A few still moments

It is rare that Emmeline sits still long enough for me to get a good picture of her.  In these three pictures she was sitting on my lap intently watching Sesame Street clips on Youtube:

Emmeline is becoming more independent in her play; looking at books, coloring and pretend play (like cooking or being a mommy to her baby dolls).  Another rare still moment:

A few weeks ago, my friend Kate and I went to the Flavour of Britain in Wilmington.  It is this great little teahouse run by a British couple. Unfortunately they have decided to close in light of the recent economic downturn so we wanted to get in one last afternoon tea service.  They were selling everything: the rest of their merchandise, fixtures and some furniture.  I spotted a wooden toy box hand painted with scenes from Alice in Wonderland.  I knew it would be perfect in Emmeline's nursery.  Janet, one of the owners, told me they had it imported from England when they moved here and that it had been signed by the artist.  She let me have it for $100 but seemed a little sad to be parting with it.  I am so glad she let me have it; it will be a treasured piece of furniture for years and years to come.  It is also nice to have a piece of the teahouse.  It will be sorely missed:

Doesn't it look great under the window?

It irks me that I couldn't center it perfectly

because of a dumb ol' heating vent on the floor

Detail of top (Alice is rather ugly, but I think that

makes the painting more interesting)

Detail of front

Our Little Genius...seriously

Emmeline's vocabulary and intelligence is surprising and thrilling me every day. I am so proud of her. She started saying a few more complex sentences in the past week. When she is looking for a toy, identifying a character in a book or playing hide-and-seek with Paul or I, she says "There she is!" (always "she" probably because it is just us girls most of the week). She is also picking up expressions that Paul and I say without realizing that we are saying them. She has copied Paul's "Oh man!" and my "Ooffda!", though hers is just "Oof!" She is also picking up inflections that we use. Her "wow!" sounds just like mine; I didn't realize this until I exclaimed "wow!" while watching TV on Wednesady and Paul teased, "I thought we put Emmeline to bed."

Emmeline also started to understand the concept of numbers, which is actually pretty abstract so I am incredibly impressed. Whenever she has two of something (usually her baby dolls) she says "two!". She can also identify the letter "B"; she tries the others, but is usually wrong. Still, I am thrilled about "B"! At least she knows the name of the letters even if she can't identify them yet. She knows the titles of most of her books; if you ask her to bring a specific one to you she is able to identify it and say the title, though in her own toddler-speak. Hop on Pop sound like "Pop pop" and Everywhere Babies sounds like "Evvy".

Yes, I am bragging (hey, it IS my blog) but these examples also reveal how language (and behavior) is learned. Not just learning how to say words, but what they mean, how they are inflected, how to use them, etc. We are constantly reminded now that we have to watch what we say and how we say it. Emmeline has picked up some of the not-so-nice things that we say to the cats when they are being mischievous, one being "Hey! Hey! Hey!". She has recently started to repeat this when we are trying to get her to do something against her will. It sounds pretty awful when she decides to say this in public. We have made a resolution to always speak in calm tones and use gentle language. I hope we remember our resolution when she is throwing her food from her high chair or coloring on the 'fridge.

Halloween 2007

I wanted to share some pictures of Emmeline's first Halloween last year because I am feeling particularly nostalgic today (see previous post).  What a little sweet pea!

Lovely little cardboard boxes

Emmeline at four months

Tonight I brought up from the basement boxes of Emmeline's little baby clothes.  And her sweet, dear little bassinet.  Her infant swing and stroller.  My heart broke in the bitter-sweet way that mothers' hearts do when they are confronted with their  babies' little things when their babies are no longer babies.

Our dear friends Kate and Mike are 37 weeks pregnant and we couldn't be more thrilled for them.  I am grateful to them for letting us be such a part of their preparations for the arrival of the their baby.  Tonight as we were unfolding and folding the little baby things, I was reminded of a poem by Dr. Jeanne Walker, a mentor of mine.  This is from her collection Coming into History:

Poem To Say To a Child While Folding His Outgrown Clothing

While you were still unborn

our friends brought, one by one

the clothes their children had worn:

blankets, a tie gown.

And because we were unable

to find you anywhere

we pulled you from the pockets,

we stitched a fable

of a baby yet unborn.

When you finally came

we dressed you in those clothes.

All winter they were kind.

Now I fold the clothes away,

a legacy refined.

Someone else's child

may briefly take his turn.

For parents, now, who wait,

imagining new faces,

I will enumerate

the children whose graces

became your warmest jacket:

Elizabeth and Melissa,

Patrick, Andrew, Kate

wore these clothes once.

Teddy, Bess, and Ethan.

And may their loveliness

wherever these clothes are worn

shield against loss

and pass to those unborn.

Happy Halloween!

Emmeline is now nestled in her crib sleeping soundly after her first trick-or-treating adventure.  It is silly, I know, to take a toddler out for trick-or-treats when we aren't even letting her eat candy yet, but we all had a blast.  In fact, Paul just said: "This has been one of the best Halloweens ever!"  We were like two proud peacocks watching our adorable little daughter take delight in Halloween traditions that we have always loved.  I thought that she would be annoyed by her tiger costume and pull off the hood but she wore it the entire time we were outside.  I also thought she would be more interested in rocks and dumping out her pumpkin than in walking door-to-door.  But I think the whole event was such a novelty and out-of-the-ordinary that she had fun playing along.  She loves to say "hi!" and "bye-bye!" to everyone she meets so she had a great time interacting with so many new people.  She also had her friend Estella to look up to and take notes from.  It was so fun to watch them together.

