Looking Back... Emma is 20 Months Old!

As always these days, my monthly recaps are getting shorter & shorter, and more & more point-form, as I try to gather together everything that happened in the month and rush to get it all out. And while I do this for you, my three faithful readers, I mostly do it for Emma to read when she's older. Oh, and of course for the new guy to read one day so they can compare who was smarter when. Then they can talk about me, and how super-gay I am.

Where to begin? Emma has added many new words to her ever expanding vocabulary. And yes, there are far more than this, but here are some standouts.. (Kindly note there are no shits, damns, or fucks in the lot. At least not yet. AGH!!):

Zadie - Lady (too funny - funnier still if you know my father, and how NOT a lady he is!)
Auntie - Annie
Lori - says it perfectly
Bubbie - Bubbie (she mastered it!)
Nacoma - Noma (like the pot-lights)
Soap - Dope (kindly refrain from any comments)
Ready - can't quite figure out her phonics version of this yet, but you know she's ready when she says it
Airplane - "are-pane"
Shoes - Whose
Reach - Reeee
Shampoo - Ha-Pooh
Glasses - La
Mango - Min-Go
Please - Peas
Yes Please - Ahh Peas
Excuse Me - Suse Me
Thank You - Na-New

And now here are all my point form tidbits of the little happenings this month that I just thought were oh-so priceless that I couldn't help but share 'em with you.. Likely you'll read this and think, "yeah, whatever... she's so gay" And to that, well, you don't want to know what I'd say. (But there probably would be some shits, damns, and fucks in the lot.) Here goes...

This was really cute - and no doubt Lori loved this - we were watching MuchMusic and one of J Lo's videos came on. Emma, a kid who's all about the music & dancing & whatnot, looked at the TV, checked out La Lopez, and declared "ANNIE"!!!

My daughter is a girl. And yes, I've looked between her legs and that fact was indeed confirmed some 20 months ago, but now it's actually official. She's really a girl. The kid loves loves loves hats and purses, dresses and sunglasses (she wears hers on top of her head, just like mommy). And in her purse she even carries purse-appropriate things - a wallet, a few 'credit' cards, a snack or two, a plastic giraffe. Y'know, the usual. The other day in music class she insisted on holding her purse the ENTIRE time - even while running under the parachute.

And, just like a lady, see loves loves LOVES lotion ("o-lin" or "ocean")! Be it sunscreen, facial moisturizer, cocoa butter for her tummy (if you don't want nasty stretch marks, you better start early), or even the zinc I use to rub on her ass - she's all about the lotion. Must get in there and join in the wiping fun - usually it ends up in her hair...

She is absolutely and totally fascinated by boo-boos, especially her own, and more especially since the whole broken foot incident that we try not to talk about anymore. (She still gets all wigged out when I show her the cast... I really should stop doing that.) But even zits, moles, and those nasty skin tags I have on my neck are all classified as boo-boos in Emma's books. And, just like a 15-year-old examining her boyfriends' back for zits, Emma examines my legs for anything that that could be called a blemish. Nice to always have someone around to point out your flaws. Makes me feel really special.

As I've mentioned my daughter loves TV. But she's fussy - her two all-time favourites are Dora the Explorer and Barney. Elmo is a distant third. But even more than that, she LOVES DVDs. Every day, at some point or another - usually when I get in the shower - she cries out to watch a "DD". And she goes to great lengths to choose just which DD she wants to see. Granted, it's not really so tough - in her little box she's got a whack of Baby Einstein's, two Dora's, one Barney, and a few music CD's. So really, the choice is limited to just three discs. And without fail, every morning she begs & pleads... and so I don't smell like the day before, I generally give in. And that's likely why my child will probably suffer from ADD at some point in her childhood years - BLAME ME NOW PEOPLE, BLAME ME NOW.

But what she can do, what I'm so impressed with, is how well she can follow along when other's leave. Huh? What am I trying to say? Well, when Barney is doing a dance on TV (yes, on the demon TV), Emma follows along PERFECTLY. When Brent ("Bent"), her music teacher (slash former chartered accountant), dances in class and does all the hand movements for Insey-Weensey Spider ("e-nee"), she gets it EVERY SINGLE TIME? Ditto The Wheels on the Bus ("weel") and I'm a Little Teapot.

Have I mentioned that she's also totally into jumping? She'd "jum" all day long if she could. This was great fun till she found out that jumping on the stairs can be even more fun. Especially the part when you get to watch your mother turn green cuz she thinks you're about to kill yourself.

