Emmett at 13 Months

Billy is currently doing an audition rotation in Casper, Wyoming. They let him stay for free at the hospital, so it didn’t make sense for me and Emmett to come with him. Emmett and I are currently staying with my parents in northern Virginia. Without very much housework to do (my parents have cleaners come once a week) or cooking to do (they also let me hop on their HelloFresh plan) I have had literally nothing to do except play with Emmett. I was all excited for this little break so I could catch up on my photo books (I try to make one every year, but the last one I made was in 2015), write lots of blog posts, and study for the CPA exam. So far, all I’ve managed to do is start re-watching Mad Men (and I already managed to make it through season 4!) There’s something about having absolutely nothing to do that makes me the most unproductive bum. Although, I must say, it’s been very nice to not feel guilty about reading books or watching Netflix during nap time. All parents know that it’s the worst feeling in the world when you realize you got absolutely nothing done during the nap. But, I don’t have anything to feel guilty about now.

Emmett is also loving it here. My parents’ house is like a dream come true for grandkids of all ages. There’s a playground, fire pit, golf cart, baby pool, and 9 acres to explore. Inside they have a chalkboard wall, coloring room, a basketball arcade game, and a dress up room also filled with giant stuffed animals. My sisters have also given me lots of their old baby toys for Emmett to play with. Plus, he gets to see his cousins multiple times a week, and Granddad and Sue Sue every day, so he has been in heaven here. Although, this grandkid dreamland doesn’t make up for the fact that we miss Billy like crazy.

I haven’t done an update on Emmett since he was 9 months, and I feel like there’s way too much for me to catch up on. When he went from 10 to 11 months, I feel like that was the biggest change. He became his own little person with likes and dislikes (meaning he started to throw tantrums). But that’s when I really felt he wasn’t a little baby anymore, he was becoming a toddler. And now he learns something new everyday. He’s so observant and eager to learn and I love his little personality. Here are some things that I want to remember about Emmett at 12 and 13 months (this is also where the non-family members should probably stop reading):

He throws his hands straight up in the air whenever something happens with a ball—on the screen or in person. It all started while watching Bryce Harper make his huge comeback at the Home Run Derby. I think my dad is more proud of this fact than the fact that we named Emmett after him. If there is any type of ball game on, he will just sit and watch it with us. I feel like usually kids only watch if there’s a kids show on, but he is just as excited about ball games. He’ll point at the TV and then raise his hands in the air to tell us he wants to watch a ball game. He was definitely born into the right family!

He loves to do the motions for the Itsy Bitsy spider. We were shocked when we realized he was doing all the motions with us out of nowhere. And also a little nervous, because what else is he watching us do?

He finally says mama (usually only when he’s whining for me). He has already been saying dada since he was 6 months old. And even though Billy has been gone for almost a month, he still says Dada 100x more than Mama. He also says shit. Most people’s children say uh-oh! when they drop something or get hurt. My child says shit, of course! He also says stop, stop Ari, shhh, milk, yep, yeah, nap, no, hi, and wow. If you’re really lucky, he’ll respond to your “I love you” with “I yuh you”. Although nobody besides me or Billy would be able to understand any of the words except stop and wow. He doesn’t do any of his sign language anymore. We keep trying to re-teach him the signs, but once he figured out that we could semi-understand what he wanted by his pointing or his “words”, he hasn’t done them since. He can understand pretty much everything I say to him now. The other day, I asked him to put something in the trash to see if he even knew what that was. He immediately grabbed it and walked over to the trash can! He then threw the wrapper on the floor next to the trash can, but it was close enough for me.

He looooves dogs. My parents have a Yorkshire terrier and a red and white Irish setter and he asks to go play with them all day long. If he even hears the tinkle of their collars or their movements he starts making his dog noises. Which is very similar to his duck noise. Both of them sound like he’s trying to clear a fur ball from his throat. I feel like he’s either a genius (because he sounds more like a dog than “woof, woof” does) or he isn’t very smart cause he can’t figure out how to say it properly. He’s gotten a lot better at understanding he needs to be soft with them. Although, he’ll still get really excited and sometimes can’t control the aggression of his “petting”. He thinks the dogs that are smaller than him are hilarious. The other day, I heard him in the other room just laughing hysterically. I go to see what he’s laughing at and he’s looking out the window at Rudy (my parents’ Yorkie) and laughing at the way he runs.

