Figuring out how life works

 

Taylor and I are babies ourselves, trying to figure out how real life works.  Tax forms?  IRAs?  Investment portfolios?  Life insurance?  Prostate exams?  We feel like we are stumbling along, pretending like we know what we are doing and scared to death we will mess up our happy little life.

But as we watch Emmeline stumble around, figuring out how life works, our hearts enlarge to a dangerous size.  She moves forward fearlessly, excited to take on new challenges and new adventures.  I feel so pleased and so proud and so in love and so supportive and so protective as she grasps around to figure things out.  That must be how our Heavenly Father feels about me.

So here are just a couple anecdotes I want to remember about her "figuring out life." 


Toilet:

Oh man, why is the toilet so interesting?   Every time our home gets quiet, I know Emmeline is in the bathroom with a toilet scrubber, trying to "clean."  Today she surprised me by finding the toilet bowl bleach (bad mom moment) and taking it to the potty - how does she know that's where is goes!?

Laundry:

Emmeline loves to help me fold the clothes....I fold, she inspects, unfolds, and wags her finger at me.  Today while I was in shower, I turned around from scrubbing my hair to see a dark pile at my feet.  Without my contacts in, I had to get down close to see...Emmeline had picked through all my laundry to find just my jeans, and thrown those into the shower.  Apparently it was laundry day for her!

Bathroom humor:

Her grandpa likes it, her dad likes it, and now her too - bathroom humor.  Every time Emmeline toots, she laughs and laughs and laughs, and tries hard to toot again - often straining so hard we have to change her pants.  But no one likes to poop in a dirty diaper, and inevitably within 2 minutes of changing a diaper she stinks it up!  I am going to start charging her.  But this past week was the best (worst).  She pooped in the tub, and in the time I turned around to grab cleaning supplies, she threw her big stinky prizes over the tub onto the bathroom floor.  I honestly think she was aiming for the toilet.  She is hygienic and I don't get paid enough.

I love her naked body, and she loves to poop naked.

 Words:  

I see Emmeline watch me as I talk, eager to mimic what I say and how I say it.  She says "baby" every time she sees a kid (regardless of age) and wants to nurture that baby.  She says "toooootsies" and wiggles her cute toes.  She yells "MINE" to get her way, and "NO" with a wagging finger when she doesn't get her way.  A dog says (whispered) "woof woof", a cat says "MYOW!", and a car says "CAR!"

"Baby!"  (Calvin, who is as big as she is.)  "VROOOOM!"

Shoes:

Emmeline LLLLOVES "shoos!", and several times a day has to raid her, mine, Taylor, or whoever's shoe bins to find the perfect pair.  She especially loves walking around in her dad's big shoes.  What amazes me is how she finds pairs!  The two shoes have to match.  My 15 month old is a genius.

 

Bossy, Bossy, Bossy:

She may look just like her daddy, but I think my baby girl acts a lot like me, for good or her bad.  And she is BOOOOOSSY.  She makes her wishes well known with a persistent wag of her pointer finger.  We recently spent Spring Break at the cabin riding the "VROOM VROOM," which she loved.  When our friend McKayla Romboy came to visit, Emmeline immediately grabbed McKayla's hand, and with her pointer finger directed her to join Emmeline on the quad, turn on the gas, and go.   She is bossy, and usually gets her way.

Bossing around the Med Students, Riding with McKayla

FaceTime:

Everything has become Emmeline's phone - particularly our external hardrive, which I guess could like like an iphone.  She holds whatever item in hand at the time, and talks like she is in an important phone conference.  But Emmeline especially loves to FaceTime her daddy at school - she jabbers and jibbers and tells stories and gives high fives and rocks and kisses.  She knows how to express love.  Is that human nature, or an acquired skill?  I need to show love better like her.

Happy to FaceTime her Auntie M.

Buttons, Chairs, and Stairs, OH MY!

The world is her chair.  If it can be sat, she sits, if it can be pushed, she pushes, and if it can be climbed, she climbs.  She finds the most creative things to claim as her own.  It is so fun...and a little heart-stopping...to see what she finds.

Friends:

Emmeline has never met a stranger (except Mr. Fong, my mother's principle, whom she is never nice to!).  She can be exhausted, hungry, cranky, in a terrible mood - but if we are arriving or leaving somewhere, she has to loudly say "HI!" and "BYE!" to everyone repeatedly.  She loves my Primary kids, terrorizes the nursery babes (even though she is not even old enough to be there yet)! and has found true friendship with our little Turkish neighbors.  She loves people.

Speaking Turkish with her BFF, Maryem.

We love figuring out the world alongside our babe.