16 Months Old!

Well, this little busy body of ours turned 16 months old today and that is exactly what he has been up to lately.  He is so BUSY all of the time!  Emmett has grown up so much this past month.  Although he still feels and looks so much like a baby in so many different ways, he really is starting to make that transition from baby to toddler.  He just wants to be doing what all of the older kids are doing all of the time and can be found wherever they are and doing whatever they are doing so much of the day.  He really is starting to feel like "one of the kids" instead of the baby in the family.  In addition, Ron and I just think that he has gotten so huge this past month.  We call him our little tank.  Thanks to the fact that Emmett eats so much every day, this should come as no surprise to us.  He eats a ton at every meal and when he is done and out of his high chair, he usually insists on sitting on Ron's or my lap and eating our food before we put him on the floor where he will then pick up more food off of the floor.  It is the funniest thing and something that we have never seen before in any of our other children.  My mom keeps on saying that my older brother, Eric, was their only child who also did this same thing with food.  So, there definitely is a family similarity between Emmett and his Uncle Eric!

Emmett continues to just be such a happy, adorable baby and we all just love him to pieces.  He makes us smile and laugh all of the time!  He continues to get funnier and funnier every day and we are starting to see a very fun personality developing in him.  Emmett loves music and now dances all of the time whenever he hears it.  He also loves being outside and will jump at any opportunity to try to get out a door when one is opened at our house.  He loves going on bike rides with the kids and me (which we do five days a week for our P.E. time) and he also loves playing in the backyard.  He enjoys being pushed in his baby swing on the play set and he especially loves picking up and throwing balls.  He really, really loves balls and tries to shoot baskets into our basketball hoop which is just the cutest thing since he is way too short.  Emmett also added a few new words to his vocabulary.  He now has learned how to say ball, giggle, and Ella.  When he says Ella's name, he sticks his tongue out really far when he tries to say the "L" sound.  It is so funny to all of us!  Emmett also picks up a cup and walks over to the refrigerator whenever he wants to get something to drink and he also will walk up to Ron or me and put his arms up in the air whenever he wants to be picked up.  It's cute to see him learning how to communicate with us.  He is also starting to understand basic things that we say to him like "let's go night night and find your ya ya" or "let's go take a bath" or "let's go read a book."  Whenever we say these things to him, Emmett knows where to walk.  

The other big accomplishment of this past month is that I officially weaned Emmett from his bedtime feeding which was the only time of the day that I was still nursing him for the last month or two.  As always, part of me was so relieved to have my freedom back, but a large part of me was so sad to see this go especially since I know that this is the last time in my life that I will nurse a baby of mine.  Regardless, I just have to focus on the fact that I was so blessed to have this baby so late in life and was given the opportunity to nurse a baby until a few days before my 44th birthday.  It's really just reconfirms the fact that the human body is an amazing thing!  Emmett continues to faithfully take a morning and afternoon nap each day and sleep about 10 to 11 hours at night.  He is sleeping great at night as I normally only have to wake up one or two times to put his pacifier back in his mouth.  And although he no longer gets the one-on-one time that I was trying to fit into our daily routine Monday through Friday due to having all four children home right now, Emmett is benefiting from having three siblings to play with him every single day.  So he is getting lots of attention in different ways right now which I am so grateful for as I just don't have as much time to spend with him.  We sure do love this baby of ours and we are so grateful that he is a part of our lives!!

Silly Emmett giving me a huge smile!

Emmett looking adorable while grabbing his toes.