Around the house...

Two nights last week the girls laid on their couch together and watched signing time and went to sleep. You probably think that's a total normal everyday thing for a kid, but NOT for Lilah. She has NEVER just laid down and gone to sleep! If I'm around like I am 99% of the time she nurses to sleep or if I'm not around then she'll cry herself to sleep most times (aww sad!) So this was super amazing to me! They both had their my little pony babies as well.... precious!!




I did a change around in their bedroom too. I moved out all the baby doll stuff and made all of their dress up things super accessible and hung a mirror so they can instantly admire themselves in whatever they have put on. This has been a huge it with them. There hasn't been a day that goes by that they don't go back there wearing one thing and come out with another. I really need the space to hang another 10 hooks because they have tons more dress up stuff... and I'm sure in the future we'll have much much more because I love their dress up as much as they do!

Lilah - 16 Months

Lilah Asenith Harrison
16 Months Old

Lilah eating Mommy's homemade marshmallows!

This is a long and overdue post about Miss Lilah! In the past 6 weeks she's really gone from my baby to a toddler. She understands everything we say to her and in the past 1-2 weeks she's gone through a signing revelation! It's finally made a click in her head and she knows that it can get her what she wants. She's signing milk, more, food/eat, baby, dog, cat, bird, horse, please, all done, drink, water, cracker, yes, and no. For "yes" she shakes her whole body in a yes hahah. Cat was her first used word after mom and dad and it was also her first sign. Hanging beside the change table in their nursery are three pictures I framed made from felt. A bird, a panda, and a cat. It was this cat that she loved and we'd talk about when I was changing her and Abby was the one to show her the sign for cat and she picked it up from that minute on. This prompted us to really kick in our teaching time and obviously she was ready to learn! She's also starting to say things clearly so we can all understand. The best example of this is "thank you". It's so cute to hear her say it.

I have been extremely impressed and relived that her pain tolerance has seemed to increase. Teething time use to be excruciating for all of us with endless hours of crying no matter how much medicine, teething gel, cold rags, and ice we gave her. Right now she's teething two bottom first molars and one top first molar .....on most days you wouldn't even know it! Every now and then she'll get a little whiny and will have her hand in her mouth so I'll pull out the teething gel and that's all it takes to get her over the hump.

Her over all happiness has increase 100% along with her independence. She's not afraid of situations as much as she was before and most times she'll allow other children and people to approach her without her freaking out. She's even been letting strangers pick her up (not strangers to me, but to her) I never thought I'd see that day come lol. She loves to dance, climb, and swing and over all has become a little daredevil just like her sister, but she is a little bit accident prone. I don't think we have ever made it though a day without her bumping her head at least once and about 10 times a day is more normal. We are always saying "aawww your poor little head".

The most resent update would be the beginning of our potty training. We decided to do the Potty Training Boot Camp and within the first hour she did a teeny tiny pee in her potty. Since it's so cold right now we are limited on when we can do the diaper free time, so it's going to be relaxed and when the house gets all toasty and warm, but I think it'll be no time and she'll be using her potty like a big girl. Emmy was an broke early at 19 months, but Lilah may really blow her out of the water with this one! What can I say? I've got really brilliant children :) but if it takes her till 19 months it won't bother me in the slightest.

Christmas Fun!

I got the fab idea to do some Christmas window painting and I am so happy I did! It came out great! Nic & Markos came over to hang out and help this past Friday. A paint job that should have taken two adults no more than 45 mins took about 3 hours... haha. It was hard work keeping the babies happy and trying to work at the same time, but we managed to get it done. What do you think!? Nic suggested that I get some window clings of snowflakes to add to it and I think that would be a really nice touch. When we went shopping on Saturday I kept my eye out for some but haven't found any yet.

Emmy & Nic working hard!

Markos sharing a taste of the bubble wand.

Here's cute cousin Markos :) Look at those beautiful blue eyes!


