzzles, sings me songs, and takes such good care of me. Thanks for checking in on my update!

 





Happy Halloween!

Growing up Halloween was never a big deal for Eric or I. This was the first year that Ethan actually (somewhat) understood the idea of trick-or-treating. The night before Halloween, the city of Bloomington put on a really cool event downtown. Local businesses around the square hosted an indoor/outdoor trick-or-treat night and invited everyone down for candy, food, and live entertainment. My friend Jennifer and I decided to take the kids and it turned out to be so much fun! It was the first year the city has done this and it's sure to turn into an annual event!

 

Saturday night, we got the kids dressed up again and Ethan goes, "c'mon on." And he was motioning us out the door to walk around - I think he got the hint from the other neighborhood kids who were going door to door =) We were pretty excited to see so many people out and about in hopes that we could meet some of our neighbors. There are a TON of kids around here!

We went to four houses and Ethan used his toolbox to collect his candy. We made such a big deal about it and said, "Buddy! Look how much candy you have! Should we go home?" And he enthusiastically said, "YESSSS!" Haha, four pieces of candy can make any three year old happy!

Of course if Ethan got to have a piece of candy then Emerson had to have one too. I about cringed at the sight of my one year old daughter sucking on a lollipop (the sugarrrrr!), but she absolutely loved it! They both just sat on the front stoop, enjoying their lollipops, while watching the bigger kids trick-or-treat!


Please note she still had the wrapper on!



Daddy taking the wrapper off...



Big brother showing Emerson how to lick a lollipop!



Too busy to pass out candy!

Turned into a great Halloween - thankful for our sweet ladybug and handy construction man! =)

 

 

Our Funny Boy!

While my blog posts are few and far in between lately, I always keep notes on my phone about the funny things the kids are doing and saying. Ethan's speech continues to improve almost daily. As frustrated as I get that he is in the "no" phase and whines 98% of the time, keeping lists like this reminds me to stay present and in the moment and always gives me a reason to laugh. Here are some of the things I've written down the last few months:

• One morning I was petting Max and he accidentally scratched me. When I responded "ouch," Ethan goes, "Mommy, Maxey have a knife?"
• During the summer when it was hot outside, we would come inside into the A/C and he would say, "Mommy, say schew." (as in, man does it feel good in here!)
  
  
  
• I'm so proud of the fact that he can count to 13 and will randomly break out in his version of the ABC's...which really is A, B, C, D, F,G, O,P, Z =)

• I fixed something for Ethan one time and he said, "mommy saved the day!"

• Every time he sees a bird while we're driving he will say, "look mommy, I see an eagle!"
• Pancakes are one of Ethan's favorites. I always include a little bit of syrup and one morning he looked down at his plate and said, "mommy, it's a heart." Sure enough, I look down and the syrup was in the shape of a heart. My heart = melted.
  
• Whenever he hears anything, he always says, "what's that noisy?"
• We were having a storm outside and Ethan said, "Thunder awake!!"
• I've mentioned several times that his imagination is awesome right now. He loves to take a pretend cup and pretend like he's drinking "coffee." He loves to pretend like he's in the drive thru and ask, "you want a diet coke?" hahahaha, and he loves to take a bolt from his toolbox and pretend like it's ice cream.
  
  
  
  
• Every night when Eric puts Ethan down for bed, he will ask him "what are you going to dream about?" Ethan proceeds to go on and on....and on...about "sister, mommy, daddy, sister, my new house, my blower, my tools, sister, and my lawnmower." Then Eric will ask him what he should dream about and our sweet boy will say, "Ethan." =)
  

I'm sure there is a hundred other funny things I could list, but I wanted to at least highlight some of the things I remember. He is slowly starting to enter the "why?" phase so I imagine plenty more sayings are in our future!