            Whenever music comes on, whether it be over the radio, from one of his toys, a commercial on TV, or a cellphone ringtone, he starts wiggling his booty. He’ll throw his hands up and move them around in the air. His moves are killer and it makes me laugh every single time.

He’s very good with lots of animal noises. He knows what a lion says, what a tiger says, what a bear says, and what a dinosaur says. Ok, so those are all the same noises, but at least he’s accurate. He also says “tweet, tweet” for birds, “sssss” for snakes, and “blub” for fish. He’s started saying “moo” for cows, which kind of sounds more like “boo”, but it’s close enough for us! And he does a halfway decent monkey. We didn’t even realize he had all these tricks until he was watching his show, Little Baby Bum one day and one of the songs says “Can you hiss like a snake?” and he started hissing! We were shocked and started asking him what the other animals are in the song and he knew them! We asked him “can you roar like a lion?” and he opened his mouth all big to roar and a tiny little throat tickle came out. But at least he was trying. And now I let him watch all the TV he wants because I swear it teaches him more than I could. Little Baby Bum also taught him where his head, nose, mouth, and toes are. We taught him where his belly button was and how to hold one finger up when we ask “How old are you?” So Little Baby Bum is still in the lead. If he wins the Nobel Prize, I’ll credit Netflix.

He thinks our nephew Mac and our niece Mary Grace are both hilarious. They can get him to do a belly laugh easier than anyone. They are both 10 years old, so I’m wondering if there’s something about the age? The other nieces and nephews try to do the same exact things that Mac and Mary Grace do, but he just stares at them like they’re crazy. And then immediately goes back to belly laughing at whatever Mac or Mary Grace are doing.

He walks all over the place now. He took his first steps a couple weeks before he turned 1, but then he didn’t really start walking everywhere until about 13 months. Everyone warned me that it would be really hard, but I think it has made things a million times easier. He is content to just walk around and explore and play by himself. Right before he could walk, he wanted me to help him walk around all day but then he would get so angry and frustrated that he couldn’t do it himself. He was the same way when learning to crawl—just so easily frustrated. But now he’ll entertain himself just by throwing a ball around all day. He throws it, then walks over to it, squats to pick it up, then throws it again. Occasionally he’ll yell at me to come get the ball out of some hard to reach place he’s put it. He is obsessed with any type of ball. He even gets excited at seeing apples or watermelon or peaches. Because he thinks they are a new ball he can play with.

            He also falls a lot now that he’s walking around so much. But he’s really tough. As long as he doesn’t hit his head, he gets back up and keeps walking. Even when he hits his head he’ll just cry a bit so I’ll acknowledge it. He grabs his head to show me he bonked and then wants to be put back down to get back to playing. He has all sorts of bruises all over his face from running into things or from falling down. Billy’s going to think that single parenting really set me over the edge when he gets back.

            He likes to get into mischief, but not too much. He likes to play with my parents’ dishes, and I heard them clinking around and knew he was playing with something that was breakable. So I came over and asked “what are you doing?” He hurriedly closed the cabinet door and walked away with a guilty little grin. He knows exactly what he’s doing and that he’s not supposed to do it. He'll also come hand me things that he knows he's not supposed to have--like my phone and pens and remotes. But then he yells at me when I don't give them back to him. His weird little personality makes me laugh all day long.

He is super picky about food. He mostly only eats carbs and cheese which is all I ate while pregnant with him, so it’s kind of my own fault. He used to hate all fruits, but now he’ll eat lots of different fruits. So I’m hoping one day the same thing will happen with vegetables, but I probably won’t hold my breath over it. For now, he gets all of his veggies from either veggie straws (that counts, right?) or the baby food pouches. It's almost as if he won't eat anything unless it comes out of a package. It actually drives me crazy how picky he is. Although, one of the benefits of having a picky eater is that I don't have to worry about him putting weird things in his mouth. He's really good about that. Except he likes dog food, but that won't kill him, right? 

