Signing

Erin learned her first sign language yesterday.  She now knows the sign for "Milk."  We've been working on a couple of different signs, but she can open and close her fist really well.  (like milking a cow).
She also knows how to wave hi & bye.  But I think I mentioned that before in a previous post. 
She's starting to come along pretty well.  However, there's still some things that she doesn't do for her age. 

• She occasionally holds her bottle, but would prefer to be fed.  If I set the bottle in front of her, she just screams.  Sometimes I just give in and other times I just let her cry it out.
• When I say clap your hands, she pats her legs.  She doesn't really put her hands together.

Those are two things that she isn't doing and should be doing by now, but we continue to work on them.
Even though she doesn't do the above things, there are other things that she accomplishes without any struggles...

• She plays peek-a-boo.
• She loves to give kisses to me, Emmy, daddy, the mirror and all of her stuffed animals.
• She loves to make clicking noises with her tongue.
• We have a toy at home where you can place a bunch of balls that go down a spiral slide.  She loves to play with this toy and she also likes to place the balls in the elephant's ears.  The ball comes out the elephant's mouth.  She plays with this over and over.   Emmy used to love playing with this when she was a baby too.  see here...http://krusemarkbaby.blogspot.com/2009/03/musical-toy.html
• She's almost walking!!  She's taken a couple of steps towards me and has stood on her own for about 10 seconds without really knowing she's doing it. 
• When I yell "Super Baby," she throws her fist up in the air.

We Got the Beat

Erin loves music and already has some rhythm for her age.  She likes to bop her head back and forth when she hears music or whenever I sing.  I can't carry a tune, but the girls don't care.  Emmy likes to sing with me most of the time.  Erin just sits and bobbles her head.
In this video Erin is talking and saying "Dada" and also bopping her head back and forth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjfoiTJxOwQ

Clementines

Tis the season for Clementines!!  I love, love, love Clementines.  I'm not a huge fan of the regular old orange.  It's just too hard to peel and not the same.  Don't get me wrong...I'll still eat an orange on occasion, but prefer the itty bitty seedless Clementine  I only buy these Clementines when they are not charging an arm and a leg for them.  Emmy has now enjoyed in the fun as well.  She figured out how to peel her own orange.  I came into the kitchen the other day and here she was peeling away. 

Curious Erin

Erin is into EVERYTHING lately.  I can't take my eyes off of this girl for one second.  At one point she's into the kitchen drawers, etc and then I move her away from the kitchen and then she's eating the dirt from my plant.  I can't win. 
I need to baby proof the kitchen again.  When Emmy was younger, we had everything baby proofed, but she would pull on the drawers/doors until they would break.  I bought different locks but then I couldn't figure out how to unlock them.  I ended up getting my arm stuck and broke one of the doors under our sink.  I threw the locks away after that happened.  The locks that I want to get are called "Tot Loks" but they cost a fortune.
Erin likes to bang the muffin tins together and pull out all of my tupperware from the cupboards.

Don't worry...there's nothing under here that can hurt her.

 

Splish Splash

After the girls were done with their spaghetti, I immediately put them each in the bath tub.  They were both such a mess.  Thank goodness that they both enjoy bath time.  Erin loves the water.  Every time I say splish splash she splashes her hands in the water.  They play really well together in the tub. 
Emmy loves baths, but absolutely hates the shower. 

Spaghetti Face

Erin is off baby food for good and strictly on table food.  Soon she will be off of formula too and onto the good old whole milk.  She loves eating everything and demands eating what we are eating.  She's a good eater and isn't picky.  We've been letting her feed herself a lot.  The other day I made spaghetti for dinner and couldn't pass up on taking this photo!

Elmo Live!

One of our Christmas presents to the girls (okay...maybe just Emmy) was tickets to go see Elmo Live at the Target Center.  We all ventured out into the frigid cold and arrived at the Target Center all decked out in Elmo gear.  Emmy had no idea what we were doing, but got pretty excited when she saw the other kids and all of the Elmo balloons.  She was super excited to ride the escalator. 

Our tickets were for 5:30 pm.  We arrived a few minutes prior to show time.  Our seats were in the 6th row.  About three minutes before the show started, Big Bird's voice came on the loud speaker telling us the show was about to begin.  Emmy got really excited when she heard his voice. 

Bert & Ernie started out the show and then all of a sudden Elmo came out.  Emmy's little lips formed an "O" and she started clapping.  She didn't take her eyes off the show until she said she had to go potty (four different times).  Erin was pretty content throughout the show.  She bounced around a lot between Brad and I, but wasn't bad.  Emmy loves all of the Sesame Street characters, but during the show she was frightened by Cookie Monster.

The show was put together very well and worth every penny. 

We somehow managed to get out of there without purchasing any "Elmo" merchandise.  WooHoo!  The only thing we bought was cotton candy.  I can't stand cotton candy, but thought that Emmy would like a little treat.  PURE SUGAR...yuck.  Of course, she thought it was great!

Here comes Elmo!

 Intermission = Cotton Candy Time!

 Up close!  I told Emmy to run out and give him a high five, but she was too late. 

 Emmy got to shake Abby Cadabby's hand, but I was so excited to take the picture and didn't realize that Emmy wasn't actually in the picture. Emmy was behind the little girl in the black & white checkered outfit. You can see her hand on the little girl's back. 

 Thanks mommy & daddy...that was fun!!!