Firsts
--Playing Playstation Move
--Easter egg hunts
--Toasted marshmallows on a fire
--Going down the slide in our playroom by herself
Growth and Development
Emma is wearing size 18-24 month clothes, and size 5-5.5 shoes. She is still in pampers size 4 diapers. She has all four of her first set of molars now (the top ones came in this past month). She's been drooling more lately too, so perhaps even more of her teeth are coming in yet.
She occasionally lets me put a hair clip in her hair, but she still doesn't leave the clip in too long. She still refuses a pony tail or other hair style, by either not cooperating when I try to do it and/or taking the hair tie out immediately afterward. I try to get her excited about a hair style by letting her see herself in the mirror afterward She'll say "see Emma", asking to see herself and sometimes she'll repeat after me and say "peh-tee" (pretty).
Looking pretty and playing peek-a-boo
She is talking so much...she can go on telling us long stories in her "toddlerese", it is really cute. However, I think she wants us to understand her more than we do. She does say a lot, and so much that it'll be hard for me to do a word count anymore. She did start saying one of my favorite words my kids' have said, though...."nuggle" (for snuggle). She says more in phrases also, like "read the book", "more that" (I want more of that), "shoes on", etc. Besides saying more, she is also saying words better (especially those that she's been saying for a little while). "Evan" sounds more clearly like "Evan", and the same for her name and a few other words too. She's trying to use her words to tell us what she wants, or doesn't want, but still doesn't like it when the answer isn't what she wants. She whines a lot more as a result, until she gets her way or until we distract her or just scold her. Speaking of scolding, she does not like it. She curls her bottom lip out (so cute!) and then usually cries. She does not like getting in trouble that is for sure (reminds me a lot of myself as a kid!).
She is definitely learning her colors and numbers and letters. She'll try to sing to ABC's, she'll chime in on certain numbers when we count, and she'll repeat the names of colors. She is getting good at matching (via how she matches a puzzle piece with the spot on the puzzle board, but she only gets a few of them to fit in the spot so far), and she recognizes what is hers and what is Evan's, even when it's something that has the same exact style but just different colors (such as their sippy cups or toothbrushes).
She has mostly been pretty independent, learning to do a lot of things on her own without asking for much help. However, lately I've noticed that she's started to ask me to do things for her, like feed her food with a spoon or fork (or "poke it" for her, in which she'll say "mommy, poke it"). Yet, when it is something that I am giving her an ultimatum on (such as "put your book back before bed", or "put down those toys [some toy food shakers in particular] that you cannot take in your crib for the night"), in which I tell her "either you do it or mommy will, it's your choice", she usually chooses to do it herself. :)
She also likes to pose for photos more now. She'll say cheese and smile for the camera. I'm hoping this means I'll start to be able to get more photos of the two kids together now, as well as maybe it's time for us to try family portraits again soon. :)
Showing a little sass...
She has a "lovey" now...her longtime friend, the stuffed giraffe! She's always held it dear, but it's become even more so in the past few weeks. We always have called it "raffi" as a nickname, and now she does too, only in her toddler speak it comes out sounding like "foof-ee". It is adorable to hear her call for foofee! I almost want to start calling it that too, so she'll always say it that way! She snuggles him and wants to take him everywhere now. She's brought him to meals in her high chair, in the car and to daycare, to Evan's swimming lessons, you name it.
Meal time
Emma still loves to eat and snack! She still does not like meat very much, especially no chicken! She eats some of her veggies, but I'm wondering if I am starting to see her become more picky about those lately. She definitely picks through her plate for the foods she wants and leaves the rest behind! She also wants what everyone else has. We cannot bring out another type of food for her or someone else without her finishing what she has or else she may just switch gears and not be interested in the previous option. If Evan has something, she definitely wants it too (that goes for candy and cookies and sweets in particular!).
She still will not drink milk! I'm starting to get a bit worried that she may not be getting enough calcium if she doesn't drink any milk, so I'm making sure to give her yogurt and cheese. I just don't know why she doesn't want it given how great she drank it in bottles. I've tried straw cups, various sippy cups, and nothing works. If she knows it contains milk, she pushes it away. At her 18-month check up, the doctor suggested giving it to her when she's thirsty so I've done that. She still refuses it and then just waits it out until she can get water. She'll even specifically ask for water ("wah-tah").
