20 Months!

Emily is 20 months old! The picture above was taken at Emily's favorite park - Sims Lake Park. We go there often with our MOMS Club and also on play dates with Emily's little friend Olivia and her mom Jenn. Em loves to feed the ducks and geese that are on the lake. Well, we take bread to feed them, Emily usually ends up eating most of it!

This month our little girl has really started to expanding her language skills. She has been saying sentences and speaking much clearer. Strangers usually guess that she is around 2 1/2 years old. Not sure if that means she's really as advanced as we like to think she is, or if people have a tough time guessing ages. I'm going to just say we have a baby genius!

Emily also surprised us by counting to 13 one day without any prompting! We were floored! Em also got a huge surprise in our back yard one afternoon - she got her very own play house! She loves it! We decided to get her a space of her own after a few bad thunderstorms came through and we had to take cover in one of our closets. Emily loved her little "club" with Mommy, Daddy, Callie, and Charlie. The poor girl needed a proper place to play! Here's a picture of Emily enjoying her house:

Another very fun activity that started this month was gymnastics! Emily has really enjoyed her gymnastics classes and we are really loving that she is learning to take her turn, be patient, and follow directions. Here's a photo from her first class:

Along the same lines, Emily has started to really understand her boundaries and definitely knows right from wrong. When she gets frustrated, we usually present her with two options (that we choose of course...) and she is very happy to pick one. This has really eliminated a lot of drama around our house.

We are really having the time of our life right now with our little one! She makes our days so much fun :-)

Roll Call!

Every time we get in the car lately Emily does a little roll call to see who is there. Most of the time it's just me and Em, so this can be pretty funny :-) Here's a sample convo:

Em: Hi Mommy!
Me: Hi Emily!
Em: Hi Daddy!
Me: No, Emily. Daddy's at work. It's just Mommy here.
Em: Wooork. Hi Papa!
Me: No Papa is at home.
Em: Hooome. Hi Jiddo!

You get the idea. Obviously, this can go on for quite some time! It cracks me up every time!

Yucky

Emily threw up for the first time last night, which is definitely not blogworthy, but the way she handled it was so sweet. Poor Fouad was the unlucky victim when Emily threw up all over him before he put her to bed, and she said very sadly "yucky" and kept repeating it over and over. He cleaned Emily and himself up and put her to bed. What came next was too adorable not to post. She said, "Night night, Daddy. Night night, Goosy (Goofy). Night night, yucky." Such a sweet girl, she even said goodnight to her mess.

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!