Hopefully my transformation post will help ease into what I’m about to say about my little guy from these past few months. Warning, there will be lots of gushing and probably a little too much enthusiasm for this kid as I get through talking about these past few months with him.
Emmett turned 19 months on November 27 and while I wanted to do a separate post for that month, here it is, January 1, 2014 and he’s now 20 months (as of December 27). So here I am AGAIN, having to lump two of his most memorable months into one post.
First we’ll start off with month 19. Oh my. We had a rough beginning my friends. I was still feeling sick from pregnancy as I was still in the earlier part of the second trimester and still feeling run down and tired everyday. I talked a bit about this in my transition post so I won’t revisit that but it was tough keeping up with Emmett day in and day out. He was fine but wasn’t taking great naps and when I’m left to one hour a day to get all the things I need to get done, well, done around the house and then still have time for me, it just wasn’t happening. Things all started to change after that day at Panera. I was still feeling gaggy most nights but because my perspective towards parenting and towards Emmett changed, it was somehow much more fun and easy to get through my days with him. Sometime during Emmett’s 19th month he really started becoming attached to me. I don’t know why or what happened but he really just wanted me and only me. We became best buddies that month. There really isn’t too much else I remember from that month although he did get his first ever sickness which included projectile vomiting (something he’d never done before). That was horrible and he ended up sleeping with us in our bed that night so that I could keep close tabs on him. The next day I ended up getting the same virus and we were both sick together. The rest of that week he wanted pretty much only me. We became very close over the month of November and I’ll always look back and treasure our closeness. I’ll need to draw upon those thoughts when he becomes a nasty 15 year old.
This past month has by far been my most favorite of them all though. We have continued to grow even closer towards one another and his smiles and hugs melt my heart each and every time he gives one out. He’s started giving “hugs” by coming up to you and putting his head on your shoulder or your chest and saying “huuuuu”. When you say “Emmett, can I have a kiss?”, he leans into your lips so that you can kiss him. His vocabulary this past month has expanded exponentially. It’s truly been amazing to watch. He says so many words now that I can’t keep track of them all and he really seems to understand and grasp what someone is saying to him. He’s also become quite the parrot. He tries desperately to repeat what you’ve just said to him and sometimes even catches us off guard by listening to the television or radio and repeating words he’s heard that way. He smiles more than any child I’ve ever met at his age and is just so easy to be around. He loves to be held and is very affectionate. He cuddles when he’s in bed with me or his father and he loves to read books. We can usually put him down to bed around 7pm and if he’s not tired he’ll sit and “read” whichever books are in his crib until he gets tired. He wakes up around 6:30-7am and will immediately grab for his books and look at them page after page for the next hour or so. I can’t believe how well books keep his attention. He also loves sitting in people’s laps and listening to your voice while reading to him. He does have favorite books. His absolute favorite is “Go Dog Go” which he can actually say. We’ve finally gotten him into a nighttime ritual of brushing teeth, changing dipe, changing into PJ’s and then reading book after book. He also gets prayers said when I put him into bed and songs sung to him if his father puts him to bed. I sing to him too and occasionally burst out into tears while rocking and singing him first remembering my own mother singing to me and then second knowing that these moments are so fleeting and never wanting them to pass. I hate putting him into his crib sometimes because I just wish I could hold him forever. When I say prayers with him or rock him, he’ll almost always take his paci. out at one point and look up at me and smile and then point to my nose and say “no” and then look at my eyes and say “eye” and then put his paci back in and continue to lay his sweet head on my chest. Sometimes I tickle at night and I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help myself. His laugh is contagious and I’m obsessed with hearing it. He must receive about a million kisses a day from me because I also can’t get enough of his sweet cheeks and forehead. He calls me “mommy” now and when I hear that word I just can’t help but almost explode with happiness. That simple name that so many other women are called just means so much.
