Lately

Josh's cousins Sergei and Albert sent him a fun board game to cheer him up after his accident. He loves it. A lot of Josh's toys end up on top of the kitchen table nowadays to keep them out of Emma's reach. All day long Josh is taking his toys away from Emma. And he also usually wants to play with whatever she is playing with. If Josh takes something from her, Emma will now chase after him and if it's within her reach she will snatch it back. If it's not within her reach she will growl and yell. Josh LOVES singing. He sings all day long. He's incredibly polite. It's really rewarding to hear him say please and thank you without being prompted. He's always been a big milk drinker but lately he's obsessed with chocolate milk. He blows me away with his expanding knowledge. He's using his imagination more and more. When Emma sits on the rug by the door out to the garage, Josh runs over and stand on the rug with her and pretends they're on an elevator. It's fun to see what he picks up and observes from his surroundings. He loves helping whenever we do anything. He wants to be involved and I love it so much. I hope he stays like that. To me, family is all about wanting to be together all the time and do everything together. 

Garbage Day is an exciting day around here. The anticipation of hearing the garbage truck from a mile away and running to one window to see it there for a few seconds and then running to the other window to see it drive around our cul de sac and in front of our house. Lately we've been talking about days of the week and how certain days we do certain things like Sunday we go to church, Monday we do Family Night, Tuesday is the day Daddy has a meeting (mutual :)) after work so we don't see him all day, Thursday is Garbage Day, Friday we do movie night, the past few weeks we've been singing "Saturday is special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday", etc. 

Well one of Josh's favorite tv shows in Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (a new PBS Kids show based on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood) and there's Prince Wednesday, Prince Tuesday, and King Friday on the show. So we were going to take dinner to Josh's friend Perry's house because his mom just had a baby. Josh has an incredible memory and remembers that the last time we went to Perry's house was on a Saturday for an Easter activity so he said, "It's Saturday today?" and I said "No it's Wednesday today" and he said, "No, it's not Prince Wednesday today." I didn't say anything. I saw him thinking and saying quietly to himself something about Perry and Prince Wednesday and going to Perry's house. Then a minute later he said, "Mom, is it Movie Night tonight?" and I said "No, Movie Night is Friday" and I saw him thinking some more and then he said, "It's Perry's dad?" I was so confused and then after a minute I realized because we were going to Perry's house on a Wednesday, Josh thought Perry was Prince Wednesday so naturally that must make Perry's dad King Friday.  Sometimes he gets a little confused with days of the week and people :).

Emma is 10 months old and has grown leaps and bounds lately. She's just suddenly seeming so grown up. She is so much more independent and plays on her own and with Josh. She's happier and doesn't need me to hold her all the time. Her personality is just shining through so much and her cuteness is really almost too much for me to take!! I love this age! She's sleeping pretty well at night, sometimes she wakes up and needs help getting back to sleep and sometimes she wakes up really early but usually she sleeps about 10-11 hours at night. We've come a long way :).

She's a bit feisty. If you take something from her she will whack you in the face. If she tries to open something or move something or is frustrated in any way, she'll tense up her body and growl. I need to get it on video one of these days. She's the troublemaker around here and gets Josh into trouble. She does things she knows she's not supposed to (like splash in the bathtub) and when I tell her to stop, she looks at me and does it again. She totally knows she's doing something she's not supposed to. Usually she just splashes harder. She's been crawling for a couple months now and is really fast. She also walks along the edge of the sofa pretty quickly. She'll probably start walking in the next couple months. She crawls up stairs really well but we're still working on crawling down stairs.

She does this thing all the time where it looks like she's about to do a somersault. She just does it randomly (pictured below) and it's so cute. She loves drumming and makes anything into a drum. I think she just loves whacking things and making loud noises. She used to squeal as her way of "talking" and I knew she was happy if she was squealing and making high pitched sounds. But now she says "haaaa" when she sees someone and sometimes waves her hand and it means "hi" but it's also the sound she makes when she seems something new and is fascinated with it. She'll just say "haaaa" over and over.  She also says "Dada", "Mama", and "Jaaaa" for Josh :). Just in the past couple days she's starting babbling more and making other little sounds too.

She loves to be outside. She just giggles when she's outside. She loves playing with grass (Josh hated grass for awhile. I still don't think he loves sitting on it.) and in the dirt. She loves rolling around in a big pile of blankets or clothes. She can eat pretty much any food so eating is more fun. Her favorites are strawberries, yogurt, pancakes, cheese, avocado, smoothies, and recently veggie dogs. She has been able to drink her sippie cup by herself for a couple months now. Sometimes she pulls at her hair while she eats so her hair gets all gross. When she's full, she starts dropping food on the ground. She's still nursing 4 times a day (before each meal and before bed). Sometimes she will crawl over to me just to touch me and say "hi" and maybe get a little snuggle and then off she goes to keep playing. Her smile melts me. Only Josh can make her belly laugh, and he prides himself in that. His mission in life these days is to make her laugh and when he does he says, "Mom! Look at Emma!" (giggles) "She's laughing!! She's so cuuute."



Josh takes such good care of her. He keeps her from putting "chokies" in her mouth. He makes sure the door down to the basement is closed so she doesn't fall down. He tries to help her with things she's trying to do and can't. The other day I asked him to give Emma her sippy cup at the table and he held it for her while she drank and then after a little while he took it and said, "ok Emma that's enough" (which is exactly what I say). He likes to come with me when I lay her down for her naps and he sings to her. It's just music to my ears to hear him all day long saying, "Eeeemmmmaaaaa, come heeeeerrrre!" They are best buddies. It's all I ever dreamed of.