Snacking outside on a beautiful spring day, before we had a fire in the fire pit that night
Bed time has recently gotten tough with Emma. She cries the moment you start to leave the room. She starts to get upset the moment you start doing the last steps in the bedtime ritual. We've started some new things to try to help distract her a bit (i.e. we realized she likes turning off the light switch, so we let her do it). That helped for a few days where she'd forget to start whining about it being almost bedtime because she got to turn off the light). However, after a few days that excitement was over and she was back to squirming and starting to get upset about going to bed. So then we started rocking her and singing with her. She actually sings along with some songs, amazingly well ("Twinkle Twinkle", "Home among the gum trees", etc). I love hearing her little angelic voice saying her cute toddler words to chime into various parts of the songs. For "Gum trees", she sings the following parts/words of the main chorus pretty regularly: gum trees, (and a) kangaroo ("coo cah roo"), (out the) back, rocking chair ("ock-ee chair"). On the last bit (the rocking chair part) where you hold the note for a little while, she'll even change the tone of her voice to try to match mine, which I find impressive and cute all at the same time!
We also have given her baby dolls to sleep with her in her crib because she was asking for "baby" during several of her fits, though she usually throws them out after we leave the room. And lately she's started asking for "foofee", so we let her sleep with her giraffe too. Either way, all of these extra things at bedtime still aren't helping in the long run. She just wants mommy or daddy to be with her and not leave. I hope it's a phase, but it's been going on almost the entire past month. Once we do get her to sleep, though, she does sleep well the rest of the night, so at least that's going well. So I'd say she sleeps from 8:30 or 9:00pm (yes she keeps herself up later with the fits!) until around 8:00am.
This fussiness is also starting to creep into nap times as well, but it usually not as bad...yet. However, once she falls asleep for nap as well, she'll sleep good and usually sleeps about 1.5-2.5 hours.
Cheesing it up with Grandma
Play time
She likes to play with a lot of toys: doctor kit (she can put the stethoscope on herself!!), her ice cream cone duplo block set, balls, riding toys or pushing toys, stacking blocks, and her puppy dog. She likes to play with pretend phones, and when I ask her who she's calling she often says "call Nanna". She also likes to read books still, with her favorites right now being her touch and feel kangaroo book, her 100 words book, her ballerina book that plays music, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Biscuit's pet and play Easter, to name a few that I've read a few times in just the past week alone.
Riding...
The doctor is in the house...
She also likes to play with Evan and/or do whatever he's doing. This past weekend that involved her learning how to climb on more of the furniture. This also means she's learning to play the Playstation Move games too. She will do the dancing games or some of the ones where you have to move the controller around (think "whack-a-mole" style, which one of the games actually is!). She laughs at pretty much any silly thing he does. I can also tell that Evan enjoys playing with her more now too. He's still too rough with her, and can certainly be mean (steal toys or snacks from her, for example), but I think he does like the fact that she's getting bigger and able to more actively play with him.
Playing Playstation together
They are quite the pair...love these two! :)
She can go down the slide in our playroom all by herself now, which is nice because that phase (which happened for each kid actually) where they could climb up it but yet not be sturdy enough to do it alone and/or didn't know how to get down the slide without completely tumbling down is much more of a "hands on" period for us as parents. Now the kids can play in the playroom while I relax on the couch there and watch them, which is a nice change of pace!
I often find myself just staring at her in wonder. I think she is so amazingly beautiful. I think it's her eyes, but also her cheeks and her smile and her giggle and her charming personality...basically just every little thing about her. I want to soak this time up. This age of excitement and exploration and even some chubbiness still (she still has some of her inner thigh rolls!). Watching her toddle, whether it's walking or running, is so precious. She twists her hips so her bottom shakes back and forth when she really gets going fast. Watching her explore movements of her body while dancing is pure entertainment as well, both a bit on the funny side at times, but mostly just plain old adorable. I really cannot get enough hugs with her. I find myself just scooping her up and holding her tight and then sneaking a kiss onto her sweet cheeks. I am so in love with her. She really makes our family complete. :)
1 comment:
Loved all these photos and seeing some old outfits. :) She's in such a fun stage! I love how fast she's learning words now.
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