Life on Lofty Lane: Emerson is 2!!

It's unbelievable how quickly the time has passed, but our little angel is already 2 years old! We have had a very busy year and have had so much fun over the last year. When Emerson turned 1 she was not walking yet, and now she practically sprints through the house. I still want to call her a baby, but she has been a toddler for quite some time now! Because I know I won't remember these details in the future, I am going to describe a normal day and some of the fun things we do with Emerson.

A typical day for our little sweetheart begins around 7:30 now (sometimes earlier) and from the moment she wakes up she is happy. Usually her first greeting isn't "Hi Mommy", it is something like "Open!" to tell you to open the blinds, or she may ask "Where did Daddy go?" if I am getting her up. If daddy gets her she will say "Where did Mommy go?". We are still using diapers and she will get mad when you put her on the changing table, so sometimes we change her diaper on the floor. Then we head downstairs for breakfast. Emerson loves eggs, pancakes, sausage, cereal, raisins, blueberries, strawberries, oranges and oatmeal as her breakfast foods with milk to drink. We buy organic, which runs around $7/gallon! Yowsers... Then she plays with her ridiculous assortment of toys (yes, we spoil her... I know...) or we run an errand or go to an activity. Lunch is usually around 12 and this is where food becomes more challenging. Her favorite lunch/dinner foods are salmon sticks (these tasty organic fish sticks), corn dogs, hot dogs, sausage, oranges, raisins, french fries, chicken tenders, mac and cheese, chips of any kind, spaghetti, peanut butter on graham crackers, crackers in general, cheese cubes, and that seems to really cover our options! Sometimes she isn't too hungry for lunch if her breakfast was really big. Then it is nap time and she sleeps from around 1- 4... 3 wonderful hours. :) When she wakes up she has a snack such as goldfish, ritz crackers, etc and either juice or milk. Then she plays some more before dinner, which is around 6:30. She loves, loves, loves the Sprout channel which has shows like The Wiggles, Caillou, and other toddler friendly shows. We have tons of books so she likes to flip through them... she especially loves the books with liftable flaps and textures. We try to read them with her, but she isn't still for very long. We spend time singing our ABCs and counting and find times to show her how to count. Emerson loves to entertain and dance and run in circles in our kitchen. Her way of showing affection to her stuffed animals is to bite their noses instead of kissing them. We have tried to get her to just kiss and hug, but it hasn't worked. Thankfully she doesn't bite us. :) Sometimes Emerson gets a bath at night (sometimes in the morning) and she has such a fun time splashing around. Lately her biggest interest is pouring water in and out of glasses. This can be messy! :) While my parents were watching her my mom and sister were giving her a bath. She had filled a cup with bath water and was holding it and asked my mom "Move your arm" in a tone like a question and my mom told her "No Emerson, you just want to pour the water on the floor" and Emerson grinned. That is exactly what she was up to. We enjoy going on walks around the neighborhood and pull Emerson in the wagon, but the weather has gotten too hot for that. Normally we get Emerson in bed around 8:30, but it has been even later it seems like lately. We have our hands full understandably. :) When we tell Emerson it is time to go "Night-night" she usually drops what she is doing gladly...says her goodbyes to the toys she was playing with..."Goodnight car... goodnight puppy" and since I am taking her up again now she says "Goodnight dada... goodnight baby (she isn't calling him Cameron yet). Then she heads up the stairs. We brush her teeth... she insists on playing with the light switches so we do... and we change for bed. She helps me get her undressed and changed... she will pick out some socks to wear. We spend some time cuddling and I tell her how special she is and how much we love her. We talk about how her day was and who she saw and what she will be doing the next day if it exciting (like when we go to see her grandparents). She now says "I love you Momma" and "I love you Dadda". We always lay her down with her pink zebra lovies and she practically crawls out of my arms to get to lay down so she can sleep. She loves her crib and has always been so happy to get in there to nap or go to bed at night.

We have really noticed her speech take off in the last 6 months. She was already saying lots of words then, but now she practically learns new words every day. We have gotten more careful with what we say since she will repeat everything. :) Here are some of her phrases:

"What's the matter baby?" (when Cameron is crying)

"What's wrong?"

"See you later" (which has been happening since 18 months and is more like a slurred CULayer at times)

"Have a Nice Day!" (also since 18 months or so)

"Where did it go?" as she raises her arms and hands out in the question (also "Where did Posh go", Where did Poshi go", etc)

"I love you Momma/Dadda"

"Excuse me!" (after she pretends to burp... not sure where she picked that one up!)

"I'm sorry"

Otherwise she will say single words, and to list those would take forever, but here are some that I can think of quickly: milk, baby,bear, mom, dad (also some of our family names like GG, CC, etc), bubbles, rain, lovey, pants, diapers, wipes, juice, apple, rice, happy, cheese, phone, cereal, car, tree, bird, elephant (her favorite word it seems), dog (where she also says "ruff ruff"), cat (and she will say "Meow" too), color, crayons, cheek, chin, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, teeth, feet, toes (all of which she will point to the body part to show you), belly button, shoes, brush, phone, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow (she is able to identify the colors... not always accurately though!), flower, open, close, help, thank you, please, gummy, spoon, fork, book, wash, sit, outside, grass, swing. She says more than this of course, but I could spend a while trying to think of everything! :)

Emerson is really used to her schedule and if you try to change things up it doesn't go well sometimes! She has gotten to where she pushes her high chair over to get you to work on her breakfast/lunch/dinner when she thinks it is time for that. She is a little bossy and will say "Sit" and point to the couch or floor to get you to sit and play with her. Sometimes our little sweetie isn't so sweet and gets mad. She will throw her drink cup when it is empty... When we tell her not to do something she sometimes will burst into tears as if it was awful. If you are holding her and she gets mad she will hit you sometimes. We are working on these things... Now it is time to start to really work on the discipline. It will be a challenge, but she will learn to not have these outbursts. :)

Adjusting to having a baby brother has gone so well for Emerson. She is gentle with him and tries to pat his head. She will pick up the bottle and hand it to you. She asks if he is ok, etc. She definitely loves and cares for him and hasn't been rough. We can't wait for her to have fun entertaining him. :)

Very soon we are going to start potty training. In a way we are not excited about this because it is a little sad to think she is getting so big, but the more logical side of me is really glad and looking forward to her being so independent. Luckily our new nanny is great with potty training too. I have already purchased a ton of training undies, but may go buy more! Wish us luck with this adventure. :)

This past weekend we celebrated Emerson's 2nd birthday. Unfortunately we cancelled the big party since baby brother was trying to get well, but we still had a great day. Some of the time Emerson's attitude was one of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to", but she still had a fun day. We had a delicious Italian lunch (Emerson had a corn dog!) and opened gifts, ate cake before her nap. After her nap she had a quick snack and a short dip in the pool before the rain came in. Then she played and for dinner we had pizza. Sounds good right? :)

Emerson had her 2 year appt today and we were so glad she didn't get a shot this time. She weighed in at 28 lbs 6 ounces (75%) and 35 1/2 inches tall (75%). We don't go again until she turns 3!!!

Here are some more recent pics!