a little interview

I allowed him to stay in just undies because let's face it, that's his outfit most days at this age. And for the record, he knows his correct age now.

first sentence

Emory made Jon (and me, of course), more than beam with pride yesterday when he busted out his first sentence. You see, the little man really doesn't talk much, and when he does, his words are usually abbreviated ("daa" for dad, "ber" sometimes "ber-bah" for Amber, "deh" for dog, "duh" for done, "buh" for book, and "beh" for just about everything else); you get the idea. So imagine my surprise yesterday as I was trying to keep Emory's cranky self happy while we spent time at the dealership when he came up with this: "gcaaah go bdzommm." Translation: car go zoom. I had been trying to get him to say "car" instead of "beh" and he took it to the next level, above and beyond my imagination. That's right, our little boy said his first words at our car dealership while playing with his Maserati quattroporte and Porsche 911 (996). He has since repeated the sentence a couple times, just so I know it was real. Jon couldn't be more thrilled with his child. During proud moments of being a mother, I forget all about the woes of toddlerhood. (More on that subject later).

today my baby turned 18 months old

I guess that means he's not quite a baby anymore. He is an adorable toddler, full of life and fun and intelligence and personality. Lately Emory is becoming more assertive with his opinions, and at times, it's an adventure trying to figure out just what he wants within his extremely specific desires, but I love that he has those desires and the fire within him to make them known in one way or another. He mimics everything we do: brushes his and our hair, washes his own body in the bath; copies signs for communication and songs (The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Head Shoulders, Knees, and Toes are big hits); directs music (on his own accord but to the beat, mostly) at church; dances on command, mostly to Justin Bieber, but what can we say, he's got catchy songs... Emory is also showing us more and more of what a sneaky comedian he can be. This side of him comes out mostly at the dinner table and when he should be napping but isn't. Most words he says have been shortened to one syllable without the ending consonant like "buh" for book, "da" for Dad, and "ber" for Amber. Oh, and every syllable ends in a dramatic up-speak tone. He also doesn't stop moving at all during awake times of the day, remaining busy, busy busy, mostly carrying small objects around the house. (He especially loves a couple of the refrigerator magnets). I love Emory so much, and I'm so happy to be his mother, even through all the new challenges every phase of his life brings. The joys and blessings I get just for knowing him are much greater than any struggles I have to endure.

Emory spent his day today a little sick with a cold, but so happy to play with Amber. He had to stay especially active since if he sat still, he would have fallen asleep. The little stinker, even sick and with tylenol in his system, didn't nap until we drove to Seattle at 4 pm, and because of the snow, our trip back made him get to bed late as well. At least he celebrated by going to Dick's for dinner and consuming an entire hamburger by himself, after hoards of snacks. When he's hungry, he's hungry.

I took these photos this afternoon, just before we headed out the door for Seattle, sleepy boy yawning and rubbing his tired eyes, but terrified to slow down and give in to sleep.

i didn't expect this on camano

Jon woke me up this morning before we actually woke up and said "look outside." Even in my sleepy stupor I couldn't believe it. And by the time we got up at almost 9:45 (snow does amazing things to keep things quiet and promote heavy sleeping in apparently), we found 5-6 inches of fresh snow covering everything we could see. Eventually, the skies to the north cleared just enough to reveal the gorgeous water, as the clouds moved south and provided an almost charcoal backdrop for the snow-covered evergreens. When Emory hunkered down for his nearly 4-hour nap, we snuggled up to The Godfather on AMC and let Paisley meander out onto the deck where she skirted around the snow and still managed to explore the most she ever has outside. And later, we ventured out for little E's first time playing in the snow. (I know, I know, we just moved from Utah, but we didn't have a yard at our disposal at our last place, and Emory was too little last winter). By that time, the cold Canadian winds thrashed the snow into our faces, so we became expert wind-blockers for our little man.

After Emory had enough of being plopped in the snow, being plowed by dogs, and watching us build a snowman, I brought him inside where we shed our wet layers of clothing and gave him some hot cocoa. Because what would a good play in the snow be without a cocoa chaser? He drank it while sitting under the heating pad and enjoyed the moment, as you can see.

ps this reminded us of Christmas 2008 when it snowed and snowed and snowed and Olivia discovered how much she loves the fluffy white stuff. don't worry, she reminded us today how she feels about it.

17 months and a bit

We've been so busy. Honestly, it's hard to remember what blogging was like for me before just adding a song every day. However, I know people out there who love and miss Emory and want to know all about how he is learning, maturing, getting taller, and more. Here I oblige.

