And just like that my little Emmalicious is One

The first year of Emma's life has been quite a fantastic journey. Elena and I have had a blast watching Emma grow and develop throughout the year. She gets more and more beautiful with each passing day. We are truly blessed.

Birthday Party Pics

 

Emma has made some remarkable advances since my last update. On October 11th Emma stood in place for the first time. Fourteen days later (four days after her first birthday) Emma took her first independant steps; approximately 12. From that day forward our world has forever changed as Emma is now able to explore areas of our house that were previously inaccessible to her and her "Spider Crawl".

Emma has also mastered stair-climbing and can climb all the way to the second floor of our home unaided. As a result, we have been forced to take additional countermeasures to baby-proof our home. Needless to say, we have placed a gate at the bottom of our stairs to prevent any unsupervised climbing.

Emma now has five teeth. Her two front on both the top and bottom and an incisor.

Elena and I have been teaching Emma sign language since she was three months old. Emma has been able to sign the word "milk" for quite some time now, but recently (in the last two weeks) she has picked up on the word "more", and will consistently sign it when she wants more of a particular food. Emma can also point to her hair, eyes, and toes, when asked.

I am extremely proud to announce that Elena has completed one full year of breastfeeding. Her original personal goal was six months. Once she completed that she seemed to have a rhythm going and kind of wanted to see how much longer she could do it. Six months turned to nine, and nine has now turned to twelve. It's an amazing achievement if you ask me, that comes with a substantial level of personal sacrifice. I have watched Elena fulfill this commitment despite the sleep deprivation and personal inconvenience that it brings. It has taught me much about the true strength of her character. I am proud to be her husband and honored to bestow upon her this:

"Liquid Gold Medal of Honor"

I was finally able to attend a Gymboree class with Elena and Emma. Elena usually goes during the week but this particular Saturday Elena had a make-up session scheduled so I jumped at the opportunity. We ran around, sang songs, balanced on logs, slid down slides, and had a great time.

This year Emma celebrated her second Halloween. We found this nifty little "Violet Princess" outfit at Target. Emma had a great time watching the spooky assortment of characters that came knocking on our door asking for candy. The only thing she didn't like about Halloween was when it was over as is evident from the last picture. I tried to break the news to her gently but she didn't take it too well.

 

Emma's hair has grown quite long during her first year of life. Her bangs seem to always drop into her eyes no matter what we do. Elena tries putting barrettes in her hair but Emma promptly removes them. We finally decided it was time to clean her up a bit and took her to the mall to get her haircut. She sat on Mommy's lap and did well throughout the grooming. She now looks like a tiny super-model.

Grandma Maria and Grandpa Arnaldo have been visiting us every weekend for the last four weeks. On one of these visits we decided to go to the park. It was nice to see Emma's Grandparents having fun with her at the playground.