Nineteen Months Old!

Happy 19 Month Birthday, Emma Kate!

Tuesday and Thursday Emma Kate had her cardiology appointment and 18 month check-up, respectively. Her cardiologist sees her every three months. Since she had an echo last time (she gets them every 6 months), this was just a check-up appointment. She had an EKG, pulse/ox reading, and height and weight measurement. Dr. Cardis thought her heart sounded great and is very pleased with how she is doing. I always feel great after visiting him, because I think he can understand why Emma Kate is small, but he also sees how active and healthy she is! The little princess weighs in at 18 pounds, 10 ounces, she's 30 inches long and her pulse/ox reading was 86.

New this month, Emma Kate is learning to love books. Finally! For the longest time, it was all I could do to get her to sit down and even look at a book for more than five seconds. Now she and I have some serious cuddle time in her rocking chair before bed. We probably read for at least 15-20 minutes. And she always asks for more. It's really fun.

Her verbal skills are excellent! She is talking like crazy, identifying pictures in books, pointing and asking for things. She will repeat anything we ask her to. Brooks and I understand everything she says, but we might be the only ones. She has her own little language a lot of the time.

She is at the peak of her stranger anxiety. Especially with doctors and nurses. She screamed at both appointments this week. She also hates to be away from Mommy at any time. When we leave her in the church nursery, she gets pretty teary-eyed, too. We have left her overnight a couple of times, and she's done well, though. I love that my baby loves me. I know it won't be like this for long. I do want her to be less wary about going to church and being left for a little while. I am going to be putting her in 2K two days a week next fall! I think it will be really good for her. She always asks to play in AB's classroom every time I drop her off/pick her up.

Last night I went through EK's closet and organized all her clothes that she cannot yet fit into and I put all of her too-small stuff into a box. It's too bad that I can't save anything for our baby boy. I mean, I don't want him wearing pink, but we don't have anything blue, or even gender-neutral. I guess I need to do some shopping soon. The next 18 weeks are going to fly.