Among his advancements to date, Emory:
*wants so badly to feed himself (it's a little tricky with our temporary living situation, but we need to just break down and buy him another suction bowl instead of waiting to find the one that's lost in our storage unit)
*communicates well, still using his signs and becoming more and more vocal, saying words with signs and using amazing inflection in his favorite one-syllable sounds like "beh," and "eaih"
*imitates everything we do
*loves story time at the library (I just have to say that I'm thrilled there are so many tiny kids who attend on Camano Island--we were worried only old people lived out here)
*acts shy at first around strangers but wants to be social
*eats and drinks so much--I think he drinks a half gallon of milk every 4 days or so, and that's just milk--he most likely weighs a little more than 24 pounds
*walks so well, thankfully, after spraining his knee a month ago and not walking for a couple weeks while it healed
*sings and loves music, especially the "Itsy Bitsy Spider," hand motions included
*loves to help around the house, especially with laundry and unloading the silverware from the dishwasher--it's so adorable how satisfied he becomes when he hears "thank you" for his efforts
*asserts his independence (we've seen a few fits thus far)
*loves living so close to all his most adoring fans

beware. naked bum pictures follow. let's add to the list:

*likes to be naked
*remains too busy to get dressed
*loves throwing balls, and sometimes eating them too
*knee walking

we interrupt these messages

the song of the day messages, that is, to talk about Emory's hair.

We took these photos post-nap last week, to show the glory of the one and only curl Emory has ever experienced in his life. Unfortunately, most of the time, the back of his hair literally looks like a rat's nest, and conditioner hasn't been helping much. Plus, his bangs were actually starting to hang in his eyes, and when he would maneuver a certain way, he'd have the Bieber look going, and we're just not cool with our kid looking like Justin Bieber at such a young age. Or any age, for that matter.

So tonight, we took him to get a real haircut, in the chair and all. Originally, we had made appointments with a barber... Jon needed a cut too, and we figured that a father/son barber outing would turn out well. Until we showed up too late and landed at Wal-Mart instead. I had serious doubts about the endeavor, but thankfully, the stylist was willing to work with us well, and handled Emory's cut and my particular opinions well.

And so we give you Emory's haircut, in sequence.

(We took our small, outdated point and shoot, and under the florescent lights, the photos didn't turn out well, but you get the idea).

As you can see, Emory was thrilled to help comb his hair, and I came armed with mini m&ms to distract. The result: a pretty happy little man with a colorful mouth until she got to the part around his ears and tried the clippers. He was pretty much done after that. It's still long, but definitely cleaner looking, and hopefully much easier to manage now. I guess we'll see what tomorrow morning has in store when he wakes up.

16

or the number of months lived by Emory in the world.

I'm not sure how much the little man weighs or how tall he is, but at his 15 month appointment, I think he had grown more than a pound in 3 weeks or so and weighed 21 lbs, 14 oz. I'm guessing that with all the treats and rich holiday foods that have been around for the past few weeks, he's up to at least 23 lbs.

In other news, Emory's accomplishments as of late are:
*signing like crazy to communicate: more, please (yay! finally!), eat, milk, and something that resembles his own version of all done
*saying few words outside of signing--with that in mind, ball is his very favorite, and he says it all the day long
*wanting to do everything his dad does
*imaginary talking on one of his many cell phones
*walking, though it's still just becoming a more enticing form of transportation
*using his own language to try to imitate sounds we make
*riding mini Mia, the pony
*charming grandparents and aunties galore
*loving his band in a box toy he got for Christmas
*dancing to most music he hears or makes
*singing, especially singing himself to sleep at night with his little music box giraffe
*sporting some looong hair--we may actually give in and get it cut

first step[s]!

password: walking

first steps from Meghan Beutler on Vimeo.

So, walking is just a game to Emory for now, however, what parent wouldn't want to record and share their child's first steps? He took the plunge this past Sunday and has stayed pretty consistent about taking a step or two here and there following plenty of encouragement. But this is a far cry from him not even standing on his own until late last week. And on Wednesday we had friends over for dinner who brought their 2 1/2-year-old and Emory got so excited about his friend that he took about 5-6 consecutive steps towards him before he fell. Apparently all the kid needs is the right motivation. It will come though, and for now, it's just too cute to watch him do his Emory hand thing in excitement over just standing, thinking about walking.

PS don't forget to enter my giveaway... you have nothing to lose!

14

months, that is. (yesterday, anyway). right now I feel like I can't keep up with life, it's passing by so quickly. because wasn't it just June, my baby was 9 months old, and it was hot outside? and with time comes change. and for Emory, all good change. (well, mostly.)

Emory currently:

-says "oooooh" constantly, especially when excited about something he sees (view photo above)
-has 8 teeth, and I think more are coming from all the drooling and fussing we've had around here for the past week
-could eat grapes all day
-walks around holding only one adult hand; cruises all over the house using walls, furniture, our legs, the drying rack, etc.; pulls himself up onto everything (yeah, he's a late bloomer, but at least he's been crawling like he was born to for the past month or so)
-spends his mealtimes extremely opinionated, making life a little more difficult these days
-empties the bookshelf[ves] at least once per day
-reads all day, is obsessed with Llama, Llama Red Pajama and Tails (seriously, we could read these two books 10 times a day and he would still beg for more)
-becomes really angry at his books when he can't turn the pages fast enough
-yells "Daaaad, Dadyyy" in the morning when he wakes up (he knows who will come and feed him breakfast)
-waves hi and goodbye and blows kisses (i.e. two of the cutest gestures ever from him)
-loves teeth