The past 2 weeks have been busy because it was Christmas and New Years. It's crazy how the holidays have come and gone. They were busy and full of developments for Emily!
1. Emily does this strange but funny thing with her arm these days. She outstretches it like she's reaching for the stars or something. We couldn't understand what it meant for days, and we still don't! Sometimes she holds objects and thrusts her arm in the air with the object in hand. So we wonder, if she presenting the object? Sometimes we wonder if it's her way of pointing? And the funniest part is that sometimes she makes a really "ugly" face when she does this arm thing. She scrunches her face and mouth and we laugh so hard when she does that. We're like, "what's with your face??" It's been super funny. We don't know what it means, but it's cute as heck!
2. Emily has recently figured out how to click her tongue. She does it all the time now. It's so fascinating because how did she learn to do that? We never do that in front of her. So it's not like she's mimicking us. Babies are fascinating!
3. We've discovered that Emily is scared of dogs. For christmas, we were at Sy's cousin's house, and there were 2 small dogs roaming the house. Emily was curious about them and would watch them carefully. But if they got close to her, she would start swatting at them to get away from her and would start whining/crying to beg us to protect her. It was pretty cute to see. I've never seen her afraid of anything. So it was really interesting to see.
4. Emily has become a cruising and climbing machine. For Christmas, Emily got her first little monogrammed arm chair. She has been absolutely loving climbing this chair and climbing onto the shelf next to it. But even without this chair, she spends her day just climbing and cruising one thing after another. She cruises along our dining bench, the sofa, the ottoman, the rocking chair, her walker, any bookshelf, etc. It's been a bit exhausting watching her now bc we move around so much now. But I'm glad she's an active girl and is getting better and better at walking.
5. Emily has become such a giggly girl. She just giggles by herself at nothing. It's so infectious! When she laughs, we can't help but laugh. And vice versa too! If she hears us laughing, she joins in and giggles and laughs along with us! It's been such a sweet and fun 2 weeks of laughing together as a family.
6. We think Emily has figured out how to wave hi and bye now. She's not super skilled at it yet, but I think it's stemmed from her ability to mimic us. So now when we wave hi and bye, she does it back. She doesn't do it every time, but getting better and better!
7. We also think Emily can understand the word "no" now. It's been really funny to see her react when we say No Emily! She immediately stops what she's doing and looks over at us. I would say most of the time, she stops doing what she was doing and moves on to something else. But it's hard when it's something she really wants to do - i.e. eat snacks. But either way, it's SOO crazy to me that she can understand us now. I mean, I know she was always able to understand us this whole time. But the fact that she can react and respond in a more cognizant way is so mind blowing. Watching her turn into a little person is so incredibly fascinating to me.
Overall, it was nice to experience our first Christmas with Emily. Poor girl was put through a lot of tough days and nights bc of the holidays. She basically had her sleep interrupted for like 5 days straight. She got so little sleep for so many days. But she was a great trooper as usual and was in pretty good spirits with family and friends. It was sweet to wake up Christmas morning and have Emily join me and Sy in our usual Christmas morning tradition. She may have third wheeled us, but she was so welcome. It was adorable to watch her open her gifts, rip wrapping paper, smile at us when she tried out her new toys. It made me realize that Christmas truly is a holiday for children - not adults. I've never felt happier than watching Emily play with new toys than any gift I've ever received for myself.
For New Year's day, Emily participated in her very first saebae. And she did great! She was able to somehow do the bow despite not knowing what the heck she was doing. She just kind of did it on her own! Normally, I kind of hate the saebae tradition. I find it really degrading to bow to someone. But I gotta say, when it's small children like babies or even a 5 year old, it's pretty cute. It's more funny than it is traditional.
This holiday season will probably be the most memorable bc it was our first with Emily. She developed so much in the blink of an eye in the past 2 weeks. I wish I could bottle all of this up and remember it forever. Hopefully, this blog entry will keep it alive for me.
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