It's been four months since my last post. I've been keeping so busy that I
haven't taken the time to update.
Updating is also daunting because Emma has been busy too. There is so much to write about that I don't even know where to start.
She's still about 21 pounds but she's getting taller. She now has to duck when I open the fridge.
She talks constantly and is now in the yelling stage. She talks so loudly that sometimes I can't wait for her take a nap.
Emma is also in the climbing phase. There isn't a horizontal surface in the house that she hasn't managed to climb up on. She even knows how to open drawers and use them as stairs to get on top of a piece of furniture. She also pushes chairs up next to tables and other surfaces in order to climb higher. She never stops. She likes to climb onto a kitchen chair and then go from there to the table top, at that point she'll crawl across the table and climb into her highchair.
Emma still naps for about 2-3 hours every day. She also sleeps from 9:30pm until about 9am. She insists on having the door closed while she sleeps. If I forget, she'll yell "Door, please!" until I come and take care of it. She comes with Dave and me when we visit our friends. Sometimes we hang out at our friends' homes until 12am. She doesn't stay up the entire time. Instead, she is VERY well-behaved and lets us put her to bed at her bed time. Because we've always done this (we take her porta-crib everywhere), she goes down easily and with very little fuss. We're very proud of her.
Emma still eats like a piggy. She has molars now, so she has more food options. Her favorite foods are:
Wasabi
Olives
Grapes
Raisins
Mandarin Oranges
Beans - any kind
Bread
Puffed Wheat
Shrimp
Broccoli
Pineapple
Popcorn
And tons more. She especially loves anything with sugar in it. She is no longer breastfed. I wasn't ready to wean her, but she doesn't wish to nurse anymore. She drinks cow's milk once every other day or so and juice only on the rarest of occasions.
Emma's favorite hobbies include drawing, going for long walks (she can easily walk a half mile on her own), and playing at the park.
Emma can draw a perfect number 2. And is currently learning that drawing on something that's not paper is a bad idea. Lately, she's been drawing on paper, but usually they're documents which are important to me.
Her favorite thing about the park is the slides which she insists on going down (no matter the height) on her belly. She loves to watch the other children, is learning to enjoy the swings, and of course, she loves to climb.
Last month, she met Patrick Rothfuss (best-selling fantasy author) for the second time and even got to be part of a cosplay group that introduced him when he made an appearance at Central Library during GenCon. She dressed as a little street urchin.
Next month, she'll be featured in an article for clickertraining.com an internationally-known resource for clicker trainers and animal behaviorists. I'm extremely excited about it.
Emma is still working on training my dogs, but is having tons of success training our black cat. If she continues to enjoy it, she'll make a phenomenal trainer one day.
Emma is also facing forward in the car now. She knows that red lights mean stop and green lights mean go. She recognizes "speed limit" signs and "stop signs" and "construction sighns". She also recognizes our street when we turn down it on our way home from somewhere.
Emma recognizes most of her alphabet and seems to favor vowels most of all. She is also learning to count out loud. I'm in the process of teaching her left and right. She seems to be getting it, but isn't correct 100% of the time yet.
She knows all of her body parts including: shoulders, knees, wrists, ankles, thighs and neck.
Next month, she'll be two years old. I can't believe she's been part of the family for that long.
