Emma has a lot of neat tricks up her sleeve these days. Or, I suppose you could call them skills. Here are some of them:
- She knows the sounds for dogs, cats, cows, bears, horses and sheep. Baa! Moo! Raaaaaawr.
- She can spoon her own food now! Successfully! Yogurt, applesauce, thick soups, cereal. Messy, but fun...
- She can brush her teeth! She still loathes the fact that Mama or Daddy need to help at the end, though, to be sure that all the teeth actually get contact with the brush.
- She can pretty much manage stairs by herself. I have been leaving the gate open a fair bit, since she won't go up them much on her own, unless I am going up with her. (ha, well, this list was started last week, and today she fell down three stairs, after attempting to follow me up, landing flat on her back. And I have caught her twice going up stealthily without me. Gate back up, bad mama!)
- She can go down the slide by herself at the park! And on her new backyard toy . As long as she has much encouragement to go "feet first" and on her belly (she sometimes remembers the belly part and starts to go down head first!).
- She has started drinking from a real cup, and manages it really well! She likes it so much she will drink much more than what she does from a sippy cup (which is good -- trying to keep her hydrated on more than just breastmilk these days). We are not yet ready for liquids other than water, though, as it does sometimes end up all over her and the floor.
- She is really loving her books these days, and can name quite a few of them when she sees them. Her current favorites are "Duh Duh", "Duh duh ", and "Duh Duh", "Da Doh", Clap Hands (where she just does that), and her very very favorite, "BAAAAYYYYBEEEEEE". When she sees one of these books and it is clear that we are actually going to read it to her, she gets visibly excited and jumps up and down and squeals. Makes it very hard to say no, even if its past her bedtime.
- She is repeating everything these days, and that includes letters on a few of her alphabet books and her foam bath letters. She can say about three quarters of them, after I do, when she hands them to me or points to them. Trying not to get too excited about this as a former beginning reading teacher. Ha.
- There are so many others. Dancing, running, pretend play, joking. Lots of new faces, including lots of "mad" looks. Talking in her sleep (Guess what it is, just guess. Yep, you are right. "BABY!"). Definitely a fun stage, even with the more challenging toddler stuff...
