Emma's last free flights

Emma and I flew down to California on Friday the 9th - two days after she turned 23-months-old. We had a great visit with family. Thanks to Becca and Isaac for letting us stay in their house again. :) Emma had a BLAST playing with her cousins and I certainly enjoyed [most of the time] her being distracted with them and their toys. I'm glad for the time I could spend with my mom and dad and Pat and Becca and her family.

On Wednesday my mom drove Emma and I to Fairfield to visit the Jelly Belly Factory which was really fun (even for a non-jelly-bean-eater such as myself). We met my friends, the Carlsons, who we met up in Washington but whom moved back down to Sacramento-area where their families are. Their son, Skyler, was Emma's best friend for the year we got to know them and she still talks about him often (as in says certain things are his - like the car seat and chair we have that he used a few times).

SO MANY Jelly Beans 

Emma was somewhat enthralled.

Their Santa was AWESOME - so nice.

Jelly Belly bacon guacamole burger. Yum.
(There were no beans in it.)

 Jelly Belly art

She was so worn out after our excursion she actually slept in the car.

Within a day of coming back I was missing the weather down there since the cold has certainly blown in here in Washington (temperatures in the 30s). While I was in California I could walk outside with just a sweater or light jacket depending on the day and time of day. It was nice.

As an aside, the Southwest crew let Emma help fly the plane. ;) Or, you know, sit in a pilot's seat after we landed. So cute.

I'm grateful for the valuable time and conversation I could have with family, for the delicious food, and for the blessing of good family relationships. Although it would have been nice to stay there through Christmas, Emma and I were happy to return home to Bry so we can spend the holidays together as a family.

Emma's 22 months old

She continues to say a lot and connects so many things I can't even list it all. This is such an awesome stage in her life. I love how considerate she is since she watches us so closely and takes everything in. She shares her food with us and asks us to sit down with her sometimes and is OBSESSED with having us color WITH her (or color while she watches until she decides we done and snatches away the pencil/crayon - we're working on her not snatching). She struggles to consistently identify colors although she is generally good at picking out yellow and brown; sometimes she gets green or pink. She can repeat the numbers 1 through 10 and sometimes finishes 8-9-10 without help although it has turned into "eight - TEN!" And lately she hasn't been in the mood to practice counting and says "all done" when I try. Ha. Not a lot lasts with toddler entertainment/distraction.

I love that Emma is entertained by exchanging funny faces and how hard she'll laugh. Her laugh is still one of my favorite sounds in the universe.

On Monday (when she turned 22 months) we had some corn with dinner and she really wanted to try some so I shared with her. We have tried sharing corn with her before but she didn't really go for it. This time she was definitely a fan and did a great job of eating it.  Below is her eating mine that I ate most of and of which let her finish a few rows. I also gave her a portion of another cob without the pokey handles so she could hold it and eat it how she wanted.

She gives us more hugs and kisses than she used to but I think she prefers to hug and kiss her furry buddies like Winnie the Pooh and her huge puppy (that was given to me a few years ago).

Emma is full of joy much of the time, although she balances it out with a large dose of frustration/sadness when things don't go the way she wants. She is so forgiving and loving and sweet and I don't want her to grow up. Generally she is eager to help and accomplish a task that we ask of her. Sometimes she ignores us but usually she listens well.

Photo dump from today

These are her "fly"ing arms.

Hug. :)

 The result of Emma-led poses - sitting on the stairs. She enjoys inviting us to join her.

CURLS!

She has fun.

Her curls were great today.

This is her hugging a penguin, 

This is her kissing a penguin.

She likes to hug and kiss her toys more than she likes to hug and kiss us but that's okay.

Time keeps moving

I missed posting about Emma's month-iversary this October. She's 21.5 months now and has been learning so much. The last 2-3 months Emma has had a huge boom in her learning. She surprises me almost every day with the things she picks up on. With the increased understanding and attentiveness she has also increased in throwing fits and getting upset if we say something she doesn't want to hear. She is now well into the "no" phase although she doesn't say it constantly. She is still often cooperative but definitely more opinionated.

Her growth has definitely slowed down a lot, as is the norm. Emma is mostly into 2T/24M clothes at this point and wears few 18M items. She is in toddler size 5.5 shoes although will likely be in size 6 before Christmas.

Mostly she's a joy and I'm grateful she's my little buddy.

The many words of Emma

I have been mentioning how her vocabulary is expanding a ton but I can't think of many of her words when I sit down to type about it. So I have been working on logging away many of them and compiling a list for fun that you hopefully don't find terribly boring. She often tries to copy words she hears so this list doesn't have everything but it has most of the words she's comfortable with.