He has so many weird little expressions. He'll do a funny drawn out gasp sometimes just to make me laugh. If someone coughs, he fake coughs after them and then smiles like he's in on the joke. My dad and he like to fake laugh back and forth at each other. Sometimes when he's frustrated he'll clench his fists and his teeth together and shake. His face turns red and he'll hold his breath for a good 3 seconds. But then other times he'll do the same thing just to laugh at my reaction. Whenever he's ready for a nap or for bed, he gets super slaphappy. He'll just belly laugh at anything and everything. It makes it really hard to want to put him to bed because he gets more and more hilarious. Then, when I ask him "do you wanna go take a nap?", he says "yeah." And he starts spazzing out flapping his arms as soon as I put him in his sleep sack. He actually gets excited to go to sleep. Must be my child. 

I have a trick that I do when changing his diaper to get him to hold still. It only works about 50% of the time, but I start counting to ten. He loves the anticipation, I guess? And lately he has started saying "six" and he yells "ten!" at the end*. 

*It's most like "ses" and "teh".

Ever since we've been in Virginia, whenever he needs some love, he'll walk over to me, put his head in my lap and go "mmmm" in a high-pitched voice. It kills me every time. He has also started resting his head on my shoulder whenever I'm singing his bedtime song (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star). I think I feel the worst about Billy missing this cuddly side of him, because all Billy has ever wanted in life is a child who will hug him and snuggle him.

The boy has got a lot of emotions and he doesn't hide them well. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

He is obsessed with my parents’ golf cart. My dad takes him on a ride every night, rain or shine. It’s gotten to the point where we can’t even say “golf cart” in front of him, or else he will get his hopes up and cry when he realizes we aren’t going on a ride. Kind of like how you can’t say “walk” in front of dogs. The other day, he started yelling at me and pointing to where my parents keep their keys. I didn’t know what he was saying, so I picked him up and took him over by it to see what he wanted. He immediately grabbed the key for the golf cart and then pointed for me to take him outside. I didn’t even know he knew what the key looked like! And if we go on a ride and it’s not long enough for his liking, he’ll start bawling his eyes out. And of course my dad will give in and take him around the yard again. His reaction whenever we pull the key out now is pure, uncontrollable excitement. He gets his really nervous, impatient laugh like he can’t even wait another second to get in the golf cart.

It’s been so fun living with my parents and seeing Emmett’s growing relationship with them. I worried that living in Chicago, he wouldn’t know his family very well since he only saw them a few times a year. So, it’s been the best to see him with my parents. He lights up when he sees them in the morning and kisses them good night every night. He also waves bye whenever they leave the room. Whenever he sees my dad, he always does his dog noise, either because he recognizes that my dad is in charge of the dogs, or because he’s asking him to take him to see the dogs. Whenever he sees my mom, he raises his hands up in the air, since they always watch the Nats games together. He loves all his cousins and aunts and uncles too. It was a rough go with his cousins at first because they all wanted to hold him and snuggle him, right when he was learning to walk. So once they figured out that he was fine walking around on his own and he needed space, they’ve all become the best of friends (although Ari could live without him).

We love our Emmett baby and the little boy he’s turning into!

This is what I did for the whole month of July and the whole month of August. So glad I could pawn it off on someone else though.

I tried to explain to him that this was the font where his mama was baptized. He DGAF.

This is a rare sight nowadays. The combination of 3 hour church and country roads did him in.

He loves drawing. And he can write his name! JK, but doesn't my handwriting look like a baby's?

We have to ride in his car at least once a day. Thanks for the fun present Aunt Marisa and Uncle Jake!

His cousins were sweet enough to join him at Toddler Storytime even though they are already graduated to preschool. 

Trying to smile while eating PB M&Ms

He love his birthday present from Auntie LaShonda

Everything Rudy does is hilarious

Battle wound from falling off a bench. Saddest day of my life.

Trying so hard to play soccer with his cousin MG

I figured out how he likes to organize his snacks.

This is the tiger we have to go visit every time he wakes up.

I caught him chewing on his shirt, just like his dad

Being real reverent in church

Best little snuggler

Bear down! Chicago Bears!

Our King

Golf cart ride

Watching BYU beat Wisconsin

Where he comes to stare at the dogs

Finally okay with the grass. 

