51 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yikes!!!!!  How is my baby almost one year old already?!?!?!?!

51 weeks young.  Technically, since I'm late in posting this, she's actually 51.5 weeks!  Just a few more days until the big O-N-E.  Eeeeeeep!

She crawls, she walks, she dances, and as of the past week she is a non-stop babbler too!

Emily started her 51st week making “ga-ga” noises all day.  She then moved on to “Dada”  {woohoo!!  milestone photo op!}  and in case there was any doubt in my mind from earlier in the week, she definitely said “oof oof” when we saw a dog -- so that’s also an official word now!

Walking and talking.  My newborn infant has turned into a toddler and I simply don't understand where the time has gone!!!  ;)

We've been blessed with some really nice spring weather, so we've been spending more time outside.  Emily is getting slightly more warmed-up to the grass, even venturing to touch it voluntarily!

The weekend was fun-filled with firsts!  Emily visited Long Island {where I grew up!} for the first time, and attended her first birthday party!  A childhood friend of mine had a baby boy just 3 weeks before I gave birth to Emily, so we went out to meet the adorable little Trevor and help celebrate his birthday!  We also got to see some of my extended family members after the party, and then celebrated our first Mother's Day as a family together the following day at home!

On Monday, I took Emily to a waddler gym class for the first time, where she experienced a ball pit, tunnel crawl, swinging rings, a balance beam, a trampoline, and a bunch of exercises and other activities.  She wasn't very impressed with the ball pit or tunnel crawl, though she did finally go through one little tunnel after a lot of prompting by me.  :)

   

She looooooved the rings -- it probably felt to her like she was a human swing!  The smile on her face was just pure joy.

Emily's appetite for solid foods is improving, and she is getting very good at feeding herself some finger foods!  She used to gag when presented with "chunky" foods, but this week she scarfed down an entire 6 oz jar of chicken with pasta stars PLUS 2 clementines for dinner in one night!  The following night she ate an entire banana following her 4 oz jar of puree!  She's a growing girl, for sure!  Here's a little video of Emily eating some grapes:

The way she moves her little fingers to her mouth, and purses her lips when she chews just cracks me up.  I love watching her feeding skills improve over time -- it's been such a remarkable difference in a relatively short amount of time!

Well, that's about it for Week 51!  We have one B-I-G birthday milestone coming up in just a few days!!!!!!!!!!!!

43 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emily's been sick the past week, so I'm once again verrrrrry late with her weekly update!  Pretend today is 3/21 instead of 3/28 {even though I'd still be 2 days late!}

Before Little Missy came down with another cold, she was doing pretty well with her night sleep!  Falling asleep pretty consistency around 8pm, with about 5 minutes or so of cuddle rocking.  And on the night of her 42 week birthday, she slept almost 7 hours straight!  Woohoo!!!  Of course, the old adage "This too shall pass" applies just as easily to the positive things in babyhood as to the difficult things.  Such is life.  ;)

This week I attempted to get Emily to try sliced apples for the first time, but she wasn't interested when I presented them to her in her high chair.  She took one lick and the tiniest bite ever, and was done.  Funny enough, when Emily saw Mommy eating the apple off the core later on she wanted to take a bite too!  So, I held it up to her mouth and she smiled biiiiig, while taking the smallest baby bite you could possible imagine.  I think she was more amused by the fact that she was eating it like Mommy was, than the actual taste of the apple.  I don’t even know that she bit off any chunks!  But she definitely was proud of herself!

Other new foods this week included: Daddy's homemade waffles, mashed potatoes, grapes in her mesh feeder, and “real” peas, corn & carrot bits!  Unfortunately, she wasn't a fan of most of those foods, but at least she tried them!  She liked the peas and ate several of them, as well as one or two corn kernels, but did not like the carrots.  She ended up gagging on them and then that was the end of that meal!

Emily experienced her second trip to the grocery store.  She was sooooo good the entire time! She sat in the cart with her cart cover, holding on to a bag of pita chips that Shep had given her to distract her.  She quietly and curiously looked at people and items as we strolled up and down the aisles.  As we got to the checkout line, I complimented her saying she was such a good girl.  Of course I must have jinxed it, because a minute later she was wrinkling up the tabloids and grabbing all the tic tacs next to the register like a maniac.  She also tried to grab the pen stylus attached to the credit machine, and stood up in the cart, despite being strapped in!  What a silly goose.  Now I know not to compliment her behavior on future outings until we're actually finished with the outing.  ;)

And in bigger news, Emily got another new tooth on March 15!!!  When we woke up, I checked her mouth and the top left lateral incisor was sticking through!  Emily didn’t even wake up more than usual the prior night, so I was pretty surprised to feel that sharp new addition to her adorable little mouth when I checked -- what a champ!!

Emily celebrated her first St. Patty's Day this week and also met another new baby friend and played with some old friends when we hosted a Baby Sign Language group!

It was a happy 43 week birthday for sure!