Today was my first real Mother’s Day and It. Was. Awesome.

Peter gave me a “day off,” and I spent it sleeping in, taking a long bath, napping, and going shopping by myself. We also had a great breakfast together, and an impromptu dinner with wonderful friends, not to mention some great Craigslist hunting, which made it all in all a pretty great day.

This past week, we hit a pretty massive milestone: first words!

Emmie is quite clearly signing “more,” and has added “all done” and possibly “milk” as well. I think she thinks “more” means “rice puffs” or at least, “thing that I want.” I can be giving her a food she is indifferent to, and she will look at the container of puffs on the table and sign “more.” If I give her more of what she’s eating, she’ll turn her head away from my spoon and look again at the puffs and sign it again. That said, when I *do* give her the puffs (or another favorite food), she will BEAM and smile and laugh with the joy of having gotten what she wanted, just by tapping her hands together. I love it so, so much.

She’s also expressing her wants and desires a lot more clearly (she even HAS wants and desires now!). Our sitter told us that Emmie was pointing at her blue horse book, the sitter picked out a different book, and Emmie pushed that book away and pointed again at the blue horse book. As soon as the sitter got the horse book, Emmie settled right in and sat quietly while she read. This may not seem amazing to people who do not have children, but to watch your little baby go from only expressing needs like hunger or sleep to actually WANTING things and preferring one thing over another… well, we are watching the birth of a personality right here!

And since it’s been a while since I’ve uploaded any pictures of Emmie, here’s a bunch of gratuitous baby shots: