feeding favorites

E still loves cheese toast, baby food spaghetti, and bananas (which she can recognize in their skins). She spits out green beans if they're not baby food puree. She couldn't stand the Thanksgiving turkey, but she really liked Turkey Spam! She can feed herself with a spoon if you load the spoon for her, but sometimes she can't resist putting her fingers in the food as it goes into her mouth.

E meets Santa

On Saturday we had the chance for Emma to see her first Santa Claus. She didn't mind him til I sat her on his lap. Cruel mommy.

Recovering...

Scroll down for the rest of the story.

Little E meets Big E

On Saturday we arranged for Emma to meet David's alter ego, "Big E" at a special Christmas event he was hired for.
Emma was fine at a distance, and fine when she didn't know how close he was.

I got her too close....

At least we got an autographed picture.

See, it's Daddy! She was still cautious backstage (and rightly so!), but not as terrified.

She liked the big shiny medallion Big E wears around his neck.

Little E and I were both oblivious to Big E's antics here.

I just want to tell you...

...that Emma has perfected a long yell that sounds like an air raid siren.

I'm home with her today, she's not feeling well. She's yelling a lot. Could be a cold coming on. She's also still working on those new teeth - bicuspids or molars or whatever they are - they have more than one edge on them!

a few Thanksgiving pictures

Anyone want to suggest some captions? That last picture really deserves one...

These are from Grandpa Bud and Grandma Mickey's house. I know I still owe you more birthday pictures, even more Las Vegas pictures, but if I confine myself to chronological order in this blog then you will end up with fewer posts - I have to follow the muse of expediency!

glimpsed pearls

Two new teeth sighted today, while she was yelling about getting dressed.

busy day update

Sorry, no new life jacket photos yet. They need to be scanned in and resized, and I just have too much else to do.

The song line in my head this morning was from Jackson Browne, "The Pretender": "I'll be a happy idiot, and struggle for the legal tender..."

Sometime this afternoon it was bumped by John Lennon, "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (I think): "Christ, you know it ain't easy!"

Y'all have a happy Thanksgiving. We're going to both of E's grandparents' houses, getting cooked-for twice and loving it.

learning about presents

next present please!

rotary dial, what's that?

gee mom, a spoon and fork..., thanks...

let me get these things out so I can sit in that box

hmmm..., what does this thing do?

I feel pretty in my new poncho and hat, but I'd feel even prettier with a ribbon in my hand

(The life jacket photos deserve a post of their own - look for that tomorrow.)

12 month checkup

E is 29.5 inches long and weighs 19.5 pounds. Her weight has dropped to 20th percentile, if you follow such things, but she's fine. Just very active, and tends to get bored when she's being fed. (feeding herself, now, is another matter..., but what she really likes is to get two fistfuls of food and carry them around with her.) The doctor asked what she wants to be when she grows up, and I said, "Something where she gets to put straps and buckles together". He said maybe a horse handler or something like that. She really pays attention to how things go together. This morning she picked up a vacuum cleaner part, and I just thought she wanted to play with it. It wasn't too dirty so I brought it in the living room for her. But she followed me to the living room, picked up the part (one of the shiny metal tubes that extend the floor attachment), wielded it like a magic wand down the hall, and tried to put it into the other part of the vacuum that we had left behind in the hall.

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wild party scenes

birthday celebrations

How do you define "party"? I defined it (in context of Emma's birthday) as "friends her own age coming over". David defined it as "having cake and presents". So when I titled that last post as "first birthday party" it was a party for her first birthday, but it wasn't her first birthday party. And in fact, one could say it was her fourth birthday party, because she has attended three of them in the past, but she hadn't had her own party before. Anyway, it was definitely a weekend full of "celebrations"!

