Emerson Ruth

Our sweet girl turns 10 months old next week (the 4th) and she's learning so much!

Emerson can copy a bunch of sounds now, like la la la, ba ba ba, ma ma, and now she says, "ta da." She copies it really well. She also uses sign language for "more" and "all done" and is starting to understand others words and responding to them (clapping, dancing, somersaults, How big is Emmy...soo big, etc.) More updates are below...



She's definitely starting to test us a little bit since she's starting to understand what "no" means. She usually touches something she's not supposed to and looks directly at us and smiles. She does listen eventually, but it usually takes a few times at saying no and we definitely have to physically move her most the time. You can see her in this video listening and thinking and deciding if she wants to stop or not.



Emerson also:
* Uses her toy microphone the right way - holds it to her mouth and yells into it like Zane does and when she holds the remote control, she points it to the tv. She's also starting to put play phones up to her ear.
*Is starting to cruise around by holding on and walking and she thinks she can balance while moving both hands to another spot at the same time and it only works out sometimes.
* Likes to try to hold onto one or more things in her hand at once.
* Has 2 bottom center teeth and 3 upper teeth (the two side ones and the top right middle). The left top one is starting to fight it's way through....oh joy! She also grinds her teeth already - that can't be good.
* Scrunches her nose a lot and sticks out her tongue a lot.
* Plays "peek-a-boo" by hiding (leaning away or down behind something) and then poppy back up.
* She waves hello or good bye and actually says bye (ba ba).
* Still has such bad stranger anxiety and usually cries when I leave her sight.
* Has a little of trouble, still, with real food chunks like Cheerios, avacado, crackers, veggies, etc. but is getting better by the day.
* Laughs at Zane constantly and climbs on him all the time. Luckily he thinks it's pretty funny.

Our Entertainment

Zane has been doing lot's and lot's of somersaults lately. He usually makes it all the way over, but sometimes still plops onto his side or runs into something. I liked this video, though, because he was wearing his big boy underwear. We thought he was ready, because he went a couple of days with almost no pee in his diaper, but it was like the underwear were a magnet for pee. He peed in them every single time he needed to go. So after going through pair after pair after pair, we finally decided to switch back for a while.
The other funny thing is that now Emerson has been trying to copy Zane's somersaulting. She gets in the exact right position and then rolls to the side and then looks up and smiles really big, proud of herself. It's so cute.



Emerson tries to put toys on her head, but her hands can't reach so they end up falling behind her head instead. It's so funny watching her try though. If she's wearing a hooded shirt, they all pile up in her hood and then she can't find them. In this video, I also took her toy so she'd make her scrunchy nosed screaming noise that she does when she needs or wants something. She's already not doing it as much, but she did it all day everyday for a while.

La La La

Emerson has been interacting with us so much lately. She's been playing with Zane a bunch and just developing a fun personality. These are videos of her dancing. In the first one she's singing, "la la la" and dancing. She does it when she hears music or when we are dancing.


This video is from when my aunt and uncle were over and Zane was doing the Hokey Pokey and Emerson wanted to join in while she was playing (nice singing, Judi!! :) Zane liked it so much that after that, he kept telling Emmy, "Go like this!" and showed her how to rock back and forth.

Just Some Random Sweetness

This has been a really long week for us, being here all alone while Zack is in Nicaragua assisting doctors who are there to help people in remote villages. Zane had an especially tough week and acted out in ways he never has before. I think missing his Dad really affected him more than I thought it would. Emerson and I miss him so much too. I've realized more than ever this week, just how much Zack does for us. He loves us and works so hard for our family. I can't imagine doing life without him.

We kept ourselves super busy so we didn't get bored and lonely at home. We spent time (and ate good food) with lot's of friends and family, went swimming, went to Bible study, Zane went to school, we played at Monkey Bizness (yes that's how you spell it), and are heading to Greeley tomorrow through Saturday to see Aunt Nell and Uncle Anthony.

I have so many cute videos that I want to post from this last week, but until I have time to upload them, here are some recent pictures of my two little cutie pies.

I took a million pictures of them sitting on the couch this day and only caught a couple good ones. I like how they're looking at each other in these ones.
Zane had his first Valentine's party at school last week and really had fun. They got to each good snacks, frost cookies, do some crafts, and hand out valentines. He had cute little puzzle valentines for all his friends (very fitting for him right now.) He loves giving Valentine's so much, that even today, he was still giving them out to other friends (totally his idea!).
My beautiful little girl...


Why do kids love being in their diapers so much? This is Zane trying to "hold" Emerson. He thinks it's hilarious and fun but Emerson doesn't. :)

Pee, Poop, Potties, and Pull-ups

Zane is finally doing really well on the potty. He's still having some accidents, usually on purpose, but we're proud of him. He's even been going during school and other places besides just home. We've been putting him in pull-ups now during some of the day to practice. We've realized that a candy bribe works ok, but bribing with phone calls works much better so we've been letting Zane call family members to tell them the good news. He loves talking on the phone already and especially loves getting praise when he gets to tell people that he went poop on the potty.

In this phone call, he's talking to my dad, Grandpa Jack, and his wife Kris. It's funny, because instead of just jumping right in and breaking the big news he always just starts telling a story about something totally random. In this call, he started telling about how he was doing the "Jumping Game" before he called them. Then he says he went poop on the potty, then realizes that "Grandma Kris" is there too. He tells them "I love you" and then "Bye."

