17-Months Old Today!

This little peanut turned 17-months old today.  I just can't believe that he is almost to his 1 1/2 year mark!  I know that I have said this before, but the time is just going so fast.  I honestly still feel like he is is about six months old, but alas, he is not.  As crazy and as busy as my life is right now with having all four children home all the time, I am still just trying to soak up as much of Emmett's little life right now as I can.  Emmett is truly entering that very busy toddler stage where he is on the go all the time whenever he is awake.  He constantly runs instead of walks all over our house and gets into everything that he can.  He also can be very rough and destructive with anything that he finds and picks up which has already resulted in a few broken things.  Emmett has also really discovered toys this past month and really loves cars and any other toy that has wheels on it.  It is so cute to watch him sitting on the floor pushing a car around on the ground or standing and pushing a train around on the coffee table in the family room.  It's fun to see him developing in this way.  Although Emmett can be nonstop, on-the go, if the children or I take the time to sit down on the floor with him to play toys, he is very content to sit with us and do the same.  Emmett also figured out how to crawl up on the small couch in the office (where Ron works full-time five days a week) as it is lower to the ground.  He is so pleased with this new discovery and can be found quietly sitting on the couch playing with a toy or standing on the couch looking out the window several times a day.  In fact, whenever I notice that he is missing and is being way too quiet, we always check in the office and usually find him there.  Emmett has also become totally obsessed with balls or anything that is round and looks like a ball.  He loves to ask us to take down the two basketballs and one soccer ball that I keep stowed in the storage cubbies in the laundry room by taking us into that room and saying "ball" over and over again.  He also loves to play with the little, toy balls found in our toy basket and the random basketballs that are always scattered in the backyard.  I don't recall every having a baby so interested in balls at this age.  I wonder if he will grow up to be a die-hard soccer or basketball player.  Emmett continues to learn new words and can now say eyes, hi, nana (banana), ya ya (pacifier), "what's that," wa wa (water), row (from the nursery ryhme "Row Row Row Your Boat), and he can also make the monkey sound.  He continues to eat a TON of food during all three meals a day and also will request a snack or eat our food whenever he has the chance.  He is still a great eater and has yet to refuse a single item of food that he has been given.  In addition, Emmett has just started to outgrow one of his two naps in the past two weeks.  Although I was hoping that this would last until the end of the school year (June 19th) as it allows me to home school the children during his morning nap and work on a project during his afternoon nap, he started the process just a few weeks too soon.  I guess that I just need to be grateful for the fact that he has napped two times a day until 17 months old as it has seriously been one of the things that has saved me during this quarantine.  Although he faithfully takes his morning nap 2-3 hours after he wakes up in the morning, he will some times not fall asleep when I put him down for his afternoon nap.  After banging around in his crib for about an hour or so, I usually will go and get him out of his bed which cuts into my 'getting things done' time.  Emmett continues to sleep for about 11 hours at night, although this past month he has woken up crying several times and has not been consoled when I have put his pacifier back in.  As a result, both Ron and I have had to rock him back to sleep in the recliner chair in his room.  We don't know what is causing this, but at least he no longer has the option of needing me to nurse him back to sleep which has been a huge relief for me.  So that's our boy in a nutshell!  He is just the cutest, happiest baby around and we all just LOVE him to pieces!

Emmett laughing while sitting on the chair in the living room as Ella and Logan try to make him smile from behind me.

Emmett showing off one of his many talents--standing up on the chair.  Gulp.