Just Jibberish!!

That moment that every parent competes for has finally come.... will she say "mama" or "dada" first?? A few months ago, Emma started the mamamamamamama dadadadadadada strings which only lasted a few days. Then mums the word and she was on to making her vowel sounds and other cute baby talk. Still to this day, she has conversations with her hands, her dolls, and her "little sky friends" (she tends to look up, usually at lighting fixtures, and mumbles away).

Well, a couple of weeks ago, as mommy was bathing her, I thought I would try some vocab with her. Naturally, I say "Emma, say 'mama'!". No response. Just splashes away and talks baby talk to her bath toys. I say it again. She gets bashful and goes to her belly to "swim" around (the inch deep water). So, I put my selfish desires aside, and I try another word. "Emma, say 'dada'...". Note, I wasn't as enthusiastic in that request ;) and sure enough... "da da"! Okay okay... I was so excited!!! And said it again... she kept saying it over and over.

So now that I have her interacting with me, let's try this again. "Say 'mama'". Emma, in all of her oh so precious personality, looks right at me, laughs and says "DA DA"! So I try again. And again I get laughed off and daddy gets the prize. "Da da" So, after some contemplation of if I want to show daddy that he won this one haha, I pick Emma up, put her in her towel, and I run downstairs to daddy to show him her first word. I ask her to say "dada" and complete silence. She looks up bashfully, and smiles, but no words. I continue to try to prove that I am not lying. No success. And of course, our flip video camera was downstairs when I was bathing her so I couldn't get it on video.

The next night, during bath time, I make sure to bring the flip up with us, I try to get her to repeat her vocab, and no luck! She was sick of performing I guess :)

Well, now daddy has heard her say "dada" and seen the little performance of laughing "mama" off. And luckily, Auntie Pokie Jo (aka baby sitter) got it on video. Enjoy!!

So that moment every parent competes for... daddy won this one. But don't tell him it's only because "Dada" is phonetically easier to say for babies. Nothing more to it. ;) Although, Emma is a daddy's girl by far.

She's on the move!!

So Matt and I decided we would make a trip to Babies R Us this weekend because Emma has outgrown her car seat. At her last appointment (9 month) she was 22 pounds and 31 inches long (the average size of a 16 month old I was told). We end up walking out with a deluxe car seat that is captain's chair style with a cup holder! I couldn't believe the luxury and style babies are offered these days. Emma tried it out today and she looked pretty comfy and seemed to enjoy it as she nodded right of to dream land!

In addition, we bought her this new walker toy. The ones where they hold on to the handle and push forward as they walk. She was doing this with her "walker" and it didn't seem too safe so we thought it a good idea to get her a toy intended for such activities. She took to it instantly and I wanted to share the video of one of her first attempts... (just a heads up, I was suffering from hiccups as I took the video so you may hear that in the background a couple times)

She has let go of the toy and turned to both Matt and me to stand and thought about taking a couple of independent steps. She ALMOST took her first step but not quite. It will only be a matter of days I think.

I think this girl may make it to Hollywood...

Yes, I am about to get some head shots and pictures taken of Emma and send them in to an agent... she LOVES the camera; photo and video! And she has the personality like no other. I know every parent thinks this of their child, however I have had complete strangers, yes, plural, tell me that she should be in commercials. So.... I guess I don't need to say that she doesn't have much stranger anxiety ;) Don't get me wrong, she has her moments of being shy, which I embrace because she holds on to me so tightly! But it doesn't last long...

I recently read that at this age (9.5 months), I should be prepared for her to become more social. This kind of scares me because I'm not sure how much more social she can get. Time will tell I guess. In addition, this article mentioned that in the next few weeks we will see the following developments; clapping, pointing, laughing at funny sounds/expressions, waving good bye and making loud noises to attract attention. All of which Emma has been doing over the past couple months! I don't know what it is about babies these days, but they are on fast forward for development; at least it seems that way for Emma. Just tonight she stood on her own for a solid 8 seconds. And she wasn't even about to fall. She was crouching down to crawl. Completely balanced. In no time she will be walking. Below is a video of her standing for a few seconds after the 8 second accomplishment (which of course didn't make it to video)

We are currently in the process of planning her first birthday. While this is an exciting time, I am also a little sad about it. I keep looking at her newborn pictures and I can't believe it's already been almost a year. A GREAT year. And to think, she'll be walking in the next few weeks! First it's walking, then it's driving!! Somewhat exaggerated but still ;)

Okay, back to current time. Because I have failed at keeping the blog updated regularly over the past month and a half, here are some more videos and some pictures....

Here is a video of her eating apples for the first time. The first few seconds are pretty funny, after about 30-45 seconds the video becomes uneventful but a good laugh nonetheless.

Here is a video of her eating cottage cheese for the first time. She was not a fan. But she doesn't mind it much now! Oh, and for those of you who saw the peas video... I gave her lentils and peas the other day and she LOVED them!!

Some recent pics... more to come.