One-derful Boy

Ummm, Emmett's a year? That went fast! His first eight and a half months was a blur, and I'm thankful to have been home with him more the last couple months. It's been incredibly important to build that connection with him.

Standing Tall

Muggsy stands on his own now. He can't walk yet, but our guess is that will happen fairly soon. The standing started by pushing off on one of us, but now he can prop himself up without help. He's still an active crawler, and is becoming more of a climber. After a few tumbles, thankfully, he's learned to slide down off things.

Show That Smile

Emmett has one tooth so far, and it's a cute one on the bottom. Amanda said this perfectly the other day, "I don't know anyone else who smiles with their whole face!" It's almost as if he's trying to show off his tooth. Even with just one, he's able to eat pretty well. He's pretty much past baby food and now eating all solids and drinking milk. As for other physical features, his hair is pretty long, with beautiful curls on the sides. It can look pretty messy, but I love it!

We just went for his one year exam, and he's in the 55th percentile for height, 25th for weight.

Birthday Boy

With everything going on, we celebrated his birthday with a family zoom party! That boy knew exactly what to do once the candle was out and the cake was on his plate. Granted, it was a cupcake, but he ate it in less than five minutes!

After cake, the baby artist finished a painting he'd started at school. Each month, the teachers had him finger paint on a canvas. When school abruptly ended, there was one little section left. The masterpiece is now complete, and it's definitely one of the best pieces of art I've ever laid eyes on.

In a way, the setup made the party even more special, because family that likely wouldn't have been able to participate in person, got to take part online.

Silliness With Sophie

Those two love to play with each other sometimes, and others, Sophie ain't too happy with baby bro. When we're finishing dinner and the two of them are laughing and giggling, it's amazing!

When Sophie is finishing her magnetile castle and little destructo comes along, it's less fun. They'll figure it out, and as they get older, I'm excited to see how this relationship continues.

This is mostly an Emmett focused blog, but here are a few Sophie highlights:

• Soph is quite the little baker, helping make challah, cupcakes and brownies. It can be tough as she isn't a fan of directions, but it's also fun
• Three and Three Quarters: Sophie enjoys telling people her age in fractions. While she's just repeating us, it's cool to see her ownership of it. She keeps talking about what her birthday party will look like. That is a bit tougher, as we don't want to make too many promises, not knowing what the situation will look like
• Magnificent Magnetiles: It's cool seeing how her brain works piecing them together. She built a tower in a way I may never have thought of. Loved that!
• Disney+ is a great babysitter. Sophie has watched many of the classics, and she's watched them many times. Funny little tidbit - she says Thunderbolt in a cute English accent because of 101 Dalmations II 
  
• She's become an active storyteller, making up all sorts of tall tales about the dolls in the house
• I got her to start singing “One Margarita” by Luke Bryan when she washes her hands. What good parenting on my part 
• This isn't new, but I don't remember writing it before. Sophie twirls her hair when she's tired and drinking milk at night. It's one of the sweetest sights. Speaking of her hair, she loves how long hers is. She wants it to go down to her toes like Rapunzel's. 

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The last couple of months have been tough on so many around the world. As a parent, so much of the focus is on making a better world for the kids. That can be a lot harder when we don't know what we're preparing for. 

As far as Covid, my feeling is we'll be in the current setup for quite a while longer. What is especially tough is it feels like my attitude on everything changes day to day. That being said, we are all faced with making decisions knowing there's significant risk. 

The kids' daycare opened up, and we decided to send them after talking through the options. The school is being diligent, and has a set of requirements that make us feel more comfortable. Of course, there's no perfect scenario. We're hoping the socialization and education can stimulate them more than what we'd been able to offer. 

The last month and a half has also been an important one in terms of social equality across the globe. George Floyd being from Houston made the impact hit home even more. Here are three things I absolutely believe: We can listen to each other. We can learn from our past. We can make tomorrow better than today. 

Thanks for reading!