ONEderful

Is it really possible that exactly one year ago, I was sitting at home, laboring through contractions, waiting until my contractions were just a couple minutes apart so that I couldn’t wait any longer to go to the hospital? I know this is so cliché, but WHERE did the year go?

We came downstairs this morning to find that Patrick had already made pancakes and even put a cute little message on all of them. What a sweet dad! I love that he took the extra effort to do that for her, even though he knew she would have no idea it wasn’t just an average pancake.

Emery couldn’t wait to dig in! (I usually break them up into pieces for her but thought it would be funnier to just let her do what she wanted with it!)

Once she was finished with breakfast, she wanted to make some balloon animals.

Emery definitely brings joy into our home. We can’t get enough of her! K & B are completely enamored and always want to be right next to her when she’s awake. Gratefully, the feeling is mutual. When Emery wakes up and sees her sisters, she starts giggling like crazy! It’s so much fun watching them interact! I love the cute little faces that she makes. My favorite is the one that she makes when you say, “Do your funny face!” Isn’t it the cutest?

She is an excellent eater and pretty much eats anything we put in front of her, but some of her favorite foods right now are green beans, avocado, pasta with red sauce, almond butter, peaches, blueberries, grapes, refried beans, and of course, hummus! Here she is going to town on some asparagus:

The only food right now that she completely refuses to eat is CHEERIOS! Are you kidding me? That is the “go to” snack for all children under the age of two and she absolutely will NOT eat them. You should see her lips tighten up when she sees one coming at her. She used to love them, but she must have overdosed on them or something because now she is not having it! If you have any healthy but mess-free alternatives for church, I’d love to hear them…

Her first two teeth broke through about a week ago. This means she is the earliest teether in our family since she squeaked in before her first birthday. (Berkeley got her first soon after she turned one and Kendall was a ripe old 19 months when her teeth finally decided to show up!) If you click on the picture below, you can get a better view of those two little beauties:

We’re almost done with breastfeeding [loud cheering], so I’ve been working on getting her to transition to a sippy cup. There was a little resistance because she’s been used to having people do things for her since her sisters always want to be helpers (which is generally a good thing) but I’m really grateful that she finally learned how to do this on her own:

Emery is definitely a mama’s girl. She will usually be happy playing with some toys or with her sisters as long as I am within her eyesight. If she can’t see me, she starts crying and crawling all over trying to find me!

She’s pulling up to furniture and cruising along holding on to things, but she’s not close to walking by herself yet. If she’s anything like her sisters, it will be about 3 months before that happens.

She just figured out how to climb up stairs this weekend so now we’ve really got to keep an eye on her! Here she is trying out the walker:

I’m not sure when we’ll do the traditional “cake attack” since Patrick won’t be home early enough to do it tonight, but we’ll be sure to post some pictures when we do!

Happy birthday, little Emery Jane! You were worth all the nights of interrupted sleep and poop-soaked clothes I had to scrub by hand in the sink! (But I’m not disappointed that I’m only dealing with one of those two things these days!)