This kept them happy for the longest stretch. Baby Signing Time!!

Happy 11 Months Old!

11 months old today and she's growing up so fast! She can go from sitting down to standing up with no problem and can free stand for as long as she likes now, but she won't take that first step yet. I keep saying... any day now! She can say "Dog" and her Grandma Jan heard her say "Brodie" when babysitting her yesterday.

She's exploding with signs and I'm trying really hard to keep up with her. Here's her list of signs: Eat/Food, Milk, Dog, Bird, Water, More, Play, Baby, All Finished and a few that she's made up on her own and I'm trying to figure out what they mean but she is fully aware that they mean something and that she knows what she's saying haha

If you don't sign with your baby I encourage you to do it. It has been very helpful to be able to ask her "Do you want Milk? or Food?" and she can say "Eat Eat Eat Food!" No whining, no crying, no trying to figure out what she wants. Don't worry if your baby is a bit older and you think it's too late. My sister in law didn't start with her daughter until she was a bit over one and with in a week she was signing she wanted to "eat" and now uses her signs all the time and she's nearly 2.

signing

Emmy signed last night for the first time while eating dinner. She made the sign for eat and when we got excited she started signing milk. It should really take off from here I hope!

Here's a funny baby signing time song!

videos

It's been awhile since I've uploaded some videos so here's 2 that I took over the weekend. The first is Emmy swinging at her grandparents house.



And this one is her watching her Signing Time video. Total TV junkie!

4 months

A whole 16 weeks old today! She's doing more and more things everyday. She's super good at reaching out and grabbing things on her play mat and her swing. She's discovered the tags on her taggie blanket which makes me super happy. Today when Kim scooped her up she had such a good hold on one of the tags she carried it a fair while before she dropped it. Way cute! She also talks like crazy. Lots of noises the entire time she plays. My mother in law has said from the beginning that Emmy is the most smiley baby ever but now it seems like she's smiling even more. I love it when I am rocking her and I'll look into her pretty brown eyes and she'll look back and give me the biggest smile ever with a little "aaahhhaa" sound. Just melts the heart!

We're signing "milk" to her lots and I just started to sign "water" although they both come in a bottle so I don't know if she'll understand the difference for a long while... we'll see. I've added "mommy" and "daddy" just today. In what I have read it says you want to sign at least 30 times a day minimum which sounds like a lot but it really adds up fast.

signing time

Just wanted to share this with all you wonderful mommy's! When we were pregnant with Emmy we got the Signing Time DVDs 1-3. I have begun to show volume one to Emmy now and again. I'm not too sure how much she's getting from it but persistence is key, right? We gave them to our niece Bethany as well and she started watching them at age 13 months old and a week into it she was signing for 'food' and 'more'! How exciting! I first learnt about baby signing when I worked with a woman who's 2 1/2 year old was shyly refusing to talk and she was having speech therapy and part of it was learning American Sign Language so she could communicate her needs better. Of course she learned the signs and used them but what I was amazed at was her little sister who was 8-9 months old was sitting in on the sessions with mom and sister and was just exposed to it but was not being direct taught and she started signing at home without being asked to sign. How amazing!! Babies are so smart and really know and understand more than we give them credit for. Go HERE for a video on the importance and research of Baby Sign Language.



Here's a baby that is super good at signing!




Here's the link for the Signing Time DVD Website!

Here's a baby that has been giving all the language tools from birth and she's amazing! With both parents being speech pathologist they knew the importance of offering alternative was to communicate and used sign language along with reading to their child. She's 17 months old and can talk well and READ!! How cool!





Today I dug out all of Emmy's books that her grandma Betsy got for her and put them in a basket beside our rocking chair. We're going to read her a book every time she has a bottle. I would be thrilled if she could read at 17 months and I don't see why she couldn't. She's already one smart cookie.... she picked Kim and I for parents didn't she?!?