emmeline's eleven months

 Eleven months of Emmie, and she lights up our world every day!

Emmeline is:

... everywhere all at once! She's up and down the stairs, cruising in circles around the house and trying to climb up the pantry shelves to get the jar of Smarties! She's is all over the place, and happy to explore the world around her. She loves to wave and blow kisses, and has been very precise in her hand movements lately - grabbing things with just two fingers, and passing things back and forth.

... a fierce eater, despite STILL having no teeth! [Seriously... I don't even know how those little gums are still so smooth! It's mind boggling — all of her sisters had mouthfuls of teeth by 11 months! It's crazy!] She gnaws on vegetables and gums on any food I'll put in front of her. Her current favorites are string cheese, pretzels, potatoes & carrots, smarties, and berries. She likes to grab as many as she can in one hand, and then carefully pick out one at a time to put in her mouth. It's very deliberate. Haha

... talking more and more! She is trying hard to say all the words, and has started talking and laughing to herself. It's so cute! She chatters with me and her sisters all day, and she is at the stage where so many things are hilarious! Phoebe just has to look at her, and she giggles and giggles! I love it so much!

... a water baby! She LOVES being in and playing with water. She loves playing in a bath, and washing her hands in the sink. She splashes and plays with bath toys and if she hears the water running in the shower, she comes racing in and tries to sneak under the shower curtain and get in. I'm hoping it translate to another confident little swimmer girl this coming summer!

... still my biggest momma's girl. She has no problem showing her preferences, and it's still all mom all the time! She's got definite opinions, and daily confirms that we've got yet another little Mighty Woman in our house. She is strong and determined, and I love watching her learn and grow! [I just wish time would slow down a little bit, so we can relish more in between the chaos of our lives!]

Blowing kisses!

These girls are the cutest!

So grateful they are ours.

Flashback:

Afton's Eleven Months

Golden's Eleven Months

Phoebe's Eleven Months

Matilda's Eleven Months

emmeline's ten months

Ten whole months with this girl, and she's made every single day better! 

Emmeline is: 

... a great eater—despite STILL having NO teeth! [I keep having nightmares that she never gets teeth and has to get implants in her whole mouth as a baby] She loves to eat all the foods she sees, and has actually gotten pretty good at gumming everything down. It's pretty impressive. She still prefers savory over sweet, and she's started to figure out how to use silverware and get it into her mouth. She loves to snack, but still insists on nursing pretty frequently throughout the day, and has gotten into a few routines that she does NOT let me out of! [Every Sunday when I come down from playing the organ to sit with the family, she knows it's time to eat! And if I try to brush her off, she is NOT happy. Haha The funny part is that she's doesn't care to nurse at that same time everyday—just on Sundays! Funny girl.]

... loves playing with her sisters. She has gotten really fun and interactive lately, and all of the sisters take turns doting on her. It's adorable. She thinks they are each hilarious, and they all are pretty good with her. 

... saying more words! She's mimicking sound really well, and has started to chatter using different sounds. It's my favorite! She sings and talks and says Mom and more and Dad and eat and a handful of other things really well. 

... getting into everything! She's somehow figured out how to open the locks on the cupboards and how to pull open all the drawers. She loves to play with dishes and help me with the dishwasher [or rather, likes to pull things out of the dishwasher while I put things in it!] She is really responsive to her name, though, so I generally only have to say her name once and she'll stop what she's doing. She is a curious mind and I love how she is figuring things out for herself. 

... still my sweetest, snuggliest momma's girl. It's mom time all the time around our house. But she has started giving me the sweetest little snuggles randomly, and it melts my heart every. single. time. 

Life is so crazy with this crew. But they're pretty cute!

Flashback:

Afton's Ten Months

Golden's Ten Months

Phoebe's Ten Months

Matilda's Ten Months

emmeline's nine months

It's hard to believe this girl has been with us for longer that I was pregnant with her! She's become big so quick! But just look at her—She's SO beautiful!!!

 

Emmeline is:

... still toothless. I don't even know how! All of my other girls had SO many teeth by nine months — I think Phoebe holds the record at 8 teeth at 9 months! She has shown all signs of teething for MONTHS, but nothing has popped through permanently yet. BUT, she has not let this stop her from eating the good food! She has figure out how to use her little gums to chomp things up and devour them. She loves vegetables and meat and salty crackers. And loves drinking water out of a sippy cup - not baby bottles for this big girl! She's so funny. 

