Tag Archives: big boy

Dear Emmett – {16, 17 and 18 Months}

Posted on January 28 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

My sweet sweet Emmett, it’s been three months since I sat down and wrote to you.

You’ve grown and changed SO much in the past three months and I cannot wait to share it all with you.

The last time we met up was when you had just turned 15 months, and now you just turned 18 month, a whole year and a half old. It’s amazing how that happens! 😉 Three months ago, you were only say “Hi” and “banana,” now you say all sorts of things like milk, you pump your fist in sign language version of milk, and say “no no no.” You use the “no” sound for milk, snow and to say no, it’s tough to decipher which you want to use, but your dad and I have become pros.

Other favorite words of yours include, sock, cheese, fish, hello, crackers, shoes, momma, dada, up, down, uh oh, oh no, car, truck, night night, blocks, thank you, and mine. I’m probably forgetting some but you do a really good job of communicating, even if you don’t know the word. You’ll point, or nudge and most of the time your dad or I can figure it out.

You still have this obsession with shoes and slippers. Sometimes its your own shoes, but mostly it’s my shoes or slippers. Before you just liked placing them on your hands, but now you try and put them on and walk in them. The other day you sat down, put them on, and trudged across the house and the slipper stayed on. It really made me laugh!

You’re really good at mimicking. This started probably around your 16th month, now you’re a pro. You seem to mimic your daddy the most, which is just about the cutest thing in the world to see. If your dad picks up his yogurt to read the label, so do you. Or if your daddy’s making dinner and drops something and says sh*t, you say “shhhh.” We’ve realized how much more careful we need to be with what we say and do around you. It is pretty darn amazing see how much you grow month to month.

Want to know what else you’re really good at? Following directions! If we ask you to pick something up, or to help clean-up your toys, with a little prompting you jump right in and help. The only time we really struggle, is when we tell you no or ask you not to do something. You have a mind of your own and want to do whatever you want, we manage to figure it out, though. One of the new, most adorable things you do is putting your clothes in the hamper on your own. Your daddy will get you undressed, and then put your clothes in front of you. He tells you it’s time to pick them up and put them in the hamper and you listen, you pick them all up and bundle them in your arms and then walk off to put them where they belong. After you throw everything in, you turn around and start to clap, looking for us to do the same. It’s so so adorable!

Bath time is a blast with you now. You’ve always been one to enjoy the end of the day bath, but now you love to get in and play. You’ll flop on your belly or splash me, but either way, you never ever want to get out. You are also very good at brushing your teeth. You’ll take the toothbrush and move it around (mimicking what you saw your daddy and I do), then after you’re done, you’ll give it to me to go around and do another good scrub. I’m impressed with how well you do with it.

You no longer sit in an infant carseat, and you weigh enough to have it face forward. We switched to a big boy carseat, but it was facing backward. I just wasn’t confident enough that you would be safe forward since you were only 15 months. However, we went to the doctor’s at the end of your 15th month and found out you weigh nearly 30 pounds and the safe zone is like 25 or 26 lbs. We went ahead and made the flip, and you have never been as happy riding in the car. You love, in the mornings, to tell me all about the cars zooming past us.

You had your second Christmas and it was a blast! We spent Christmas Eve at our house, and then woke up Christmas morning and opened gifts together. It was so much fun! You are starting to get the hang of opening gifts, but still need someone to get it going for you. I bet, by the time your second birthday rolls around in July, you will be a pro.

You were enamored with the Christmas tree. We decided to get a real one this year and you just loved that. You loved touching the needles and then pulling your hand away quickly, when they would tickle you. You also loved the beautiful lights, and the pretty ornaments that I hung. It was tough to keep you from pulling the tree, but we managed. 🙂

In the beginning of January, your day care decided that you were ready to be moved up to the next classroom. I’ll be honest, I was really nervous. I didn’t think you were ready, but I was wrong! You have thrived in the new room. You love your teacher and are learning all sorts of new things. It’s obvious that it’s done you well because of how much you’ve changed in the last month, becoming more of a little boy than a baby (but you will still ALWAYS be momma’s baby).

Going along with day care, we had our first parent/teacher conference, with your teacher. I was really excited to meet her one on one, plus I wanted to see all of your art work and hear how you are doing in the classroom. She had only wonderful things to say about you, Emmett! You have met so many of the milestones set for your age, and you continue to soar.

You still love books. You love looking at them on your own, and you love handing them to us to read. You don’t always make it through an entire book before you are off and playing with something else. But the fact that you love the books, even if it only lasts a second, makes me happy.

Oh my goodness! I almost forgot, you got your first haircut. It was a scary experience for you, but you looked really really cute. And overall, you did a great job of sitting still and letting the lady cut your hair.

