Butterflies and Hair Bows: Emily at 26 Months Old

This past month has been extremely busy with shopping and work. The Christmas holiday is a couple of weeks away and I have been working long hours on a turnaround so I haven't had much time to update our blog. I have come to a decision that this will be the last update titled in months of development for Emily. I will keep my format for Avery until she reaches the age of two but from now on I will create an original title for Emily's updates.

Emily turned 26 months old the day before Thanksgiving. As I reflect on last year's Thanksgiving I realize how much Emily has changed and how much she has grown. I can remember when her face was full and her head a perfect sphere. As she gets older her face has started to thin out which makes her look more like a little girl and less like a baby. Her eye color has changed as well, going from a sky blue to a blue-green. More often her eyes are green than blue which makes her look that much more like her daddy. The hair that I thought would never grow is now past her shoulders and is fine with a slight curl at the ends. It is the same color as Brian's hair, almost a golden brown.

Emily is making small sentences and is expressing her feelings vocally. She repeats the sentences that someone uses when speaking with her to learn sentence structure. Most of the time she sounds like a parrot following you around. Emily is becoming more aware of feelings and we try and use words like sad, mad, and happy. These come in handy especially when she is rough housing with her sister and makes her cry. She know that when Avery is sad that it calls for a hug and kiss so when sister starts to cry Emily will say, "Sissy, hug. Sissy, kiss." Avery stops crying and reciprocates most of the time.

Dora the Explorer is a staple in our household. Now instead of just sitting and watching her Dora show she interacts with Dora and her character friends. I'm glad to see she understands and can follow along with the story. She also suprised me the other day when Dora asked what shape she was holding up and Emily chimed in with the correct answer. I thought it was a coincidence until she did it again and again. I have such a smart girl. Mommy was amazed and so proud. Now if I can only get her to follow my instructions instead of having to threaten her with Santa putting her on the bad list. Emily still doesn't understand that Santa brings toys to good girls and boys but she does know that he says "Ho, ho, ho!"