Delinquent Mama!

What the heck was I thinking, letting so much time get by without updating Emma's blog? Particularly since every single day seems to bring something new.

As I've mentioned many times, Emma doesn't use English very much when she speaks. Instead, she uses lots of hand gestures, and when those fail, she grabs ahold of my pant leg and takes me where she wants me to go, where she proceeds to point and shout, "BA!" until her meaning is clear. So you can imagine my surprise when, the other day, she pulled me to the kitchen, stood by the counter, and shouted, "Pah-puh!" while pointing upward. She had (intentionally) spilled her milk (see my last blog entry for this charming new skill) and wanted a paper towel to clean up the mess! She was saying paper! Well, she got her paper, by gosh, and also got applause, hugs, and lots of kisses, too. Then, as she toddled away, I cried. My baby said paper!

Now, she's started saying Eeyore, and Treelo (the lemur in "Bear in the Big Blue House"). They sound like "hay-ho," but it's clear what she means. She also occasionally says "tah-too" for "thank you," though usually she just says, "Yeah!" as in:

Me: "Emma, can you say thank you?"
Emma: "Yeah!"

Anyhoo...yesterday, we went to a fantastic park close by. Let me preface this by saying that the Columbus area has some really great parks, one of which is Inniswood, which I've mentioned several times. The one we went to yesterday is called Slate Run, and there's a living history museum there, a working farm from circa 1880, with people in period dress and farm animals all over the place. They were doing a demonstration on tapping maples for their sap, then boiling it down for syrup and maple sugar. Emma could have spent the entire time chasing chickens...she loved it! She helped Mama curry-comb an ox, talked to a horse, and tasted maple sugar candy and maple gingerbread. This farm has activities year-round; in the spring they have a program for preschoolers where they get to meet the baby lambs. We'll definitely go back for that. In the meantime, I'll be whipping up a batch of that maple gingerbread for her...it was delicious!

Emma's chickens at Slate Run...she could have chased them all day! 

Combing Zip the Ox at Slate Run Historic Farm 

The Incredible Emma, part 2

Emma has so many new skills! All of a sudden, she's busy learning and doing all kinds of new things. It's a total blast for me, and she seems to be enjoying all of her new activities, too. Where to begin???

• Emma loves to clean up after herself. She will intentionally shake milk out of her sippy cup, then go into the kitchen to get a towel and clean up her mess. She does this over and over again, and has a blast!
• She can feed herself with a fork and a spoon. She can even stick peas with her fork! That's tough for some adults (including me, occasionally), but she is super-patient and works at it until she does it. Of course, then she applauds for herself and her food usually falls off the fork, but we won't count that! :)
• She loves to run back and forth through the house. She'll run through the entryway and into the family room, stop to pant dramatically, then turn around and run back. It's maybe 20 feet or so each way, and she does this over and over again.
• She has definite ideas on what she wants to wear. Today, after I went to school, Grammy was getting her dressed. She got out an adorable outfit with tigers on it that Ginni Dreier got for Emma at the Santa Barbara Zoo, but Emma said, "No!" and pushed it away. Instead, Emma wanted to wear the star pajamas that Grammy made for her. She didn't care that she had to pull them out of the dirty clothes, she wanted her "staaaahhhhh" (as Emma says it) jammies. Finally, she compromised and put on her sweatshirt with a star on it. It had to be a star, though!
• She knows how to throw things away, and will go to the kitchen, open the cupboard, pull out the trash can, throw away her trash, push the trash can back in, and close the cupboard. In fact, closing cupboards has become her goal in life. She goes around the house making sure all doors and cupboards that are supposed to be closed are, in fact, shut tight.
• She also can point out most of the letters in the alphabet when asked to do so. She doesn't say all her letters, and many of them sound the same, but ask her just about any letter and she'll point to it.

See?! I'm totally floored over just how many new things my little girl can suddenly do. Like I said, she's incredible!!