He's my favorite

The Move From Hell

I have no idea why I’m writing this blog post about our move. No sane person would want to relive or remember these events. I guess I’m hoping that maybe I’ll think it’s funny one day. Or maybe it’ll make me grateful for the other moves we'll have that aren’t as eventful? Or it's more likely than not that I’m just crazy. Regardless, 6 weeks ago, we packed up all our belongings in a Budget rental truck immediately after Billy finished an 8-hour board exam. We towed our little Toyota all the way from Chicago to Virginia, with Emmett in the seat between us. Emmett had never been in a car for longer than 45 minutes at a time and then he turned 1 and we were like, “LET’S DO ALL THE ROAD TRIPS!”

We made it to Toledo and were served a delicious dinner by our good friends, the Wissingers. We drove another two hours before stopping for the night in the hotel from hell in Hudson, OH. Billy stayed out in the moving truck while I checked us in and got Emmett’s bed all set up so we could put him right back to sleep after taking him out of the car seat. Because he’s always grumpy when he gets woken up. Like me. But my plan was ruined.

First of all, my key didn’t work, so I couldn’t even get into the hotel from the parking lot. So I had to walk all the way back with the pack and play and my bag. This hotel was the size of a shopping mall and we were the farthest we could possibly be from the front desk. In this story, imagine me walking from Nordstrom to Macy’s (on the outside) at University Mall. Actually, I don’t even know what stores are there anymore—Utah County is unrecognizable to me now. But you get the point. So I went back to get a new key and had to wait forever to be helped. Even though I was sighing and stomping my foot impatiently. Or maybe it’s because I was doing that.

The receptionist finally gave me a new key and I made the trek all the way back from Nordstrom to Macy’s with all my crap. I stepped into the room and immediately wanted to cry. The bed was unmade. The room was hot and filthy and there was an inch of some unidentifiable liquid in the trashcan. I was so exhausted that I wouldn’t have even cared about all that, except the bed had either been slept in or something worse and I knew I’d rather drive through the night than sleep in that. So I tried calling the front desk and she doesn’t answer. So I hauled my crap all the way back to Nordstrom and very angrily order her to get me a new room. Not my best behavior, but I was murderous at this point. She finally got us another room that was a teeny bit cleaner, and the sheets were definitely clean. So I set up everything and went to get my boys. We were so gross from moving and driving that we had to shower, but Emmett couldn’t go back to sleep when we were still awake and moving around since we were sharing a room. So he cried for a while until he finally fell asleep at about 1 AM. I didn’t even care if other guests were annoyed. We woke up on August 1^st (Emmett’s birthday) all very grumpy and eager to get the hell out of that place. Now that you feel sorry for us, I’ll sheepishly tell you that we only paid $50 for the hotel, so we got exactly what we paid for.

That day we drove all the way to my parents’ house in Middleburg, Virginia. We unloaded a few things but then we had to get out to our storage unit to put the rest of our stuff there. For some reason, we decided we needed to pay to store all of our hand-me-down furniture and other crap we have already forgotten about until we are settled in one spot for residency. Which is a year away. Anyway, the storage unit office closed at 6 PM and we were meeting people from my parents’ ward to help us move it all at 6 PM. (Most of my family was conveniently out of town on this day.) As we were driving there, a mailman clipped us and shattered the driver’s side mirror. I’ve never heard Billy yell the f word quite so loudly. We had made it all the way from Chicago, and in the last 10 minutes of having the moving truck, we got hit. The mailman didn’t even stop either, he kept driving. So, we called the police, but we couldn’t stick around to report it and prove our story because the storage unit office was about to close. We ended up getting to the office at about 5:55 and it ended up taking about 20 minutes longer than we thought to sign all the paperwork and get the unit ready. So, the people from the ward that I’ve never even met before were there and ready to help us move but we weren’t ready yet. My stress levels were through the roof at this point. After some waiting, we finally get into our unit, but then we realize that there is no way all our crap can fit into it. I had done a Storage Unit Calculator thing online and it had said I should be fine with this type of unit, and I even went a little bit larger to be safe. But nope. Never trust the internet.

