20 Months Old: What's Happening

Knowing that Emily is so close to 2 years old feels a little surreal, but when we see all the things she’s doing every day, it doesn’t seem hard to believe at all.

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 :).

Thanksgiving - Part 2

On Thursday morning, we got up and decided to head out to the beach. Of course, it turned out to be the coolest, windiest day of the week, but we bundled up and Emily still had a great time running along the sand

and seeing all the dogs and people fishing.

We walked out to the pier and saw some pelicans up close

then Em had a good time practicing her driving skills in the arcade by the pier.

We got back to the house and had a traditional Thanksgiving lunch, which was delicious! Oddly enough, Emily’s favorite thing was the green beans.

After lunch and naps, we tried getting a picture of Cody, Emily and Chase together, and it was tougher than we expected :).

The weather warmed up in the afternoon too, so we enjoyed the screened back porch.

Friday, it was time to head home…already! The week passed by so quickly. We packed up the cars and left by mid-morning. Emily acted silliy with Aunt Julie all the way home.

Thanksgiving - Part 1

Since we knew there would be a new baby in the family by Thanksgiving this year, we planned to spend the holiday in (or near) Wilmington so Jason and Jenn wouldn't have to travel far. My mom came up with the idea to rent a house at the beach and all stay together rather than get hotel rooms. Let's face it--several days in a house with your entire family can be stressful, and ours is no different--but we did enjoy the time together and everyone came out alive :).

The house was awesome. It was in Kure Beach, and across the street from the beach, but there were ocean views from the front balconies, and every room opened to an outdoor space, which was really nice.

We all arrived on Tuesday, and didn't do much except get settled in and made a trip to the grocery store to stock up for the week.

Emily and Cody had a good time exploring the house, especially since there was a huge toy cabinet with this little princess chair, along with some other cool stuff that (of course) was better than anything either of them brought with them.

Everybody got to meet sweet little Chase, who was less than two weeks old!

Wednesday morning, everyone was up early and Cody and Emily were back at it--racing through the house with their new discoveries!

Emily loves pushing and pulling things with wheels, so this little shopping cart was right up her alley.

We decided to go to the Fort Fisher Aquarium later that morning, which was a big hit, especially with Cody and Emily.

Emily had to give kisses to the crocodile,

touched a starfish,

and loved checking out the turtles with Aunt Julie.

On our way out, Cody and Emily both got excited about the frog big enough for them to sit on together.

Wednesday afternoon, a friend of Jenn's who is also a photographer came down to do some family pictures for us--I caught a few of Emily after the official shoot was over.

I just love these--she looks like she belongs at the beach :).

More to come!

Little Puppeteer

We bought this puppet at a Labor Day festival we went to because Emily liked it so much. Since then, she's had no interest in it at all, so I've kept it hanging in a closet. She saw it this morning and wanted to play with it.

She made the puppet dance and had the best time!

Horrible

We bought this owl hat and mittens for Emily (she picked them out, because she loves owls right now), and Friday was a really cold morning, so I thought we'd try them. This is what Emily thought about the hat.

She can be such a little drama queen! When she gives us her fake cry like this, I'll sometimes say "I know, it's horrible," and she'll say (between sobs) "horrible!"

The funniest thing is she got mad at me again when I took the hat off, because she had decided she liked it after all!

PJs All Day!

Gateway had pajama day on Thursday, and Emily was so proud of her "Elmo head to toe" look! She held her feet up to show everyone her slippers :).

I was surprised to see that the whole outfit made it through the day--I had taken real shoes for her, but I can only imagine the battle someone would have had in order to change them!

Snuggly

We had a laid back weekend--Emily wasn't quite herself on Saturday, so we didn't do a whole lot. She had a tough night Saturday night, and then on Sunday, she woke up not feeling well at all. She threw up twice while she was eating breakfast, and then fell asleep in my lap. When she woke up, she seemed to be feeling much better, but still wanted to snuggle (which was fine with us!).


