it seems so unbelievable that our emmanuelle is nearing her 1st year already.

Doctor’s Appointment: March 31, 2006 12:30pm
17lbs.
27in. 3/4

what she can do:
not has she already mastered crawling, she sometimes has this funny way of doing it. we call it the zombie crawl because she raises one leg up to use her foot instead of both knees. so she reminds us of samara from The Ring, only ten thousand times cuter.

she stands on her own now. she doesn’t need any props to stand up, but from sitting position, she has the strength in her legs to push herself up and remain standing until she wants to sit back down. she really mastered this her 8th month but i didn’t get to update her 8th month on blog. i’m hoping that this month will usher in her first step. the way she’s going, she’ll be walking by the end of this month.

she can feed herself. we buy these snack things, shaped like little stars with real fruit. she can not pick it up herself and put it in her mouth. it’s not always 100% guaranteed that it won’t fall, but she’s usually on target. if it sticks out a little from her mouth, she’ll just shove it back in with her fist.

she pushes things with her finger. we bought her this lovely playhouse wall thingy that has all these built in sounds when you press something or turn something, and surely enough, she knows whether to press something or turn something to make the sound. she uses her index finger to ring the doorbell or to choose a song on her toy radio. she knows that she has to raise the window or open the box, or turn the wheel. that little brain of her is definitely associating certain effects with its causes.

we bought her carnival toy way way back when she could only play on her back, but now that she can sit and stand, she’s learned how to hold the balls and drop them in the chute so they will fall down and come out of the carnival door. she realizes that the balls travel from one place to another and all she has to do is drop it into a hole.

she sits on baby restaurant stools now. we can now take her out of her stroller carrier seat when we eat out so she can socialize with us while we eat. it allows her to play and have more agency instead of being strapped in the carrier. we also give her some of our food to eat, like rice or fruit. she seems to really enjoy her times now when we eat out, which is good for her mom and dad too since it was a bother to eat out before in fear that she’ll cry throughout the meal.

perze and i are starting to believe that she knows what ‘mama’ means because she’ll usually only use it when she’s sad or of want for something, esp. me. we’re not quite sure yet. but when she babbles, she’ll say something other than mama. but when she’s crying or wanting something or me, she’ll say ‘mama’ so we’re thinking she knows that saying mama will get my attention.

she travels in a light stroller now. even though she looks pretty small and young in her green stroller, we often use it when we go out because it’s so light and not much of a hassle to bring to places. when i go shopping, i use it because she’s pretty behaved when riding in it. she’ll usually fall asleep in it if i take too long too, which is always good. i just think she likes the newness of all she sees when we go out, which is good for me since i was always inside the house during winter.

some bad stuff:
she’s very bad with strangers. she just stares at them for a very long time until she can play with them. and if they try to carry her, she’ll cry, with a few exceptions of course. except for my family, she is very picky with who holds her. that means when we go to church, not many people can really get to know her adorable personality and her humor because she’s so afraid and hesitant to be social. but the doctor says it’s normal at this age when she’ll have anxiety towards strangers.

she still doesn’t like to sleep in her crib. when she falls asleep, i’ll put her in her crib so i can do my chores but when she wakes up, she’ll attest to being inside and i’d have to take her out. she’ll only play for a little while in there too until she’ll act up in defiance to being “jailed” in such a small space. that’s why we set up the den as her personal playplace. we even put the old tv there so i’d have something to do while she plays.

she loves to bang things together to make lots of noise. not only does she like to bang things together, but she loves to use our hardwood floor to make noise, which is very very bad for our downstairs neighbors. there have been more than one occassion when they’ve rudely responded to emma’s “knocking”…

she always follows me around. she hates being alone, playing alone, or being in the room alone. if she realizes my absence, she’ll crawl everywhere to find me. then when she gets bored, she’ll always want to be right next to me even if we’re in the same room. this is sometimes bothersome because i can’t get things done because i have to hold her. nonetheless, it is very sweet when you think of it, because she loves me and wants to be with me. it’s only a matter of time when she’ll want to explore more and leave my side. then i’ll be the one following her.

i’ll update more when i think of more things. again, she just turned 9months, so all that i’ve mentioned is really her achievements while she was 8 months.