Corn and Babies

As usual, it's been a long while since I last sat down to give an Emma update. She's doing well. Several weeks ago, I took her to her 18-month doctor's appointment. She weighed 18.4 pounds. She was very well behaved though she kept trying to take the doctor's stethoscope.

Emma is now 19.5 months old and her latest fetish is her baby doll. She doesn't go anywhere without it. Sometimes it's hard to get her to put it down for a nap so I can bathe her. We usually have to tuck the baby into my bed and set a book beside it before Emma will leave it unattended. She also feeds it, gives it water, and prays with it. The baby can sit and clap its hands. Emma likes to shove it in random people's faces and demand that you "Kish!" it. She doesn't seem to need it for security at all. She really just likes imitating those things that Mommy does for her each day. I am glad that Emma hasn't thought to demand a diaper for it. I don't have any that fit and I'd have to tear the house apart looking for something that will suffice.

Emma's vocabulary is continuing to grow. She still has a hard time pronouncing many words, but most of them are understandable. She is still spot-on with the number of syllables in any given word, even if she doesn't pronounce the word correctly. She is starting to use two and three word sentences as well as string thoughts together. Emma woke up one morning after Daddy had gone to work. She searched the house for him and came back to me. She showed me her empty hands and said, "Daddy all gone!" She can also say things like:

See, Socks!

Hair Band

Dog, Link (Shade, Phyzzy, Lucy, Winnie...whatever dog she's with)!

Brussels Sprout!

Socks and Shoes!

Look, Moon!

A bird!

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

Kitty, MEOW.

Link Come!

Purse, Keys, Bye-bye!

One, Two, Three

Three, Two, One

Elephant!

She's also learned the names of our friends: Muk! (Mark), Anana (Alena), Gon (Jon).

Animal noises: Meow, Quack-quack, MOOOOO!, Woof. She grunts when she sees a pig.

Emma still really likes to sing. She seems to enjoy music by Celine Dion, Whitney Huston, pretty much any woman with a huge voice. I personally don't like that kind of music at all, so we watch a lot of youtube together.



Emma still eats well. She eats more food at each sitting than I do and takes much longer doing it. I've taken to bringing a book to the table to read while Emma enjoys a full hour of munching and crunching. The only thing difficult about her eating habits is that they're unpredictable. For the past month, Emma has been crazy for grapes. Earlier this week, I bought some more for her and now she refuses to really eat them. One day she'll be in love with chicken and the next, she won't really wish to eat it. If she ever liked a certain food at all, she'll choose to eat it again after a few days but sometimes food isn't fit for consumption after that amount of time.

Creativity - Emma is extremely creative and loves to experiment. She loves to tear her food into bite-sized piece and put them in her cup of water. Dave and I are both annoyed by this, but we also strongly believe that since she really isn't hurting anything, we should let her be. She usually doesn't waste the soggy food. She continues to eat it. Sometimes I want to tell her, "No, Emma. THIS is how we use the fork." I have to remind myself that she is learning and should be allowed to do so. I see a lot of other parents constantly telling their kids "no" to everything, harmless and not.

I also want to cut the "no" word from my vocabulary as much as possible. If Emma is holding her fork incorrectly, I can instead say something like, "Hey Emma, great job with the fork, now...can you hold it like THIS!" If she holds it correctly, she gets praised and loved on. Instead of telling her what she's doing wrong, I wish to tell her what she CAN do right.