Our Little Genius

Emily keeps amazing me with the things she knows how to do and say.  Take today, for example:

1.  Tonight before bed, we were watching Wheel of Fortune, and when it was time for the bonus round, Pat asked the contestant for three consonants and a vowel, and Emily responds "S", "B", "C".  I could hardly believe my ears.  I asked her if she knew those were letters, and she said "yeah!".

2.  She said her first five word sentence tonight when I tried to brush her teeth:  "No, mama, I do it".

3.  I always end our day by singing Emily a lullaby or two while she rests her head on my shoulder.  It's been this way for as long as I can remember, and we rotate through a few songs, but almost always sing "Goodnight, Emily" (for obvious reasons).  It's a song I used to listen to when I was little, and it goes like this:

"Goodnight, Emily.  Sleeptight, Emily. Jesus be your dreams.
The God above is the God of love, so little girls sleep in peace."

Tonight I hesitated before saying the last word (I had to hiccup) and Emily says to me, "peace, mama".

What a sweet (and brilliant) little girl!

22 Months Old!

Emily,

You are 22 months old now, inching your way towards the big 2nd birthday.  Reading through these posts, you're going to think I forgot to write a 21 month post, but the truth is, I did write it.  And, it was going to be great, with videos and everything.  But then your dad and I got busy.  Really busy.  We still have not edited those videos.  Argh!

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet as well.  Here are some of the cute things you do these days:

• You pat the space next to you if you want someone to sit there.


• You laugh out loud for no reason, and then call yourself silly over and over again.


• You ask me if I'm ready to go as soon as it becomes evident we're leaving the house.


• You correctly identify two Sesame Street characters: Abby and Elmo.  And, your face positively lights up when you see them.


• You give real, honest to goodness hugs now, locking your arms tightly around my neck.  Sometimes, you even ask for them!


• You sing "round and round" after I sing "the wheels on the bus go..."


• You do the motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider song (that was one of the videos too)!


• You say "please" when I ask you "how do you ask nicely?"

Here are some of the not-so-cute things you do:

• Whine.  A lot.  And then some more.


• Stick your hands down your diaper once you realize it needs to be changed.


• Want what you want when you want it, thank you very much.


• Whine.  A lot.  And then some more.

I guess the cute outweigh the not-so-cute, so that's good.  And speaking of cute, here are some pictures!

Pumpkin Carving

I know I've been terribly behind with posting recently; we've just been SO busy.  But, tonight Emily and I had a few hours to ourselves to play, so here are a couple of quick pictures of us carving a pumpkin together.  I have fond memories of carving pumpkins from my childhood (mine always had toothy grins).  I'm not crazy about Halloween as a holiday, but pumpkin carving is something I can totally get behind so enjoy these pictures of us.

Black and Gold Spur Verbal Prowess

Yesterday was a big day for our family for two reasons.  First, Eric and I got to attend the Steelers/Lions game at Ford Field.  And second, Emily began to speak in sentences.  Now, before I go on, I would like to point out that this is not the first time Emily hit a milestone coinciding with a big moment for the Steelers: she took her first several unassisted steps in a row on February 1, 2009, when the Steelers won their record setting sixth super bowl.  Maybe yesterday wasn't really much of an accomplishment for the Steelers franchise, (beating the Lions isn't exactly momentous) but we attended the game, so it, along with the aforementioned super bowl victory, was a big moment for us and our personal Steelers memories.  I think there's a connection here, don't you?

The Steelers once again played just well enough to beat their opponent.  If they don't learn to close games out, I'm going to have a heart attack.  What amazed me most though, was the sheer number of people in the stadium decked out in black and gold.  A radio announcer declared the stadium was probably 60/40 in favor of the Steelers fans, and I'd have to agree with that.  I wholeheartedly believe there were more terrible towels being waved than people cheering for the Lions.  Crazy!  Also, we had amazing seats, only eight rows back in the corner of the end zone. A couple of particularly awesome Steelers fans in front of us were wearing Ben's Miami of Ohio jersey and Troy's USC jersey (which I mention in case anyone reading this blog needs a Christmas idea for me).

