Crawling, Teeth, and Formula: 10 Things About Emma

1. Emma says "Dada", "baba", "yaya", and I think she's said "mama" once. She also squeals, laughs, and clicks her tongue.

2. One day Emma was clicking her tongue and I thought it sounded like her smacking her lips. So every time she did it I said, "Are you giving kisses?" Now, almost every time I ask, "Can you give kisses?" she clicks her tongue. It's really cute.

3. Emma is crawling! For a while she just inch-wormed along but a couple weeks ago she figured out how to scoot her legs forward without dropping her body and face to the ground in between scoots. Now she is really crawling, but she crawls with one leg straight out.

4. She is a little thing. She used to look big compared to my friends' kids (most of them are about 6 weeks younger) but slowly they've all surpassed her. She eats really well and developmentally she's fine but at her 9-month appointment the pediatrician wasn't happy with her growth. Her iron was also low so we decided to switch her to formula to help increase her calorie intake. It makes me a little sad to stop nursing her but she really likes the formula and drinks way more than I think she was getting from me. We also did some blood tests to see if there was anything else related to the slow weight gain and everything came back fine. So last week we took her in for a follow up and she had already gained a pound and a half in just two weeks. Now at 10 months she weighs 15 lbs 12 oz and is 27 1/2 inches tall.

5. Emma puts everything in her mouth. I think I forgot how much babies do this. Friday I was cleaning our room and bathroom with the express purpose of getting rid of all the non-Emma-approved items off of the floor. I found bobby pins, little pieces of paper or wrappers, coins (Will really likes money right now... More on that later), hair bands, etc. I thought I was doing a pretty good job but every time I looked back at her somehow she kept finding the hair, bandaid (another Will phase), and stickers (yep, you guessed it-- Will) that I had missed or hadn't pick up yet. Lucky for me instead of trying to swallow them she just gets frustrated with the weird texture in her mouth and starts crying until I get whatever it is out with my finger. Now I am constantly scanning the floor wherever we are.

6. Emma likes almost all baby food (the only ones she gags on are green veggie purées). She's also eating some finger foods including Cheerios (LOTS of Cheerios!), bananas, avocado, potatoes, sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs, and little bits of whatever soft food we have with dinner. If she doesn't like something she just leaves her mouth open and screeches until either it falls out or I take it out.

7. She still makes this incredibly cute, funny face where she scrunches up her face and breathes loudly through her nose. She does it all the time by herself but she'll copy you if you do it too.

8. Emma loves her momma. I'm not just saying that because I want it to be true! It really is true! She loves to cuddle with me and suck her thumb, she sees me and reaches for me even if someone else is holding her, and she always smiles really big when she sees me. I love it. Sometimes she'll cuddle with Taylor but only if she's really tired.

9. She has two bottom teeth!

10. Every time we put her down for a nap or bedtime she gets really mad, kicks her legs, whines for a second until we give her her stuffed giraffe (we love Jellycats!) then she sticks her thumb in her mouth, rolls over, and goes to sleep. (Or at least we're pretty sure she sleeps. Most nights when we put Will to bed (an hour later) she's awake. She either sits up and cries, is already sitting up, or tries to pull herself up on the side of the crib. Maybe she hears us coming up the stairs and wakes up?)

We love our baby girl. I can't believe she's almost 10 months!

School, Honey Trees, and Rocks: 10 Things About Will

1. Last week we went to the baptism of our friend's daughter, then to their house for a party, then to a wedding reception. On our way to the wedding reception Emma was crying (she was tired and hungry) so Will said, "Emma! It's ok! We're going a wedding!" When she proceeded to cry some more he said, clearly exasperated, "Ugh, Emma, stop crying! Daddy drive a wedding!"

2. Will's favorite movies right now are Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Winnie the Pooh. It's adorable. I loved both of these growing up and I am really loving the break from the movie Cars. On top of that, so many of the funny things he does and says are based on these movies. He sings the main song "Chitty bang bang bang, we love you!" and talks about "Cackhrutdaa Potts" (Caractacus is his actual name), "toot sweet", and about the car that flies and floats on the water (and crashes, because all cars crash... loudly... in Will's world).

3. On the Winnie the Pooh side of things... He says, "Halooo!" like Tigger at least ten times a day. He sleeps with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Pez dispensers. He sings parts of the theme song as he plays with his toys. He pulls the bear-shaped honey containers from the pantry, says, "Honeys bears! (And quoting Pooh in Will language) Only the sticky part's left." When I ask him about Christopher Robin he says, "Tut tut! Looks like rain!" And last but not least, everything is a honey tree. Last week Taylor was helping me by making me a PVC photography backdrop stand that I saw on Pinterest. We bought the pipes and connectors and just needed to put them together so he had Will help him. When they finished, Will pointed up to the top with excitement saying, "We make a honey tree!"

