Conversations with Emet

Our little Emmetty is speaking up and getting his own interests...

Loves: empty jars of bubbles, bottles (NOT sippy cups), pacifiers, throwing things on the floor, daddy, Eden, Aunt Becky& Uncle Matt, both cats but especially Goldbug who will tolerate a bit more, playing the piano (uses one finger at a time!), shakers, singing, saying "Nah!!!" (for "no"), and weirdly, peas

Favorite books: pat the bunny, pat the zoo, Baby loves to rock, the book with the baby bird egg, Where is Baby's dreidel

Dislikes: many foods - I feel like we got a larger window with Eden where she was actually interested in eating things!  He has gone straight to "carbs please" land except for peas.

Conversations with Emet -

Emet: Babu.
Us: Here's some milk!  This is your Nuby babu.  [sippy cup]
Emet: NAH!!! (pushes sippy away)
(eventually we relent and give him the bottle)
Emet: Babu! (every few seconds, stops sucking the bottle and looks empathically at us, as if to say "I don't know what that other crap was you tried to give me, but when I say 'babu,', this is what I am asking for, got it guys?")


Emet: Mahm.
me: Are you trying to get my attention?
Emet: Naaaah!!
Me (laughs, thus encouraging his emphatic "Naaah!"

Photo shoot fall 2016

Some selections from our recent photo shoot

Eden's first crush?

Well, that was a whirlwind of a year. We moved, I had a very overwhelming work secondment with lots of travel for several months, we almost switched preschools but didn't, our country elected a maniac (or something worse) and I dyed my hair blue and started marching the streets and blogging about feminism and tweeting with racial separatists and spiraling on facebook until I had to get a friend to lock me out of it and writing provocative op eds in the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Sorry kids, for not blogging more about you.  I will try to pick it up.

I think Eden has a little crush on our rabbi's 11 year old son AE.  Note: rabbi also has a son in her preschool class Naftali, who is 4.5.

(on arriving to rabbi's house)

Eden: Whose house is this?
Me: Guess!
Eden: Is it Naftali's house?
Me: Yes, that's right!
Eden: But I'm shy of AE.
Me: That's ok.  (note - she has said this a couple of times before, and has made clear that it's not that he upsets her or scares her or anything)

(when leaving)

Me: You weren't too shy of AE, you were brave!
Eden: But I was a little shy.
(pause)
Eden (whining noises)
Me: Why are you whining?  Are you whining because you were shy of AE?
Eden: yeah.
Me: But why?
Eden: Sometimes we cry when we're mad or sad or... happy!
Me: So you are shy of AE in a happy way?
Eden: Yeah.

Well, Michael and I are exactly that many years apart in age...


Also, at the end of that car ride:

Eden: I just want to go upstairs and plop me into bed.

Me too, I think that's what I'll do now!  Night!

Emet's New Skills

Emet has grown a lot this weekend.  We figured we'd give a little summary....

New words:
Babu ... Bottle
Meelk...milk
Nah!.... No
Yeah.. Yes
Mom
Dadee
Ba!... Ball
Cat
Uh (with arms up)... Up
Sign language for more... More

What does an elephant say? (Puts his arm up and raspberries his lips)
... Sheep... Ba
Duck... Kak

Words he can kind of say:
Light
Eyes?  Maybe
Puffs (for his snack puffs)

He's also getting good at vocally imitating.  Oh, and walking... He's gotten really fast!

I'm sure there's more, but that's a good starter.

Butt Piano

Yes, that's right.  Emet has discovered a groundbreaking new way to play the piano.  Check it out....

He even exits the stage dramatically & claps for himself :-)

Fun Emet Videos Around His First Birthday

Emet is really becoming a little boy!  Here are some fun videos from the last week or so.

Emet has learned to play Peek-a-Boo!  Here are a couple of vids:

Eden & Emet have found their (maybe) first game they like to play together! 

Emet leads his favorite song!  He has been singing this repeatedly the last few days.  We can't tell exactly what it is  - seems a mix of Torah Torah, Bim Bom and maybe his own creation based on both.

Also, we don't have any great videos yet, but he has walked up to 15 steps at a time.  Stay tuned for walking vids!

Emet turns 1!! Panda/ Bear photos

Emet's first birthday!  We'll give him his own post and give Eden a separate one for turning 3 :-)

Here's our cutie-pie with the big bear....

Fun Recent Videos of Emet & Eden

Emet has taken a few steps!  He can stand up on his own now without holding onto anything.  And he can take 2-4 steps, which he does pretty often now.   He also LOVES the xylophone.  And he's starting to really communicate - mostly by pointing, but a little sign language and even a few words!

Here are a few fun recent videos...

Emet, Eden, Xylophone, Couch, Hugs

Emet Plays Xylophone and Stands Up

Emet Says "Challah"

Emet Eating With A Spoon By Himself

Emet Imitating Eden's Wild Antics

Family Harvest

This is Aunt Becky. Last Sunday, Eden came over to our house to play for a bit before we left to go to Washington Farms, the fall destination for pumpkins, pig races, cow train rides, bounce houses, giant slides, corn maze, and more!

At home we built a haunted house and haunted tree with some foam kits that I'd gotten from the dollar bins at Target some years ago and never used. Then we used that as a setting for some play with Matt's Pez collection. Matt showed Eden pictures of some of the Pez characters (like Pebbles Flintstone) in their original context on his computer. 

We had a great time at Washington Farms. Eden was eager to do things she'd done last year like the cow train and corn box, and also to try new things like the corn maze, big bouncy balls, pirate ship playground, bounce house, and giant slide.

Fall 2016 Levine Family Portraits at Washington Farms

Session 1: Cornfield

 Isn't Emet such a Cabbage Patch Kid?

 Fall 2016 Levine Family Portraits at Washington Farms

Session 2: Giant Rocking Chair