I’m terribly behind in my blogging, but I’m happy to say it’s for very good reasons. We’ve been wonderfully busy with friends, family and summer fun, and frankly, some nights I choose snuggling up with Peter on the couch with a movie or sitting on the porch talking with my parents over blogging. And that’s good.

As I’m typing, I’m importing the 450+ pictures I’ve taken over the last few weeks. Wow! And I know there were many times when I thought about taking pictures, but decided I’d rather live in the moment than try to capture it, so there could have been many more too! Yikes. I just realized that photo count starts AFTER our giant housewarming/birthday party! Sheesh.

I want to note a couple things here, before I forget. First, Emmie had a developmental eval for her gross motor skills, since she failed the screener at her 12 month appt for walking and stuff. She actually ended up having two evals (kinda), and basically they both said the same: she’s super cute, doing great in everything, just a little slower with the walking/standing stuff but should be fine. If she’s not totally walking without falling in 6 months, we’ll bring her back. But since the quality of her movement looks good and she has all the building blocks for walking, they weren’t worried.

In other fun news, Emmie started signing “Daddy” today. I *love* when I figure out something that she’s been doing has actually been a sign all along (or a gesture has crystallized into a meaningful sign), especially since it ties in so closely with my research for my master’s thesis. For example, for the past week or so, she’s inconsistently been clapping her hands to the side of her face or to her ears. Sometimes one hand, sometimes both. Today, it was VERY CLEAR that she meant “Dada” when she put her fist to her cheek/ear. Like, she would say “Da” while doing it and look at at the door her Daddy had just walked through. Because OF COURSE she only signs it when he is not there. Just like she only said “Mama” when I was not there (and now I really do believe my mom and Peter that she WAS saying it, even though I never witnessed it, because I’ve now seen it with Daddy. Why bother calling to the person if they are right there?). It was really sweet, and she did it many times, including at bedtime, after Daddy said good night and left her room.

She also started signing “dog” today, although I think I’m being a little more generous with that one. She definitely patted her leg a couple times when we were talking about Jasper, but the intent was not nearly as clear as with “Daddy.”

She’s becoming more and more a toddler (without the “toddling” part) in indescribable ways. Sometimes it seems like it’s the way you can see her trying to figure out the world, sometimes it seems like it’s the way she interacts with us in such a… normal way. This might sound weird, but if you haven’t been the parent of a baby (or it was a long time ago), you should know that babies are WEIRD. Emmie laughed at the weirdest things. Her first laugh was at the ladybug costume Peter pulled out of a bag. The she would laugh at the wall sometimes, or something unusual, but never at silly faces or things you would expect. So for her to now laugh at things because she LIKES them and things they are fun… well, it’s just really NORMAL! I can predict what she will laugh at (seeing a ball on the floor, being dropped onto the fluffy down comforter, playing peek-a-boo, Jasper, being held while someone runs), and they are relatively fun/funny things.

A slightly bad development has really taken form, though. We have a little princess on our hands. NOT by our own conscious making (I attempt to avoid anything overtly “princess,” although I can already tell this will be nigh unto impossible in the years to come), but a certain someone has developed a very imperious way of beckoning and some other very affected mannerisms. She even does the “princess wave” with her wrist. Yikes.

She literally crosses her ankles when eating in her high chair, holds her hand with her palm up to reach to things, and generally acts as if the world revolves around her. Which, to be fair, it sort of has for the past month or so, with all of the grandparental attention she’s been getting. But now she’s stuck with plain ol’ mom and dad, who make her do things like entertain herself while we make dinner, and who don’t come running the very instant she starts crying. (We also clap and cheer when she falls down, which may seem weird, but it throws her off enough that she generally doesn’t cry at that stuff). Oh well, at least her favorite things are balls and cars!

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Update: I started this yesterday, and I swear, we turned the corner away from babyhood today. How do I know we’re approaching toddlerhood? The TESTING! Every. Single. Limit. (And I know it will only get worse). I’m going to have to figure something out FAST so Emmie doesn’t start to think her name is “No!” I try “uh-oh,” and “no-no,” and sometimes “oops” but “no” just comes out so easily, especially when I turn around from making dinner to see her climbing the stairs or playing in Jasper’s water bowl or opening the unsafe cabinet that I forgot to re-baby-proof or dropping her milk from her high chair for the dozenth time, etcetera times infinity.

*Sigh* I really enjoyed having a sweet, well-behaved little baby while she lasted!

At least she is super cute.