Eighteen Months Old

Dearest daughter,

You are 18 months old today and your daddy and I couldn't be more in love with you. You are bright, beautiful and oh so busy! You make us laugh so very much every day with all of the silly and adorable things that you do. We are amazed at how much you can say and do and all of the things that you have learned. Your vocabulary is expanding every day (today you learned "chilly" and yesterday, "itchy"...both courtesy of na-ma). You can identify several letters and can count to four! You can also sing/hum the tune to several songs. Your favorites right now are "Row, row, row your boat," "Twinkle, twinkle," and the ABCs.

At 18 months, your other "likes" include listening to music and singing (especially music including Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street gang), sweet things like strawberries and graham crackers, coloring and scribbling, looking at books with photographs of real babies and animals (even better, ones with lift-up flaps); you have also taken to any book with Santa in it and have been reading The Night Before Christmas with pa-pa every night before bed. You absolutely love climbing stairs anywhere you can find them, chasing bubbles, banging on computer keyboards, carrying a cell phone around on your shoulder and saying, "Hi, daddy! Hi, daddy! Hi daddy!". You have a very nurturing side as you care for your baby dolls and are gentle with animals; you especially like puppies, kitties, and birds (you do the cutest sign for "bird" and say "tweet, tweet"!). One of your greatest pleasures is cuddling up with someone under a blanket and sucking your thumb while you squeeze that someone's index finger. At the present you are having quite a bit of fun exploring na-ma and pa-pa's house and all of the fun things in it. You have found Jacy's old kitchen set, complete with plastic food, appliances and dishes galore! The glittering Christmas tree with all of the presents underneath it has also caught your attention. You have already said "op it" (open it) several times since we arrived in North Dakota last Tuesday. We can't wait to watch all the fun you will have this Christmas!

Your dislikes are getting dressed, winding down for naps and bedtime, getting cleaned up after meals and snacks, sitting in one place for more than a minute (oh how you squirm on the plane!), North Dakota's very cold weather (it takes your breath away), waiting for anything or anyone for more than five seconds, getting into the car seat or stroller, and the vacuum.

The list of your "likes" is much longer (and I could have kept going) than your "dislikes" because you truly are a happy baby. You have a very outgoing, friendly, and cheery disposition. You make fast-friends where ever you go and are very interested in new people and places. Though it may take a minute or two to warm up to someone, once you are comfortable with them they become your new best friend. A few weeks ago, you met one of my classmates for only a few minutes on campus and couldn't stop talking about him for several hours: "Bob?! Bob?! Bob?!" Yesterday at na-ma's Master Chorale concert, you made friend with 2-year-old Lucia. She was actually a little shy, but you went right up to her and said, "Hi! Hi! Hi!". Within minutes you two were holding hands and tripping up and down steps together.

Tonight your na-ma, pa-pa and I looked through pictures of me when I was your age. Our birthdays are only 22 days a part so you are almost exactly the same age as I was at Christmas time 27 years ago. You and I look so much alike that we kept seeing you looking out at us from those old pictures. (I will add some pictures here on the blog once I figure out na-ma's scanner.) You look like your daddy, too, but I will need to inspect his toddler pictures once we are in Minneapolis next week. One thing is for sure, your size comes from your daddy!

Emmy Lou, even though you are still little, we are so very proud of you. You are learning and growing so much every day. We love the little person that you are becoming: so curious, independent and sweet with a touch of spit-fire. It is such a profound pleasure to watch you grow, learn and experience the world. We are so deeply thankful that you are ours.

We love you little one,
Mommy and daddy

Hi, Na-ma!

