My boys: August 2010

Today Emmory is 16 months old....wow! For some reason 16 months seems so much older to me than 15 months, I'm not sure why. I was determined that I would do a post today, since I have been so bad at posting lately and this would give me a specific day to do it so maybe I would remember. He is getting so big, and in roughly two months he is going to look a WHOLE lot bigger, because his baby brother will be born! I just know that is going to make Emmory look like a 3 year old to me, it makes me sad, but I know he can't stay little forever. But I'll spare all of you all the sentiments I am feeling about all the big changes that are coming, and get on to the title of this post. Unfortunately I don't have a picture, but this morning when Emmory woke up, I noticed that the right side of his face looked swollen. I didn't do anything about it right away, but after his morning nap it still looked pretty swollen, and I could feel something hard underneath his ear and around his jaw. He has a history of ear infections, and just had one two weeks ago, and I thought maybe it was a lymph node that was swollen from that infection, so I called the doctor and they said they should probably check him out since he had recently had an ear infection, and also had a low-grade fever off and on the last few days. So I took him in, and he did end up having a lingering ear infection that never completely healed from the last one, but the swollen part of his face ended up having nothing to do with that, it's a swollen salivary gland (I think that's how you say it) from a virus. Right now there is really no treatment except to give him sour things to eat to try and help the gland drain. So right now we have a fat face little 16 month old, it looks pitiful to me but I don't think it's causing him a lot of pain right now, I think it was worse when it was swelling up because the last two days he was very fussy but he was much better today. The poor guy also is cutting two molars at the moment. It's been a rough month for him, as he got sick on both of our vacations and now this. He is a trooper though and can still have fun and play. So that is what has been going on here, we got back from all of our traveling two weekends ago and are still trying to get into a regular schedule/routine....all last week Emmory slept in until 9, which was wonderful for me, but made our days kind of unpredictable, and this week he has not been napping well, probably due to everything that's going on with him, so hopefully by next week he'll be feeling better and things will get back to normal.
Here are a few things that Emmory loves at 16 months:
1.Flashlights. He loves lights in general, and one day he found Mark's flashlight and just loved turning it off and on, and then it was even better because our dog is obsessed with chasing lights, so Emmory figured that out and waves the flashlight on the wall for Tillman to bark at and chase. It is lots of fun for both of them, and nice that they can both be entertained by each other. So I went to Walmart and got Emmory his very own little flashlight, and I think it is the best $5 I have ever spent on him.
2. Climbing. For as mobile as he is, it took him a while to figure out that he can climb on things, but now he has definitely figured it out. I have often found him sitting or standing on top of various boxes around our house.
3. Running. This child loves running more than anything. When we take him to the mall to play at the kids play area that is perfect for his age, he plays for a maximum of five minutes and then just tries to run out of it and run the corridors of the mall. If he can be let somewhere to run free, he is in heaven.
4. Phones. He loves to imitate talking on the phone, whether it be one of his play phones, my cell phone, or anything else he has that he decides to pretend is a phone.
5. Doggies. He continues to love dogs, especially Tillman, and he calls almost every living creature a doggie as well. Our doctor's waiting room has a fish tank, and he runs up to it pointing and saying "doggie". We're working on that one.
6. Reading. He is starting to rediscover books. He used to love it when I would read to him before he was mobile, and we would lay in my bed each morning reading books, which is one of my favorite memories of him. Then, when he started crawling and especially walking, he lost interest in books because you have to sit still to read them, and he isn't interested in sitting still. However, recently he has started to like to read again, and will have me read the same book over and over and over again. Once it's over and I say "the end" he will say "gain", wanting me to read it again. Right now his two favorite books are one about sleep and one about pets.
7. Our bathroom. This is probably his favorite room in our house, and if I let him he could probably stay in there all day getting into everything that is in there in all the cabinets and drawers, bathtub, etc and have a grand old time making a huge mess and who knows what else. No matter how many times I organize the cabinets, they are constantly getting "un-organized" by Emmory when he is able to get in there, I am always walking in there to find lotions and shampoos lying all over the floor.

I could go on....the boy loves to explore, and of course get into things he shouldn't be getting into, and he is getting really smart and is able to communicate very well (without very many words) and understands most of the things we say to him even though he can't talk, things are definitely a lot different now than they were when he first started walking...being smart + being very busy=a lot more work for us! But he is also a sweet boy, he gives kisses freely and still wants to be held and when we get him out of bed he will put his arms around our neck and it is oh so wonderful.

Here are some random pics from this summer: