Emily Mae is now two years old and we are feeling the wrath of an independent toddler. This child wants to do everything for herself and she doesn't care if you don't have the time or the patience to stand and watch her struggle. I know it's all part of the learning game but when momma is running late and trying to rush out the door her independence can try my patience. Emily is also testing mom and dad on whether we will come through with our threatening punishments. Time out is what Emily gets at school when she doesn't listen or does a bad deed so we try and implement the same punishment to her at home. It works most of the time and then there are those times when she likes to see how much further she can take her behavior. These are the moments in parenting that I hate. I am a patient person so I don't get mad very easily but she sure knows how to almost push me to my limits.
The "mine" phase is still going strong and she doesn't only do it to items that belong to her but with everything she gets her hands on. Now that little sister is getting wiser, she isn't so easy to push around. Emily towers over Avery but that doesn't really matter now that Avery has learned how to fight back and play at Emily's game. Tug of war is often what I come across when there is a fight between them, of course Emily is the strongest so she always wins but Avery has learned to retaliate by pinching or biting. This behavior is condoned by us but I have to chuckle a little inside to see that Avery has learned to defend herself. Mommy and daddy punish Avery for her bad behavior just as we would Emily, but I also teach Emily to step up and tell sister, "No, bite!". Instead of a short, "no bite" Emily has to draw in out to a "No, no, no, no, noooooo bite Avery!" all while wagging her finger at her little sister. I laugh now as I imagine it because it is such a funny sight.
Emily's favorite song now is "The Alphabet Song" which she can sing all by herself up to the letter I. She makes mom sing it over and over again while we do bathtime. Emily can also count up to 10 and participates in the counting while watching her favorite show, "Dora the Explorer". Reciting prime colors is something we do everyday and it turns out that yellow is Emily's favorite color, or at least favorite color to say. She can't quite say all of the colors names correctly so they come out sounding like, "bue, lello, popo, orase, geen, and red". We are very proud of how much knowledge she has gained from school. We try and read to her everyday and repeat everything she has learned to help with memorization. Right now her favorite book is still "Moo, Baa, La, la, la" which she can almost say by heart.
Emily's athleticism is still developing so she still gets off balance when she kicks a ball or when she jumps up and down but dada is helping her out. He and Emily like to go and kick her big ball around the back yard and fight over who gets to it first. This is great for mom as it helps to get that last remaining energy out of a worked up toddler before bedtime. Speaking of bedtime, we have come to the place in our child's life where she gets out of bed every 5 minutes to see what's going on or to waste time. When her crib was converted to a toddler bed we were fortunate to have two or three good weeks of her staying put and falling asleep. Now it is chaos every night and sometimes she stays up until 10pm when mom and dad and ready for bed. It takes a little pushing and coaxing but she finally stays in bed for the night. I'm hoping this gets better as times goes on.
As of her 2nd birthday Emily was still drinking from the bottle but the day after her birthday party I decided it was finally time to start weening both girls off the bottle. I started after school with giving the girls the same color and type of cup with milk in it and although we got some protesting they finally took the cups. As bed time approached and the bottle was asked for I just placed milk in their cups and said, "Okay, here's your milk in a cup. One for Avery and one for Emily." Seeing that both got exactly the same thing makes it better and helps with the transition. So far we have only had a 2 minute break down but we have had almost 4 days with no bottles and I'm hoping with help from the grandparents that this might break them of their bottle habit. Keep your fingers crossed!
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