"…a comfortable home and a happy disposition"

It is very hard right now not to love everything about Emma. She's sleeping better, I don't really care that she's a sucky eater, and she's at that delightful age where she adds words every day and is just so pleased with herself, with her life, with her world, with her parents. It cannot last, of course, and so I treasure it while it's here. Every time I go in to get her in the morning or from a nap, she exclaims, "HIIIII!" and then proceeds to hold up each item in her crib and tell me its name: "Stella! Bunny! Baby! Bunny! Bunny! Pillow! Belly!"

She's a real talker, even by the standards of the Last children. Her first word, for the record, was "banana." She's 14 months now, and has got (that I can remember): mama, dada, Jesus, Mary, Dee-Dee (for Cordelia), duck, bunny, book, bath, ball, swing, drink, brown bear, boom boom, baby, Stella, star, moon, belly, ear, nose, yellow, pepper, mermaid, ticket, buzzy bee, rock rock, hat, smoothie, turtle, thank you, more, Judy, cracker, sit, snow, grape, drink, blueberry (by this she means raisins, too), shoe, sock, hat, all done, get down, bye bye, night night, love you (buh-boo).

She's an endearing combination of happy and mischievous, but what she thinks of as mischief is just funny. She'll climb up on a chair and then just look at you with a twinkle in her eye, grin, and say, "SIT SIT?" Because she knows she's about to get a "stern" look and hear "Sit down, Emma! No standing on rocking chairs!" Once she hears the "reprimand" she bursts out giggling and sits down…for 10 seconds. Then…up again! It gets funnier each time.