Naptime with Pooh

Emma insisted that she take Pooh Bear upstairs to nap with.  A little hesitant to have such a big fluffy thing in her crib, especially when she's sleeping, I didn't want a big fight before naptime.

This was the napping result.  As you can imagine, as soon as she was sound asleep, Pooh Bear came right out of the crib, and I don't think will ever make its way back in again!

I couldn't even see her face buried under all the blankets and pooh!  Just shows how much Emma loves soft things to snuggle with!

Emma's 19 Months

Another month gone by.....this time I'm on schedule, blogging on the right date!
The word of the month has been, "Ma, Ma, Ma"  Yes, thats ME, Mommy!!!
I thought the clinginess got better with time, not worse!  Even though tiring after hearing it the whole day while playing with her, trying to clean house, make dinner, it's really cute hearing "Maaaa", being called out in the middle of Costco, when I quickly run down one aisle to grab something and Dad is pushing her in the cart.  Emma hasn't been a lover of Daddy too much this part couple of weeks, breaks his heart!  If I hug Daddy, she pushes me away so she can hug me, then when Daddy hugs me, she gets angry and pushes Daddy away.  I'm sure just another phase she's going through.  I do worry that it's possibly because I spend too much time with her??

Maybe I blog too much about the good times with Emma, I forget about the "bad" times.  This blog today seems pretty appropriate.

Today was an eventful day of her turning 19 months.  Emma woke in her normal happy disposition.  Always greeting us with smiles, followed by her crawling in her crib and saying "Baba", then walking/jumping around and falling over saying, "Whoa", then grabbing all her dolls and blankets, before we can take her out and get our morning kisses.  I tried to change her in to her clothes for the day.  She was happy for me to put on her pants, but did not want her pajama top off, so we left it at that.  She had her morning milk, but with being a little sick, she's still got a bit of phlegm and coughed up her milk.  The exact same spot she deposited milk on when she was 3 months, except this time it's full cream milk and not breast milk, Yugh!!!  (Cleaning recommendations appreciated).

So we got changed again after a bit of breakfast and just before heading out to run a few errands.  We had the battle of the shoes, all excited about her wearing a new pair of shoes, she wanted nothing to do with them.  So we settled for her regular shoes.  Errands were fine, no hassles there.
We drive home and I entertain Emma with a video on my iphone in order to keep her awake, so we can get home and have some lunch.  (Emma is really good at falling asleep in the car)  5 minutes before reaching home, she has another coughing episode in the car and sounds like she brought something up again,  I tell her not to worry, we'll be home in 5 minutes then I'll clean her up.  She hands me the phone then shortly falls asleep!!! "No!!!!"
Thinking she will take a short nap now, because she hasn't had lunch, I hope she'll wake when I take her out, picturing in my mind we'll have lunch, go to the park as she'll have had her second wind, then have a nice afternoon nap. Ended up Emma napping on our bed for 2 hours!! Yay!! Mom got a nap too!

We have lunch, then get ready to go to the park.  Emma had a long sleeve top on, because it was so hot outside I wanted to change  her to a tshirt.  She wanted nothing to do with that, but she did want to wear her new shoes! "Seriously!"  We got to the park, we sit on the swing for 20 minutes, then at the top of the slide for another 20 miuntes without wanting to go down.  Eventually she decides to go down still taking her time, sitting on the edge, there's a little boy waiting for Emma. He decides to give her a nudge with his foot and she falls!  Tears and all, we leave the playground and go home.  We blow bubbles to make things better, she then eyes the sidewalk chalk and wants to draw, so we draw.  While she's doing that I decide to sweep the garage, she wants to particicpate in this chore too.  A few sweeps in she wants to take off her top, moaning and pulling at it.  So I take it off.  I try put on her tshirt, but no she doesn't this, so I have a half naked toddler sweeping our garage.  Eventually she allows me to put on her t-shirt.  She then wants to water the garden with her new watering can.  Another fun activitity, especially when Emma doesn't want the water to come out of the watering can!  She gets upset!, so she pretends and makes the sounds, silly girl!  She then wants to draw again and blow bubbles, I say No, I want to go inside now.  I try get her inside and she throws a tantrum for a good 15 minutes.  Eventually calms down and wants her water and some crackers, and wants to watch, "Baa", Timmy Time. 

Emma has dinner and cleans plate, Daddy comes home and it's this sweet cock of the head and big smiles, like, "I've been a good little girl the entire day Daddy!"  Dad had the car serviced, so we swapped cars for the day, while we switched the car seat around, Emma got to play around in the car, which brought about another tantrum when it was time to go inside.  She asks for milk, which we give her and I just hope she doesn't cough it up again.  I take a seat on the steps, while I wait for her to finish so we can go upstairs and bath.  She takes a seat next to me.  She then sees her Pooh Bear seat and wants to sit there, so she goes and sits and bounces around on it.  Then comes back to where I am, and instead of just sitting next to me, tries to get comfortable resting against the front of my legs, then stands up again and tries to find another spot, this time sitting to the left of my legs, then wrapping her one arm around my leg and resting her head against it and finishes her milk, "minish".  Thats when I forget about the crazy day we had, all the whining and crying, and just treasure that moment, kiss her hand and tell her mommy loves her so much!  I guess that is when I also forget about the "bad" times, so when I get around to blogging I only remember the good times!

I hold Emma's hands to go upstairs, each step she takes, she says, "Upstairs".  Emma has a bath, we read stories,  have our cuddles, then sleep time!

Happy 19 Months Emma, here's hoping I or we survive the rest!