Parenting her, by the way, is an absolute joy. She's got a great temperament, and has a fun sense of humor. She loves to laugh and make jokes, and when someone else gets a laugh, she'll try and repeat whatever that person said so she can make people laugh, too. She is extremely affectionate, and loves to give hugs and kisses. And, lately, she's started rubbing backs and arms when she hugs, imitating how she gets her back rubbed while being held. It's extraordinary how children imitate, and though we often say things about how we have to watch what we say for fear of them shouting out a profanity or something similarly inappropriate, there are also these really sweet imitations that they do, like the backrubbing that Emma has started doing.

Being her mama is just about the coolest thing ever!!!!

Emma tidbits

Emma doesn't like to try unfamiliar foods. She likes lots of food, particularly green veggies, but getting her to try something new is very difficult. Tonight, we had waldorf salad with dinner, and Emma didn't want to eat any. Waldorf salad has chopped apples in it, though, and she loves apples, so I knew she's like the salad. I chopped the apples into small bits and put them on her high chair tray, and there they sat, while she ate green beans and peas (from her mixed veggies; she ignored the corn and carrots), and her snapper (which had salsa on it, someting she loves and is familiar with). Finally, I did what always works: I held her head still and held the apples up to her mouth. She fought. She stuck her tongue out. She didn't cry or get mad; I've done this enough times to a) not do it with something she won't like, and b) stop before she gets upset. Well, when she stuck her tongue out she got a taste of the apple. She stopped turning her head, she opened her mouth, she chewed the apple, with her eyes getting wider and wider with each chew. Then, smiling, she said, "Mmmmmmmm!" and gobbled up every bite of apple on her tray, only stopping to say, "More! More!" when the apples were all gone!

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and Emma was entranced from the time the t.v. was turned on. She froze and listened attentively while Alicia Keys sang "America, the Beautiful," clapped when the players came on the field, and then insisted that "kis" (Emma-ese for kids) were playing football. She would have been happy to stay up tonight and watch the "kis" play, rather than go to sleep!

Also today (Emma had a busy day!), she was watching the Wiggles on t.v., and like always, she wanted to dance to the music. This time, though, she stood in front of the t.v. and, while they were singing that song that says, "Go, Captain Feathersword, ahoy!" she tried to do the same routine as the people on the television! Dancing isn't new, but that kind of imitation is. I realized, once again, my little girl is getting so big!

Having fun in the snow at Inniswood 

Playing with Aidhan at COSI 

Going for a drag... 

Emma and her first snowman 

At the Columbus Zoo with all the kids. It was super cold, but great fun! 

Playing with Bratz dolls with Cousin Sydney 

Emma loves the baby doll her Auntie Corinne, Uncle Paul and Cousins Tiffany and Talia sent her for Christmas! 

Time to update pics of Emma's adventures! Here's Emma, playing in the snow with her cousin, McKenna

Nuh!

"Nuh" is how Emma says the letter U. She recognizes "nuh" in all kinds of things, and I think it's so great! Today we were at the zoo with Christa and Allison, and Emma bit into a pretzel Christa had given her, and immediately announced that she had found nuh. She had bitten into the round part of the pretzel, and darned if what was left on that part wasn't U-shaped! The other night, she looked onto her high-chair tray and told us that nuh was in her spaghetti; sure enough, a noodle was bent and looked like a U.

I'm absolutely thrilled about this, and she seems so proud of herself when it happens. Certainly, reading can't be too far behind! :) I can't take credit, though. Emma got a great toy for Christmas, a magnetic letter set from Leap Frog. You pick a letter, put it into the set's base, and it tells you what the letter is by using a song: "U! U says you, and U says uh, every letter makes a sound, U says you...and uh!" Emma loves this thing, and she now knows five letters that she can name off easily (A, E, O, U, and Q), she's just starting to do the same with a 6th (M), and I'd put money on her knowing more letters that she just hasn't gotten the hang of saying. Thank you, Leap Frog!