We put Emi in one of Alaina's dress-up outfits and then realized that it looked a lot like what Alaina was wearing that day:

My happy, smiley girl!

Content. :-)

Emi's First Birthday

On Emi's birthday, my mom, Alaina, and I took her out for her first ice cream. She loved it! I think she was a bit resentful that we had kept it from her for so long. What a fun birthday treat.

Emi's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins all came a couple days later to celebrate her birthday. I made all kinds of brunchy foods, including a fruit/yogurt/granola parfait area since Emi loves fruit and yogurt. She gobbled up that plus french toast casserole, egg casserole, etc. It was so fun having family here to celebrate the first year of Emi's life with us. To top it off, Emi also took her first real steps during the party (she had taken 2-3 before that, but this was the first time she truly walked from one person to another). Now that it's almost a month later, she's confidently walking all over the place as though she's been doing it for years! 

Emi loves "playing" the piano! She really loved when her cousin played. He played the same song over and over again, so when we look at pictures of him I remind her of the song and I think it helps her remember him.

Emi loved her cake! She ate the frosting first, then went back and shoveled the cake into her mouth! I think I have a better picture of that somewhere, so I will try to post it if I find it.

At Emi's 1-year checkup, she weighed 22 pounds (80th percentile) and was 30 1/2 inches tall (90th percentile). She is a healthy girl! She loves to eat, especially pasta, ground beef, chicken thighs, avocado, yogurt, any kind of fruit, peas, corn, really almost anything. She really gobbles up pasta with tomato sauce. 

She is saying more and more words, too. Here's a list of what she's said so far (that I can think of) so I'll remember years from now: mama, dada, Alaina (na na), ball, baseball (ba ba), tries to say drink, bye, hi/hey, night night, me me (I think that's "Emi"), I think she has said "backpack" but Todd probably thinks I'm crazy, no, boo, tickle, buppa (Grandpa). I'm sure I'll probably think of more at some point.

She loves being outside. She does a lot of gesturing/pointing and grunting to indicate that she wants to go outside or wants a drink or snack or something. If I had to use a couple words to describe Emi, they would be friendly and curious. She loves greeting other people at home and on outings. She always has a smile for them. She is also always interested in touching things, exploring, opening doors/cabinets, looking to see inside things, etc. I know some of that is just normal behavior for her age, but I think she is particularly like that. For example, I got a musical card for Mother's Day and she kind of tore it open to see the mechanics of where the sound was coming from. It will be interesting to see if these two words still describe her in a few years. I'm also encouraged by how flexible she is. I often have to wake her from a nap to get Alaina from school, and she never complains or is grumpy. She always has a good attitude about it, even if I'm in a hurry and rushing her to get in the car. 

Sister love

Pretty much every Saturday, we make a family trip to the farmer's market. Emi enjoys the people and dog watching, but not when we stop for too long. Alaina usually doesn't want to go but changes her mind when she sees the free samples.

Alaina has been much more interested in playing with her sister lately, and Emi is usually game to play along unless Alaina tries to get too physically forceful with her.