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. :)

Reproached

So a couple of days ago I was pretty tired after a rough night and running short on patience. Liliana has become aware that when I'm nursing Emmett, it's pretty hard for me to reinforce whatever I ask her to do and often won't do anything I tell her to do until I am able to get up and fulfill the consequences (like putting her in time out). Well, I had asked her to pick up her blocks and books while I was feeding Emmett and she would pick up a block or some other toy and then find something else to do with it, rather than cleaning up. I counted to three and told her to go to time out and she just said, "No." I told her to go to her room and shut the door and she walked down the hall to her room and then came back out and said, "No, I don't wanna go to the big girl room!" I began raising my voice and got a bit sharp with her. Finally, Emmett was done eating and I got up and picked Liliana up around the waist and held her over her blocks and books to get her to pick them up. She was laughing and thought this was a great game. I was still feeling rather annoyed that she had not listened and didn't do what I asked until I "made" her do it. Then she started singing a part of the song, "I am a Child of God", but not just any part...she sang, "Kind and dear. Kind and dear." Boy did I feel like a shmuck! I gave her a guilty hug and decided that unless it's an emergency or really necessary, I'll just wait until I'm not feeding or changing Emmett to ask her to do things until she's a little older and better able to follow directions without getting so easily distracted.

Laughter,

Emmett has been giving us radiant little smiles since just before he turned 6 weeks old. He's also been giving us some cute little chuckles for a few weeks now, but his first real laugh was on Sunday, January 24th. David and I were sitting in Sunday School at church and Emmett was in his car seat on the floor by daddy's feet. David looked down and said something to Emmett with a smile on his face and Emmett let out his first real laugh. That evening he laughed quite a bit at one of our home teachers who came to visit us. He's been such a happy, smiley kid. We love having him around.

Liliana is becoming ever more fluent in her speech. On Saturday morning we went for a walk and she stopped to point in someone's yard and said, "That's a big rock right there." She can debate in full sentences now as well, such as, "No. I want mommy do it." Or, "Liliana not want eat that. I want Apple Jacks!" Sometimes when she ends up in time out she says, through her streaming tears, "Liliana be a good girl now. No time out!"

Liliana's singing is coming along too. Before I could only recognize the Happy Birthday song, but she surprised us with "I am a Child of God" on Saturday. It sounds more like, "I na na chial a God. [some gibberish here] kind a dear." During sacrament meeting yesterday, every time the organ began a hymn with prelude music, she'd start singing her rendition of that primary song - loud enough for half the congregation to turn and look at her :)

She has also been working on saying prayers. She has, "Heny Fawder" down really well and will usually repeat that a few times until someone steps in to help her. Occasionally she'll add in a, "Thank dee fer dis day" or something to that effect, on her own. It's so precious to hear her say prayers.

At Liliana's 2 year appointment and Emmett's 2 month appt. on January 19th, Liliana weighed in at just over 30 pounds and 34.5 inches tall. Emmett just about broke the scale at 17 lbs 4 oz and 25 inches. Needless to say, Emmett was off the growth chart!

Freakin' out

Last night Emmett was having a fit while David and I were trying to get Liliana ready for bed. David asked Liliana, "Is Emmett freakin' out?" and Liliana said, "Emmett freakin' out!" Then she said, "Mommy freakin' out."

David said, "Mommy's not freakin' out. Mommy's just a freak."

Liliana responded with, "No. Mommy not. Mommy OK."

Good job Liliana - I'll give you that cookie I promised you after daddy goes to work!

Talkin', rockin', and rollin'

Liliana is adjusting to being a big sister fairly well. The first couple of days after we came home with Emmett, Liliana asked, "Baby brother go bye-bye?" but she understands that he's here to stay now. Liliana has really become quite the talker now. The other morning David told her to put her arms up so he could get her pj's off of her and get her dressed for the day. She pinned her arms to her sides and said, "No. Arms down. Keep the shirt on!" David and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh. This morning Liliana saw Emmett laying on a blanket. She said, "Want the green blanket. Baby brother using it." She's really getting good at speaking in complete phrases and sentences. When we took Emmett to his doctor appointment, the nurses were surprised by how much she was pointing out in the magazine we were looking at. I was asking her how many ballerinas there were in a picture and the nurses couldn't believe she was able to count them (there were only a few), name the colors they were wearing, and correctly identify the capital letters on the page. One of them said, "That's pretty impressive for not even being three yet." I explained that Liliana isn't even two yet and she went to get the attention of one of the doctors to have him come see what Liliana was doing. I guess she's a bright child and I must be doing something right with all the reading, coloring, singing, etc. we do together!

Emmett is already proving that he can do things early too. He rolled over from his stomach to his back when he was only 5 days old. David and I couldn't believe our eyes, so we put him back on his stomach and watched him do it again. Then we grabbed the video camera to get proof and the battery was dead. Emmett rolled over a few more times when he was 13 days old and we did get some video footage of that. He's been rolling fairly regularly since then. He still doesn't roll from his back to his front and I imagine it may be some time before he does that.

Last week Liliana had an accident in the bathtub. David was sitting in the bathroom watching her and reading a book when I heard a scream and a frantic little voice cry out, "Pick you up! Pick you up!" I came into the bathroom and saw David grimace and close the shower doors while Liliana continued to freak out behind them. It suddenly dawned on me that Liliana had probably messed in the tub. David and I got Liliana and the tub all cleaned up. Now every time Liliana takes a bath, she panics at every little speck she sees floating in the tub. I'm pretty sure she won't poop in the tub again because she appears to have been traumatized by it!

So Emmett weighed 9lbs 9oz at birth and had dropped to 9lb 2oz right before we left the hospital. At his check-up at 12 days old he weighed 10lbs 10oz - that's a 24 oz jump in 12 days! I also suspect that he was mis-measured in the hospital because he was 20.75 inches when he was born and 22 and 5/8ths at his 12 day appointment and I'm pretty sure he didn't grow 2 inches in less than 2 weeks. At any rate, he is a very big boy! I think God knew Emmett needed to be a sturdy little guy to survive his older sister's love =) We love our little family and are enjoying seeing Liliana and Emmett together. I'm sure it will get even more exciting as Emmett becomes more interactive.

Emmett Joseph Hernandez

We are happy to announce the arrival of our son! Emmett Joseph Hernandez was born at Valley Medical Center in Renton, WA on November 13th at 01:25am. He weighed 9 pounds 9 ounces at birth and was 20.75 inches tall. Please view the growing collection of pictures of Emmett here.

Friday the 13th

Today (Thursday) Janine's water broke while I was at work and she was home alone with Liliana. I raced home and we arrived at the birth center about 11:15. Once we knew that she would be admitted we made the obligatory phone calls to friends and family and got settled into our room. Even though her water broke, Janine was still not in labor so at about 4pm the staff began administering Oxytocin to induce labor. We requested an epidural around 10pm as the contractions intensified and Janine's fatigue caught up with her. Now the clock is about to tick over to a new day, Janine is resting blissfully, and we are happy to know that our son will be born in the wee hours of Friday the 13th of November, 2009.