Despite Popular Belief, We Are Not Dead

I'm sorry for being absent for this entire month. It's been so super busy....I have had quite a few post ideas rolling around in my mind however, but now is still not the time to post them.....I've got to finalize my thoughts a little more. So, I just have a few minutes before emyri can't stand having a "stinkin" diaper any longer and I'll have to go change it, but I just wanted to let you all know we're still alive and well.
Emyri just started to really put two word sentences together this last week and it's been so fun. "Sorry (pause) Mommy"; "Hold it?"; "Autin's (Austyn her friend) Baby"; "Tickle (pause) daddy!"; "Dada-a-work?" (that ones slowly reaching three word status); (not really a sentence, but funny nevertheless) "Waka-Waka!" (she got that from baby bear on a Muppets show); and our latest favorite "Dada (pause) stinkin'!!!" followed by a hearty belly laugh arising from her own obviously hilarious joke: ) Needless to say, we're lovin having this little girl around.
Also, Emyri has never been much of a cuddler, but lately we'll be sitting down and she'll just come and kiss us on the cheeks or give us hugs. We melt at those little "loves" because they're a rarity.
Yesterday Emyri missed her nap (and emers is one of those babies that needs her naps); so she was having a pretty rough evening. After a major melt down resulting in coming in from outside far too early in emyri's opinion, she fell asleep in my arms. You may be thinking, "No big deal, right?" but you see, Emyri is also one of those babies that can't fall asleep unless she's in her crib or her car seat, so this was the first time in forever I was able to sit and rock my baby while she slept in my arms. And honestly, my soul needed that. This has been such a crazy semester, I'm not saying it hasn't also been wonderful, because in its own way it has, but really this has probably been the hardest semester we've had so far, and I've missed being with my baby girl. I needed that precious time with her in my arms, even if it only lasted 15 minutes: )
p.s. random thought...I think we'll dress emyri up like Aunt Jemima for next Halloween: )

Bye, Bye "BINTY" old buddy old pal

Okay, so I may be a bad mother for even admitting that my daughter was still very much attached to her "BINTY" (binky) at 19 months old, but the good news is that we were able to slowly drift the binky out of sight and out of mind over the last two weeks and it actually went rather smoothly as well. Emyri no longer wanders the house calling out "binty...binty?" as if they were little buddies playing a game of hide and seek and suddenly it would jump out of it's hiding place and find it's way back into her eager mouth. She also has stopped wimpering, "my binty.....my binty" in between sobs when she's fallen down or has found herself just too tired to stand another minute of life awake. I have to admit though....I'm going to miss her doing those cute little things. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm really proud of her for being such a flexible and easy going baby and for being able to move on from something that really meant a lot to her, but at the same time it makes me sad to see that my baby girl is growing up and doesn't even need a binky anymore. How did my newborn become a 20 month old so fast? I swear she changes everyday right before my eyes.