i never seem to have a format or
organizational structure for these posts.
it’s really hard because i start writing about one thing and it makes me
think of 57 other anecdotes and then i just spiral off. i will attempt to summarize emme at age
2.
physical: i am still stunned when i see
pictures of this little monkey from even a few months ago. her hair has grown so much and she is
definitely turning in to the taller and leaner girl she is becoming and less of
the slightly chubby baby i have been in love with for so long now. that last little thigh roll is on its way out –
a fact that makes my heart ache just a little bit. as far as who she looks like, i think we
still get comments on her resemblance to kk the most. i occasionally see a picture that makes me
think she is me as a small person. but
there are definitely many moments where she looks EXACTLY like jb – even if it’s
just the expression. she is busy and
active all the time. she loves to hang
on stuff – the oven door, the freezer drawer, the dishwasher handle, and any
other reachable bar that can support her weight.
emme is still a champion sleeper, a fact i
am thankful for daily. she sleeps
roughly 12 hours at night (7:30-7:30 or so) and takes 3-4 hour naps when she’s
at home most days (2 hours is pretty typical for school). she’s a great eater, another thing that i
relish because it makes life SO much easier.
i thought she wasn’t crazy about spinach, but she recently started
loving creamed spinach, so that’s back on the list. most days, she will try anything. she definitely has meals where she’s not
interested in food at all, of course. she is a toddler, after all. but in general i do not stress out about her
growth or nutrition, which is lovely for a worry wart like me.
we are also so fortunate that ek is such a
healthy kid. after the ear infection
battle last winter/spring, we have not really had an illness to speak of. the tubes are doing what they’re supposed to
be doing (yay!), and her immune system seems to be pretty robust beyond
that. i’m sure this winter (if we
actually get a winter) may bring a few bugs to our house, but i hope we can
avoid most of them. she does get a
persistent little cough every so often that i think is allergies – when it gets
really bad, i give her zyrtec before bed and that knocks it right out. most other nights i rub eucalyptus oil on her
feet and that does the trick!
if i had to pick a favorite outdoor
activity for this little bug, i would go with sliding. she can spot a slide from miles away – it is
nuts. she gets great joy just from
pointing them out to us – especially the “twirly” slides. inside, she loves reading. it’s how we start and finish most days, a
routine that i love. she also is
obsessed with her baby right now. she is
very nurturing and sweet with baby, but it can get a little intense. initially, i set a whole lot of boundaries
with baby – no baby at the table, no baby in bed, no baby in the car, etc. –
but i have bent on most of those.
fortunately, she is somewhat reasonable (most days) about letting baby
take a nap when we have something else pressing. she does also tell us “i’m a good little mama”
when she’s giving baby a bottle or whatever.
so cute.
finally, under this category, is the potty
situation. she has been (what i would
consider) potty-trained since mid/late october or so. it’s amazing.
we definitely have accidents here and there (more at school than at
home, where i am reminding her all the time), but i can count on one hand the
number of poop accidents we’ve had. she
also totally understands when she has an accident and why, which is great. i did a brief bribery attempt about a week in
to the training where i would give her an m&m each time we had a successful
potty trip (i did this because she was randomly resisting and i wanted to
motivate her to push through). so now,
she still asks for a “special treat” after most trips to the potty at
home. it’s really funny. we still diaper her at night and probably
will for a while longer. she is just so little
and sleeps SO well. and, let’s be
honest, i am not interested in changing all her bedding several times a
week. she has dry diapers 2-3 nights a
week, but that is not enough for me to take the plunge quite yet….
mental/emotional: emmeline is a talker. i am amazed and entertained by her daily. she sings and tells us things
constantly. she knows the full alphabet
song – she went from a few letters and lots of mumbling to full articulation of
the song and chorus in a matter of a couple of days. it’s craziness. she counts to 15 or so (maybe higher – she usually
loses interest or starts giggling around 15), but it’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
eleven, 8, 9, 10, 11….cracks me up every time.
she’s also associating counting with numbering objects (as opposed to
just naming the numbers from memory), which is fascinating to me. we have that book click clack 123 and she
counts the animals while pointing to them up to about 7 or 8 (which is the
pigs, who she likes to point out are naked and then laugh). for books that we read frequently, ek loves
to complete the sentence. her favorite
right now is madeline (especially the page where madeline says “pooh-pooh” to
the tiger at the zoo). she’s really in
to the night before Christmas right now, since we’ve been talking a lot about santa,
the holidays, etc.
emme is very attached to her “buddies” at
school. she talks about them and gets
randomly fascinated with various ones each day.
she is obsessed with “bo-bos”, our word for small injuries. she will invent a bo-bo on her own body and tell
me about how one of her friends fell and got a bo-bo at school. she will also try to doctor what she
perceives as bo-bo’s on me…little does she know, most of it is just scars or
random skin flaws i’ve acquired over the past 31 years. anyway…i love that nurturing aspect of her
little personality.
i can get super frustrated with certain
aspects of her school, but as a whole, i cannot say enough about what a montessori
education has done for emme and our family.
i love seeing her curiosity and her engagement with the world.
personality: emme kay is spunky and
stubborn and a blast. she is dramatic
and silly. a few stories to illustrate:
last night, we were wrapping up dinner and
she had stolen my fork and had her fork.
she grabbed justin’s hand and asked if she could “cut his nails” with
the forks. then she started singing “where
is thumbkin”, which is the song i sing to her when cutting her nails. it was so endearing.
also last night, we were winding down and
getting snuggled up to read bedtime stories.
justin was still messing with her a little bit – pretending to bite her
baby’s foot and growling. she put her
hand on his hand/baby and looked right at him and said “no, daddy. it’s time for bed”.
lately, when she is not in the mood to
play/wrestle, she will tell us no and that we’re hurting her. so dramatic.
when she does want to play, she will thrust her foot toward our faces
and demand that we “bite the foot” and immediately erupt into giggles.
she still points out every object in the
sky and now we talk about where that object goes – helicopters and planes go to
the airport; birds go to their nests; the moon gets bigger/smaller, etc.
she could sing ring around the rosey a
thousand times a day and thinks falling down is the greatest.
she likes to be up on the counter exploring
while i cook.
she bosses the dogs around - excuse me, ollie. kicked off, etta. she is definitely not scared to tell them what to do, but also gives them lots of affection.
i could think of a billion other stories
and notes, but i am guessing this has already long bored anyone who is not in
our immediate family. i just have to say
that parenting this child for the last 2+ years has been more fun and rewarding
and delightful than anything i could have ever imagined. even whenever she frustrates me (with the two
of us as stubborn as we are, it definitely happens), i feel so so so lucky that
i get to be her mom. i want time to slow
down immediately so i can fully immerse myself in everything she is doing each
day, but at the same time i am so excited to see what’s around the corner. i know people say it all the time, but each
age is my favorite age yet. i adore this
little mosquito.
now, on to the overload of pictures….
