14 Months

Emmett continues to grow like a weed!  And he's been learning all sorts of new things!

Some of his new achievements include:

• learning how to climb up on top of things (especially the ottomans we have put in front of the tv's so he couldn't get to the dials and mess with things.  Now he just climbs on top and fiddles with the dials or reaches the remotes.  I'm not sure how we're going to babyproof that now)
• signing "please" for the first time.  He actually did it twice in one night, but I haven't been able to get him to do it since.  Figures.
• going on a paddle boat for the first time.  He LOVED it!  My grandparents have a cabin on a lake, so we took the paddle boat out while we were there and he'd just sit there and suck his thumb and look all around.  The day we left I put the lifejacket he'd been using away, and Emmett saw it and got all excited because he thought we were going out on the lake again.  I felt bad that we didn't have time to.
• dragging his blanket around with him.  One day I went to get him from his crib after a nap and he wanted to bring his blanket with him.  I let him, and he would just drag it along behind him and between his legs.  It was super cute, but he was getting his blankets dirty!  So my mom bought him one of the small (oh, probably 15" square) blankets with a little stuffed animal attached in the middle.  He has since transferred his attachment to that and it's adorable to see him carry it around with him.
• He now has 12 teeth!  All 8 front ones and all four molars have now come in!  I can't believe how many teeth he has!
• He has learned how to go down a slide.  My mom bought a small Little Tykes slide and while he hasn't quite figured how to climb up himself yet, if you set him on the platform he'll wiggle forward enough to slide down.  He gets the biggest smile and it's super cute to watch.
•  He has learned how to play fetch!  He's seen us play it with the dog enough times that when we threw a hot pad and told him to go get it (it was similar in shape to the dog's frisbee), he went over and picked it up and then brought it back to us.  He also will throw the dog's toys for her to fetch (although I think she gets frustrated that he doesn't throw them very far; maybe 18 inches at the most) and he loves to play tug of war with her!

Some of the things he likes are:

• eating raspberries off his fingers - when we're outside he'll sometimes point to the garden and we know that he wants us to take him to the raspberry patch and pick him some raspberries.  He just can't get enough of them!
• going for rides in the Burley (bike trailer/stroller).  Many times when we're outside he'll go around to see if the garage door is open, and if it is he'll push the Burley out and try to get inside.
• watching the Olympics - especially the swimming.  He'll sit in my lap, suck his thumb, and watch entranced at the swimmers in the pool.  Maybe we have a future swimmer on our hands?
• He loves to go out on the trampoline.  He hasn't figured out how to jump on it yet, but he'll crawl around on it and he has so much fun.
• He is fascinated by pinecones!  He'll walk to the edge of the patio and point at the pinecones until I move one close enough that he can reach out and grab it.  It then becomes his favorite toy to play with for at least 5 minutes.  Hooray for cheap toys!

In other news, we found out that Emmett has lots of allergies.  We told his doctor at his one year visit that we thought he was allergic to eggs, so she ordered an allergy test for him.  It took me forever to take him in to get it done because I'd only remember after the lab had closed, but we finally got the test done.  The next morning his doctor called with the results and said not only was he allergic to eggs like we'd thought, but he was also allergic to oats and milk, and tested slightly positive (so he may or may not actually react) to rye, soy, wheat, white potatoes, and peanuts.  I was flabbergasted, because he's had so much milk (and he LOVES cheese and yogurt) and we hadn't noticed ANY reaction to any of the other foods.  So we immediately cut out all the offending foods to see if they might be causing his diaper rash that won't go away.  It's been 2 weeks now and I really haven't noticed any significant difference in his diaper rash or his temperament, so I guess I need to call his doctor and figure out what the next step was.  She was saying that we could re-introduce things slowly and see if he reacts to some of them, but I don't have a clue what to look for since he hadn't had any noticeable reaction to the foods before (with the exception of eggs.)  It's been difficult to come up with foods for him to eat, since he can't have pasta, breaded chicken, bread, etc.  And I don't want him to get tired of eating the same things all the time: rice/corn chex, kix, bananas, raspberries, applesauce, sometimes other fruits/veggies if I can get him to eat them, and sometimes some sort of cooked chicken.  But at least he seems to like the foods I've been giving him and he especially likes the rice milk.  I think he drinks that better than he drank the whole milk.  We're really hoping he'll grow out of most (if not all) of his allergies as he gets older, but in the mean time we're just thankful he's not allergic to corn or rice so we actually have something we can feed him.  (And we're grateful that he likes fruits and veggies most of the time)

And now for the pictures!!

Emmett playing fetch with the hot pad

 Emmett holding his blanket and reading "Goodnight Gorilla"

Emmett and the replacement blanket (notice that he has climbed up onto the ottoman)

I had another video to put up, but Blogger keeps having problems with it so I guess you don't get to see it.  And I have other cute pictures, but for some reason my computer can't rotate them and save them...I'll have to see if I can get that sorted out.