Sit still? Yeah, right....

It is getting to be more and more of a challenge to take photos of my little Emma. She won't sit still long enough, she's always looking for the next adventure. Her newest trick involves dragging a chair to the kitchen counter with her little stool and then she'll climb on her stool and then climb onto the chair. Thank God she's still too short to complete this little circus act of hers by climbing onto the counter. Emma thinks that this is a barrel of laughs and will say "wheeeee" when i get her off the chair. Robert tells me that we should have named Emma "Joy" instead of Emma because of her joyous nature. One of my favorite things to do is to listen to her at night. Emma wakes up at 3am most nights and 'chats' with Mr. Cupcake and her slew of stuffed animals. She giggles, laughs and squeals and chats up a storm...and then falls back asleep. These are the memories of Emma that will forever stay with me as she grows up.

It's also been amazing to watch her language develop. She can now sting two words together like "It's Dada" or "It's Dora". Of course my favorite word of hers is "It's Mama!". :) I feel so blessed to be a part of this...i've often heard that children are like little sponges and Emma proves to me that this is true. I am trying to use Spanish when speaking to her too and she can say "abuela", "mano" and a few others with ease.

Truly a magical time for me....and of course, a lot of work, too. Trying to stay one step a head of an 18 month old, while fun, can be exhausting! Needless to say, when it's time for bedtime for Emma, my bedtime follows shortly after. No problems falling asleep for me! But the days are good and happy with only a few tatrums here and there. Mostly these are about my taking my car keys from her and the tatrum doesn't last long. It's interesting to me that when i walk away from her in the mist of a tatrum, she'll come find me! I guess it's the best way to handle it, but wow, do those tears melt your heart. I think that these things come with her growing independence; it's almost as if my job as a Mommy is a series of good-byes as i get this little baby ready to be a toddler and then into a pre-schooler and then off to school. I want to freeze so many of these moments because time just goes by so very fast, it seems, and i want to remember this time in vivid detail. I hope that one day Emma will cherish all of the photos that i've taken of her...