4. Will had his first day of Joy School two weeks ago! To help get him excited we went on a Target date the night before, just me and him, to get school supplies. We got a Spider-Man pencil, a glue stick, a box of crayons, and his own little box to put it all in. He was so proud. As we walked around Target he held onto his box and repeatedly told me, "We put my name! A school!" (I had told him we were going to put his name on the box and bring it to school.) The next day he met his classmates Simon, Janie, and Mikey from the Agoura 2nd ward and he already knew Esme from his Nursery class. Simon's mom Megan was teaching so we walked in, Will sat down in his chair, started to color and show off his new box of school supplies and he didn't even care that I left. The next day he asked if we could go to Target to get more school supplies. They meet once a week and he loves playing with his friends at school.

5. Will's best friend moved away (just to Pasadena, but it's still too far away. We miss them.) He talks about Harrison everyday. He especially likes to use it as an excuse during tantrums or tears. When he reaches the point where he can't remember why he was upset in the first place, he says through the tears something like, "I want my Harrison." Or "I play with Harrison?" How do you respond to that?

6. He doesn't say "her" or "hers".  Instead he says "shis", because if it's "he" and "his" then obviously it's "she" and "shis", as in "That's shis bottle."

7. Another funny language quirk- Will always says "my" instead of "I". For instance, "My go ride bike", or "My want my daddy", or simply "My not!" when he doesn't want to do something.

8. Will loves stories. And he usually asks for specific topics. "Mommy tehw sowee bow (mommy tell a story about) Hisson scooter (Harrison's scooter), winapoo (Winnie the pooh), apumm (airplanes), wassus (horses), daddy truck (daddy's truck), etc." (Can you tell that I speak Will almost fluently? Ok not really, but I understand a lot.) Like every good story, I always start with "Once upon a time" so whenever I ask Will to tell a story, so does he. Then I just nod along until I hear a word that I understand and repeat it excitedly like it's the best story I've ever heard. It's really good bonding time.

9. Every time we leave Will with a babysitter he freaks out--he sobs, screams, bangs the door, and then falls on the floor dramatically after we've left. (It's the same routine Will used to go through everyday when Daddy went to work.) Luckily it only lasts a couple minutes so our babysitters keep coming back. Last time we went on a date, we tried to prepare him better. Before we left, Taylor sat him down, talked to him, and told him that mommy and daddy were going on a date but that we would be back after his bedtime. He seemed fine until we started to leave and he broke down as usual, this time clutching the doorknob for dear life and sobbing, "I go date!" Oh well, we tried.

10. And since we are approaching potty training someday soon (I want to hold off until he's closer to three, but I know that will come sooner than I think!) here's a diaper story from the other day. Will was watching us make dinner in the kitchen and he was clearly working on... something. So Taylor and I chuckled, let him do his thing, and when finished he patted his diaper and said, "I got a rock in there!" Oh, the mind of a toddler boy...

Wild Wild West

Toddler dreams came true this week. Will and his best buddy Harrison (who are both going through a major cowboy phase) got to ride ACTUAL HORSES on Wednesday!

It was Elizabeth's idea (Harrison's mom). She talked to Wendy Hull in our ward and asked if we could bring our boys over to have a real cowboy experience riding their horses. The Smiths moved to Pasadena last month, we took turns being out-of-town, and finally our schedules matched up and they made the long trek back to Agoura (ok... it's not that long but it's further away than I want the Smiths to live). Will wore his cowboy hat and boots (and his Dodger shirt, of course). Harrison wore his cowboy hat, bandana, and carried his cowboy rope. (And Taylor also wore his cowboy hat and cowboy boots... Will is definitely his son.)

We had so much fun.

Bishop Hull eased them into it and started them off feeding the horses carrots. Harrison was fearless, fed them completely by himself, but he would only feed the carrots to one of the two horses. Will took a little more prodding. He loved watching the horses eat the carrots, loved holding the bucket, loved throwing the carrots at the horses but (understandably) he wasn't too keen about putting his hands anywhere near those horse teeth.

"It's so easy, Will!"

(He was pulling away before the horse even got the carrot.)

After all the carrots were gone Bishop Hull brought out Dusty.

I am not really an animal person and horses kind of terrify me but isn't he a beautiful horse?

I was doubtful that Will would touch a horse, let alone ride one, so we had our buddy Simon (the Hulls' grandson and Will's new joy school friend) on standby ready to show the boys how it's done. But they didn't need it. They both brushed the horse a couple times and then they were ready to ride it! Harrison went first, rode down the driveway, then Will switched with him, rode down the road a bit, then Simon had his turn. They each took 2 or 3 turns each. They loved it! And it was adorable and amazing how small they looked on this huge horse.

This face.

Will and Simon patiently waiting their turn (for about a minute before they found some rocks to throw).

I love these boys. I'm so glad the Smiths didn't move to another state or something else drastic.

And then there's this cutie:

I just adore her so much.