Luckily, the worker was a godsend and he opened the bigger unit so our helpers could start moving stuff in and then Emmett and I could go down to the office and sign some more paperwork. That’s when I learn that the unit we needed is 3x more expensive. So, at this point I was ready to just light a match to all of our stuff and start over next year when we’re in residency. Then, a police officer showed up to take my statement about the hit and run. He patiently waited for me to finish the paperwork before I took him out to the moving truck. This day was like my worst nightmare come true. Not only were we moving (the worst thing to do in the world) but so many people were doing favors for me and waiting on me. If you know me, you know that I am terrible at accepting help. The police officer checked out the damage and decided it’d be better to just pay for it out of pocket because if he filed an accident report, our insurance would go up. So basically, we wasted a lot of his time. When I got back to the storage unit, the men were pretty much done unloading. They unloaded everything and reloaded it in less than an hour. Elders’ quorum FTW! But, my plan had been to stand there and tell them whether things went in the storage unit or came with us to the house. That didn’t happen because I was dealing with everything else, so most of the stuff we need in the next year is somewhere buried in our unit. All of my detailed planning and organizing was for naught.

Now that I’m done complaining about the 3 days from hell, I’ll talk about how grateful I am that we had 2 weeks of vacation planned after this. We went to Topsail Island, NC with my family. My parents rented a beach house RIGHT ON THE OCEAN. We have stayed in ocean front houses before in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But they always have a couple dunes to walk over, so you still have to pack your things for the whole day on the beach. In Topsail, the beach was so close that I could bring the baby monitor out on the beach while Emmett was napping inside the house. It was perfect. (Although, after Hurricane Florence, that house might not be there anymore. That’s the only problem with being so close to the water.)

This trip was the first time Emmett had been in the ocean. He loved playing in the sand with his cousins. And he loved the water as long as it wasn’t too close to his naptime. Speaking of naps, he magically took one long nap everyday and it made our vacations that much better. One nap makes me feel like I’m an actual human and I can actually do things! I don’t need to be rushing back to catch the 15-minute window for his second nap. I was ecstatic that he decided to do it for our vacations (probably because he was so exhausted from all the fun we had). He has since regressed and is taking 2 naps again (probably because I am super boring on my own and can’t give him enough stimulation for his brain), but it was fun while it lasted.

It was a special treat to be with all my family and see how much they love Emmett. He had met them all before, but to have a week in the same house when he’s at such a fun age, was awesome. His cousins called him “The Hypnotizer” all week, because he hypnotized them with his cuteness. He would sometimes get a little overwhelmed with all the attention. Going from being an only child to constantly being surrounded by cousins in your face is a little much to handle, but he did pretty well.

Our last day there, we flew from Wilmington to Salt Lake. We had a layover in Chicago, which made us a little sad since it felt like home but we didn’t have time to leave the airport. We got to Orem really late and then packed up and drove the 6 hours down to Lake Powell the next morning. Poor Emmett had no idea what was going on, but he was a trooper. You wanna know our road trip secret for a 1-year old? Nonstop Little Baby Bum. Mom shaming has made me feel guilt anytime I let him watch TV, but I’m beyond that now. He loves it and he has learned his animal noises and motions to nursery rhymes and he has killer dance moves. There’s no way he could have learned any of that from me! It’s 100% from his 1,000 hours of Little Baby Bum. I honestly feel like they should sponsor us. We have 3 episodes from Netflix downloaded on our phones, and he watches the same ones over and over.

Lake Powell was so much fun with Billy’s family. It was a completely different vacation with a 1-year old. I was anxious whenever he was awake and I didn’t dare take my eyes off of him unless Billy was watching him. Not that I don’t trust Billy’s family, but they are all so laid back, that it always makes me feel like I need to be extra anxious. But then around my family, where the majority are tightly wound, I feel the need to be the laid back one. Is anyone else like that? Please don’t tell me that’s a symptom of bipolar disorder.

Emmett was 100% fine, and had so much fun playing in the sand and the water. He went on a wave runner, paddle boarding, kayaking, and wake boarding. All with adult supervision, of course. We probably should have timed his wake boarding session a little better, but we didn’t want to waste all the good water on the baby! It was getting close to his nap, and he hates getting in the water with his life jacket on because it makes him float on his back. So he was already a little pissed off to begin with. Then, to top it all off, just as Billy was getting up and pulling him out of the water, the rope broke and they both fell back in. Emmett was so mad, poor guy. He actually usually does well when he’s put underwater, because he gets dunked in his swim lessons. But I think the whole situation was just not his favorite. They tried again and got up and wake-boarded for a minute. Then we got dropped off at the houseboat for his nap and all was forgiven. I wish we had tried again that trip, because I think he would have loved it if he hadn’t been grumpy and he knew what was going to happen. Oh well.

