Emily's progress report

Emily went to the doctor on Friday — finally for a checkup instead of a problem. It had been three weeks since her last doctor's visit, when her ears were again/still infected, and she hasn't been showing any signs of being sick since. Of course, Dr. French found a small bit of infection in one of her ears. She didn't know if it was residual left over from the last infection or a new one just starting up. So, Emily gets to visit an ENT tomorow to see about getting tubes put in her ears. She's been taking a new antibiotic since Friday, though, so hopefully her ear will have cleared up by tomorrow, and she'll avoid any further unpleasantness.

Although she turns a year old on Thursday, Emily still isn't walking. We're not concerned about it — just waiting for it to happen. Her teachers at daycare tell us that she's been letting go of support and standing on her own more often. It's a little disappointing that I rarely see her do so, but I'm sure I'll get plenty of opportunity soon enough.

Emily has been progressing in several other ways, too. If we ask her, "How old are you going to be? Are you going to be one?" she'll hold up one finger. Actually, she looks like she's pointing when she does it, but she's got the general idea. She also responds to "Where's Emily's nose?," "Where's Mommy's nose?," etc. by pointing to the nose in question. Or, at least, she starts in the direction of a nose, but sometimes she ends up getting her finger in her mouth instead. But again, she's got the general idea.

Pattycake and peek-a-boo have become favorite activities. It's so cute watching her play peek-a-boo because sometimes she'll put her hands over her eyes, sometimes over her ears, and sometimes over her mouth. It's like see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Yesterday morning, while she and I were watching Higglytown Heroes, I said something about the pizza dude (actually, he's the pizza "guy," but I call him "pizza dude" because I've seen "The 'Burbs" too many times) who appears in every epidode. At my comment, Emily promptly put her hands on her face. It seems that "pizza dude" sounds like "peek-a-boo."

Emily's best accomplishment, though, is learning to be gentle with the dogs. Previously, she's enjoyed grabbing hold of their fur and attemping to put it into her mouth. Mango and Buttons have, for the most part, tolerated this behavior, but they've tried to circumvent it by avoiding Emily altogether. Now that she's learned to pet them gently, they've really warmed up to her (or maybe it's because she throws so much of her dinner on the floor). Emily loves the dogs, and you can tell she's proud that they've become her friends.