Emilyn, lately {13 months}

Here's a little bit about Emilyn at 13-ish months, although this first set of photos is from 7-9 months.

Kathy calls her Jack-Jack because of this picture (upper-right) where she looks like the baby from The Incredibles. Bottom-right is Sharkfin-soup-Emibaby

She is generous with smiles and laughter. She has this goofy grin that is hard to capture on camera but is classic Emilyn. All teeth and no eyes.

Speaking of teeth, she has at least 9 teeth already and is cutting a million more (feels like 6 more but I don't dare stick my finger in there for too long to check!). 

She mimics behaviors such as rubbing her hands together if she sees you washing hands, or if she is near a bottle of lotion or hand sanitizer.

When Kathy washes her hands with our family-splurge Williams-Sonoma Meyer Lemon soap, Emilyn will sniff her own hands, even if she's clear across the kitchen, and she loves when Kathy comes over to let her smell her hands. You can audibly hear Emilyn make the sniffing sound out of her nose.

She is great at picking up her toys after independent play in the crib. She will squat down, grab a toy, and throw it over the crib rail into the basket I hold for her. She can understand directions to grab a specific toy.

She opens her mouth like a bird when you bring food to her mouth.

She can sign: please, milk, water, book, banana (she points with her index finger at the bananas on the shelf, which is half of the sign; the other half is to "peel" your finger with your other hand), avocado, all done, help. She loves to learn new signs and has copied when I've taught her "doll" and "sister"/nuna.

She can wave and say, "hi!" David has heard her say "ball." 

She says "mama" and "dada" but it's not clear she's necessarily using it to call for us; she says "da!" for Theo, and she can say "nunu" for Kathy. She jibber-jabbers a lot and it's super cute. (Update: since drafting this earlier this week, she did say "Appa" for David at the library yesterday and it was clear she was calling him.)

She just started blowing kisses, but she does the release very slowly, like a generous royal person. For regular kisses, she opens her mouth super big and comes at you like she is going to eat you.

Theo has a wooden motorcycle rocker (like a rocking horse but a motorcycle) and when you put Emilyn on it, she makes engine revving noises. 

She knows she's being cute when she all of a sudden she lays her head down on a soft surface (e.g., bed, sofa, rug) because we all go, "aww...." She thinks it's a thing, "going aww." We call it "flump-da" when she does it, especially if the rest of her body is on the ground too, in froggy position. Sometimes she will just get in that position, wait for you to notice her, and then give a mischievous smile.

It's hard to describe her personality. In some ways, she seems like she has a vast serenity about her, that it takes a lot for her to be disturbed. But lately, she can absolutely get upset, most often when you are eating something in front of her that you are not willing to share. (No idea where she got that from.)

I used to joke when I would take her out of the high chair and put her on the ground that she could clean up after the mess she made because she eats everything (food and otherwise) off the ground. Once we found her in the kitchen happily chewing on a piece of red onion. The robotic vacuum that Kathy got us from Christmas is Emilyn's frenemy.

We weren't as consistent with reading Emilyn bedtime stories as we were with Theo (#secondkidproblems) but since last week she has gotten obsessed with Llama Llama Hoppity-Hop. She asks for it (there's a jibber-jabber she uses to say "llama llama" and I think I'm the only person in the world who could decipher it, ha), brings it to me, or (newly) signs "book."

We are still going strong with nursing and I'm sure that helps with the bond I feel with her.

She has a short morning nap and a slightly longer afternoon nap but we may be entering into the transition phase for dropping to one nap.

Oh and she's not quite walking yet, although she has taken a couple steps in a row without support, including some pivots.

She is a pure delight to me and I'm so thankful I get to be her mama.