I have been trying to take snapshots of Emerson's daily activities, so I could make this blog post. At this point in my life the stuff that he does seems routine, but I image looking back at this in five or ten years and remembering all these cute things with tears of love and joy in my eyes! So, here we go...
Emerson's To Do List
Go through Emerson's and Ophelia's shoes.
At least once a day, Emerson goes up to the shoe bench and checks out the shoes. Mine and PJ's are not nearly as exciting as his and his sister's. As he finds his shoes, he says in a high-pitched voice "choe!" at least half a dozen times. Then tries to put them on. Sometimes brings them to me.
"Read" books.
This little bookshelf that we got with our Craigslist couch is one of his favorite spots to be by. The books on that shelf come off of it every time he happens to pass by, which is every ten minutes or so. This leaves me cleaning these books up about 100 times a day, or so it seems! The books scattered on the floor tend to be a hazard to this newly-walking man and he slips and falls on them regularly. Good thing he has lots of padding on his back end! He has a few of his favorite books that he brings to me, wherever I may be in the house, so that we can read it together. Sometimes he just sits there and flips through book pages all on his own. Other times he pushes books down between the book shelf and the wall behind it.
Watch "Singing Time".
He loves Singing Time! And I love watching it with him, because he usually sits still on my lap, so I can cuddle/hug him, play with his hair, smell him (is that weird? I love the way he smells! He still has that "baby smell" to him), and massage his little feet.
Do naughty things (when Mama is not looking).
Now that he walks so well and toddles all over the house, things go missing pretty regularly. Dry-erase markers from his big sister's room end up everywhere and pretty easy to spot on the floor. But it gets trickier to find things when he tosses them in the trash! The time when he threw away the remote control, it took me a good 20 minute to find where he put it... I have not been able to find a couple of markers and one of his slippers, and I'm afraid it's gone in the trash and now is gone forever!
He also figured out how to open the dishwasher, so utensils go missing unless I remember to shut the dishwasher door tightly.
Play outside.
He is growing to be such an outdoorsee little guy. He loves to go to the backyard. The minute he hears that backdoor creek, he is right there, ready to go out. We have a dirt pit for him to dig and play in. He also loves to find various rocks, pebbles, and balls, and puts them in his mouth. He is so used to me making him spit the stuff out that he carries an second helping in his hand, so as soon as I ask him to spit the first rock out, he put the one from his hand into his mouth!
And, yes, he can stuff the whole golf ball into his mouth. Ophelia tried it and turns out she has a tiny mouth and can't open it nearly as big as Emerson can.
Eat
Grapes have become a staple food item in our home. Emerson signs "grapes" and says "bow", which means grapes, as soon as he sees them. He can pack down a ton of them. And then ten minutes later come back and get more!
Besides grapes, he will eat any other fruit. I have yet to see a fruit that he doesn't like. He also often enjoys his snack time entertainment - Ophelia. It totally cracks him up when Ophelia sticks out her tongue at him and closes her eyes:
Being the sweet boy he is, he always shares with his sister whenever she comes up with an open mouth:
Throw a tantrum when Mama does not let Emerson out.
There are not many things that upset him, but not being able to go outside is one of them. Another one is when this mean Mama does not let him bang on the laptop keyboard!
Playtime!
At this age he is all about playing with toys, exploring them, and learning with them. This wooden tower is still one of his favorite toys, ever since he mastered doing that at the age of 9 months.
Go to the library for baby story time!
What a blessing it is to live so close to the library! We have been going there every week for story time when Ophelia is at preschool. It is such a special one-on-one time for me and Emerson. He enjoys all the little nursery rhymes and songs so much! His favorite are "itsy-bitsy" spider and "twinkle, twinkle". During toy time, he loves to find various balls or crawl through the tunnel.
Run errands with Mama.
I guess that's the destiny of all younger siblings: to get tagged along wherever their older siblings need to go. About a month ago, I switched Emerson into a forward-facing seat. He has been loving it so much! He loves to see and point and me and PJ in the front seats, he looks and checks out things outside, he makes faces and silly noises with his sister, and I can easily now give him things to keep him happy and content.
Play with sister.
He loves to do whatever Ophelia is doing. If she is having snack at this little table, he tries to flip another chair over, so that he can sit and have snack with her too. When she was coloring, he wanted to color too. Lasted for about 20 seconds:
Play at the park.
He loves going to parks. He has been mastering climbing the stairs on all playgrounds. Going down...not so much yet. So I feel like going to play at the park means a lot of work for me: chasing Emerson around making sure he has nothing in his mouth and is not about to fall off the playscape or get trampled over by a bigger kid. Swings are pretty nice and safe though:
Get a haircut.
Emerson's first ever haircut was more of a head buzz. But this time I actually took him to a real kid-salon and got him his first "real" haircut. He did so well too! The lollipop was definitely a winner! Kept him completely preoccupied and calm the whole time:
Bath time.
If we just mention the word "bath", Emerson walks as fast as his little legs carry him to the bathroom. I have been even censoring the word "bath" in his books when I read them to him, because it makes him run to the bathroom. He LOVES baths!
Sleep time.
Most of the time, Emerson is really good at going to sleep when he is feeling tired. His favorite sleeping position is on his tummy, knees tucked under himself, thumb in mouth. It is so funny to me that this same position was likely his favorite from his very birth. I swaddled him and put him to sleep on his back for four months, and he was a terrible sleeper, until one day I didn't swaddle him and he turned onto his stomach to sleep, and he slept for 6 hours straight!
This is one of my favorite times because sleep time means mama time!
