Joel & Mollie: Emma Elaine: 18 Months

I feel as though I start out with all of Emma's blog posts with, "How did my baby get so big?!" Just like every other mom I suppose... time goes by so fast. Other days it can be soooo sloooow too, where nap time and bed time can't come fast enough. Sometimes I wonder why we are having another baby, because having just one kid has been so easy lately! We have such great routines right now, aaand then we're gonna throw a newborn into the mix! Poor Emma has no idea of what is about to hit her. She doesn't understand at all that there's a baby in my belly... all she does know is my belly makes an excellent chair and step to get closer to me ;)

Her favorite seat: on the window sill

At 18 months old, Emma has started talking a little bit more. Her favorite word to say is, "Ball! Ball!!" over and over again, and she can spot them from quite a distance! Even though Emma doesn't talk too much, she understands a lot. She can point to everything on her face in English AND Swedish which amazes me! I think it is the coolest that our kids will be bilingual. I don't understand how she understands, it works I guess! Right now she's in a phase where she's really impatient about what she wants and can't communicate, so she whines and points at what she wants and I have to guess! Of course I get stressed because she's stressed and it is so hard for me to think straight about what she wants! It is times like these when I wish I had learned and taught her baby sign. ;) I was quite overwhelmed with the thought of her learning Swedish and English and not knowing what I should speak to her, so I put my dream of teaching baby sign on the back burner.

Mom confession: sometimes I purposely put her diaper on cooked just because I love to see her cute bum poking out! I may or may not pinch it as well ;)

Those eyelashes though!!!!

Emma's newest word is "Farfar", which means dad's dad in Swedish, or grandpa. While my in-laws were babysitting Emma a few nights ago, my mother-in-"love" (as I like to call her ;)!) asked her randomly if she could say Farfar, and she said "fa fa" in the sweetest little voice! She said fa fa over and over again for the next hour melting everyone's hearts until we picked her up. To say Joel's dad was beaming with pride is an understatement ;) She also says: car, bye bye, uh oh, eye, and a couple other words I can't remember right now but will probably come to me as soon as I finish this post. #typical It's weird because I don't really notice she's saying a word until I think about what she's trying to say and communicate to me. Like the other day she was pointing at the banana's and saying, "nanananana??" and it took me forever to realize she was asking for a banana!

So far the only foods we have found that Emma doesn't like are olives and raisins. I am so impressed by how good of an eater she is! She eats what we eat, even if it is a bit spicy. I have a hard time letting Emma be messy, I can only handle cleaning up after her so many times! Good thing she likes her baths afterwards ;)

I have been curious to see what Emma would be attached to. Would she like babies? Cars? Dolls? So far she loves stuffed animals! She sleeps with a couple soft little animals, her favorite being a little bunny. This bear she carries around is actually the one Joel used to have when he was Emma's age. How cute is that?! This bear used to have a t-shirt on, so I put on a dress instead to make her more girly ;) She especially loves to give her teddy bear kisses and hugs.

One of Emma's favorite things is to go outside and play. As soon as I say, "Emma! Let's go bye bye!" She runs and grabs her shoes then stands by the door until I'm ready to leave. I'm such a wimp because it's been cold and rainy lately, so we've spent a lot of time indoors. I have the goal to get out of the house at least once a day, even if it is just a quick trip to the store it really makes a difference! We especially love going to the library, because they have the cutest little play place that has a good slide. An added bonus is the play place is closed off and only has one entrance, so if she runs off I can catch her a bit easier ;)

I really need to figure out new ways to keep her busy! She's gotten to be such a busy body lately, and it makes me nervous with these winter months coming up and having a newborn on top of that. She loves TV, especially Daniel the Tiger, Frozen (typical, right??), Tangled, and Winnie the Pooh. If I say, "Emma, do you want to watch a show??" she gets this huge smile on her face then runs and sits on the couch patiently for me to turn on a movie for her.

Her face when I turn on a show ;)

I find it amazing to see how quickly she is catching onto things, and is watching us. Little things like her trying to pluck her eyebrows just like I do. Well, she was almost poking her eyes out haha! I just sat there in amazement watching her trying to do the same things I do. She's also recently grabbed my eyeshadow brush trying to put on makeup.

Emma LOVES to pray. She carefully folds her hands, bows her head, mumbles a bunch of baby gibberish, and instead of saying "amen" she laughs and claps as loud as she can. Not only does she pray when we bless the food, but sometimes I'll be driving and when I look back to check on her I can hear her mumbling while folding her hands. This is probably one of the things I'm most proud of, feeling like I am succeeding at this whole parenting thing!