There are probably many more things that I’m forgetting but this does a pretty good job of rounding up everything that we’ve experienced with you, over the past 3 months, Emmmett. I truly cannot wait to see what else your beautiful life has in store for us!

I love you more than I will ever be able to express.

Filed Under: Family

Dear Emmett

Posted on June 24 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

11 months!

Looking at you and watching you move about, I know you’ve grown but in my mind, you are still my tiny baby. Since we’re nearing your first birthday, I’ve become very nostalgic. I have spent a lot of time looking at pictures of you when you were first born and when you nurse it makes me reminisce about the small struggles we had when we first started nursing but how it has absolutely been worth it.

I actually have to share a story, I’d like to try and nurse you past a year, my goal is 18 months but I will take it a week at a time after your first birthday. Anyhow, I went to the doctor’s last week and he had to put me on some antibiotics and the PA that I saw said I shouldn’t nurse you while on the antibiotic, I panicked! I was not ready to stop nursing you, in my mind I still had at least 4 weeks left. I was so heartbroken, I called your dad and was talking to him and started getting worked up. We got off the phone and I sobbed, I just wasn’t ready! So I called your pediatrician and they checked their prescription book and confirmed that it was perfectly safe to continue nursing you while on the antibiotic as long as you were older than 2 months, which you are (of course). I was so relieved!! So my sweet boy, we continue on with the breast milk.

What a busy month we’ve had. You are a crawling machine! Last month you had a nice leisurely crawl, you’d stop and look around then move a couple more feet but now you crawl like you’re in a race. You are SO fast!! I like when I put you down on the floor and go into another room, you chase after me. When you get to the new room, you peer around the doorway, looking for me and then motor on over. I just adore you.

You’re still not walking, but its close. Right now, you will pull yourself up on nearly everything and if you have strong, steady footing you will let go and stand there independently for a while. There have even been several occasions where you stood on your own for at least 30 seconds. It is really just a matter of time before you let go and take a step in my direction.

Grass!! Oh my goodness did grass freak you out. At the beginning of the month, we went outside to hang out with your dad while he was doing the grilling. I put you down on the grass so I could unfold my chair and you started crying so hard. At the time I had no idea what happened, I thought maybe you got stung or bitten by a bug. I put you down a second time and you did the exact same thing, I finally determined what was bothering you. So for the next few weeks after that, I slowly got you used to the grass. I’d sit on the ground with you and let it tickle your toes or let you reach for it. We slowly worked up to you sitting independently and now you’ll stand on it. However, if you want to move around you will put yourself into a downward dog position and then move your hands and feet like a bear crawl. It’s so silly but you must not like the way the grass feels on your knees. Silly boy!

Speaking of the outdoors, I’ve been trying to make sure you get outside everyday unless it is raining. The summer months can be hot in WNY but I want you to like summer and the heat so I’m hoping by taking you out in it, you’ll grow up liking it.

At the beginning of this month you went through a very finicky phase in regards to food. You’d really only eat a few things here and there and then refuse to eat any more. Your dad and I kept on offering you everything that we normally would and with a week or so you were back to your old self, eating full meals. Now you’re a champ when it comes to eating, I can’t think of a single thing that we’ve given you that you didn’t like. One of your favorites this month was corn on the cob. We tried giving it to you cut off the cob and you’d have nothing to do with it so then we just gave you the cob and you went to town. Such a big boy! I hope you continue like this for the rest of your life, it will make you a much healthier person.

Up until last week, you had been using a sleep sack for naps and nighttime. We decided that maybe we should start moving you from the sleep sacks to blankets, so now for all of your naps you use a blanket. One day I got to day care early and you were still asleep, it was the cutest thing seeing you all curled up in your “blankie,” it warmed my heart.

Exploring is a huge deal to you right now. You love sitting down with a new toy or a toy you haven’t played with in a while and staring at it, turning it over and over in your hands, trying to figure out just how it works. I wish I could have a little window into your mind so that I could know exactly what it is you are thinking or what you are learning. One major thing that fascinates you right now are holes. For instance, my hair brush has a hole at the base, so it can be hung up. You love looking at it and sticking your finger in it, trying to understand what’s going on with it. I could sit and watch you play for hours.

We also took you to your first playground this month, you can read about it here. You had fun swinging back and forth and bouncing around on the different activities around the park. I think your dad and I had as much fun as you. We love watching how curious you get when you are somewhere new.

Do you have any idea how much your father and I love you?? It is so hard on a daily basis to leave you at school and not bring you with me to work. Every little thing you do amazes me and just makes me so proud to be your mother. Next month, we’ll be celebrating a year of life, I cannot wait!

Filed Under: Emmett, Family