It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with these updates so I’m trying a different tactic which is to just get anything down – hah! Here’s what I want to remember about Emilia lately…
From the mouths of babes:
“You no look my mama” said to me in the saddest voice ever, complete with pouty, sad lips and large, tear-filled eyes. I’d put on an exfoliating face mask during her nap.
“Now you clap for me!” – After putting on any performance of her repertoire of songs. Lately it has been: Bah Bah Black Sheep, Mary Had a Little Lamb, London Bridge, and I’m a Little Tea Pot.
“Can I have some toilet paper, meow meow.” – said with a michevious smile in her eyes because I absolutely KILLED myself laughing the first time she ever did this. I know it’s from Daniel Tiger, but my mind went straight to Super Troopers.
“NO! But I don’t want to change my PJS, they’re so comsee/cozy!” [comfy/cozy]
“MAMA YOU CAME BACK!!!” [Usually said while running to me with her arms outstretched.]
Pronunciation + Phrasing + Other favorite mannerisms
– Yunch. [Lunch]
– Bidge [like garbage] – the bidge” is the trash can but then there is also the “Bidge truck.”
– 1…2…3…4…8…9…10…11…12
– [Put her hand to her mouth in a little fist to clear her throat] Ahem…
– Pretty consistently will sneeze into her inner elbow
– Ahem, can I have the rug? [At dinner one night, Emilia kept interrupting during a conversation, so I explained that she needs to say: Excuse me, can I have the floor please? if she wants to politely cut in. Without missing a beat she mimed clearing her throat and said: Ahem. Can I have the rug? Brian and I nearly died laughing.]
Firsts + other things to remember
– To start to prepare E for pre-school, I signed her up for a 1/weekly, drop-off playgroup. It’s totally unstructured and purely play-based. I’m loving the weekly reports from the group organizers so far. In the second week, one told me that E had said to them: “Why are you being weird?” Shortly after, I realized this is a direct quote from the movie, Moana, [when the grandmother is dancing with the sting ray]. By the third week, I was told to another little boy in the group had a bit of a crush on her and had specifically fetched her lunch bag and insisted on sitting next to her for snack time. Oh boy.
– We’ve also joined another weekly playgroup where the parents stay, but it’s actually structured like school. It’s in a little school house and the kids begin with free play, followed by clean up, snack time, story time, and then they do a craft inspired by whatever book they’d read. The first session, Emilia yelled out excitedly: WE READ THAT AT HOME!! when the teacher started “Brown Bear, Brown Bear.” #ProudMomMoment
– Aside from that moment, it has been fascinating to see a more reserved side of Emilia. During “Shake your bean bag,” a cute song where all the kids have bean bags to shake and put on their heads or their elbows, as the song cues them, she’s one of the only kids who won’t dance. This is hysterical from the kid who started dancing outside an Applebee’s once, exclaiming, “MUSIC!! DANCE, DANCE!!”
– Sleeping 8:30-7 AM or so, with a nap from about 1 or 1:30 to 3 or sometimes even 4. She tries hard to negotiate her way to a later bedtime, asking to do “one more thing” and rarely wants the nap! She does respond well to when I say that “you’re not listening, so I’ll have to leave the room and come back when you yell: “Ready.” Amazingly, it’s usually only a few moments later that she’ll yell for me. I’m finding that toddlerhood requires a lot more “choice” on her part. I know better than to rush her or force my way — it’s less of a headache if she’s given a choice and a little bit of respect as far as her pace.
Updated: September 2017, Emilia, age 2.5
Married with Style 