Our evening started with a very long ride into Newark since we got stuck in traffic for over an hour.  But once we arrived at Mel's apartment, we started right in on the fun.  We had all sorts of fun goodies which included pizza-wiches (always a part of my family's Halloween tradition) and Melanie had made pumpkin pie and steamed some shrimp.  Emmeline and Estella put up some pumpkin window clings and also decorated pumpkins with crayons, while us big kids carved pumpkins:

Did you drop a crayon, Estella?

Pretty pumpkin, Emmeline!  (Notice

that she is right-handed).

What an artist!

Adorable Estella

Ferocious Estella!

All ready to go!

Lets go, mommy! Enough with the

pictures, already!

Hold on tight!

Roar!

Hurry up, mommy!

Watch your step; it's dark out here...

Mummy's little tiger cub.

I can't tell you how many people

gushed over this face tonight... how

could anyone resist?

"Trick or treat!..."

"Smell my feet!.."

"Give me something good to eat!"

Oofda! This pumpkin is getting heavy!

Here; let daddy help you with all those goodies.

Lions, tigers and bears... oh my!

Sweet Sixteen

It has been a while since I have updated you all about what is going on with Emmeline so I thought it was high-time to catch you up.  She turned 16 months old last Wednesday the 22nd and she is as busy as ever.  She is never more happy than when she is running towards a playground or squatting in the dirt and/or sand.  Needless to say, we spend A LOT of time at the park.  We go at least once a day, sometime twice depending on if I have to go to campus or not.  But Paul and I don't mind in the least.  It is the perfect time of year for outside play in Delaware and the fall is our favorite season.  Right now our weather is hovering between 60 and 70, with a few mid-50 days scattered in.  The sunshine is still bright and warm in the afternoons but it is pretty chilly in the shade.

Emmeline is talking up a storm and entertaining us hourly with her new words, quips and requests.  A few days ago she started saying her own name; it sounds like "Eh-mine".  Up until that point she referred to herself as "baby."  She asked for chicken tonight at dinner; I didn't even know she knew what that was!  We have been working on her manners and her "please" and "thank-you" are becoming automatic.  Sometimes she will need a reminder, but for the  most part is very quick with them.  She has also learned that if she asks for something "PEAS!" that she will probably get it; she is just too darned cute to refuse!  (It is even more cute because she couples the verbal word with the sign).  Her adorable manners have been difficult for me to resist lately as we have been working on weaning.

For about a month now, it has been my goal to nurse her only in the morning when she wakes up, at nap time, once when I come home from campus, and at bedtime.  We have also weaned her in the middle of the night so she is no longer waking up (yay!).  I was worried that the weaning process would be rather difficult for her, but she adapted very well.  I have to admit that I knew that if she didn't adjust well to weaning, I would have let it go and tried again when she was older.  I wanted us to both be ready.  I didn't want to emotionally traumatize her or have her mistrust me, but she has done very well.  One of the main reasons we decided to start weaning is because she wanted to nurse when she wanted to cuddle; very rarely was she hungry.  She would say that she was done eating and drinking but then immediately want to nurse.  She also became increasingly clingy and anxious when she was at her day-school; this led to her wanting to nurse all the time even after we had withdrew her and had her back at home.  At the beginning of our weaning process, when she asked to nurse ("MI PEAS?!") I would hold her tight, tell her that I love her and offer her milk in a cup, then a snack.  I wanted her to know that we could still be close and not have to nurse.  She still asks to nurse more often than those four times a day, but it is getting much easier to distract her with other things.  She also asks for it less often and less forcefully.

In mid-September we withdrew Emmeline from her day-school and hired a part-time nanny to care for her at our home.  We made this switch because we feel it is important for Emmeline to have one-on-one attention at home where she is most comfortable.  Since this is really the first time that she is being separated from Paul and I on a regular basis, we feel like this is an easier and more beneficial transition.  Emmeline adores Tara and asks for her quite often: "Ti-Ti?!"  She is thrilled to see Tara walk through the door three times a week.  We are very grateful to her for working so lovingly with our little daughter.  Tara is an education major so she values learning and loves to work with kids.  She works with Emmeline on all of the standard things (numbers, counting, colors, manners) but they also have dance parties and are silly together.  A few weeks ago, I was giving Emmeline a bath and she holds out her hand ands says "High five!".  How cute is that?!

Paul is now reminding me that I have other work to do so I suppose I should sign off for now.  This post is ridiculously long anyway.  I must apologize for posting more pictures of Emmeline at the park.  I forget about the camera until we are on our way out of the house...and most of the time when we are leaving the house as a family, we are on our way to the park!

C'mon! Let's go play!

Here I come, mommy!

She loves playing in the sand, much to

my chagrin.

Nothing cuter than my hubby operating a sand 

crane with the diaper bag on his shoulder.

Look! A pretty, red leaf!

And a pretty red ball!

Thanks for following my adventures

on the playground! Bye for now!

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

It is Paul's birthday today but we found it difficult to squeeze in time to properly celebrate.  Poor Paul got the raw end of the deal because his birthday fell in the middle of a busy work week.  We both had to teach today and both have work to do yet tonight as well (but that isn't stopping him from watching the Phillies game right now!).  Emmeline and I did manage to take Paul out to dinner at the Washington Street Ale House this evening and I also took him out last Saturday night with some friends.  A few minutes ago we just ate some cake and he opened a few presents. We will have to stretch out our celebration, I think, through the upcoming weekend.  We are having some friends from the Birth Center coming over for crock pot chili on Saturday; I am sure they won't mind sharing some cake with us!  Also, a trip to Ramsey's pumpkin patch and corn maze is in order for the near future.

I didn't get any pictures taken today, but here are a few pictures of Emmeline and Paul enjoying the park last Thursday and Saturday:

A chip off the ol' block

Hi, daddy!

Playing in the sand right before dusk