One Year Gone By

All smiles on her big day!

In a blink of an eye, our little girl is ONE! What an exciting year for us, watching Emma grow and develop into this little individual that is starting to decide for herself, do things for herself and express herself. She is quite the busy body now, as she’s learning to walk. I don’t think anything can make you feel this happy and proud. If you’ve been following my blog, a year of being parents has been an absolute amazing experience. There has been no single highlight, every month or every day has been a highlight, something new is always learnt or done.
We had Emma’s birthday party (cupcakes and ice-cream) on her actual birthday. I had been preparing for this for the past month, I think I was more excited than anyone else, actually felt like I was preparing for Christmas or something. Buying gifts for Emma that I liked as a child, in hopes that Emma will like them too.

Rod’s family (the Kings) - Aunty Peggy, Uncle David, Tracey and Eric, as well as my older sister, Nicole made a special trip out to Durham, NC, to be part of this special occasion. It was so special to have them here with us to celebrate. The party was small, but big enough and two hours was just enough before all the kids/babies started getting fussy and ready for their afternoon naps. Emma got totally spoilt and just had a great day. She was a star, so happy, no crying or fussing. I wasn’t too sure how she’d be with lots of people around at one time, but she did great, she knew she was the centre of attention.

Emma got her first taste of icing – we were hoping she’d go mad with the cake and get icing and cake all over her face and get a good taste, but she wasn’t really interested in the cake, more so the candle – trying to grab it, hence the icing on her hands. Her pretty blue and white dress got covered with the bright pink icing we had on the cake, thankfully it washed out. What a great day seeing your baby attempt to blow her candle out and ripping at the gift wrap. I thought I’d would be quite emotional that day, as I had been leading up to it, but I probably was so caught up with everything going on that I didn’t have time to get emotional. Shew!

So during the week that the Kings and Nix were here, Emma learnt so much. The one day while sitting on Tracey’s lap, she grabbed Tracey’s fingers and pulled herself up to standing and took a few steps. After that she just wanted to walk everywhere. Now she’s pretty particular how she wants to hold your hand/fingers when you walk with her. Tracey and Aunty Peggy taught her Round and Round the Garden, which in Emma’s head seems to go, Round and Round – Tickle Tickle (click to watch the video). Tracey would play with Emma and have Emma sneak up to people and give them a fright…well now every back that Emma sees she tries to tap and says Baa! We were standing in the line at Costco and Emma was reaching out to the guy in front of us saying Baa! Baa!. Tonight while running Emma’s bath water, she came up behind me and hit me saying, Baa! Oh boy! With the few times that Nix bathed Emma, Nix taught Emma how to dry her toes.

So much in a short space of time – I’ve always noticed when family is around Emma catches onto things so much quicker. This morning I was trying to teach Emma to snap her fingers, she watched me repeat this action a few times then attempted it herself, using her thumb and index finger, it’s a start. Quite cute, watching her take it in and attempts it herself.

Rod and I got Emma an activity walker for her birthday – Emma took to the activity part right away, the day after her birthday I had placed her behind to hopefully walk, instead she remained on her knees and pushed the walker back and forth. Today she finally stood behind it (or I stood her behind it) and she started taking steps. After realizing how much fun this was, she carried on walking and eventually became brave enough to let go of the walker and stood for a couple of seconds. The sense of accomplishment on her face – priceless.

Other accomplishments on Emma’s part – we’re teaching her to brush her teeth (although I think she’s more soothing her gums than anything else), we’re slowly getting better at eating with utensils, Emma’s is getting good at opening and closing doors, switching lights on and off, in the mornings we always hear a dog bark, so now each time I ask her what sound is that she hears, or what sound does a dog make, she’ll make this almost silent, “woof” sound. Emma’s mind is a sponge, I just have to show her something or say something once or twice and she can repeat or attempt it straight away. AMAZING! Something you don’t expect her to understand, she does, we really need to be more conscious how we say things now and how we do things, doing and saying things the way we would want her to do and say. This morning I was making our bed, and I asked her to help mommy make the bed, not thinking she would do anything, she stood up at the one side of the bed and started pulling at the covers, as if to straighten them. Such a great little helper.

It’s crazy, but there are times I still can’t believe Emma is ours. Life has definitely changed, but honestly wouldn’t change it for the world. Emma has been the most rewarding thing in my/our lives, besides the tantrums and refusals to sleep. She’s been meeting her milestones, doing something new every day, filling our days with so much love and joy. And not only ours but our families that are spread all over the world! It’s just been a wonderful experience. I’ve been seeing other little girls running around, and I can’t even imagine Emma running around and talking in sentences, and I know that’s just around the corner, soon she’ll be running away from me, rather than toward me.

Being parents have made us realize so many things, so many little things that we didn’t think twice about when we were younger, or even when we were preparing to have a baby. Like the sacrifices our parents made to give us the best upbringing, how much they really love us, what being a daughter/son really means to our folks.

Well One year gone, and so much more to come, before we know it Emma will be 16. It’ll actually be amazing to see at 16 if she’ll have the same expressions or ways as she does now. Until then I’ll keep blogging (hopefully) and just take in every moment with our little munchkin, embrace every hug and kiss we can get and just enjoy those special moments.