Emily at 24 Months Old

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!

Hats, Hats, Hats

As dada is working nights. momma is trying her best to keep the house in one piece and keep the girls occupied.  What does momma come up with to peak their interest?  Dress up time with hats!  Of course Emily is all for trying on hats but not suprisingly, Avery doesn't want anything to do with it and refuses to cooperate.  So enjoy the funny pictures of Emily and the blurry ones of Avery.

Emily at 23 Months Old

With summer days fast going past us and fall days ahead, schools are now in session and Emily's preschool has shifted their ways from fun filled splash days to lessons to be learned.  Emily's teacher started a weekly newsletter to tell parents what their children will be learning that week.  It includes vocabulary, color of the week, number of the week, and letters of the week.   My parrot repeats everything she hears in order to learn new words and as a way of comprehending.  Her vocabulary has grown and she is now putting small sentences together.  Most of her sentences are three word sentences but are clear and precise as to what she wants or is needing.  With all of the words Emily says her little sister is also picking up new vocabulary and is now understanding that words are the way to getting what she wants, of course she still fake cries too.

Potty training is here to stay and we have now gotten rid of all of Emily's diapers and have begun to buy only pull-ups.  We are not going back to diapers no matter how hard the potty training process hits us.  Emily is getting used to sitting on her potty but she has yet to actually potty in it.  She always makes me sit on the big potty as she sits on her trainer and then after we are all done she flushes the big toilet.  Getting her familar with a potty routine is our starting point. Now if only she would let me know when she needs to go potty before she has actually gone.

Emily's transition to her toddler bed has been pretty easy and we haven't really had any problems with her coming out of her room too often.  There are times where she has come out to the living room and screamed MAMA as if we were playing a game of hide and seek.  I then have to lead her back into her room where she will usually stay all night.  Last night as daddy and I were falling asleep we heard a bang echo in our quiet home which made daddy leap out of bed.  Lo and behold he found Emily playing in her room with her baby stroller which she had banged against the wall, and suprisingly not waking up little sister.  She ran into our room and screamed MAMA with a big smile on her face.  I'm hoping that was a rare situation.

The new learned ability of the month is keeping her foot on the accelerator of her Jeep.  Emily now loves riding her Jeep around the yard although we still have problems with steering, meaning she does not know how to steer at all.  Mommy and daddy get a good workout pushing that Jeep around when it hits the fence and gets stuck.  Avery loves when Emily drives her around the yard even if her face looks as though she is scared out of her mind. 

Mine!  Mine!  Mine! is all I hear nowadays.  When listening to Emily and Avery play I can hear Emily tell her sister, "NO, sissa, NO, mine, mine!"  This whole "mine" phase has hit really hard, and I believe it was picked up from a close relative of ours (no names will be mentioned).  Emily has been through this phase before but it was short lived, this time it seems have come back wih a vengance probably because she understands what mine means now.  Oh well, lets see what next month has in store for us...Emily with be the big 2!




Playing with Nonna's reading glasses



Little Speedsters

Bath Time Silliness

New Dinner Seating Arrangements

Now that I have two "toddlers" on my hands we have changed the seating arrangements around at the dinner table.  Avery was getting too small for her baby bumbo chair which we used to place on the table to feed her.  So we got a booster seat for Emily and placed Avery in the high chair, I think they like it.

Someone Found the Candy

After cleaning up from Avery's party I realized I had so much candy left over from that butterfly pinata. So I grabbed a basket I keep in the front foyer and I placed the candy in it thinking I could save it for Halloween.  The girls have always crawled and walked by it but never really pay attention to it, until now. 

Potty Time

Emily is starting to potty train now that she is headed towards her 2nd birthday.  So far we haven't been as consistent as we should be but Emily does know that her training toilet isn't just for standing on.  Once in a while she will come up to me and tell me, "Mama, Emily poo poo."  So I'll take her to her potty and let her sit on it.  She hasn't gone in it yet but it's a start.

Emily at 22 Months Old

I am really late on posting this blog post because we have been so busy with family outings, vacations, and upcoming birthday parties.  Avery's birthday is this month and next month is Emily's 2nd birthday, goodness me my babies are growing so fast.  Soon we will have two toddlers on our hands and all the fun that comes with them.

This past month Emily has been a wonder with words.  She has increased her vocabulary by leaps and bounds and has started putting words together to create sentences.  Mostly she listens close to what other people are saying and then repeats their words.  As she does this she understands more and more how to do this task herself.  Now she is asking for things and saying what she observes and making commands.  The other day as daddy was cutting grass she said, "Dada, cut grass."  She says this very slow and enunciates every syllable but she says what she needs to in order to get the point across.  Emily has also discovered the {k} sound so now she can say things like milk, book, work and Katie (whom she used to call Lala).  Mommy is so very proud of her little princess and love that she is better at communicating and Emily loves that she can tell everyone how she feels.  Recently she has learned about the emotion "sad" and can recognize when someone is feeling sad.  She will usually say "mermaid sad" as she's watching The Little Mermaid or "sister sad" when she sees Avery crying.  Emily has also come into the phase, of which I know will take her years to grow out of, where she says mama, mama, mama or dada, dada, dada over and over again even when we answer after the first mama and dada.

Physical abilities Emily has learned include jumping and "swimming", basically lying on her belly in the bathtub and wriggling around.  When Emily jumps she comes about two inches off the ground and then slightly loses balance so I have to watch her carefully.  She isn't the most graceful when it comes to balance and has fallen quite a lot lately.  Her poor legs have bruises and cuts so mommy had to buy her some Dora bandaids which she of course loves.  But that doesn't stop her from climbing on objects and then trying to jump off them, it's obvious her ear incident has already been forgotten.

Sisterly love is growing stronger and stronger everday but sometimes Emily can be a little rough with Avery.  She tries to make her sit with her by pulling her down or making her stand up by pulling her up.  It's not always Emily's fault, Avery loves to crawl around her big sister and then gets her too excited.  Emily doesn't know her own strength and doesn't mean to cause harm to sister but instead loves her so much that she enjoys Avery being close.  At least that's my interpretation.



Kisses for Avery





Helping sister learn how to walk