Moments

When Andrew gets home from school, he and Emily play all sorts of games in the living room. She paticularly loves the one where she runs across the room and jumps into his arms. She says “beep beep beep” as she backs all the way back to the wall walking backwards and then “ready, set, go” to run again.

Emily got a free kids meal at chick-fil-a for completing the library reading program. She got her first juice box ever and it was the highlight of the meal. She did eat some fries and chicken, but the main focus of the meal was apple juice.

We were planning on having Emily stay in the pack n play until December at least, but my ability to lift her in and out of bed is decreasing rapidly. We decided to pick up a crib mattress and wood to build a toddler bed. We’ve had the in the home for a few weeks now and the first day or two in the living room. Emily loved laying on it with us and reading books or doing any other activity she normally would in the living room. Here she is getting water from her tiny kitchen into her cup and drinking it. She does this incredibly often and it was funny to see her with Andrew drinking her pretend water laying down.

Emily sat down for breakfast, grabbing her sunglasses and phones on the way, and immediately launched into a conversation.  Usually her phone conversations involved talking about swimming at Grandma Moose’s house with Aunt Christine, Uncle Brian, and Mom.  Sometimes the conversations lasts for 30-40 minutes. This meal it went a little bit quicker since we talked about not talking on the phone at the table.

I reorganized the toy cupboard and took out half of the toys to rotate through later. This freed up a container which Emily immediately claimed for sitting in. She was very particular about having her baby and boat blanket with her. Actually her baby and boat blanket are a necessary part of every aspect of our life and no matter how dirty it gets, I can’t seem to get the blanket in the wash.

Emily loves running around with a blanket on her head.

Life with a 22 month old is really fun. I’m amazed at the ideas Emily comes up with, especially in the morning right out of bed. She ran into the bathroom one morning with her baby and put her to sleep in the bathtub for a bit. Then she came out for a diaper change on my lap and to wipe the owie off her eye.

I’ve been taking advantage of Andrew being home in between semesters and squeezing in lots of doctors appointments. When I leave Andrew always has some fun project in the works. One afternoon he and Emily took apart a clock to see how it worked and if they could fix it.

We were given a balloon at chick-fil-a and Emily fell in love.

Emily has started holding on tight to all sorts of things that she can wrap her arms around. She says “tight” while doing so and usually invites us to hold on tight too.  Here is a demonstration of holding on tight to the piano. Andrew tried to take this skill to get her to hold on tight to his leg and walk around with her, but she hasn’t quite get the hang of it yet.

Another morning stroke of creativity, Emily found Andrew’s helmet and spent a lot of time with it on her head.  The shopping cart has become a regular part of our life. During meals it is next to Emily’s chair so that her baby, boat blanket, “Hop” the bunny (the only stuffed animal that has a name other than what it is), her two tiny babies, and any other thing that is going to be part of the days events.

We watch very few movies with Emily, but we had an incredibly busy day from sun up to sun down and all needed a break. We turned on “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” for about twenty minutes and Andrew popped popcorn. Andrew also constructed this nice seat for Emily to relax in and made sure he was all tucked in, another important aspect of life right now. She makes sure everything – including her water cups – are tucked in when we read books in her room or are getting into bed.

Emily and her friend love playing together and invent all sorts of games. After dumping everything out of the toy closet, they put buckets on their heads and ran around laughing. They spent three hours each doing something new, both doing the new thing, and laughing about it.  They really are great friends.

 

We’ve been eating lots of delicious Indiana sweet corn. Andrew picked up a lot so that we could freeze it and enjoy it during the winter. Emily helped me remove the husks while saying “husks” and “shucking” with me. She was really good about throwing away the “grass” (said and signed).

 

My sister sent Emily a letter in the mail. She was really excited to have her own envelope and opened it carefully before dumping out its contents: two balloons with notes and shapes. We blew them up for her and she has loved waving them around and hitting them up high.

Emily has taken to running and spinning with her eyes closed – inside and out. She scrunches up her face and moves at light speed.

Emily spent some time trying to velcro her bib together at breakfast. She gets so focused when she is trying something new. I love watching her think.