Where We're At: Emily

Miss Emmy is 16 months old now. She is a real force to be reckoned with and has a bigger than life personality. She has an effervesent presence and is extremely charming. She is a social butterfly and a complete clown. She is a busy little girl; she almost never sits still and is always into something. She likes to raid the pantry and I often find soup cans and other items scattered throughout the house. She still loves to climb and spends a lot of her day teetering off of the chairs while leaning on the table's edge. She already loves sports. She can dribble a soccer ball and set up the softball tee and hit the ball by herself. Have a mentioned she's a total self-starter?

She continues to be a pretty happy child most of the time. She has, however, perfected the "witching hour meltdown" and is mostly unhappy from about 5:30 till 7 p.m. every night. Outside of those few hours, she is content to play by herself or with her sisters. But, she also enjoys tormenting Addison a lot of the time. Addie tries so hard to be kind, but Emily doesn't usually want the attention. I do catch them hugging and comforting each other some of the time so I know this is just a stage.

Emily has finally started napping in her crib. Up to this point, she was napping in her swing. She is down to one nap a day and goes down without a fuss. She also (finally) goes to bed at night without screaming herself to sleep. It's only taken almost a year and a half to get here, but at least we've climbed that mountain.

Emily uses a few words to help express herself. She can say, "Thank you, please, night-night, Addie, Enzo, dog, Mama, Dad, and ya." She uses sign language to tell us when she's all done with her meals (or anything else for that matter). She also nods and shakes her head when she's tired and wants to tell us how she's feeling but doesn't want to talk.

Emily is really attached to her pacifier. Because neither of our other girls were ever "binky babies", this is new for me. I try not to spend too much time worrying about it because I know at some point she'll ditch the thing. She won't go to Kindergarten with a pacifier in her face.

Emily's shown some change with regard to her food allergies. With reflux medication, it seems she can eat a few more foods without an allergic response. This tells me that maybe some of her allergy symptoms were actually reflux symptoms. She has eaten gold fish crackers without any type of response. Those things have all of the top allergens in them so that is encouraging. However, she is still "not thriving" by clinical standards as she's only gained one pound in the last 10 months. We do see her allergist this month and will follow up with testing and the dog allergy problem to find out if we will have to be a dog free family or not.

Despite her pretty limited diet, she loves to eat most foods. She opens the pantry door or tries to climb into her high chair when she is hungry. She's starting to notice when she's not allowed to eat what the other kids are having and has been really frustrated a few times. I try really hard to always have a substitute for her to avoid making her feel left out.

Little Emmy is shaping up to be a dynamic little girl. With all of the challenges she has given us, she has also greatly blessed our lives. She is an easy girl to love. This next year will prove to be a lot of fun as she grows up and becomes more independent and better able to express herself.