Emmett has also picked up a huge interest in hair brushes, combs, pics, anything that opens like compacts, doors or things with hinges, make up brushes, anything he can slip onto his wrists or up over his hands, coloring and balls. I know it sounds odd with the whole female product stuff but I’m fairly certain he’s seen me with these things enough times that he just thinks that’s what he’s supposed to be doing. He has now even started flipping his head upside down when he combs or brushes his hair because he’s seen me and my mom do that with our hair when we dry it with a hair dryer! It’s really funny and I’ll have to get a picture of it. We still go to the gym almost every day and when we drive up he immediately starts saying “ball”. I am pretty sure they have a whole basket full of balls that he plays with while he’s there everyday. The ladies there are also obsessed with him and have even told me they’d love to babysit. I feel so lucky that we’ve found a gym that take such good care of him. I don’t like leaving him but know that it’s healthy for both of us so I do it. At first he really didn’t seem to like going but now he leaps out of my arms and into theirs to go play. When I come and pick him up he’s always being held by one of them or at the front desk with someone sitting with them. He’s a very social child and I love it. I know he didn’t get that from me! He still says hi to almost anyone who walks by him and smiles and flirts with anyone who will look at him. He talks non stop all day long and I love hearing his sweet voice while I’m driving or making a meal. My parents have a coloring desk specifically made for toddlers that they pulled out around Thanksgiving and Emmett loves to sit there and take out paper and crayons and just scribble. He can be easily entertained for a while doing this. He also loves to color at restaurants or at our house if we sit with him and draw with him.
Emmett rarely throws tantrums and when he does you can pretty much pin point exactly why he’s doing it. It’s usually because he’s tired or hungry or doesn’t feel well. He’s also been taking pretty great naps lately. There are definitely those days where he doesn’t get a nap in because we’re out and about having too much fun but the days that he does nap I can pretty much count on at least 2-3 hours from him. There was about a week there where he was totally rebelling on the nap thing and it would take about 1.5-2 hours of hard to work to get him to settle down and actually go to sleep but honestly I didn’t even mind those days because the longer he stayed up, the later his nap was and the closer it was for Chad to be home. At about that same time he was also rebelling against going to sleep at night and would cry and cry when we’d leave the room and turn out the lights but that has seemed to have passed too. I never get too stressed at any of this because I realize it’s just a phase and while he might be doing it this week, there’s a pretty good chance it will be different next week.
During month 19 I was really worried that Emmett wasn’t eating enough. He was just turning off on all food. He wouldn’t eat anything and it was starting to drive me a little crazy. I could barely get water down him. He wasn’t even eating the old standbys that have always worked in the past like yogurt or a banana. He just plain wasn’t hungry. On a good day I could usually get him to eat breakfast (oatmeal, waffles, or toast and some pb) but then lunch and dinner were a few bites and he’d be over it. In this past month he’s also become a ravenous eater. He loves all things food. I think he’s been making up for lost time and a lost appetite. I just have to be careful in the order I give him certain foods or he’ll only eat one type of food if he gets that first. That usually is bread. If I give him meat and veggies first he has no problem finishing those but if bread or fruit is given first he won’t touch the other stuff. After talking to quite a few people about the whole food thing I’ve started to realize that babies get full too and that sometimes they just aren’t hungry so I’ve stopped stressing when Emmett won’t eat. If I offer him something and he doesn’t want it then he’s probably not hungry and I let it go at that. He usually lets us know though because he sign the word please when he’s in the kitchen and I can tell that means he wants something to eat. He also won’t eat well if we’ve let him munch on snacks like pretzels before a meal. He really does better with meals if he gets no snacks in between but sometimes that’s almost impossible to avoid. Going out to eat has also gotten easier. It used to be very hit or miss but lately it’s been pretty easy going out with him, especially if we bring him on an empty stomach. We can usually get through about an hour give or take. If we’re there much longer then it’s hard to keep him occupied and can get a tad stressful. It’s also hard if we have to wait too long for our meals to come out because while we sit we usually color with him or give him a few snacks to munch on. If it takes too long then he fills up on snacks and then he has no interest in his actually meal and wants to leave.
Ok, so I didn’t do a ton of gushing because it’s late and I want to go to bed but I do have to say that these past two months have been nothing short of amazing. This little boy keeps me laughing all day long and is just such a joy to be around. He makes it look easy to be a stay at home mom and to watch after a kid all day. He’s just so cute. I really can’t get enough of him and even miss him during his naps sometimes (does that sound insane!?). I can’t wait to see him in the mornings and I don’t want to say goodnight in the evenings. Some of this is also possibly a testament to how much better I’m feeling right now in these final months of pregnancy. We had some rough months there for a while but after these past two months I just can’t complain much. I love watching this kid grow and learn and come into himself and develop a little personality. I just can’t believe that I helped make him and that I get to be his mommy. I’m so incredibly blessed.
(I plan on editing in pictures tomorrow-I’m just too tired tonight. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years Eve and an even better New Years Day! Happy New Year!!!!)
Thin Runner 