• Mom/Mommy, Daddy
• Ah-ma, Papa, Auntie (all FB/Skype buddies - we're happy to Skype other friends and family when you're free!)
• cousins: Charlotte (never says it quite right but tries - it usually comes out different every time), Valerie (sounds like"wow-wuh-eee"), Diana ("nanana") 
• friend: Skyler (said incorrectly but close-ish)
• I have tried to teach her other names but I can't think of which ones she has tried saying.
• Hi, Hello ("heh-doe"), Bye
• Please (said "pease" and signed)
• Milk (said like "milt"), Water (said "wah-ye")
• Nap, Nigh-night, Bed, Binky ("bee-tee")
• One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten (she usually skips my prompting to say "one" and goes to "two" and then copies me saying each one after that)
• No/No-no-no said with arms waving
• Up, Down (she doesn't say "down" very often but is using it sometimes)
• Go (usually said "doh"), Store, Home
• Hat, Shirt, Socks, Shoes
• Head, Ears, Eyes, Nose (barely says it), Arm, Elbow (new - says and identifies as she can identify most things in this list), Knee(s), Feet, Piggies (which she also knows as Toes but she calls them something that sounds like "babies" instead of "piggies")
• Door, Seat (sometimes "Mommy's seat" or "Daddy's seat")
• Book, Flower
• Puppy, Sheep, Cat, Dog, Cow (said with a "t" or "d" instead of "c" usually, same goes for Cat), Frog, Fish
• Nummy, Apple, Applesauce, Watermelon ("na-mu-nenen"), Strawberries ("stah-breEs"), Broccoli (said almost right), Fries, Meat, Burger, Cheese
• Letters (listed starting with most frequently used): Y, T, D, P, C, E, B, O (sometimes she can say other ones but these are the ones she might say spontaneously when looking at a book or sign)
• Yellow ("ye-whoa")
• Here You Go ("'ere-you-doh")
• Ones I forgot: Buckles, Bubbles, Ball, Poop, Fox (said more like "fot"), Yay, Yes, Yeah, Wipes (sounds like "fipes" or "wice"), Rice, Ow, Uh-oh, Bottle, Bee, Emma

I sure do love hearing her cute voice.

20-month-old Emma

Emma is great. She continues to be very social, she enjoys going out and about (but dislikes getting back in the car to come home), she is doing well in nursery at church, and she is often peaceable at home.

The past several weeks her vocabulary has been increasing a LOT and she seems to pick up at least one new word each day. Yesterday she surprised me when she handed me a toy and said "eer-you-doe" which sounded super cute and very close to "here you go." Today she managed to say "go" instead of "doe." She is getting better at identifying parts of her face by name (adding chin and cheek to what she has known pretty well already: hair, head, eye, nose and ear). If Bry or I kneel down and hold out our arms asking for a hug she will more often conceed to give us one. Emma still runs away from kisses and isn't much for snuggling ever but she usually likes to play close by and talk with me.

She's such a cutie although that isn't new. Haha.

She understands more and more of what we say which is really cool. There is still the frustration of her understanding us but us not understanding her. She has picked up the habit of waving her arms and saying "no, no, no, no" when she doesn't want something (although she fairly often changes her mind and decides she does want it - things like food or water).

Emma LOVES to find the letter "Y" of her own accord and will often point at it if she sees one and repeat "Y, Y, Y, Y" until you acknowledge that she's right. She likes letters in general but has a particular obsession with "Y" - hopefully she goes to BYU someday. ;)

Pictures to come later (hopefully in a few days). It has been a busy week.

Emma meeting Winnie the Pooh

First she met Tigger who she isn't familiar with.
"What is going on here?"

"Why is my cousin hugging him?"

"He's looking at me!"

"Charlotte's voluntarily touching him. She does not know the danger."

"Keep me away, mom."

"Ummm...okay. I just won't look at him."

"Not looking."

Not shown in these pictures is how she pointed and was interested in seeing him when we were at least a few feet away. 

Most photos from the CA trip

Some of the pictures are out of order because some come from my phone and some from Becca.

Snoozing in the stroller.
She got wiped out every day, though sadly her naps didn't usually last long enough.

Star Wars shirt day. 

Ama was tickling her.

Love these cute girls. This was at our hotel in Burbank.

We drove past this on our way to Universal Studios from the hotel.

I LOVE THE FLASH.

Love this smile. 

This ride was super cool to watch - the cars sychronize in a dance.

Emma loved whatever this was in Toon Town.

Emma could have sat in this car ALL DAY. She was furious when we pulled her out.

Walking through Mickey Mouse's house.

Outside the Tiki Room.

I couldn't pick between pictures so there's two.

I was hoping the whole time Minnie Mouse stroked Emma's head that she WOULDN'T WAKE UP.
Thankfully she was totally out and stayed asleep during and after pictures.

My sister hugging me with a secret - that we'd eat at Blue Bayou.

Love California Screamin'. :) 

My awesome birthday pin.

My birthday pin was great. So many of the employees wished me a "Happy Birthday" along with other random people.
Emma got an "Honorary Citizen" pin from going through a challenge course thing.

Me in my dorky hat from Rainforest Cafe.

In front of the LEGO store. SO cool.

Long Beach Airport is wonderfully small and partially outside.
It was beautiful.

Emma was lucky enough to get her own seat since our plane wasn't full! Win.