News, lots of

Well it's been a busy month since Christmas. A little Emily news (since updating her baby book is a thing of the past, we'll have to direct her here when she has questions about her infant years):

• She's learning new words every day. The ones she can pronounce really well include: purple, turtle, soup, car, tree, ball, mama, dada, baby, bye, pop, coke (thanks to Matt), cookie, sheep, cat, cow, tick-tock, pony, boy, girl, guy, cup, bee, puppy, elmo, owl, zoo, hippo, yellow, hope.
• She knows a million (not really) other words by their first syllables, so we can usually figure out what she's talking about. Like when she says "buh" she's either requesting a bath, trying to locate her blanket, asking to look at our bird feeders, or suggesting we read a book. Sounds like a lot of options, but with a few pointed questions we can quickly figure out what she's after. 
• All 4 of her incisors are on their way in, so she's been chewing on her pacifiers and drooling more than usual.
• We finally upgraded Em's carseat to a forward facing Britex after several bouts of carsickness - and she LOVES it! During her inaugural ride, after Matt pulled into the garage she refused to get out of her seat and kept pointing back at the street. Matt had to take her on another spin around the neighborhood, til she'd had her fill.
• Her hair's long enough for ponytails, pigtails, and all sorts of fun styles, so we often pick her up from daycare to find it up in a new 'do.
• Dogs are still her favorite, but ocean creatures are becoming popular too. So are zoo animals. Actually, she's pretty much a fan of all living things, great and small. Which might be why she thinks/hopes she has a tail.
• Emily's going to a be a flowergirl again :: Becky and Glenn are engaged!!!! It's a good thing too since whenever we tell her Aunt Beca's coming over, Em immediately asks, "G-ah?" And she's been known to whine with disappointment if we tell her Glenn's not gonna make it this time. Congrats you two!!

Getting to current events, this past week's been a doozy since Em caught a nasty cold that had her down for over 7 days. I don't think she's had an illness that wrecked her (and us) like this before. Or else I've blocked it out, which might be a good thing. Having her sick is really tough on everyone. Luckily she's on the upswing and becoming more and more her old self each day.

The last update is a pretty big one.... Emily's going to be a big sister!!

Here's her reaction when she heard the news:

From the moment we told her I have a baby in my belly she's been convinced it's a "gurl" - but we won't find out for sure until March. We're all VERY excited!