The New Adventures of Young Emerson

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't."
-- Barbara Kingsolver

Emmy is on the move for real now! She can take a couple of independent steps before falling into our arms, she cruises with ease and stands on her own. She can bend down to pick things up and sits down from a stand rather than falling down. Little BG is going to be walking before you know it! I am amazed and proud of her, but those little snuggly baby days are just slipping away so fast. We only have two months left until her birthday, which seems unbelievable. G and I were talking about taking down the co-sleeper last night because it hasn't been used in 6 weeks or so, and I realized that it has been taking up all of the space in our tiny bedroom for a whole year- crazy! It is a little nuts that it is still there, but Em slept in our room until she was about 8 months old, not because she wasn't ready to move on but because I wasn't. She transitioned to her room no problem, heck she was probably relieved to have some quiet and privacy! I'm a nut. Anywho, the girl is also talking more and more as well. Today she said "book" several times, which is no surprise because she has been book-obsessed for months now. They are still (in spite of the awesome toys she received at Christmas) her favorite play-things and we read at least 20 of them a day. While she likes to read, she loves to look at them, play with them and chew on them just as much. It's funny to watch her and wonder what she is thinking about. I wonder if she is making up her own stories about the characters. It is even more fun to watch her kiss several of the characters or pictures in her favorite books. Current kissable favs include Mr. Brown, a gorilla, a baby, and a picture of her Dada in a photo book about her. She babbles more and tries to say words now when we are reading, which is a rather new development that I attribute to a recent improvement in her hearing since receiving ear tubes over the holidays. I hope this continues and her speech begins to take off. Little baby voices are too sweet!