22 months

Life goes on...

Emma is beginning to be more of a kid and not a baby anymore. I love it and it saddens me. Mostly it is fun to see the process of developing language, learning skills, etc. She also has grown taller. She has unruly fine, curly dusty blond/brown hair with a tint of red sometimes. No need for a real haircut yet. One day...

She talks a lot. Some understandable, some not. She is starting to say some sentences: I want that book. Thank you mommy (daddooo=thank you). Bye ____. Hockey. Monkey. Rocky. dgill (Jill), Anna (Hannah), Namma (Grandma), Papa, Emmy (Emmitt), Apple (April), Dampa (Grandpa), I want ______, What's that?, be=bird, bug, or bee. She says cookie really well. Ice for icee pop or popsicle. Pizza. Fee=pretty, flowers, fork/spoon. Peas, beans, cheese, keys. Bathroom words-pee, potty, poopy, panties, diaper, wipe.

On the couch or chair or steps she pats the seat beside her and said something that sounds like "sit".  Ernie, Elmo, puppy, kitty (t instead of k), neigh neigh, moo, baa, bayee (bear), chicken, Ernie (pepperoni or any other lunch meat). Beeta (blanket), feet/foot, monna (more), all done/all gone (without the 'n'). She likes to pretend she is reading a book/magazine/coupons, etc. It is mostly nonsense, but she will include things she sees in the pictures. Blah, blah, blah, Elmo, blah, blah, baby, blah, etc.

Last night she pushed the cooler into the living room, stood on top of it and started quietly, sweetly singing. Nothing we could understand but we could tell she was singing. Interesting at this age she wanted to be on 'stage'!

We are surprised by how much she knows sometimes. We will ask her to do something we don't know that she understands or knows how to do and she'll do it. She also likes to keep things tidy. She will pick up after herself quite often. Hopefully that will stay in her personality. Don't get me wrong, she is still a messy toddler. heh But she will pick up without us asking her to. Or she will throw trash away without us asking her to. She can be very helpful. She even likes to help me in the kitchen. While I'm cooking I'll ask her to throw something away. Or she will help stir something. Sometimes she just likes to watch what I'm doing while snitching a snack.

When neighborhood kids are outside and the window is open Emma likes to yell nonsense back to them. Emma loves being outside. She has become very interested in birds and rocks. We have rocks under our steps in the backyard so we've been researching those.

She has become interested in interacting with Emmitt again. He's not quite sure if he is liking this new found attention again. She loves to hug him. Lately she really wants him to let her kiss him right on his wet nose or put a hat on him or have him talk on the phone. She tried reading him a book the other day. That was ok. They were sitting next to each other on the recliner.

She sleeps pretty good at night. 9:30ish - 9am. A couple times a week she might wake up and call for me. To minimize night nursing Blake goes in there. She nurses about 4 times a day: morning, before nap, after nap, before bed. She doesn't seem ready to be done yet. I was hoping to be done around her 2nd birthday. We will see.

I was also hoping she would potty train sooner than later too but she doesn't seem quite ready for that either. She has lost interest. And I'm not sure she is physically ready.

And with weaning and potty training, the more I push her the more she pushes back and resists. So, we'll let her be for a little longer. I want her to feel we trust her independence level and give her time. And we don't want either to be too traumatic. Being that I am home with her all the time we have the freedom to do this. It is all temporary.

Oh my word! Emma loves babies! She is obsessed with the little 2/3 month old baby girl in the church nursery. She is very gentle. Lots of kisses and pats. She wasn't jealous when I held her either. But she talked about her for days. Emma would pat my shoulder where I held the baby and say "baby, cold". Yes, I held the baby and she didn't have any socks and had a short sleeve shirt so I had a blanket on her because she was cold.

Emma also was obsessed with "mommy, ba(ll). I ate a gumball and she just couldn't get that out of her head. Must have been a crazy thing for mommy to do! She has started to say ball different. Was "ba", now "bowel". Not great in appropriateness but getting closer! ha! I love it.

We love her. And enjoy that others love and enjoy her.