Dec 28

Emily took 11 steps on Sunday, and then just took off on Monday.  She was walking all over the place, so I gave up counting and just made it "official."
Shawn called Joshua a "poopie butt", and Joshua replies "No, not poopie butt.  Cookie butt!"  I guess we know where all those sugar cookies went!  :-)    On the note of cookies, we've had fun eating the gingerbread men.  We never got around to decorating them, but Joshua didn't know any better.  He was quite dramatic about missing heads, missing arms and legs and then the tummy being in his mouth.  "Oh no!  No head!!  Can't see!!"....  :-)
We've been working on the alphabet, and Joshua is frequently singing "every letter makes a sound - the 's' says "sss,"  followed by asking:  "what next, mama?"  His favorites are "s", "h" and "p".
Emily is saying her first word with meaning:  "uh oh".  She will drop (or throw) something, and then say "uh oh."
She ate some of the leftover lasagna from Christmas and loved it!  It was a huge mess, but ended with a very happy girl!
She & Joshua played outside today.  Emily joined him at the sandbox, but I had to keep telling her not to eat the sand!  (YUK!)  Emily climbed up the slide, and would stand at the top.  Joshua would come up behind her, sit down with his legs around her and then hug her as they both went down the slide.  They both loved it!  They also have both been playing in the Jeep - both outside and inside.  We keep it inside, but unplugged, and they will climb all over it, and sit and pretend to drive it.  Emily likes to throw things into it and then fall halfway in trying to get them out - usually Joshua ends up getting it (typically a ball or a car) and giving it back to her. When outside, Emily stand up, holding onto the windshield and bouncing while Joshua drives.
Emily has been doing great weaning from breastfeeding!  She only nurses in the mornings now, and her night-time bottle has been a mixture of formula, Lactaid, and water.  Sunday night she spit it out at first, but then decided it might be all she'd get, so she drank it.  Since then, she's taken it without any trouble.  Next will be to get to all Lactaid, and then we'll deal with switching from bottle to cup.