Today Emmeline said "na-ma" (grandma) for the first time without me prompting her though we have been working on "grandma" for some time now.  I brought the laptop into the kitchen to check my email while she ate breakfast and when she saw it she said "na-ma?!".  We got on Skype as soon as possible so that Emmeline could see and talk to na-ma.  For several weeks she has been saying "pa pa?!" (grandpa) whenever she sees the computer or the phone. She has also been able to recognize Jacy and say her name since August when she came to visit. We have pictures of everyone on our 'fridge so that she can match names with faces.  She loves to talk about my brother Nathan ("Nay-nay") though we never Skype with him.  In the picture that we have displayed of my brother-in-law, Paul, he has some facial hair so everyone with facial hair is "Paul" to her (strangely enough, even bald, African American Gordon on Sesame Street).  For some reason, it took her a bit longer to get the hang of saying "grandma." My  mom is tickled pink.  And it happened right on time; we leave for the Midwest on Monday!

I don't have any current pictures of Emmeline with my mom (we haven't seen our families since beginning of July!) so you will have to content yourself with these pictures of Emmeline "helping" me bake a cake a few weeks ago:

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

So, here is my very over-due Thanksgiving post.  Quite a bit has happened around here since then, but I might as well start at the beginning and go from there.

Our Thanksgiving celebrations started Sunday, November 23.  We had Kate and Mike over for an early Thanksgiving dinner because their baby was due on the 25th and we wanted to make sure that they would get a proper turkey dinner.  (Their baby was finally born on Dec. 2; more about sweet Emilia Rose in a following post).  On Wednesday night Paul and I made lefse a traditional Norwegian flatbread made from potatoes.  My mom started making it when us kids were little and a few years ago she and my dad gave Kelsey and I all of the equipment. Kelsey by now is already a lefse expert, but this was my first solo attempt.

This is Kelsey making lefse in her kitchen

in Idaho; isn't she cute?!

First you have to boil potatoes and then

rice them for the dough

From left to right: the pastry board, pastry 

rolling pin and the lefse griddle

Lefse cooking on the griddle

Paul was the official lefse flipper!

Ta-da!

And just to make sure we were doing it right, we video conferenced with my parents and Jacy over Skype (you can see my mom in the foreground and dad behind her)  It was a lot of fun. We felt as if we were making lefse together despite the 1,500 miles that separate us.  We have been Skyping a lot lately so that my parents and my sisters can interact with Emmeline.  It has been a great way to keep Emmeline reminded about her family and it has been fun for them to see her play, eat, take baths or whatever.  It is so much more fun than pictures.

On Thanksgiving Day, Paul and Emmeline watched the parade. Emmeline now knows who Santa is and names him whenever she sees him.  I made Monkey bread that morning and brought some fresh lefse over to Kate and Mike's (they were still waiting for that baby!).  Later that evening we went to one of my professor's houses for dinner with her family.  She has invited us to Thanksgiving for several years now. We are so thankful that she and her family invite us to share their company and holiday with us.

Monkey bread: our traditional breakfast pastry

that we make for Holidays.

Dinner was late so we put Emmeline

in her pajamas.

She had fun showing off for everyone.

Yum!  The desserts!  We brought the pumpkin pie.

The remnants of our lovely dinner...

Emmeline was completely pooped out

and fell asleep on the ride home.

On Friday, we were invited to our neighbor's parents' house in Newark for chili and cornbread and tree decorating.  We have decided not to put up a tree because of our very curious little toddler and three cats so we were glad to have a tree to decorate.  Emmeline did a good job and got the hang of it pretty quickly.  Though once the tree was decorated, she started taking the ornaments off.

Paul showed Emmeline how to hang the

ornaments

Soon she could do it on her own...

...but then started to take the ornaments off.

Silly girl!

Emmeline has learned to say "Cheese!" for the camera

That Friday night Paul got a poker game together with some friends at our house.  We forgot to put the poker chips away so Emmeline made a bee-line for them the next morning.  This kept her occupied for close to an hour which is rather incredible.  She sorted them, stacked them, put them in things, threw them down the basement stairs, hid them, and rattled them in different sizes of containers (what beautiful music to Paul who was still sleeping!). We also practiced her colors and counting.  She has got white, red, blue and black down!

Ooo!  What fun!

Even more fun when they are

dumped out...

I'm 'all in'!