A peek into what makes Emma Jane tick

So this pretty much sums it up right here. This is Emma Jane.


From day one she has been the stubborn-alpha-determined one. Somehow people got the impression that was going to be Parker....but no we never thought she would be. Parker is the monkey. She is the one who likes to fling herself upside down. She is the one who will run across the street without looking first. Emma Jane will be the one who tells her to.
Here is Emma Jane in a nut shell. The girl will be lying there, pounding her feet on the ground (something she likes to do) while sucking quite contentedly on her pacifier when suddenly she will look to her right. And what will she see? Parker, right next to her, also sucking on a pacifier. Suddenly Emma Jane's pacifier is not quite as tasty as it was just a moment ago. So Emma Jane will begin to stare at Parker. After a while she will reach out towards Parker. Finding that she cannot reach her she will begin to butt-scoot her way over until she gets close to Parker. Then she will reach out, grab the pacifier. Emma Jane will then take the pacifier out of her mouth, put Parker's in her mouth, and hold her pacifier next to her mouth...you know...just in case. At about this moment Parker begins to notice she is no longer sucking on anything (it sometimes takes her a couple of minutes. She's a happy baby and spends the first few minutes without the pacifier being amazed that her tongue is suddenly hitting the roof of her mouth. Once this novelty wears off Parker remembers how much fun the pacifier was and begins to fuss. As Parker begins to fuss, Emma Jane gets worried. She's about to be found out. She'll get in trouble. So Emma Jane takes her free hand, reaches over, and puts it into Parker's mouth so that Parker can chew on that instead. Suddenly everybody is happy. Parker just wants something to chew on, and Emma Jane just wants all the pacifiers (binky hog).


As you can see Emma Jane is also getting really good at sitting up. She can do the whole tri-pod sit thing really well now. She can also show her support for the Auburn tigers by wearing my cap. Although, as you can see from the look on her face, she thinks the team has little chance of being great this year.

Now, I must admit that I am a little afraid I have painted Emma Jane in an overly negative light. She is brilliant and wonderful and shows determination, as well as problem solving skills. But none of these qualities have led to her main nickname. Parker is commonly called monkey. Emma Jane...cuddles. The girl loves to cuddle. She will often just raise her arms and stare at you and wait for you to pick her up, and then when you do she will put her head down on your chest.

She even likes to be all squished up to get really cuddly. Kind of like...

...this. This picture was taken last weekend. We were in Chattanooga, and cuddles (also known as whiny butt and variations there off) was refusing to nap. Yet she was exhausted. Finally dad picked her up and she immediately curled up and went to sleep. She had been doing this all the night before. We had driven through the night to get to Chattanooga, so dad was feeling pretty tired himself. This is how mom found them.


content after a nice nap