Her vocabulary is growing so quickly. She’s using a lot more word combinations and some simple sentences too, like “I want Mommy read book.” The other day, Mick told her “Emily’s a pretty girl,” and she patted him and said “Daddy’s a pretty girl.” Instead of saying “cookie,” she’ll say “I want a cookie.” When Julie was here before Thanksgiving, she drew a picture of a snowman and drew boots on him. She told Emily that the snowman had on boots so he could walk away. Now, Em tells everyone that snowmen “walk away!” whenever she sees one. It’s hilarious.
By far though, her favorite thing to say right now is “Emmy do it!” She’s very independent and wants to do everything by herself, from eating and drinking to putting her shoes on or getting undressed for her bath at night (she’s a pro at taking shoes and socks off especially). Just last month, she would ask for help with almost everything, and now she doesn’t want anyone to help. She's now an absolute pro on the iPad.
We’re still working on manners—she is a very consistent “thank you” user, but not as consistent with “please” unless we remind her. She’ll pretty much say thank you for anything that’s handed to her. We’re also working on sharing, which she’s doing well with so far. We practice sharing at her Play & Learn class on Saturdays, and I know she gets more practice at school too.
This month, we’ve learned that Emily is crazy about all things Christmas—snowmen, Santa, Christmas trees, snowflakes, angels, lights, you name it. She also loves princesses right now, but really only likes to look at them or read stories about them—she doesn’t seem interested in being a princess yet, and still won’t let me put bows or barrettes or rubber bands in her hair. It’s a shame, because her hair is getting so much longer that it would really look adorable if I could make it girly :). That’s okay—I can be patient. It’s so curly in the back that it always looks cute anyway.
This month, Em has really started to pretend play--even if she's playing by herself, she's constantly talking and pretending with her stuffed animals or toys. The sweetest thing is the way she acts with her dolls though--I caught these without her knowing I was behind her as she put her baby to bed.
My dad made this little wooden cradle for my dolls when I was little, and my mom kept it all these years, hoping there would be an Emily to play with it one day :). She made a little mattress, pillow and blanket to fit it, and Em loves it.
We’ve also experienced some new things with her sleeping this month—she’s started wanting me to stay with her at night until she falls asleep. I’m still not sure if she’s afraid of the dark, or she just wants someone with her, but if I leave her room too early, she’ll cry or call me back. I should probably be trying to break her of it, but I know the day will come too soon when she doesn’t need me at all to go to sleep, so I’m taking full advantage of this. She’s also starting to dream more, or so we think. Sometimes, she’ll wake up in the middle of the night saying “no, no!” or just wake up and call me. She doesn’t seem to be completely awake when I go in her room, and goes back down pretty easily once she knows she isn’t alone.
I’m a little afraid she’s going to want tattoos by the time she’s 12—she’s really into drawing on her skin, and always wants a happy face and a heart on her hands. At her Play & Learn class, she gets Gymbo stamps at the end (Gymbo is the Gymboree clown, and the instructor has a rubber stamp that she stamps all the kids with when class is over)—Emily always wants Gymbo on her hands, feet and tummy.
Emily has learned her full name this month, thanks to Daddy—if you ask her “what’s your name?” she’ll say “Emmy Jackson!” She also knows her middle name is Claire, even though it comes out a little more like “Care” because she’s still a little challenged with L sounds.
I guess the last thing I'll mention (I have trouble narrowing down to just a few) is how loving Emily is--she has really turned into a kisser and hugger--she wants to kiss anything she likes, and must have kissed every ornament on our tree!
It's really precious, as are these pictures from Thanksgiving, when she kissed her sweet baby cousin and then her Aunt Julie.
She also she says "I love you" back to us all the time now, even though "love" sounds a little more like "wuv." I hope she continues to be as sweet and caring as she is now...although I'd be okay with cutting back on the kisses :).
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