So don't get me wrong, while my previous post highlighted some of the troubles, there is a lot about this age that I love. I mean she is just.so.adorable right now. She's this tiny miniature girl, who loves to sing, dance, jump, pretend play, give hugs and kisses, and help other people. A few precious moments that I want to treasure forever include:
- Mornings when John gets her up and she walks into my room and first sees me. Her face lights up and she runs over to me to get a big hug. She just crashes into my body and I embrace her fully. Really the best part of my day.
- Her kisses are amazing. So sweet, gentle, and not super slobbery. Sometimes out of the blue she will just want to give me kisses. Like a time I was sitting close to her and we were looking into each others' eyes face-to-face and suddenly she leaned in and kissed my cheek. I reacted in a very happy way (of course!!!) and so she kept doing it over and over again. So I'd alternate cheeks for her and she kept those kisses coming. She doesn't do the "mwah" sound anymore, but just a delicate kiss sound. Perfection if you ask me!
- I came downstairs one morning after having braided my hair and when she first saw me she said "I like your pretty hair, Mommy." She is very good about giving compliments.
- We saw some fire engines the other night on the block where her daycare is. They frightened her with all their sirens on, but I explained that they were helping someone. That someone needed help, so they called the fire department and the fire fighters have come to help them. She calmed down and started saying "they're just helping", which I reaffirmed. Then she said "I want to help too." She is such a good little helper; she loves to throw things in the trash for you, get you a tissue if you need one, get things for Evan or put things away for Evan, etc. So I had to explain that in this instance she'd need to be trained to be able to help, given that it could be a dangerous situation, but that she could certainly become a fire fighter someday if she wanted and that it was very nice of her to want to help.
My lil fire fighter
Firsts:
--Tumbling class
Emma is loving getting to go to tumbling class...a class for her instead of always sitting around while Evan gets to do the activity! She and I have been going once a week for the past month while Evan is in swimming lessons. At her age, this is the parent-child class, and after just 3 classes she's already started figuring things out on her own! She watched the teacher to do the stretches at the beginning of class, she figured out how to do the handstand by walking her legs up the mat against the wall, and her favorite thing is the balance beam (which she pronounces "bouncing beans"...it took me a little while to figure that one out!). However, at her last class she didn't like the higher balance beam, but she does like the one that's just laying on the floor. She also loves getting the stamp and sticker on her hand at the end of each class.
Emma's very own handstand!
Doing the balance beam all by herself
Growth and Development
Emma is still wearing size 2T clothes and size 5 Pampers diapers. She is wearing size 6.5-7 shoes. Not sure about new teeth right now...I guess I should check (not that she'd let me look in her mouth anyway!). She is talking and using new words and forming great sentences all on her own, it's too hard to keep up with many specific examples. She pretends to count (using random numbers, often some in the teens), so I can tell she understands the point to counting things, but just doesn't know her numbers sequence yet to assign appropriate numbers. She definitely knows the color pink. Not sure if she knows any other colors yet, but she can point out pink very well.
She has learned how to stack the nesting blocks fairly well (though she sometimes has some smaller ones hidden under the bigger ones), and she's also learning to nest them. She is getting close to jumping with both feet leaving the floor at the same time. I love her little hoppy jump that she does right now though, it's just so cute the way she alternates feet to bop around. She is learning to put her own boots on. While she'd done this awhile ago with her rain boots, she's back in a phase of wanting to do that for herself again. She drinks from cups with both hands and no lids, but only under supervision, but she really likes drinking "big girl style" as we call it.
Play time
Emma is so much into pretend play compared to Evan in particular. She'll make us pretend food and drinks and bring it to us, or she'll play with her baby doll and pretend to clean it's bottom (she likes to tell us "there's poop" as she's using her toy baby wipes to wipe it clean). She has started carrying around bags, like her toy purse or backpack. She loves to carry Evan's backpack when we pick him up from school actually. She loves slides and swings at playgrounds, and doing anything Evan is doing as well. She loves to sing "Let it go" still, and is learning more verses to it. She also likes watching movies that Evan has been watching, such as "Inside Out", but she won't sit for that long through it (compared to Evan who can now). She still loves books. She can bring me book after book to read to her. Current favorites are: Corduroy, Biscuit, Baby Beep Beep, Peek a boo farm animals, Biscuit pet and play Easter, Baker Baker Cookie Maker, If you give a mouse a cookie, Brown bear brown bear, The very hungry caterpillar, and many more...
Fun times
Second haircut success!
About a month or so ago, I took the kids in for a haircut by myself. I knew Evan would do well on his own and I figured I'd just hold Emma on my lap like I did for her first haircut. I knew there was a chance she would cry and fight it again, but I was prepared for that. Yet, she did great! She didn't cry at all, and she held still and did great job! She definitely deserved her lollipop from the treasure chest after that! :)
2nd haircut success!
The fear phase continues
I know it's probably just a phase that is appropriate for her age, but this once fearless girl is afraid of a lot more things than I ever thought she would be. Loud sounds, in particular, hurt or scare her ears (she'll describe it both ways). Some objects suddenly scare her too. Examples: a little black dog statue on the floor at a friends house, snow on the car last night, bugs flying around her, new decorations up in our house or the daycare home, etc. She also seems afraid of the dark now a little bit, and part of why we thought she may be having a hard time at bedtime was due to her being afraid. It may be part of the problem, but I also sense just her general desire not to go to bed too. Halloween, and all the spooky decorations that were out, didn't help, but even some that were not scary at all (just were maybe larger or whatnot) scared her too. The good news is it seems she's getting over some of these fears relatively quickly at least, as just last night she picked up that black dog statue that had scared her so badly the last time we'd been at that house.
Go Broncos!
My silly little monkeys!
While the "terrible twos" are trying, and I'm sure the "threenage phase" will be as well, I can't get enough of this girl! She is so loving and caring, and sweet and cute, that there is not much not to love. She still has a toddler belly, which I love to blow raspberries on every chance I can before it melts away and she has such cute toddler-style intonation when she says things. If it weren't for the defiant streaks, I think I'd really want to freeze her at this age. But I know the clock keeps ticking and soon she'll be onto something else, and be even more grown up. Just trying to enjoy each day with her in this phase as much as I can.
In some perspectives, she still looks small, but in others she seems so big and grown up!
No comments:
Post a Comment