Emma is 32 months old!

Today Emma is 32 months old!

At 2 years and 8 months, she is doing a lot of new things everyday.

She loves to wash her hands, especially since she can now get the soap out of the pump by herself and turn the water on and off.

She still says "bonstairs" for "downstairs".

She hasn't watched Sesame Street in about 3-4 months but she loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. She learned about something called a 'silly gilly gumbull' from Mickey Mouse. There is an episode where the gang has a pajama party and Goofy is scared of something called a silly gilly gumbull. Well Emma has been talking about this silly gilly gumbull for weeks and I didn't realize where she picked this up. She would say "there is a monster, a silly gilly gumbull" and she would physically shake and pretend to be scared. In the show Goofy realizes that there is nothing to be scared of and I don't think Emma is scared, but she likes to pretend.

She has a great imagination and often when we are driving in the car she will say "I see a pig! In the tree, it's green!" or some iteration of that. Sometimes the pig is on a roof, or a car, or it's pink or blue, etc. She will laugh and laugh and say it over and over again.

Sometimes she can be quite bossy and will tell us "shhh, we are in the library," if she thinks that Daddy and I are talking too loudly. Mostly I think she want us to pay attention to her, because this often happens right after Daddy has come home and we are trying to catch up and talk about our day. She will also tell us " You don't tell me things" if we are telling her something she doesn't like, such as it is time for nap, or no more TV, etc. I try to firmly but nicely tell her that she should not speak that way to Mommy or Daddy, and then I repeat whatever I am telling her. She is learning but she does like to test us and push her boundaries. But I think this is totally normal for a 2 year old! She will also tell us that we have hurt her feelings if we tell her something she doesn't like. That's a difficult issue to address too, but she has to learn right from wrong.

Emma loves to play catch and she is getting very good at throwing the ball. She used to call it "cag" but now she almost always says "want to play catch?" She still has trouble catching the ball but she still loves to play.

She also loves to play hide and seek, to the point that I am getting weary of this game! Everyday when Daddy comes home she will hide, and Daddy knows to come in and start looking for Emma. She loves to hide under a blanket, a pillow, the table, or behind the curtains. Most of the time she will jump out before Daddy can find her because she's a bit impatient! Sometimes she will even yell "Daddy I'm in here, under the table!"

Last week we visited her preschool for a few hours and she had a good time. She played with the doll house and dolls, the sensory table with rice and plastic animals, and lots of other toys. She didn't want to leave and that day asked several times to go back. Next Tuesday and Thursday she will go for 2 hrs each day, and I'll drop her off and pick her up. Then the following week she will go the full 4 hours, from 9-1 Tuesday and Thursday. I hope she will enjoy it and learn a lot.

We are still having issues with sleep. Emma does not want to go to sleep by herself, she wants one of us to lay down with her until she is asleep. We are trying to get her comfortable with falling asleep on her own but it is difficult when she cries and screams for us to come to her. She also wakes up 1-3 times per night and wants us to lay down with her.

The 'why?' questions continue and she has even asked me "Mommy, where do the why's come from?" I really didn't know how to answer that one!

Emma continues amaze us everyday with her humor, kindness and amazing intelligence! She is going to be the best big sister our little boy could want!