Emmitt turned 13 months this week. He is growing and changing so much! He is really starting to recognize objects and even how they work! He is a busy little guy! He is still in size 5 diapers and 18 month clothing. He is eating three meals a day plus two snacks and he still takes a full bottle before nap and bedtime. He is officially drinking whole milk! For the last month we had been slowly increasing the milk and slowly decreasing the formula. As for mobility, is preferred mode of transportation is crawling, but he CAN walk and I finally got it on video to prove it! He has also recently been studying objects to see how they work. He can say roughly 20-25 words/animal sounds. He is working on at least two more teeth that are SO close to coming in, but aren't in yet. He has been waking up at the same time each night crying. We finally decided it is time to let him work it out on his own. It has made for a more peaceful night's sleep for Stephen and I! He is still our joy boy!
Working hard to figure out how to get the stick in the can. He even moves it to fit in his hand just right for placing it in that small hole!
WALKING!!!
Silly boy!
SO sad that this little jacket is too small for our little guy! Proof that we at least tried! Just didn't get cold enough soon enough!
This was yesterday when he was happy as can be. Today he has been clingy and has a look of sleepiness in his eyes. Tonight he started to run a fever. Hate when my babies are sick! Big sister has been sick too. Guess it is to be expected that Emmitt has it too!
We are still here and mostly well! Just nothing all that exciting to post. Jesstine stayed home from school today and I took her to the doctor thinking she may have pink eye. Turns out she just has a bad cold and it has started to back up into her eyes! Our Elf has sure been a hoot! Check out all the fun he has been having!
One morning we found him with the DVD remote watching "Elf."
The next day he decided a midnight snack was in order and it included all of an elf's main food groups: Candy, Candy Corn, Candy Canes, and Syrup!
He was a bit stuck up the next day.
Today I found him playing a little Xbox!
I also forgot to share this photo with you from last week. Jesstine has been afraid of the car wash, but has gotten brave and asks to go through the car wash sometimes. This time she offered to hold Emmitt's hand so he wouldn't get scared.
The kids are just growing so fast! Both have surprised us by doing some things just in the past few weeks that they couldn't do before. Emmitt will be 13 months in a few weeks and is talking up a storm! He is a little parrot right now! Among his new words are whooo (like Wesley, his owl whom he has grown VERY attached to in the last few days), woof, dog, car, go, baby, more (with his sign language and using his voice), m & m, yummy, and bubble. There are several other things he has repeated us saying that I can't even remember. He is also learning to mimic our movements. Here is a video of him combing his hair. Funny back story too. We have a basket of bath toys in our bathroom for the rare occasions where the kids bathe in our bathroom. He pushed the basket on its side, moved it next to the bath tub, held on to the faucet on the bathtub and reached up to pull my comb off of the counter! This boy is TROUBLE!
Jesstine moved to a regular booster seat shortly before Thanksgiving. She can now buckle herself in and get herself out without too much trouble! She has really started to draw a lot and even did some wonderful coloring at Grandmom's today where she did an excellent job! Didn't stay in the lines the whole time, but did a good job of making sure everything was colored appropriately color wise. She is also getting stronger. She has always had trouble opening the door from the garage to the kitchen. It is hard to open for many reasons. More often than not, she can open it now! Tonight, Stephen and I were discussing this and we turned to see her do this:
If you remember, last year we were visited during the holidays by an elf that Jesstine named, Mangle. He is an "Elf on the Shelf" elf that comes to our house before Chrismas and watches what Jesstine does during the day. He reports back to Santa each night (with Christmas magic that helps him get back and forth from the North Pole swiftly) on whether Jesstine has been naughty or nice. He returns to a different spot each night so that he can watch from all over the house! Well, on his 4th night with us, he decided a good place to watch would be from the shelf above the toilet. Later the next evening, Stephen went in to find that he had somehow fallen from the shelf, headfirst into the toilet! To make matters worse, Jesstine had forgotten to flush! Daddy fished him out and did his best to clean Mangle up. We told Jesstine that we called the other elves in the neighborhood to help him fly back to the North Pole so Santa could give him his Christmas Magic back (if touched, elves lose their Christmas Magic and can't fly back to report to Santa). Since then, Mangle has found some of the oddest places to sit! He is almost getting a little mischievous! See for yourself!
This needs no explaination!
Last night, he replaced all of our Christmas stockings with our socks! I wonder what he will do NEXT!
Well, that is really it! Just two more pictures of my silly boy!
My brother has been deployed for about a year now. He left his dog with my parents. He is a pitbull named, Orin. He thinks he is a lap dog! When he gets in trouble, his lower lip quivers! He is really a sweet dog. Emmitt is ENAMORED with him! He is so gentle with Emmitt too! Emmitt thought he needed to take a ride on Orin. It doesn't look like Orin is enjoying it, but he didn't seem to mind. I just caught him as he was looking up to get his picture taken. He was licking his chops after chewing on is Kong bone.
He is always making me laugh! His two loveys are his owl and his blue blanket! We were playing peek-a-boo, one of his favorite games!
Well, 'tis the season. We have been hard at work getting ready for Christmas. We are doing some new things this year to capitalize on the fact that Jesstine is old enough to buy into some of it! She is also learning to write her letters, so she wrote her own letter to Santa this year.
Including pictures of the items she requested.
Our good friend, Johnna (or Johnner as Jesstine calls her), found a cute Disney Princess tree at a garage sale for $5, so I bought some extra ornaments for Jesstine to use it as her advent tree this year. She LOVES it!
(Sorry for the poor quality picture. Was taken with my phone.)
Stephen was on a business trip all week last week, so Jesstine helped me with the Christmas tree. This year I was able to get the pre-lit larger tree that I had been asking for for a few years. I LOVE it! It is exactly what I was looking for!
Stockings are hung by the chimney with care.
When Stephen returned, he helped us to put the finishing touch on the tree...the star!
The tree was not the only thing being trimmed around here! Stephen was taking part in mo shave November for prostate cancer awareness. Let's just say, I was not sad to see December 1 get here!