On Friday the 10th, E's actual birthday, we had lunch with David's parents at Ham's Restaurant and then opened presents at home, and had the famous candle incident (see earlier pictures). E participated in the present-opening and enjoyed the paper. She ripped one gift bag right in two to get at the items inside. And after the pain and shock from grabbing the candle subsided, she totally enjoyed her first slice of cake. We remembered to sing to her after rinsing her hand in cold water and calming her down. I don't think she really noticed the singing, but to me that was cool -- these 4 people don't sing to just anyone.

I need to get ready for work, so that's all for now.

first birthday party - Nov. 11, 2006

a couple of scenes from E's first birthday party -- more to come! Be sure to scroll down to earlier posts, as there are some great ones I posted earlier today.

cake faces - Nov. 11, 2006

first birthday cake, the story - Nov. 10th 2006

Of course, these pictures only tell part of the story. What you can't see is the adults responsible for this and what we were doing and feeling! But as you can tell there was a happy ending. No marks or blisters on E's fingers and they didn't appear to be sensitive or sore. She sure did like the cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It would have been nice if I posted something on Emmaleora's birthday (yesterday), but ...oh well! It was a full day. David took digital pictures but I don't know where they are to put them up here yet - look for them tomorrow, I guess. They tell a story, or at least part of one.

She's one year old now and I feel pretty nostalgic. This has been the fastest year of my life so far. I can't remember as much of it as I want to.

One of E's presents yesterday was a life jacket. She's sitting over there right now, playing with the straps and buckles on it. Another present was a toddler fork and spoon. These presents were from David and myself - guess which was which! They say something about our respective interests....

early morning pictures

trying to catch up on the photo-blogging - these are from a couple of weeks ago.

I love E's morning face - this pic doesn't really capture the whole effect. She's becoming less obsessed with "straps" but here she is at 5 am or whatever, working on her stroller straps and buckles.

really early voting

The best thing about E and D spending a day together, for me, is that David often takes great pictures of our child. This is one.

election day

I'm working at the polls today, took a day off work. Have to be there at 6 am. Planned to get up at 4, have my usual 2 hours to wake up and get ready. I've actually gotten up at 4 several times before and it was okay. Guess who woke up at 3? By the time I finished nursing her I would have had 30 minutes to sleep before the alarm went off. I know from experience that is NOT worth it. I just get into some good sleep when it's time to get up, and I feel worse than I did before. So here I am. Just wolfed down a cold pop-tart, making some tea.

Emma has been making her "more" sign regularly, to David and to the sitter as well. But last night when I was eating and she clearly wanted some, I tried to encourage her to do the sign and she wouldn't. Acted like she didn't know what I was talking about! Today she will be with her daddy for at least 14 hours. I'm not allowed to leave the polling place from 6 am until after they close and the votes are counted. David will bring Emma to me twice, to nurse. I sure hope this is interesting work today, otherwise I will have a lot of trouble staying alert.

sign language

A few months ago I sort of halfway started trying to use sign language with Emma - for concepts "more" "eat" and "milk". I wasn't very consistent. But this week when I saw her doing things with her hands and one movement made while she was nursing looked like the "milk" sign, I started trying to be more diligent with the signs. Last night she signed "more" (or at least that's the one it most looked like) and I reinforced it while she was eating, getting her to sign it every time before I gave her another bite of baby food. She thought it was a fun game. Then this morning, she did the sign to me twice, on her own initiative. The first time she clearly wanted to nurse. The second time, not sure, but she was definitely satisfied with my reaction to the sign - I gave her a zwieback toast. We have communication!

one walking pic

Grandma and Grandpa stopped by on Sunday and got to see E doing walking practice. As I mentioned, she's really walking now. Last 2 days or so I'd say she's walking more than crawling.

pictures from the park last Sunday

David took these. Our daughter was quite proud of herself crawling through the tunnel.

Right now she is in her high chair patiently eating a zwieback toast. We both slept late - I've had a migraine and the drugs probably made her sleep late. I'm going to go into work late and come home early. Tonight David and I are going to hear a talk by historian David McCullough.