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.

Southern California Vacation

Emma and I flew down to Burbank on Saturday, August 13th where my family picked me up and we ate dinner that night at a delicious restaurant called Islands Restaurant. From our booth by the window we could see Aramark Uniform Services (AUS) Headquarters which was funny. Pat took a picture for me to send to Bry. Emma colored more than usual and it was great.

Most of the rest of the pictures in this post were taken on Becca's camera by Becca. Some, like the ones above, are pictures from my phone.

Sunday we took it easy (thank you those who went down and grabbed breakfast from what the hotel had out) and attended 11am church, came back for kids' naptime, and then did some sight-seeing. First we stopped at the Los Angeles Temple which was beautiful and we walked the grounds. Emma got a pretty good scrape on her knee which is mostly healed now (almost 2 weeks later). She enjoyed running around the temple, though. She does love to be on her feet.

From the temple we headed to Grauman's Theater which was really cool. In front of it were lots of the hand/foot-prints from celebrities and some stars along the sidewalk. Becca and I hopped out of the vehicles to look around and take pictures. It was great. Crazy busy being Sunday evening but still great.

My attempt at getting the Hollywood sign.

Monday and Tuesday we spent at Universal Studios Hollywood. It was so much better than Universal Studios Orlando, at least from what I remember of Orlando. Harry Potter World seemed pretty much identical but the rest of the park had a lot of really cool stuff that we got to enjoy. In HPW we did the ride in the castle after which we got some butterbeer (YUM). I don't remember the order in which we did everything anymore but during the 2 days we were there we also did the Hippogriff ride, ate food from The Three Broomsticks (Tuesday) which was REALLY tasty, walked through the shops, sent ourselves postcards with a Hogsmeade stamp on it (to be delivered by owls...), and watched Aiden and Patrick perform magic! They sell "interactive" wands that allow you to do "magic" by standing at different spots in HPW and waving the wand in a designated way while saying the spell. It was pretty cool.

Emma was a fan.

Sending a postcard to my house.

Cute kids. The boys liked to entertain Emma occasionally.

In other parts of Universal we saw a Special Effects show that was interesting and cool and an Animal Actors show that was cute but sort of short. We also did the studio tour which was awesome although we didn't see a lot more than the outside of buildings. The tour did have some fun parts to it and it was somewhat thrilling knowing I was in a place where so many movie people (actors, directors, producers, and the millions of other people involved in movie-making) have been and were.

We also did the major rides (that are in the Lower Lot, 4 escalators away from HPW and other areas) like Transformers and the Mummy which were 3D-4D-whatever-type-awesomeness like the Hogwarts ride sort of.  They had a DinoPlay area that was essentially an enclosed playground area which was GREAT. Emma loved it since she'd been stuck in her stroller most of the time we were at Universal. We did some other little things in the park and overall had a ton of fun.

Tuesday we only did a partial day, finishing in the afternoon, so we could head over to the rental house in Anaheim. Bry landed late that night. My dad took me to go get him from the John Wayne/Santa Ana airport.

Cute matching girls. Swim suits on ready to test out the house's pool.

By Wednesday morning my feet were sore from the two days of walking we had done with four more days of walking ahead. My feet were probably the worst part of the trip because they just hurt the whole day. Not in a crippling way but in a persistent way. I should have brought my cushy walking shoes but I thought my tennis shoes would be good enough and my walking shoes rub a couple areas on the top of my feet but at least the soles of my feet could have been saved some pain. Oh well. That was my biggest regret of the trip - not bringing better shoes. Now I'll know better for next time whenever that might be.



Disneyland and California Adventures were still totally wonderful, though, even with my lame feet. The kids were able to enjoy a lot of different rides. Emma's favorites were probably Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Storybook Land. She pretty much liked all the ones she got to sit and ride on, though, including It's a Small World, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Alice in Wonderland, Teacups, Jungle Cruise, etc. She enjoyed most of the rides she was able to go on which was great.

Emma on Storybook Land Boat.

This may have been on It's a Small World.

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train - already in awe from the start.

Before watching the preview for Pete's Dragon.

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin - less of a fan of this one.

Alice in Wonderland - Bry showing Emma to wave to auntie. 

Dumbo she thought was okay.

I could have ridden this one a million times. Emma was probably happy with once.

Autopia

One of the highlights for me was definitely Friday night. We worked out having some of the group stay at the park late certain nights while the others took the kids back for bedtime. Friday night it was me, Bry, Becca, and Isaac staying late. After mom, dad, and Pat took the kiddos the four of us staying went on a couple rides. I had brought up dinner a couple times since Bry and I were hungry and Becca told me we'd check out restaurants by New Orleans area or thereabouts. So after a couple rides she and Isaac took off without really saying anything to us so Bry and I hurried to keep up. We stopped near the Blue Bayou and conversation went something like this:

Becca - "Wouldn't it be cool to eat here?"
Isaac - "Yeah. I heard you need to get reservations, though, 2-3 months out."
(pause)
Becca - "Good thing we did that."
Me (flabbergasted) - "What? Are you serious?"

I nearly cried - it was such a surprise! So we checked in for the reservation mom had made and not much later were led into the restaurant and seated at our table INSIDE the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It. Was. AWESOME. I was still sort of in shock for the first while we were inside but it was amazing. The food was really good and their lemonade was THE BEST. Their free birthday dessert was also SUPER delicious - a chocolate mousse shaped like a Mickey Mouse head with tiny Mickey-Mouse-head-shaped sprinkles. Mmmmmmm.

Hooray for amazing surprises. My family gets me every time - I'm such a sucker.

It was such a beautiful week and I wish I could do it again next week (now that my feet have healed).

Thank you to my family who made the trip not only possible (Bry and I wouldn't have done that trip by ourselves) but tons of fun. I'm so glad to have been able to go back to Disneyland since I hadn't been in 6 years. Loved it.