Oh - and she now goes down the stairs on her bum. Going down on her tummy is for babies. Duh.

I don't know if you know this or not, but Emma is crazily attached to her blanket. We affectionately call it "Blanket". She calls it something like "bla-eee". She also still uses her soother ("sue"), but pretty much only at night, or when she's freaking out like a crazy person and I can't take it anymore so I just shove it in her mouth to get her quiet already. And I've gotta tell you, sometimes I thank God for the soother. And please people, I really don't want to hear that she's too old for it. Not right now! Bug me later. Anyhow, there was a point to this tidbit... Emma is very protective of her blanket, and won't allow just anyone to hold it, and is just cautious about where she leaves it. The one smart thing we have done is not allowed her to take it outside the house, when we leave, it stays behind. This was pretty easy - had a little "goodbye blanket" ritual and was pretty cut & dry. Left it in her room, usually in her crib, gave it a kiss, bade it farewell, and off we went. Emma has decided to take this one step further - she now desigates a BABYSITTER for Blanket. Yes, Blanket has a babysitter. It used to always be Lion; he'd be sitting on her rocking chair, minding his own business, and Emma would come up, put Blanket on his lap and wish them both a fond farewell. Lately it seems that Lion is looking like he's not entirely up to the job, and Emma has taken his privilege away - now Lamb or Monkey or Elmo, depending on who looks the most alert, is awarded the honour of looking after Blanket for the afternoon... Leave it to my kid to always go with her gut.

Her two favourite activities this summer are - and don't mind me, but these don't require much expansion so I'm just not going to bother:
-pail & shovel ("yovel") for digging, be it in the sand or dirt
-throwing & kicking balls - soccer, rubber, bouncy - pretty much any ball will do
-sidewalk chalk. Nuff said. It's just fun.

I wish I could report that this month was THE month, y'know, THE month when Emma FINALLY figured out what is blue versus what is orange. And no, no such luck. Great hope the other night in the bath, mind you. She has these four little cups - and when I asked her which was blue, she pointed to the blue one. Green? Yup, got the green one too! HORRAY!! Red? No problemo!! And then I decided to recap. Clearly pushed my luck.
"Emma, show mommy the blue cup!"
And of course, she points to the red cup.
"Emma, show mommy the blue cup!"
And she points to the orange cup.
"Emma, show mommy the blue cup!"
And she hands me the green cup.
Not wanting to chance her throwing the blue cup at me, I ended the game there and moved on to counting.

And on the subject of counting... We practise all the time. And it usually ends up going a little something like this:
A: Emma, what comes after 8?
E: Nine!
A: Emma, what comes before 10?
E: Nine!
A: Emma, what comes after 3?
E: Nine!

We're still working on it.

Same goes for the alphabet. All letters are "E".

On the brighter side, the side that says I'm not a complete & total failure as a mother/teacher, she does know her shapes - she can point out a heart, square, triangle, moon, sun, star, and circle. And fair enough, sometimes circle gets confused with moon and/or sun. The kid is only human after all.

Clearly a wise decision that I didn't get into teaching. And perhaps that's why pre-schools are so damn expensive.

She can also hold a conversation...
During a diaper change, for instance, it goes a little something like this:
E: Done?
A: Not quite...
E: Almost?

And at meal time:
A: Emma, would you like an egg?
E: No.
A: Pizza?
E: No.
A: Sandwich?
E: No.
A: Hot Dog?
E: Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Dog!

She understands the word "Ready" - and uses it frequently. Like yesterday, I was making her standard pasta with cheese (with hidden chicken & corn), when she looked up at me as it was boiling on the stove, and declared she was "READY" to eat. While she gets the word 'ready', she doesn't quite understand that it actually takes some time to get things ready... like toast. There's the bread, what's the problem, gimme the damn toast, woman.

Have I mentioned Emma loves loves loves showering with her Daddy? No? Probably cuz he'd be horrified if he knew I was telling you this... and I normally wouldn't, but again this is too cute to pass up.. Now that she knows & understands 'ready', she uses it in many situations. The latest being the shower... As soon as she sees Jeff is about to go in, she jumps up, stands at the door, reaches her arms up high toward the sky, and belts out "READY!!", then tries to take off her shirt & pants! That's my girl... never one to miss an opportunity.

Next month Emma will be a big sister. Should be interesting to see how she copes with that. More interesting will be to see how I cope with it!

This blog entry has been brought to you by the number 9 and the letter E.