12 months old

Little Emerson is finally 12 months old. The big one year! This past year has gone by really fast and at the same time it feels like forever ago that she was a newborn. I've loved getting to watch her grow, develop, and change from a teeny infant to giggly on the verge toddler. I refuse to call her a toddler until she starts walking. I feel like I have really seen a lot of change in Emerson in the last month. Mostly in her language development. Her words (which are up for interpertation ) are:

• Momma (mostly said while tugging my pants leg)
• Dadda ( chatters it all the time)
• Hey/Hi (she waves eagerly now when she sees someone and says hi)
• Bye ( will say bye while waving as well as when I get off the phone)
• Ball ( Says it obviously when playing with a ball!_
• Baby ( Pretty much says this anytime)

I've also been able to tell that she understands a lot more of what I say. For example, when I say, "Daddy's home" she will go crawling to the door. The other day when I said, "Is it time to leave?" she starts waving like crazy. In the bathtub, I will ask her if she is ready to get out and she will go the edge and stand up with her hands up. She's very interactive, always jabbering away and smiling at us. Emerson points at things and uses her "word" for whatever she is talking about. Her personality has really come out toward the end of this first year. She is playful, sweet, fiesty, funny, and independent. She really enjoys music and is constantly dancing and clapping her hands. She is a big climber giving me tons of exercising chasing her up the stairs. Emerson has become quite the mimic. If I stick out my tongue she'll do the same and finds it hysterical. She also finds it entertaining to feed us and the dog although she avoids pretty much all food herself. Although yesterday she put pizza crust in her mouth and got really excited about it. That's a first! But, I guess everyone likes pizza!

Here is the birthday collage to show how she is changed. Just a little bit don't you think? She has almost tripled her birth weight!

Her hair is much lighter than birth. A nice golden brown. I see a little bit of curls forming at the the ends and I really hope they stick around. As you can see she has dark chocolate brown eyes!

Our teeth count is now at 6!

As illustrated by these pictures she is a big goofball.

Cheering me on as I take her picture.

Not really sure what this means though?

Happy Birthday Emerson! I'm really excited to see what this next year brings. You bring such joy into our lives!