Of Perfect Pouts and the Discovery of Eyelashes

We've been busy enjoying the sun. And time is just flying too fast so here I am, a few weeks late!

I've noticed some big changes in Emily this week. She seems generally more communicative. She's very obviously trying to TELL me things now, and she is actually making herself understood to a certain degree. I do need to guess at most of it, but judging from her response, I think I might be getting a lot of it right!

This morning, she woke us up by lying in her cot screaming "COME!" This is the sort of thing I mean. There was no mistaking what she meant there (LOL)



She has begun to grasp that blocks are not just for throwing everywhere and hiding under the sofa. Now, she builds. She doesn't yet know to push blocks down on each other but the concept is very much there. This was her very first ever construction:

She is currently very passionate about dental hygiene. Not that she knows it, but I've managed to turn brushing our teeth into a game and she's walked right into it.

One needs lots of concentration when brushing one's teeth.

Having said that, she now seems to think that her toothbrush can be used to clean not just teeth. So we now scrub our bath toys too.

I think I may need to invest in a new toothbrush sooner than planned...



After the way she hugged Gabriella's doll one day at the park, I bought her her own doll. This was the introduction:

You can tell she was pleased!

Baby Doll gets lots of hugs, but mostly she gets her hands and feet bitten, and especially she gets her eyes poked. Baby Doll (no we have not named her!) has introduced Emily to eyelashes. Thanks to her doll, she now knows she has eyelashes and she knows I have eyelashes, and she loves nothing less than to feel and pull them. This was the last thing I expected or even thought of when I chose that doll and I'm sure she'll get over it soon, but I hope she doesn't lose too many more eyelashes before then!



I have enjoyed this beautiful weather we've had recently even if just because of these cute toes...

<3

For a few weeks recently (about three), she woke up looking like this almost every day:

I didn't think much of it at first but well into the second week, I wasn't happy that it wasn't getting any better. We took her to the optician, to the GP, no one had any answers. On a whim, I switched her bath foam to a different type and that was the last we saw of the swollen eye. It wasn't even a new bubble bath we'd been using, I have no idea why it suddenly had that reaction, but safe to say I'm not switching back anytime soon! :)



Will you check out that pout?!

Gabriella also has the same sunglasses, they are a couple of divas!!

At the park with Daddy :)

...while mummy has a rest on the bench.



She is really loving animals at the moment. She LOVED the chickens at the city farm we took her to in London a few weeks ago and she met the Palm Sunday donkey, which she wanted to pet and giggled every time she did. It was very cute!

She also really loves watching the neighbour's cat walking past the kitchen window. She has now also learnt the sign for cat. *proud*



Speaking of animals, we have a zebra in the living room. This had been our birthday present to her but she wasn't quite ready for it back in January. She is now and she is having lots of fun getting on and off it. Not so much spending time ON it, but as long as she's happy...!

Her eating amazes even me. She will eat anything and she is so good with it. And she eats loads. However she does have funny little habits. She's good with veg, but certain veg (like frozen veg that you quickly heat up) doesn't always go down too well. Sometimes she'll eat it, but often she won't. Today, I tried to smuggle some sweetcorn and a pea into a mouthful of fishcake. She looked at the fork suspiciously, picked off the sweetcorn and the pea and only then did she eat the rest. I guess I can't get much past her!!

Other than that though, she is great with food and I can't think of anything other than tomato sauce that she doesn't like... and even that, she'll eat if it's not too runny.



Here is a clip of Emily just being Emily...



Today, she crawled all the way down the corridor holding her cloth. But she kept stopping to shriek at it for getting stuck - because she was kneeling on it. But she cloth got an earful every few steps. I was in fits by the time she got to the other end of the corridor.

Another time, a few weeks ago, we were playing with her blocks when she decided she didn't want me touching them any longer. So the pushed all the blocks that were on the floor behind her, and took the tower I was building and KNELT ON IT while she played with something else.

She is just so hilarious. Cheeky, but hilarious...!!

Also, check this out: She really loves that ball! (video)



Her latest words are "come" and "nanna" - which is all four grandparents. Nannas are Nanna and Nannus are Nanna too. Sorry, guys!! ;) And she enjoys skyping with them all so much that the last three days have seen her screaming NANNA at me every time I so much as touch the ipad. So today, I've just given up on it, put it away and it's been calmer. Thank God for that!!!

Her signing has come on in leaps and bounds. I have actually, at this point, lost track of the signs she knows. She signs "sorry", "more", "home", "music", "fun" is her latest one. Sometimes she completely surprises me with one I had no idea she knew at all. It's just such an amazing side to the communication process, I'm so glad we went to signing classes.

xoxo