Potty Time

Emily started showing interest in the potty recently. She knows the whole process now, and gets so excited to accompany me to the bathroom. Emily loves to talk about the whole process (she says "potty! wipe! wash!"), and was thrilled when we bought her a potty seat of her own. We're not ready for full potty training, so she really just uses it now for a seat and stepstool to wash her hands. Here is Emily doing something that she clearly inherited from her father...

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Emily has really become a huge fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Junior. She talks about Mickey, Minnie, Goofy (Goosy), Pluto (Tuto), Donald (Duck), and Daisy constantly, and will usually drop whatever she is doing to watch it.

Here are a few videos of Emily enjoying her current favorite show:

19 Months

Emily is 19 months old! Lots of fun things have happened this month:

* She is climbing on EVERYTHING! She can climb from the floor into her high chair, and from the chairs to the top of the kitchen table. Needless to say, we cannot leave her alone for a second!

* Emily has started sitting at the table with us in the booster seat, no more high chair for this big girl!

* She has a new classroom at daycare. They nap on mats on the floor, so no more crib there. They have a potty in the classroom (so they start to get interested) and she and her friends eat at a table for meals and snacks. Her new teacher says she's quiet, but a very good listener. She also likes to hold hands with her friend at school.

* Emily likes to count, but only says "two" when we count. She also loves to hear certain songs. Some of her favorites are the ABC's (which she calls AB's), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, Itsy Bitys Spider, I'm a Little Teapot, and Frere Jaques (with hand motions!). She also likes to sing a song about soap that we will have to get on video soon.

* She has started to call herself "Emmy" instead of "You". She used to call herlself "You" when we asked what her name was. It makes sense - we always ask what do YOU want for breakfast, or can YOU bring me that.

* Emily enjoys when we tell her "secrets." I will whisper in her ear to do something (like run and give Daddy a hug) and she will run off to complete her task.

* She has attended a few friends' birthday parties, and she is having lots of fun singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles on her toy cake.

* Emily has started talking and repeating a lot more. Some of our new favorites are "Ready!", "Let's go!" and "Oh gosh!" She also says "I You!!" which means I love you :-)

* She likes to sing songs before bed with Mommy and Daddy in the rocking chair instead of reading before bed. She really doesn't like when her stuffed Goofy sits with us for some reason. She always yells "No Goosy!" During the day, she will sit in the rocking chair with Goofy and sing songs to him, then put him to sleep in her crib.

* Emily also likes to play with her toy tea set. There is a little tray with little toy cakes that she carries around and offers to everyone. Don't try to take the chocolate cake, because Emily will not give that one away! She also loves to pour "tea" or "milk" for everyone.

*Cha Cha has offically become "Charlie". Emily still calls Callie "Cal", and I don't think that will change anytime soon.

Using a spoon without spilling...much!

Emily has become very independent lately, which includes insisting that she use a fork an spoon when she eats, no matter how messy the meal. I know it takes some time to learn how to use utensils, so we are trying to deal with the mess the best way possible - take off all clothes and pull back her hair! Here's a video of Emily using a spoon to eat her yogurt. Enjoy!

Valentine's Date With Daddy

Fouad took his two favorite girls out to a "fancy" dinner on Valentine's Day! Here's a few photos of our night out at Waffle House. Emily loved it, and we will definitely return for this next year!

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa

Emily has two sets of wonderful grandparents. They really enjoy spending time with her and showering her with lots of love. Grandma & Grandpa love to visit Emily as often as they can. They were on vacation for a few weeks and came to visit as soon as they got home. Here are some pictures from their fun reunion:

Bathtime Fun :-)

Here's Emily playing with her current favorite bathtub toy, her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puzzle, right before she had her bath:



18 months

Emily is 1 1/2 years old! She's so entertaining these days; she's been cracking us up all month! Here she is helping Mommy make her afternoon snack:

Here's everything else going on in Emily's world this month:

* Emily loves her dolls, which she calls her babies. She has a tiny stroller and pack n play that she loves to play with around the house. She usually tucks her babies in to sleep before she heads up for bed, and can often be seen feeding her babies (or the dogs).

* Emily has really started to love to color. She even lays on her belly and colors, and she's learned to only color in the coloring book, but that doesn't mean she always follows that rule!

* Her back teeth are coming in, and they look like they are pretty painful!
* Emily has a lot of new words and has started to recited words on flashcards. She also knows "hot" - she surprised us with that at Chepe's when another table ordered fajitas and she said "HOT!" as they went by sizzling.

* Emily's vocabulary continues to amaze us. She knows over 100 words, which we will post soon.

Fun with Mommy :-)

Me and my girl having fun :-)

Learing to talk is hard!

Emily is having a little bit of a hard time with the "F" sound. Here she is attempting to say "fruit" which comes out more like "doot."

Also, around the one minute mark Emily notices the camera. We actually didn't notice this when we were taking the video, and it cracks us up every time we see it!

Happy "Noon" Year!

We celebrated "Noon" Year's Eve for the second year in a row, and it was so much fun. Aunt Nadine, Grandma, and Grandpa joined us this year for the countdown and lunch. Here's our big girl enjoying her NYE lunch at Atkins Park:

This is a tradition that we will definitely continue to repeat. After this celebration, Grandma and Grandpa celebrated with Emily and let Fouad and I have the night off to ring in the new year! We had a great time!