November 24, 2007: 1 Year Old
Photo by JCPenney Portait Studios
Three Parties, Three Cakes
For Emily's first birthday we threw a small party at home with some of our close friends. The party featured a teddy bear cake (white cake with colored buttercream frosting) since stuffed bears are among her favorite toys at the moment. As soon as Emily saw the cake she couldn't take her eyes off of it. We cut her a piece and she knew what to do!
The next week her daycare threw a second party and all the daycare kids were in attendance. Her babysitter, Sirin, make a delicious cake with chocolate frosting. And finally, when Grandma and Papa visited later that week we had another small party with ice cream cake! Yummy!
Early November: First Steps
For more than a month Emily has been able to walk while holding onto furniture or our hands. In late October we noticed that she could stand and let go of whatever was helping her keep her balance. But when we saw her go from sitting to standing without using anything to pull her up, we knew that walking wasn't far away.
Then on November 4th, she finally took her first small steps. I'm not sure if we can call it walking but they were definitely steps - 5 in a row! She was so proud of herself but that was the end of the show. There was no more "walking" that day! I will have to keep the camera nearby to catch the action.
Little Miss Personality
Emily is quickly heading toward toddlerhood and her first birthday. She's usually a pleasant, happy little girl but she knows what she wants and can pitch a fit if she doesn't get it. Sometimes it's the car keys, sometimes it's feijoas, her all-time favorite fruit.
Feijoas grow on trees near Richard's San Mateo office and each week for the past few he's brought home a bag full of them. He let Emily have a taste one day and she LOVED them. She likes most fruit but none as much as feijoas! She's even learned where the feijoa bowl is on the kitchen counter and will crawl into the kitchen near the bowl and point and grunt until we give her some.
Giving her bear a hug
First Words
Emily still talks a lot - in her own language! She always has something to say and makes sure we're listening. And if we listen very carefully, we can occassionally hear an attempt at a real word, too. Her first real word was Daddy ("Dah-dee!") and after spending some time with Kris's dog Lacey we definitely heard her say "Ay-Cee!" I wonder how many words she'll know by the end of the month!
