14 months.

so, on january 7, over two weeks ago now, emmeline turned 14 months old.  this has been the funnest month yet.  she is walking everywhere, full of adventure and curiosity, and learning and saying new things every day.  she drinks from an open-mouth cup (at least, when i give one to her because i'm not always keen on the possibility of spills) very well.  she signs a TON (more, milk, thirsty, hungry, done, wash hands, please, and probably a few more i can't think of right now).  it is so amazing and rewarding to be able to two-way communicate with our bebe.  she is also a little chatterbox.  she says several actual words - new this month are flower, done, bye, hello, shoes (kinda), and berries (this is a loose interpretation of berries, but it's consistent and i know what she's saying).  she also tries to say butterfly and lots of other words, but isn't quite there yet.  in addition to her "real" vocabulary, she jabbers and sings and hums constantly.  i am pretty much obsessed with her sweet little voice.
she gets more and more independent every day - a bittersweet blessing, if you ask me.  i burst with pride when she just does her own thing, but i am also so glad/relieved when she comes back to check-in with me...i'm not quite ready to cut the cord entirely, i guess.  she is in love with mardi gras beads, and we are super excited about taking her to her first parades in lafayette in february.  she likes to use utensils at meal time and gets better at it every day, even if it's a relatively messy activity.  she also loves her books and will happily spend lengths of time taking all the books off her shelf and reading to herself.  she loves being read to, as well, so when independent reading gets old, she hops up and brings whatever book she wants to read to the nearest adult, crawls in to a lap and waits expectantly for the show to start.  i love this about her, as you can well imagine.
emme knows a lot about her body so far.  she can point to her head, hair, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly, bee-bo (belly button), knees, and toes.  she gets really excited about pointing out our noses and mouths as well.  she knows lots of animal sounds: elephant, lion, cat, dog, duck, mouse, owl, monkey, cow, and sheep.  old macdonald is one of her favorite songs (and books) these days.  i think hearing her say "roar" in her little voice is my favorite thing.
we are working on a few things here at the browne house.  e is not a fan of staying seated, so there are lots of reminders to stay on our bottoms while eating.  we also have to reinforce not to feed the dogs from the table, to keep our food in our mouths, to keep our food on our plate (instead of the floor), and to put our work away in the bins when we're done.  obviously, she is young and i know these things all take time.  i just wanted to start early so there would be constant reinforcement.
emme loves her shoes and will grab a pair and hold it straight up, following you around the house until you put them on her.  she is also super affectionate and doles out kisses and hugs every time they are requested.  her dada is a particular fan of the kisses.  she loves to be upside down and to "fly" around the house with dada.  she loves living room dance parties.  she loves her dogs.  she's starting to get puzzles and will applaud for herself when she fits a piece in its place.  she is still a great eater.  her sleep has been struggling a little the past week or so, probably from the ear infection and maybe more teeth, but i'm optimistic that we will plow through it.  it's hard on all of us when we're not getting a good night's sleep.  she still has ten teeth - four molars, the top two, and the bottom four.  her hair is getting longer, lighter, and curlier by the day.  she weighs 21 pounds and is an absolute joy every minute (even when she's not).  we haven't done a real photo shoot in way too long, so below are just iphone photos from the past few weeks...