What will she say next?

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend my brother's wedding in Utah last weekend. Joey married his sweetheart, Harmony, in the Manti temple. Now all my siblings are married! We made a mad dash down to Utah, attended the "preception" on Friday night, the wedding on Saturday, and driving back home through the night again, stopping in Tri-cities so Great-Grandma Dianne could meet Liliana and Emmett, and arriving home Sunday evening. Now that we've been home for several days, I think we're just about caught back up on sleep. The night we arrived home, Liliana saw a fly buzzing around our living room and she said, "I see a bug right there inside the house." David and I just looked at each other and shook our heads - we couldn't believe how clearly she said what she had.

The other day I walked past the nursery and saw Liliana sitting on the floor with my nursing pillow wrapped around her and her baby doll laying on top of the pillow. As I walked in, Liliana lifted her shirt and asked, "Where's my boob?" Once I got my laughter under control, I helped her figure out how to "feed" her baby.

As part of dinner last night we had corn bread muffins. Liliana asked for one and then took her spoon handle and sawed it in two pieces. She said, "I cut the muffin in half." I still don't know where she picked up "half" from. I guess we must have said it here and there in reference to things, but I can't remember any specific instances. That little girl has a good memory!

Today Liliana followed David into the garage and asked him what he was doing. He told her about what he was looking for and let her help him look. After he came upstairs and she had stayed downstairs, he noticed it got quiet. David leaned over the stair railing and asked Liliana what she was doing. She had gone back into the garage and as she walked back into the downstairs room she said, "I'm just checking." We still don't know what she thought she was checking, but it was an interesting response, none the less.

Emmett is gaining more and more control over his hands and is able to grab his toys fairly well and get them to his mouth. He laughs and smiles a lot and really enjoys watching his sister play and dance around. He still rolls over from his stomach to his back, though I think his chubbiness is making it harder because he doesn't do it as often or as quickly as he did a month or two ago. At his 4 month check-up this week, Emmett weighed in at an amazing 20lbs 10oz and is 27.5inches long. He's still off the growth charts for both height and weight! He is wearing size 9 month clothes, but will need to move up to 12 month size very soon at the rate he is growing.

Fascinating Fingers

Emmett has been really checking out his hands the past few weeks. He will lay on his back and put his fists straight up in the air in front of him and just stare at them. He will also watch his hands while he's sitting up and tries to work them into his mouth - sometimes both at the same time. His little swing has a couple of hanging toys on it that he slowly and jerkily works to make contact with his fists. I call it "punching Clifford" because one of the hanging toys is a little red dog. You can see his look of concentration as he struggles to get his hand to go where he wants it to go. About two weeks ago, I was holding a set of rings over him while he was laying on his back and he managed to work his fingers through one of them and grab hold. Since then he has continued to improve his reaching and grabbing and is getting pretty good at getting his hands on his toys with a bit of effort. I can't believe how quickly he's growing!

David stood on the scale with Emmett the other day and then subtracted his weight to get a rough estimate for where Emmett is at. There was a 20.3 pound difference! Even if we subtract an entire pound for Emmett's clothes and diaper, that still leaves him weighing over 19 pounds when he's only 3 and a half months old! I'm certain that this kid cannot keep up this growth rate for much longer, but he continues to do so for now. He's wearing 6-9 month clothes and is quickly getting to the point where most of the 6 month stuff is too short in the arms or legs and/or not big enough around the middle. Where'd my little baby go?

Liliana is speaking ever more complete and increasingly complex sentences. Just tonight she saw David working outside and asked what he was doing. I told her he was fixing the cargo box (the kind you attach to the roof of your car). She responded with, "Daddy's fixing Liliana's cargo box for Liliana's car?" I hadn't mentioned the car, so I was pretty surprised that she remembered they went together. Liliana is also learning more words and phrases in Spanish and says things like, "Te quiero mucho, Daddy" (I love you a lot, Daddy) and "Quiero ver Sean" (I want to see Sean).

Last night we had Liliana video chat with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Hernandez. Grandma asked Liliana what she was supposed to do when she was happy (referring to the "If you're happy and you know it" song). Liliana wandered off and I thought, "Squirrel" (refer to the movie "UP" if you don't know what that means). However, she returned quickly with her musical Elmo toy that she got for Christmas and pushed the button that plays the "If You're Happy and You Know It" song. She clapped and danced for Grandma and Grandpa and then selected some of the other songs to perform for them. My favorite was when she played the wheels on the bus and had Grandma and Grandpa doing the hand motions with her on their end of the video chat line! It was really cute and I know Grandma and Grandpa got a kick out of it. :)