Rowing

Emily loves music and nursery rhymes. Emily says "row, row, row" when we sing Row,Row, Row Your Boat. She clicks her tongue like Claire and I do during Hickory Dickory Dock and says "down" at approximately the right place.

Emily likes to hold lots of things in one hand. It seems sometimes as if she is trying to see just how many things will fit in her tiny little fist. she also likes to carry something in her hand as she crawls along even if it is quite large like a purse.

She is very interested in paper and turning pages. The baby bug pages are just the right thickness for her to turn independently.

She is developing strong opinions and a firm agenda and will let us know when we are not following her plan. Her main goal for each day seems to be to spend as much time with someone walking her around as possible. (Try doing this with someone who is a mere 2 feet tall and you'll see why I am eager to avoid doing this for any length of time.

It is so interesting to see the differences in how our girls are developing. Their being together seems to reinforce learning certain thinga. They both learned to kiss last month, and we had tried to teach Claire by herself for over a year before that. Emily learned to drink from a straw the first time she tried it (today) while Claire tried it for a couple of months before she could do it. Emily is able to push small buttons on a phone or toy at 13 months that I'm sure took Claire much longer.

cat food stacker

Claire likes to :
stack cans of cat food whenever we bring home the 24 pack.
jump up and down
climb
say rhymes and sing songs
ask questions
look at books
listen to stories
take a bath
wear costumes
go to play group

Emily likes to:
Open and close doors
pet the cat
walk while holding mom's hands
play with balls
eat crunchy foods
go outside
listen to music
click her tongue
play in the bath
repeat favorite words: mama, dada, baby
put on bracelets (or canning lid rings, etc.)

other news:

Sometime in October Emily grew two new teeth bringing the total to 6 teeth. She has another on the way.

We have an appointment with the pediatric cardiac surgeon at Children's Hospital this Wed. Nov 18. This will be his first time meeting Claire. It will be interesting to see what he recommends for Claire.

Costumes

Claire is wearing a "mermaid" costume right now that she got along with a bagful from friends at church. She loves dressing up and changes from mermaid to princess to ballerina etc various times during the day. photos on flickr.