Meanwhile, Grandma Evonne and Grandpa Don where kind enough to watch Emily while we hit the game.  She's been babbling quite a bit recently, and I've been wondering if she's trying to put several words together.  Once Eric swears he heard her say "I want to watch Elmo"!  But yesterday, those babbles undeniably became real, honest to goodness sentences.  Several people witnessed her ask "where is ball?" multiple times and then in the car on the ride home, she told me twice, "I want arf" (a.ka. her stuffed puppy dog).  What a big, articulate girl!  We're so proud of you Emily; keep up the good work!

Celebrating a touchdown late in the first half!

The picture doesn't do it justice - there were a TON of terrible towels waving at the end of the game!

All smiles for another victory!

21 months old!

Emily,

Okay, I'm a little late again with your post, but I think our readers (a.k.a. your grandparents and a handful of other friends and family) will forgive me when they learn that instead of pictures embedded in this entry, they are going to get videos.  I have a hunch that grandma Ruth will be particularly pleased.  At any rate, let's recap what you've been up to.  First, you are so, so stubborn.  Our eating battle continues, and as Julie remarked the other day, "you seem to be getting more picky - if that's possible - as you get older".  Honestly, breakfast is either oatmeal or cereal and a banana (or occasionally waffles as a treat), lunch is either a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or hummus, cheese, and crackers, and dinner is whichever of those two things you didn't eat for lunch.  Now, I'm not really worried because you're gaining weight, seem healthy, and I sneak veggie juice and crushed up vitamans in with your fruit juice, but still, live a little.  Try a bit of scrambled egg, or - gasp - even a piece fo pizza for goodness sake!  But, to make up for it, you are becoming so, so smart.  Here's a video of us (okay, really just me) singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song, but you do very well with the motions (and to be fair, you do better when I am doing them along with you but as I was holding the camera, that just wasn't happening this time).

You continue to learn new words at an alarming rate, and are putting small phrases together.  For example, "where dada" or "watch Elmo".  Yes, that furry little guy continues to be your very best friend, and you angle to watch one of his videos at least a dozen times a day.  However, lest grandma Evonne or our other readers become concerned, let me reassure them that you only watch 30 minutes of an Elmo video a few times per week.  You also can remember what pages in books are coming up, and this morning, when we were reading a Spot book where flaps are hiding different animals, you made the sound of each and every animal BEFORE lifting the flap.  You knew exactly what would be there, and we've only read that book maybe a dozen times.  What a smarty pants!  Oh, and speaking of pants, you are already exhibiting signs of being a teenager.  You totally have an opinion on what you want to wear, and if I try to dress you in something you don't like, you will throw a fit.  If, however, you do like my choice, you will shoot your arms up in the air, and say "there!" when it's on properly.  It's a little scary, to be honest.  You are tons of fun, and love to listen to music and dance, as this video shows!

You continue to be very social, very strong willed, exuberant, obedient, often whiny, and always so stinking cute.  You're getting better at playing by yourself, especially when I leave to go take a shower.  You used to wail if I left you alone to do that, and now you just shout "bye!" and go on playing with Noah (a little person that you actually know by name) or whatever else has caught your attention.  Lately, puzzles continue to be a favorite, and here you are showing your prowess.  The video is a little long, but again, I think the grandparents will like it and since they're a big portion of our audience, here you go!

I love you Emmy!

Mommy

Not me Monday

One of the blogs that I typically read has a weekly column tradition entitled "Not me Mondays".  This is where you can write a post about all of the things that you most certainly did not do (except of course, that you actually did do them and now can get all the guilt out of your system while having a laugh at yourself in the process).

Here are my not me moments for the past week:

I did not decide to take Emily for a walk but forget to pack some kleenex in case of a runny nose.  When her nose started to run, I definitely didn't search for something to use and end up wiping away her snot with a leaf.

When we returned from a weekend in Ann Arbor last Sunday, and Emily was dog tired, having had a fun filled weekend with less sleep than usual, I definitely did not use an Elmo video to get her to stay happy until bedtime.  I would never use videos as a babysitter for my child.

When I couldn't find my deoderant one day this week, I didn't decide to use Eric's instead and then spray some feminime body splash under my armpits as well to make me smell girly.

And finally (I think this was actually last week), I did not decide that I needed chocolate so badly one night that I delayed Emily's bedtime, and took her (in her pajamas) to the grocery store so that I could find some.

Care to join in the fun with me?  Leave a comment about what you definitely did not do in the comments!

NFL Opening Night

Here we go Steelers, Here we go!