You *hate* getting your nose wiped or cleaned. We even bought a new device to use instead of the bulb syringe for cleaning out your nose, but you still do not like it. You know what it means when we take out the bottle of saline and you start flailing and screaming. One of us has to hold your hands down while the other one works on your nose. It is just awful. You’re not as bad with simply getting your nose wiped with a Kleenex, but still you resist.

But this evening I got home from work and your nana said you had a new trick. I was holding you and we were talking, and soon after you sneezed. Nana said ‘oh, Emma, you need to wipe your nose’ and handed you a box of Kleenex (it was a pink box with Disney characters that she’d brought over just for you). You promptly pulled out a Kleenex from the box and wiped your nose! And you were happy about it! I couldn’t believe it. I’d told your nana recently that I’d read that kids aren’t able to learn to blow their noses until about three years old, and I think this fact didn’t sit well with your nana. She couldn’t imagine going through all this trouble of making you so upset every time we needed to clean out your nose (for the next two years). So she taught you how to do it yourself!

You have a cold and I think it’s making you really sleepy. You napped for over an hour this morning and then had a marathon 2.5 hour nap this afternoon. I’m so happy you’re getting sleep; your body clearly needs it.

And, it’s your thirteen-month birthday! After I put you down to sleep tonight I realized I’d forgotten to take your picture. This is the first month ‘birthday’ for which I haven’t taken your picture, and it made me sad. I’m so sorry I forgot.

We went to the children’s museum today and it was a whole different experience for you now that you’re walking. You entered areas you never had before, and you just generally enjoyed exploring in this new way. You really loved the Bear Cave, which has been a favorite of yours in the past too, but this time you were able to crawl up the stairs yourself. You also interacted with a little girl who was interested in the Bear Cave as well. She had a pacifier in her mouth, and you snatched it out of her mouth not once, but twice! It is pretty silly, really, because you don’t even like pacifiers. After the second snatch she’d had enough and headed to a different part of the museum.

We don’t have any stairs at our house, and so you really haven’t been exposed to stairs yet. This evening we went over to my Aunt Liz and Uncle Jim’s for dinner, and they have carpeted stairs that were perfect for you. You had lots of fun climbing up them, and then your dad would bring you back down to the bottom and you’d climb them again. I worked on teaching you to go down them feet first, but you were more interested in going up. You seem to have that perfected.

We had to run some errands today at 29th Street Mall. There’s a little play area there that I thought might be perfect for you now that you’re walking. As I was ducking into and out of stores I kept telling you that we were almost done and could go play. In the last store I told you that we were heading to the playground, and on our way out you said a loud string of babble that left everyone in the store laughing. One lady proclaimed that you’d just told an entire story; I think you were telling everyone how excited you were to go play!

We headed to the play area and I sat you on the ground. There were six older kids running around and you were fascinated watching them for a bit. But then you started exploring. There was bits of snow in the shade of the play structures, and in the mouth of the large fish. You seemed perplexed by the snow, bending down and touching it and brushing it out of the fish’s mouth. There were two log tunnels that you crawled on through with minimal prompting. I leaned down at the far end and said your name, and as soon as you saw me you crawled toward me. I’ve never seen you go through a tunnel so I was surprised by your lack of hesitation. You happily played and explored for about thirty minutes, then we had to go pick your dad up from work and head to Breckenridge. But I sure am excited to have a fun outlet for you to play in the midst of one of my favorite shopping locales!

I bought you a little toy workbench today. It was used and cheap and I thought it’d be something you’d enjoy fiddling with. When I mentioned it to your nana she said that they have one for you too, it used to be your cousin Kyle’s. It’s a little different than the one I bought for you, and we’ll keep it at their house for you to play with when you’re visiting them. I told your dad that I think it’s great that you have two (toy) workbenches and no (toy) kitchen!

You are so quick with grabbing items. Last week at Gym Jam you grabbed a veggie stick out of a little boy’s snack container before either your dad, myself, the boy or the boy’s mom could react. And still, even though you’d think by now we’d anticipate it, you can swipe our glasses off of our face before we can react and stop it. You are so quick!

You’re starting to mimic things, and today started using your brush to comb your doll’s hair. You love your brush, and often navigate around the house with it in your hand. Sometimes when I can’t find it you’ve stashed it in the little seat of your Winnie-the-Pooh car. You know that it’s for brushing your hair, and often put it up to your head, but haven’t yet actually had the brush facing the right way and accomplished any brushing. Today was the first time that you used the brush to comb your doll’s hair. Too cute.

Nancy the nanny asked me this evening, “What is the deal with Emma pulling up shirts and dresses?”. With a confused look on my face, she continued, saying, “she keeps lifting up her dress, and also lifting up my shirts”. It was then that I realized that you’re looking for belly buttons! These are some of your recent new words, and you apparently were on a belly button hunt today! So funny.

Your ability to grasp new concepts is amazing me daily. Your nana’s been working to teach you to hold up one finger when asked how old you are. While we were on our trip you perfected this. Today we were at the Sun and someone asked you how old you were, and you told them (with your finger). She was so impressed and proclaimed that you’re quite advanced for your age. We think so too! She said she has 2.5 year old twins and they don’t yet know how to show how old they are.

Other tricks you’ve recently perfected are giving hugs and kisses (tongue out, so maybe not quite perfected) and high-fives on command, as well as knowing the words for fish, feet, and ball in addition to hair, nose, eye, ear and mouth (which you’ve known for a little while).