Emi is amassing a grand vocabulary. What she can say now:
mama, daddy, mo' (more), baba (bottle), dod or doddy (dog).

Those are the words she says (at 10 1/2 months) spontaneously and reliably and in the appropriate context. She also mimics very clearly the word cracker ("kacka") when you offer her a cracker, snack (either "sna!" or "nack!") and "that!" when you ask, Emi, do you want that? She also mimics indistinctly the names of Betty, our housecleaner ("Beddy, Btty") and Tracy, our friend and dogwalker and sometimes baby helper ("Tssy"). From all of this it is pretty clear that she is still unable to make the sound "R" ... I wonder if it has to do with having more teeth?

It is a running joke around here that Tracy and I believe Emi also mimics the word "starfish" because we have heard her do it several times. You say, look Emi, this is a starfish, and she says, "sah-fssh," with just the right stresses. Kat has heard it too! James thinks we are full of baloney. I am hoping to catch it on video one of these days. I already got Emi imitating Tracy's funny monkey laugh to perfection, over and over again.

Tuck meanwhile doesn't even say "ma." But he speaks eloquently in grins and giggles and hugs. Lately he has also taken to throwing himself backward onto the floor. It's not a tantrum, more, "I feel so bad because of X that look at me, I will just lie on the floor and suck on my blankie, boo hoo."

I am hoping to teach him more signs because I worry that he will get frustrated if Emi is babbling away requesting snacks, bottles, etc. and he doesn't have a way to express himself. Right now he mostly looks to her for guidance, kind of like my mother's poodle Jack when he was younger used to look to Zoey. We always joked that he hadn't been given the "How to Be a Dog" manual. In the kids' case, Emi says "mo!" and they both get more Cheerios, so it works pretty well for the time being.

Both babies have begun to throw the tennis ball for Zoey, which is really neat. Tuck actually throws it an inch or two, and laughs and laughs when the dog pounces on it and brings it back to him. Emi just picks it up and waves it around and kind of hands it to the dog. They both love to watch us toss the ball for Zoey to catch in midair.

Today we were at the baby coffee shop (My Coffeehouse) and one of the toy bins had a clean tennis ball in it. Emi spotted it, picked it up, waved it around, and said "Doddy! Doddy!" while beaming at me in the mirror.