Emmett is the only baby in the history of the world that will NOT fall asleep on a boat. We’ve probably spoiled him too much with his own dark room and sleep sack and noise machine. He’s the best sleeper as long as he is in his own bed. I kept thinking he’d fall asleep on our boat rides, but all he did was get pissed and cry. Luckily, he slept pretty well on the houseboat, and he slept even better on the nights when the AC was broken. Probably because we weren’t in his room anymore. Boy needs his own space, like his momma.

We went back to Utah for another week and had fun playing with cousins and aunts and uncles everyday. Then Emmett and I flew back to Virginia and Billy went to start a family medicine rotation in Casper, WY. It was the perfect 3-week vacation after a long and stressful move.

One of our last days in our backyard. Not sure why we took a picture in the ugliest spot, but oh well.

Grandma flew out to watch Emmett while I packed up the house. She was a lifesaver!

On our last walk around the neighborhood. ET in front of ET. 

Full disclosure: we had already gone to the moving truck rental place to pick up the hitch for the car and should have just left from there. But then I realized that we had never taken a picture of all of us in front of the front door. So, we drove back to get a quick selfie and then left for good. I do it for the gram!

Nice and cozy in our moving truck. Billy was a champ and drove the whole way because I was too nervous. And Emmett was a champ as long as Little Baby Bum was playing.

It was so much fun seeing our friends, the Wissingers! Emmett is obsessed with Jackson, and I wish we lived closer.

Stretching his legs

Now on his second road trip--this time to the beach!

3.5 years and a few pounds (if that) apart.

The girls loved Emmett's baby books and toys.

He was loving all the extra attention

It's hard to bottle feed someone who is your same size

His favorite part of the beach was the ceiling fan in the living room.

Playing corn hole with his uncles

Chilling in front of the house

Granddad putting him to sleep. Just kidding. There is no way he could fall asleep right there.

Will eat any type of chip. Even jalapeno.

During nap time, we actually got to pretend we were on vacation

Emery was not a fan of Little Baby Bum

  

It's tradition for my parents to watch all the grandkids one night and have a pizza movie night while the siblings and spouses go out to dinner. It was our first date night in a few months and it was amazing!

My people

Just missing Tanne

Then we asked Caroline to take our pictures since it was the only time all week I wore a full face of makeup.

Emmett loves his cousin Caroline

When he wasn't crawling in the waves or staring at the fan, he was mastering the stairs. I never even knew he could climb up stairs since we didn't have any in our apartment. He's a fast learner though.

Always getting smothered with love

Boogie boarding pro. He hated it though. Probably cause of that damn life jacket

Souvenir shopping with Mary Grace--the professional shopper

Tor Tor and Henry

Granddad and Sue Sue with all 9 of their grandchildren

Granddad has another tradition of reading Shel Silverstein poems to the grandkids. They love it.

On our flight to Chicago. Eating his first biscoff cookie.

He found a mini empty bottle of Jack Daniels in the seat back pocket and I wasn't about to take away 30 minutes of entertainment

Back in Chicago!

Delayed about 2 hours past his bedtime

Made it to Lake Powell! This is about the time when he's wondering what in the hell his parents are doing to him.

Always snacking

How many people does it take to get a rope out from a jetski propeller?

A pool with a view

Emmett was always the center of attention. Which is not his favorite.

When you forget that you don't have a base tan and go on vacation for 2 weeks, this is what your skin will look like.

Another birthday celebration for the 1 year old!

Sometimes he'll share his goldfish. Sometimes.

This picture just makes me so grateful he can finally walk now. I was so over walking him around like this all day long. But it was great for Lake Powell, so I could keep him safe.

First jet ski ride. He loved it!

Billy and I won the horseshoe tournament, of course.

And Emmett wanted to brag about the win. We're #1!

Ran into the Chipmans at the marina. Best surprise ever!

Free concert at Sundance. Oh how I've missed that place! 

One of the things I miss most about living near family is going to our nieces' and nephews' ball games

Cheering Macster on!

Tickling Grandpa

Sweetest cousins only 1 month apart.

Me and Stephy

These 3 toddlers were all born within 6 months of each other!