... walking around furniture and pushing her wagon all around the house. She is fast— I'll set her down and she'll zip around the room and be standing up next to something before I can even blink! She thinks she's big. She has only dared climb up one or two stairs, but she generally has no problem getting where she wants to go. 

... a musical baby. (Shocking, right!?) She LOVES to sing and play the piano, and has started head-banging along to music as well as her own songs. She sings in Primary with all the kids every Sunday, and I've caught her singing herself to sleep several times. It's the best! Another little angel voice in my little women's choir!

... an independent player. Despite having so many sisters around so often, Emmie is consistently content to just do her own thing and play in her own little world. Her sisters will join her for a few minutes and then bounce back to their own things, and Emmie just adapts and goes with it. It is fun to see her figure out how things work and how to play with toys, and how to make a toy out of just about anything. I love seeing her creative mind already developing.

... such a beautiful, delightful girl! Her general calm demeanor is just what our family needs, and she is the light of every room she is in. Her little spirit is felt in a huge way, and people are just drawn in by her. She is such a special girl!

This gaggle of giggles fills our home with so much—we are so blessed that they are ours. 

FLASHBACK:

Afton's Nine Months

Golden's Nine Months

Phoebe's Nine Months

Matilda's Nine Months

emmeline's eight months

Eight months of Emmeline in our lives! She's such a dream! 

Emmeline is: 

... Finally sleeping again! She had a rough little while of thinking she needed to be up all night, but (knock on wood!) we've passed that phase and she has been consistently sleeping all night and well into the morning. Bless her little sleepy head! 

... full on crawling, hands and knees full speed! She skipped army crawling altogether, and went from rolling to crawling overnight, and it sheen almost a month of her having no problem getting where she wants to go! 

... a mighty woman! I have found her [more than] a few times underneath our arm chair with her legs up in the air pressing up on the bottom of the chair. Baby leg press! She thinks it's hilarious. But seriously, she lifts the front of the chair a few inches off the ground... It's impressive! She has also figured out how to use her mighty arms to pull up on anything she can, so she can stand up. She thinks she's big! She's walked around our coffee table and tried taking steps just holding on to our little wagon... But I'm willing her to slow down! She's too little! 

... a savory snacker. She LOVES salty and savory snacks and food. She occasionally will enjoy something sweet, but it's not often, and if given the choice, she'll pick salty crackers or cheese or vegetables over ice cream, fruit or cereal. She's funny! 

... still my momma's girl, but her snuggles and hugs are so delightful. She still wants mom all of the time. She'll occasionally tolerate a handful of others, but if I'm not around, her number one is Pieface! She's funny. It's nice to be loved!

Life with these girls is chaotically delightful. 

God is good. 

FLASHBACK:

Afton's Eight Months

Golden's Eight Months

Phoebe's Eight Months

Matilda's Eight Months

emmeline's seven months

 
Life just keeps on getting sweeter with this little gal! She's so precious and has brought us true joy daily for seven whole months!

Emmeline is: 

... clapping and learning and is so engaging lately! She claps for everything, and it's one of our favorite things. Everything is a wonder at this stage, and it's so fun! Her eyes get big with astonishment and each next things she encounters, and she'll applaud and squeal in delight. She is so fun to watch!

... almost crawling, but not quite yet. She is successfully rolling and spinning all around. She'll get up on her hands and knees for a minute, but gets stuck and then flops down on her belly and rolls where she wants to go. She will sit in the same spot on the floor for what seems like an hour, but then I'll look away for a minute and look back to find her all the way across the room.  

... not our best sleeper, currently, but is our most patient delightful baby in spite of the lack of sleep at night. She's trying to figure out how to sleep in her own room, but just doesn't love being alone, so we're navigating through her wanting to be held or nursed all night long (!) which is exhausting in many ways. But to make up for it, she is our most pleasant, tolerant baby! She has a cherry disposition and is a happy, content girl almost always (despite how tired we are!) and I'm super grateful for that. 

... talking non-stop! She says "mom" and "dad" and "hi" and "pie" and is working on a handful of other words! She'll try to copy what we say to her - and just the other day, Branson got her sounding like Donald Duck for like 10 minutes! It was hilarious! And she does a mean Chewbacca impression! Haha!She babbles and giggles and talks and talks and talks! We love it! 

These girls are so fun! 

(And crazy, and silly, and energetic and the friendliest girls in all the land!)

We love these girls! 

FLASHBACK:

Afton's Seven Months

Golden's Seven Months

Phoebe's Seven Months

Matilda's Seven Months