Emalyn is One!

My sweet baby is one today. I cannot believe it! What can I say about her? She is just so precious and has been such a joy this past year. Sitting in the hospital this time last year, I had no idea how this new addition to our family would stretch and challenge me. And I know we will have some challenging days ahead, but for now I am thankful to be on this side of the first year with two little ones!

Since birth, she has been the typical second child and has just gone with the flow of things. She is always a few steps behind the big kids (or even baby Carrie for that matter), but it never seems to bother her.  But if you dare mess with her when she is in the middle of doing something, watch out! Girlfriend will give it to you. She seemed to come into this world knowing how to turn on the big tears in a hurry. And she quickly learned it was survival in a house with a big sister, who is the queen of switching a toy for the toy she is holding. We have just started telling her no when she is doing something or crawling somewhere she shouldn't be, and this is the reaction you get whenever you tell her no...

(which is so different from Maddie...Maddie would look at you smile and do it again)

Looking back on this year, here are a few of her favorite things:

Sleeping on Chris' chest - she is a Daddy's Girl and has been since day one. Chris laughed in the beginning and said Maddie gave her no other choice b/c she always wanted me to be holding her and Chris holding Emalyn. But I remember I had reached a point of desperation at about week 3 when she wasn't falling back asleep after a feeding, and Chris offered to go sleep with her on the sofa. She slept for 5 straight hours, I couldn't believe it! And even in the last few months as she has been up a few time getting a new tooth in, the only thing that would comfort her was sleeping on daddy.

Playing with Maddie - Maddie can get her laughing harder than any of us. She woke up one morning last week, and Chris and I were sitting on the sofa with her. She was fidgety and looking around the room, and I realized she was looking for Maddie. As soon as Maddie came down the stairs, her whole face lit up! They have so much fun playing together.

Loving on Bentley - he has much less patience with Emalyn than he did with Maddie. But when he does give her a chance, she get a huge smile on her face and starts patting him with a few tugs of the fur in between.

And last but not least, she loves singing - we started going to a Music Together class when she was a few months old, and Emalyn loves it. Musical instruments were some of her favorite presents this Christmas.

We went to Dr. Beveridge's today for her check-up and she was 29.5 inches long (65%) and 20 lb (33%). So she is still long and lean but is steadying out in the length percentages and came back up in the weight percentages, which Dr. Beveridge was happy to see because she had been trending down. They asked me if she had between 2 & 4 words, and I panicked at first b/c I remember Maddie having 8 or 9 works, and all I could think of for Emalyn was ma-ma and da-da and ba-ba. But Chris reminded me she does say "hi" when she holds the phone up to her ear (it come out sounding more like "ha") and she will mouth bye bye as she waves. She has 6 teeth with the 7th finally breaking through. She has gotten good at pulling herself up but is very cautious and I have only seen her let go once to stand without support. She is finally starting to take steps holding my fingers (for a while she would take two steps and sit down).  She will make a gobble sound when you ask her what a turkey says, and she is learning how to say please in sign language.

We had her playgroup over this past Friday, for an early birthday celebration and will celebrate again on Sunday. Here is the birthday girl eating her first cupcake.

And the choas of having all the little ones running around, but so fun!

My mom came over and brought Emalyn a cupcake tonight. Maddie was so excited to sing Happy Birthday to Emalyn (and blow out her candle for her).

 And to end the big day, after the second day of being stuck indoors because of the snow and school being canceled for Maddie today, I gave in and agreed to blow up the big swimming pool in our living room. Another fun day at home with my girls!