Monday, July 30, 2007

March to July 2007

Emma is now 32.5 inches tall, weighs 24 pounds, wears 18-24 months size clothes and size 4 shoe (but not for long). It is hard to believe that in just over two months, Emma is going to be two years old!!

New Vocabulary: Meme and Bumpa (her great grandparents on the Ethier side), Grams (Great Auntie Heidi), Nina (Great Auntie Meryl), Kyle and Annie (cousins), home, zoo, yes, Lulu , Sophie, tea, shoot (as in shoot a basket), night-night, toy, outside, clue, happy, shopping, girl, turkey, up, peek-a-boo, pillow, hello, bagel, binky, moose, yellow, blue, purple, pink, green, Gabe, Cora, Lauren, Gabe, Lolo (short for Lauren), Trevor, Tony, Tye-tye, Brook, Hayden, Nia, Quincy, Dora, Diego, apple sauce, morning, people, thank you (saying the words not just signing them), Papa, cup, Aerial, Nimo, chair, oat meal, bunny, eggs, tail, truck, burp, domino, koala, circle, diamond, oval, square, octagon, triangle, hexagon, pentagon, dolphin, penguin, crab, star…she has SO many new ones, I can’t think of them all, and I’m sure you get how many she is learning each day.

Sentences: She began speaking in sentences about two months ago. Her repertoire contains, but is certainly not limited to: I love you, ; Bless you, ; What’re you doing, ; I got it; Here you go; You’re so funny, ; I’m funny (LOVE this one); I see you; I see ; Come here; Here I am; Right here; You’re welcome; Excuse me; Time out, , basically, who ever was in time out that day; Good morning, ; Just a moment and just a second (gee, wonder where she learned those!); Good girl, , More water, please; I want my water; Wake up, ; I want to try it; I want some; Hey, that’s mine; Oh, man; No, sweat; Quiet, the baby is sleeping (gets this from daycare) and more each day.

New Foods: cucumber, gnocchi, pesto, tomatoes, Gold Fish and other kinds of crackers, pretzels, turkey meatloaf, zucchini, yellow squash and snap peas.

New activities and stuff: sound effects while playing, pretending to sleep and feeding her toys or brushing their teeth (when she brushes her teeth), opening doors (we have child proofed the three rooms she is not allowed into), following along with songs (both singing as only a 1 ½ year old can, and hand motions like itsy bitsy spider or “head, shoulder, knees & toes”), putting her dirty clothes in her laundry basket, beginning to help us dress her (she can pull her pants up by herself), feeding herself, helps me empty the dishwasher, putting toys and books away when asked, sitting on the potty (not doing anything when sitting there yet, but she is very interested), she LOVES painting and coloring, likes playing with dinosaurs, balloons are a new and fun toy and sleeping with blankets.

She STILL loves any and all kinds of athletic balls and her collection has grown. She now has 4 soccer balls, a basketball, a football, 2 beach balls, and 2 rubber balls. When we are driving and she sees a ball, or a round object that looks like a ball, she yells, “Ball!” Don’t even get me started on the power struggle that can sometimes take place in the store if she sees one. Luckily, she is usually strapped into her stroller or a shopping cart, so it not been too bad, yet. She is old enough now that “out of sight, out of mind” no longer applies. If she is really determined, she’ll ask for a ball the entire time we are shopping.

Emma has also begun to pretend to sleep and feed her toys. She’ll also offer her binky to her toys and other people. She’ll get one of her blankets, lay it out on the floor, say “night-night” and then lay down. Sometimes she’ll close her eyes, other times not. She’ll lay there for a little bit, sometimes as short as 10 seconds, and will either say night-night again and lay back down, or she’ll grab her blanket and off to play again.

“Outside” is a constant request and on the weekends we take her to the park each day. Emma can now go down 3 of the 6 slides by herself at the park near our house. She REALLY loves when she befriends a bigger kid and they are able to push her in the swing! We also take her in the backyard to play with the dogs. She thinks their Kong (brand of chew toy) toys are great to play with and calls them, “balls.” She also tries her hardest to get into their dog house before being pulled out and told “No, please, that is not your room.” The dogs enjoy us being outside and will follow Emma around everywhere she goes, especially our red Pitt Bull Lexi. Lexi is amazed by Emma and all that she does. Emma can take a toy directly out of Lexi’s mouth, and Lexi just looks at her holding her toy. She will also roll over onto her back when Emma bends down to pet her tummy. Sadie is also very good with Emma, but not nearly as intrigued by her as Lexi is. We are VERY thankful the girls are so good with her. Emma can say perfectly, “good girl” and “no barking.” Emma is also learning about throwing toys for the dogs, taking it back and throwing it AGAIN. At first, she got upset that Lexi took the Kong and lay down with it and didn’t bring it back. After a few throws and then calling Lexi over to retrieve the toy, Emma began to understand the game.

Jared has taught Emma how to shoot a basket through his arms. He has also taught her how to make funny faces and she LOVES it! Her most favorite face-making game is to make a really serious face, then quickly switch to a happy face and laugh. She’ll just keep doing it – back and forth laughing the whole time. The duration of the serious face gets shorter and shorter as the game progresses for she gets such a kick of it, she can’t keep from laughing for very long.

We put Emma into a new daycare beginning April 16th. It is much closer to home and is structured like a preschool. She loves it there and has more friends her own age. Because of their curriculum in preparing them for school, she’ll be able to stay there until she begins kindergarten. She has Spanish lessons three days a week, art projects twice a week and lesson time everyday to learn counting, colors, money, objects, phonics, etc. She can count to 15 and is doing great with her ABC’s. She can also almost spell her name. She gets a little hung up on the “m’s” in her name, so there are more ‘M’s” and not so much of an “A” at the end. We LOVE IT! We are very thankful we found this daycare and really like the owners, who happen to be married. They are wonderful and caring people who provide excellent care for Emma as well as challenge her each day.

Emma is also really into temperature right now. She giggles silly if you put a cold item on her feet. She’ll laugh and then say, “Do it again.” When she helps me pull clothes out of he dryer, she repeats several times how hot the door is and is very careful not to touch it. Item ownership is also very important right now (duh). She isn’t really possessive of her things, or of us, but likes to confirm what belongs to whom. She will tell you a toy is hers, or if not hers, who the item belongs to. Each child at her daycare has their own cubby, and she knows exactly which cubby is whose. She is very conscience of that and will point out if it is Nia or Tony’s cubby (her two closest friends).

We began Parent and Tot “swim” lessons last week. Emma likes the water so much we thought it would be a good time to start. She is doing well and enjoys going. She is really great about being on her tummy, but not so sure about being on her back. Emma really likes all the water games we play, especially if she gets tossed up in the air or spun around in the water.

*****Update on Jared and Reneé******
Some of you already know, but Jared and I will not be moving to Sonora after all. We tried as best we could to find a solution as to what to do with our house (sell or rent), but neither option left us in a financial situation that we were comfortable with. So, after 8 months of being apart, Jared’s last day in Sonora was July 3rd (exactly 8 months). He returned to work here in Sacramento to CEI, which was where he was employed prior to taking a job in Sonora. We are OF COURSE happy to be a cohesive family again and Emma is SO VERY HAPPY to have her Daddy back full-time. We are disappointed that things did not work out, but we are certainly not giving up. We will continue to keep a close eye on the market and see what happens in the future.

Take care.

R’

posted by JRE at 7/30/2007 04:50:00 PM