fifteen months old - 05.27.2013

emery annabelle is fifteen months old. she's walking great now and can bend down to pick things up and stand right back up. this weekend she finally started getting up to standing from sitting without the help of the furniture. yes, this is a little backwards, she could even get up on her knees and knee-walk to the couch, but she didn't know to put her bum in the air and her hands on the floor and stand up. i saw her do it twice before now, but this weekend it finally clicked how easy it is to get up that way.

her newest dance move is a spin that most often leads to some kind of wobbly tumble.

she's getting two molars on top and at least one on the bottom right - and she's still reluctant to let me look.

she's starting to make connections in her mind. the other day, she said: mama! i said: yes, ma'am? she said: where's dada? (one of her first sentences!) today i asked her: what's your favorite color? and she said what sounded like: "gwee" (green?) but that might be a stretch. last week she looked out the kitchen window from the living room and signed and said: "ray-ray-ray" (rain) and i said, no, i think it's just windy. then i opened the living room curtains and, sure enough, it was raining.

she also does a really good job following instructions and understanding words (most of the time!) today when i was talking about her jacket, she said: jacket! and pointed to one hanging on the chair. last week when my dad asked her to find her duck (referring to a yellow stuffed duck from my aunt), she looked in the toy box and pulled out a rubber ducky (he didn't say which duck). earlier in the morning, i asked her if she'd pooped and she picked up her Pooh Bear. ha. most of the time, when i ask her to go get her shoes, she goes into her room and opens the drawer and brings me a shoe (or two, though they may or may not match). when we're ready to go downstairs, i can tell her to put her lovie (peter) back in the crib and most of the time, she'll shove him back through the slats (and probably pull him right back out), or if i pick her up and take her to the crib, she'll drop him in and say: bye bye paw-puh (peter).

when she's hungry, she used to say ho-wee (hungry), and that's morphed into: hi-dee. and also, she points to her cheerio container and says: more! which used to be mo-blee (more please) but it has morphed to more, which sometimes sounds like mo, moy, boar, boy. when asked to pray, she put her hands together and say: tee-too (thank you).

when i ask her something and the answer is yes (e.g., do you want some lunch? are you ready for a nap? do you want to see gramma?) she smiles and does a little excited chuckle/giggle.

she still loves her best friend, kitty, but more often, she sees the neighbors' dogs. our friends across the street have three very large dogs - i don't know what kind they are, but they look mostly like this dog except for the color (two are chestnut and one is dark brown).

a couple weeks ago, while we were playing across the street, emery kept walking up to their front door, where the dogs were looking out the screen door, saying: ruh ruh ruh! and so their owner brought one out that is 80-90lbs, and emery followed him around saying: ruh ruh ruh! - he was taller than her and about 4.5x heavier than her. she wasn't scared one bit.

another neighbor was walking her dog across the street while we were playing on the sidewalk on our side, and emery turned around and started walking the direction the dog was walking, watching the dog the whole way. i sure don't know what this little girl is scared of - nothing so far!

until recently, she was pointing with her whole hand. now she can point with her pointer finger, but only with her right hand - her left is still her whole hand, palm up, fingers all together and straight and cupped. (you know you're trying that now). haha.

she's pretty reserved around other people, especially large groups and new people. (but who's surprised that our kid is exactly like blake and me?) she eventually warms up if given enough time - but this makes some folks a little bummed when all they get is a quiet stare instead of smiles and silliness.

today emery wore her All American Cutie t-shirt because she's so grateful for all the sacrifice of servicemen and women! thank you!