... The Other Side of the Room!

While I was nursing Emmy to sleep tonight, and she was doing her evening calisthenics simultaneously, I was thinking about what gigantic changes she's made in one week. A week ago, Emmy took a few steps in between pieces of furniture. Now she cutely waddles, not only to inanimate objects, but also to people, cheering her on with big smiles. And she not only makes a few steps, but walks across rooms! The funny thing is that she doesn't seem as blown away as we are. She's just happy to make her way to Mommy, who's squealing away at her for some reason. Emmy's still mainly crawling, and saving the walking for special occasions, but I wouldn't be surprised if that story is completely different next week.

... A Few Giant Steps

That's right. As I was talking to Ryan on the phone this evening, I watched in a seemingly nonchalant manner as Emmy took three or four very steady, very normal-sized, very "ain't no thang" steps. And then I screamed and jumped up and down inside my head until Ryan finished his sentence (because I hate interrupting that much.)

I think she walked because she wasn't thinking about it, and because she didn't know I was watching her. Also, no one was dangling a toy a few steps in front of her, calling her like a puppy. So it's hard to say when it'll happen again. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day, but soon, and for the rest of her life! Needless to say, I didn't take a video or picture of the event ('cause that's not so nonchalant), but here are a couple other cute pictures I took yesterday. Did I say cute? Because I meant CUTE.

... Animal Sounds

Some exciting things were coming out of Emmy's mouth this week, besides indiscriminate food bits. When asked, "What sound does a kitty make?" Emmy started replying in a sweet, high-pitched voice, "mama!" which I know is her version of "meow." Whenever we meow, Emmy says "mama," and I'm not sure if there's any underlying message here about her opinion of our three kitties, or my mothering skills, but it's pretty cute regardless.

And while I'm pretty sure that Emmy said "ducky" two days ago, and Ryan's pretty sure that she said "banana" twice earlier in the week, it seems that Em's saving most of her verbiage for her time with babysitters. When I came home from work on Monday, our babysitter, Justice, said to me, "So, Emmy talks. She said 'mama,' 'dada,' 'fishies,' and when I asked if she wanted something, she said 'mmhmm, yes that.'" The thing is that in all of Emmy's amazing mumblings is a huge variety of sounds, so it's very easy to hear full phrases, which she may or may not actually be saying. We like to give her credit for saying, "Hey, look at that penguin underneath the window over there," but, you know...

Then! Then there was this... on Wednesday, while Emmy was over at Auntie Jennie's house, as she is every Wednesday morning, Emmy apparently said "tiss!" to Jennie, and when Jennie looked down, Emmy was looking up at Jennie with her lips puckered. When Jennie bent down and gave Emmy a kiss, Emmy giggled! Do you know what this means?! This means that Emmy really said "kiss"! How am I 100% positive about this, you ask? Well, Emmy always laughs when she gets what she wants. For example, when she points at Magic Blankie, and then you bring it to her, she laughs as if to say, "You understood my communication!" or maybe, "You fell for it, my mom slave!"

Does this all mean that we can say that Emmy's talking? Or, that Emmy talks for babysitters? Sure, let's give the girl a checkmark next to this milestone. Why not?