Grandpa Jack from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

He's also made lot's of calls to Grandpa Dave, my mom's husband. In this conversation, he tells them about the snow inside because we had just been playing that game. Then I think he says something like, "It's cold...on the floor" and then he says "But I'm Always" which is a song that he likes right now. Then he says something about his clothes, tells them the news, realizes that Grandma (my mom) is there and then says, "See you tomorrow" even though he wasn't going to...he just said it. :)

Grandpa Dave from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

I still need to have him call his other grandparents, Gigi and Papa! That video is soon to come. :)

Zane Update

The picture above is of Zane eating sushi. He actually eats California rolls and loves rice with soy sauce. He also chowed down on Edamame.

Here is Zane at the zoo, checking out some ducks. He wanted to get into every cage and "play" with the animals. Don't worry, we didn't let him.
Zane had his last day at the gym other other day (thanks for that amazing gift, Gigi!). We couldn't do that and school, so we decided to go with school for a while and take a break from the gym. He's loved this past year of jumping, sliding, playing, and just going wild there.

This is his smile right now. :)

We painted with pudding the other day. It was a big hit!

Here are some other fun things he's been doing and saying lately...

He can name or go grab every state in the U.S. when we ask him to. Also, when he hears any state said out loud, on T.V. or anywhere else, he yells it out and get's happy and tells me who's from there or who lives there.

When I ask him to help with something, he is starting to come up with new and creative responses. The other day when I asked him to come help clean up, he said, "Not right now, I'm playing a game." So I asked him what he was playing and he started to scratch the toy box and said, "I'm playing scratch the toy box." He tells me he's too busy a lot too.

I asked him if he remembered when Jord and Ben got married and he responded with, "Yes, I married Mira (his cousin who was the flower girl) too and I was a handsome prince."

He says, "That's for sure." and "So..." all time within his sentences.

We were playing at the park and went on the see saw, and Zane said, "Hey Mommy, we're the seesaw mans!!"

He asks me all the time, "Do you want me to...." Like, do you want me to eat this? Do you want me to drop this on the floor? Do you want me to grab Emerson? It's things that make sense and then things that he knows I won't want him to do.

He constantly asks me to "Show me how!"

He's starting to get tricky. When we ask him not to do something, he responds sometimes with something like, "I'm not jumping, "'m just bouncing. Or, "I'm not hitting it, I'm just tapping it." Oh boy, we're in for an adventure.

He sings the "Busy busy spider" instead of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

When we're reading together, I always ask Zane what he thinks will happen or what he things the characters might be saying. It's been so cool watching his mind work so hard to come up with predictions or other inferences and he's doing so well starting to be able to do it.

He's also been wanting to know what words are in books now and when he reads, he says, "I can't read it because I don't know the words." But he's also starting to make up some words that would make sense or sometimes sings the books.

He has lot's of made up friends (mostly characters from books and movies) who he invites in to play or invites upstairs to sleep with him, etc. He actually opens the door or gate and gives them time to go through and then starts playing with them.

He tells Emmy, "Swiper no swiping" which is what Dora tells Swiper on her show when he tries to steal things from her.

When he colors something or makes something, he says, "Look, I made it all beautiful."

When we go somewhere with lot's of people, Emerson doesn't do that well letting others hold her. So, when someone asks to hold her, Zane says, "Shes gonna cry!" Then, if she doesn't cry, he says, "She likes you!"

He puked once the other day, I have no idea why. But then the rest of the day, he kept pretending he was puking in his "puke bucket."

He keeps me up to date on all of his bodily functions. He tells me, "Don't worry, I'm not pooping in my diaper, I'm just farting...I've got gas."

He asks questions constantly!!! Like, "What's that smell? sound? noise? Who's that? What's this? Why? What are you doing? Why?" and on and on and on.

Our Little Nine Month Old

Emerson is 9 months old (as of yesterday). We went to the doctor today and she's now 19 lbs. 12 oz. (68th %tile) and is in the 95th%tile for height. I guess she's starting to lose some of her baby fat, now that she's crawling like a maniac. She's eating and sleeping great and is doing well overall. She has a big personality and laughs with Zane a lot. She's also still super clingy to me, which I hope she grows out of soon.

Here are some of pictures of what she's been up to and then some videos of her latest accomplishments...

She likes to play with this kitchen a lot. She puts the fake food and pots in, closes the doors, and then opens back up and takes them back out. This picture is funny because she's lounging back against the door just hanging out and Zane had buried her in toys, which he thought was very amusing. She can pull herself up to standing now, which is scary because she can only stay up for a little bit before she wipes out.


We went to the zoo the other day and she cried for some of the beginning of it, maybe because the sun was shining straight in her face, or maybe because it was so cold we made her wear her hat, or maybe because she wanted to crawl into every cage and we made her stay in the stroller. Who knows.
At the end of the morning, she was a happy girl.

This is what eating looks like for Emmy nowadays. If she likes what she's eating, she does pretty well chowing down. But if it's not her favorite, she spits it out like crazy, rubs her face with her dirty hands, and makes a HUGE mess!

McSpitty Pants from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

She's starting to play in a lot more ways than just holding toys. Her favorite thing to do right now is to hand toys or other things to people, especially Zane. She's able to copy us really well and can learn how to put balls in certain places, push certain things, or make the people slide, like in this video.

Sliding is Funny from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

She knows the word "dance" now and when we say it she does this move. In the grocery store the other day, she bounced up and down in the cart every time we asked her to dance. I guess having a big brother who dances constantly is helping with her dancing moves.

Happy Dancer from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.

She's getting really fast at crawling already. She's crawls all over the place and loves being able to grab anything of Zane's anytime, crawl into the fridge when it's open, and loves to close and open doors.

Crawly McGee from Josie Weingartner on Vimeo.