We took it easy all day, and she acted fine the rest of the day. We decided to get out for a little while this afternoon and went to the mall. Emily is loving all the lights and decorations up for Christmas (already!!), so we wanted to stay inside but give her a chance to walk around. We ended up at Build-A-Bear Workshop, and she built her very own bear. She picked out a heart, kissed it, and put it in her bear. There's a foot pedal for blowing the stuffing in, and she stepped right up like she knew what she was doing. She named him Bear, and hugged and kissed him all the way home!

She had a great night on Sunday, and I'm going in to work a little late this morning so I can let her sleep in. Hopefully she'll be back to 100% today!

Little Things

Emily seems to do something that excites us every day--it's the little things that really make us realize how fast she's growing and learning.

This morning, we were choosing what to have for breakfast, and I had offered her all of her favorites--oatmeal, eggs with cheese, grits, toast--she said no to everything. Finally, I asked if she wanted cereal, and she jumped up and said "yeah!" I took down the Cheerios and poured some in a bowl. When I handed her the bowl, she looked at it, handed it back and said "milk!"

I poured some milk in, handed her a spoon, and she went to town!

So proud of our sweet pea, having her first bowl of cereal :).

Little Artist

I've wanted to get Emily an easel for a while now, and we found this one on a great sale today.

She loves to draw and color, but we're always on the floor doing it, and I thought she might like something where she can stand up.

One side is a magnetic white board, and the other side is a chalkboard. We took it out of the box when we got home from dinner tonight and she had a great time creating (and erasing) her masterpieces!

Secret Hiding Spot

Emily is all about hiding these days--she'll hide under the dining room table, in closets or behind the couch. When we enrolled her in the Gymboree Play & Learn class, we got a coupon for a free play parachute. They have all kinds of cool toys and play items, so it's tough not to buy something every time we're there! I finally remembered to take the coupon with us this morning, so we brought home the parachute and made a fort!

Emily was so excited--we play with a huge parachute at her classes, but this one is much smaller and more manageable for us.

She didn't want to come out, but kept peeking underneath and laughing.

She was having so much fun I even had to get in the fort to change her diaper!

A Twinkle, A Gobble and a Mee-ow

I mentioned earlier this week that Emily calls cats "meows," even though she knows the word cat, and will answer you when you ask her where a cat is, or what a cat says.

We've noticed that she does this with other things too. While pumpkin has been her favorite word in October, we've moved on to "gobble gobbles," which she knows are turkeys. She won't even try to say turkey, but she obviously knows what it is.

The same thing goes for stars--she'll exclaim "moon!" and point to the moon, but stars are "twinkle twinkles" to her. Again, she knows what a star is, but she prefers the fancier name, and always accompanies it with her twinkle fingers :).

October Art

The end of a month is always fun, because we get to bring home all of Emily's art projects to make room for more on the classroom walls!

I love them all, but tried to narrow it down to just post a few favorites again. This first one is her tissue sheep.

And her kitty cat mask, or as Em says, her "meow." Even though she knows what it's actually called, every time she sees a cat, she'll say "it's a me-ow!"

The handprints she does each month are always special...it will be neat to be able to look back and see how quickly she's growing.

And in the spirit of Halloween, a spider made out of more handprints! Spiders are all "itsy bitsy" to Em, complete with the finger movements :).

And her cute little ghosts made out of footprints.

A fall pumpkin made from a fist print.

Some fall leaves--one painted, and one with sand glued to it.

And a cute little orange and black taxi cab!

It will undoubtedly be fun to see what November brings...I think I hear a gobble gobble!

Videos!

I think I've posted 21 new videos--I've been terrible about updating these, so they cover the last two months. click the Emily in Action link on the right to view.

Halloween Parade

Monday, Gateway had a fall carnival and Halloween parade, complete with class to class trick-or-treating. Parents were invited, so Mick and I both left early to be there, and Emily was so excited to see us and share some of her favorite things with us, like this dollhouse.

She held on to her treat bag for maybe 15 seconds, and then was done with it.

There wasn't much to the parade, but it was so adorable seeing all the kids in costumes marching around the parking lot.

Emily LOVES to march!

The best part was that it ended around 4:00 PM, so we all got to go home early!