20 months

Our little ladybug is 20 months old and counting! Thought I'd just share some of the fun things she's been up to lately and anything new or goofy she's been doing.

I've started in home childcare for two babies (on different days!) this month, and Emily is loving having them around! Some mornings she wakes up and instead of saying "Mommy!" she says "Baby!" and can't wait to find out if there is one sleeping in the room next door to her. She actually cried on Saturday when I told her there was no baby coming over that day. So that's been a real blessing to have her be so open to them and helpful for me throughout the day. If the Lord blesses us with another child, I can already see that Emily will make a great big sister! She wants to take their diapers to the trash for me each time and knows that their bottles are in the fridge when they are hungry.

We've had a run of warm days up until this week, so we've gotten to the park quite a bit in March, which has been sooo nice. This spring is the first time Emily has worn sandals, and she loves them. One area of life she's trying to master right now is putting on clothes and shoes. She needs lots of help still, but she is determined to get her shirt on her head, her legs through her pants, and her socks and shoes on. MUCH better stage than the one before where she preferred everything come off!

At the park she is doing great learning how to go down the slides all by herself. I am still a nervous mama when it comes to letting her go down the big ones alone, but I am also so proud of her for taking risks in this area. She has always been super cautious about anything that takes control out of her hands (rolling over, crawling, walking, etc.), so it is fun to see her loving the slides so much. We have a stand alone one at home, and since it is usually cold outside I will bring the slide in from our back porch everyday to let her use it without bundling up.

Art is still a huge thing around here (oh how I wish I had been given some inch of artistic talent or interest!) We do lots of finger painting and drawing with crayons. We also have a mat that uses a water pen and colors show up on the mat when you draw and then disappear. She has been obsessed with having me trace her feet on the mat and then make little people out of those and turkeys out of her handprints. She'll run over to the mat and yell, "tooooooeeeeesss!!!" until I come over and trace her little feet.

She's just discovered wheat thins. First it was goldfish then it was animal crackers and now it is wheat thins. She has wanted them so much this week that she mustered up the verbal strength to cry "craaaacka" so we knew she neeeeeeded one ;-)

Although I'd still say we're on the very beginning of verbal expression, I do think she wants to use words now and is trying very hard to communicate fully with us. She answers all our yes/no questions quickly with a yeah/do or no. If she's upset and we say, "Use your words", she will calm down and try to explain what she needs.

All her teeth have cut finally!! I guess we've got about a 4 month break before we face the two year molars, but that'll be the first time since she was 8 months old that we've had a 4 month break from teething. It is so cute to see a full mouth of teeth. :-)

I really enjoy our daily walks around our beautiful wooded neighborhood.  Emily loves to explore all the pine cones, pine needles, and branches that fall from the trees. Even though I don't always love our particular townhome, I am thankful for a neighborhood with all these natural areas for her to explore. It is well worth it. I've appreciated the safe opportunities to teach her about not running into the road, the chance to explain how others have property and there are boundaries to our explorations, and the chance to see her memory at work. One house we pass by had a man on the front porch one time many months ago. She still points to that house (which looks the same as all the others on our street), and she says "man" and points to the porch. We always look for squirrels on our walks, and with the winter dragging on, we haven't seen many for months now. But we always look anyway. We happened to see a squirrel one day on one of the trees on our favorite loop, and now she looks up at that particular tree and slurps the air (she decided squirrels slurp the air when they eat nuts, I think). :-) She also knows which steep hill is our backyard as we walk along the path, and she will make a detour up that hill as soon as we get to it without me prompting that we are home. So fun to see her memory at work and to see how consistency can help lay down those foundations!

Love this little girl!! <3