Videos of Emma

I didn't take too many photos this visit, think mostly because I was just trying to keep up with the two girls.
I did however manage to take a few (this few may still be considered alot to some) videos of Emma during her trip to LA.  Enjoy watching....

As soon as we arrived in LA, Ruby showed us how she loves to jump on the bed!  This has now given Emma an idea and she now loves to jump on our bed.  Here are the two little monkey's jumping on the bed!



Emma took a liking to Ruby's ladybug ride on - after one day she got the hang of it and quite enjoyed riding around on it.  Quite cute seeing her two little legs moving that way!  It's so interesting watching the progression of Emma on this thing.  First to try coordinate the two legs to move, and then to keep her bum on the ladybug.  Then once she got the movement right, had to learn to turn.  After turning she had to get the hang of putting in that extra vroom to get over the carpet, then after getting all that right she learnt how to get off the ladybug.  Getting off something that doesn't have breaks is hard, firstly she'd try hold on and cross her one leg over, but the ladybug would wobble and she'd ask for help, after a while without assistance from us we saw her just pulling the ride on out in front of her, then she'd carry on walking and move onto the next toy.

Ruby goes to school one day a week.   It's really great that we got to tag along and experience something like this.  Almost like a playdate and daycare rolled into one, mommy's and their kids hang out together and go about the activities, from hand painting, to play dough, we got to make kites, play in the sand pit, ride bikes.  We joined in snack time too and this was the first time Emma drank out of a cup and drank juice!!  She did really well considering I hardly attempt this due to the mess.

After snack time the kids and parents split up and one group carries on playing, while the other group go for story time and singing.  Emma had no problem joining in and being part of it all.  Makes me realise that our little girl is probably ready for daycare, but mommy doesn't feel ready just yet.

Here you can see Emma joining in the fun with the music and a feather, it was very hard for Emma to give up the feather at the end.

A short video of Emma decorating her kite

Then she had the opportunity to test it outside.

Last video - Our last day in LA we just spent the day at home with Kerwin's mom and dad.  The two girls dancing to "Dancing Queen".

It was really fun seeing the girls together, although toward the end I think they were getting in each others way.  Ruby needed her space back and Emma just wanted to be able to play with whatever she wanted, her safe option was Ruby's little kitchen, anything else there was a bit of tug of way - kids! so funny!  I think another week together would have been good for them, and interesting for us to see if  they'd just give up all the resistance and just be in peace with each other over toys.

We're going back in June - so should be interesting to see then too how they interact again.  Maybe Emma will be talking more and be able to talk back to Ruby. 

Emma is 18 months

Wow, where has our baby gone??  I can't believe Emma is a year and a half old!  Time has just flown.
I held Emma in my arms like a baby and realized I have not held her that way in a LONG time! I couldn't hold her and she would not let me hold her, rather telling mommy, "WalK, WalK".  Why I capitalise the "K", Emma is in the habit of announciating her K's.  So when she wants to read a book or sees a book, she'll say BooK! 

So independent now, she tells me what she wants to do, where she wants to go, which shoes she wants to wear, and what she wants to eat.  The one day I wanted to give her fruit, she eyed these cheese puffs and insisted she have them, I tried to compromise with, "you can have after you have your fruit", but No she wanted her chips.  So I let her have her way and she had her chips, and a few chips later, she then says she wants her fruit.  At least she ate it, so I couldn't complain.
We've definitely realised that we have to give Emma time to listen to us and change her mind about certain things like giving me my purse back.  Takes a bit of persuasion and sometimes bribing, but she'll eventually do what she needs to do.
This whole discipline is scary, always wondering if what we're doing it the right way of doing things, and are we saying it right too.

Things with Emma just get more and more fun!  We can chase, hide and seek, copy movements, follow instructions.  We love to explore wherever we're walking and stop and smell the flowers along the way too.  We're at the stage where when we're walking somewhere Emma has to hold Mommy and Daddy's hands.  We love it.  And if she gives dad a kiss, she has to give mom a kiss too and vice versa.

Emma is continuing to learn new words, some words are definitely getting clearer.  Her latest words are, "all done" and "minish" for finished.  As you know we've been going to music class, and its so great to see her progress, like one week later she's doing more of the actions the songs call for.  Also in the car, I play her songs over and over, now when I look at the rear view mirror, I see Emma doing actions to the songs.

This week we're in Los Angeles.  Rod is working, and we tagged along so we could spend some time with Ruby, Kerwin and Janine.  So great seeing the girls together.  They got along pretty quickly, Ruby instantly saying I'm going to share my toys with Emma.  The sharing has been a little challenging for both of them.  Bouts of pulling and pushing, but we're getting there, and I guess it's good for them.  With all this sharing, Emma has had to say Thank you so many times, that, that word is becoming a little clearer (too me at least).  Another word Emma is using a lot this week is "share' (or so I think that is what she means) when she wants something from Ruby, which actually sounds like she is saying xie xie (shieh shieh - thank you).
Such fun seeing the girls together.

We're waiting for our 18 month check up to see how Emma is doing, but from what everyone says, she seems to be just fine!!  Definitely heavier, has her nice solid legs, round belly, round cheeks, her hands are getting big and her fingers are getting longer.  We are progressing from 14 teeth to 16 now.

This is definitely a fun time.  So much happening so quickly!  I know I've missed out on writing about other things she's doing as part of her milestones, things happen so quickly, if I don't write in my journal right away I forget.  And now I'm just too lazy to get my journal and search for each new thing she's done since last month!

Nonetheless, Emma is still the happy, just go with the flow kid (until she's tired or hungry), that brings a smile to our face all the time!