26 months old

Emily is 26 months old now and everything you'd expect a 2-year-old to be. We're currently working on potty-training and temper tantrums. Fun times! One of Emily's developments this month has been reciting phrases and even long passages from her Curious George and Dr. Seuss books, among others. At times she can go for pages getting 60-70% of the words correct. You have to listen carefully and already know the story line, but it's there. It has become a bit of a game to try and guess which story she is recalling whenever she gets started. We have read these stories numerous times, and she also listens to some of them on a read-along CD, so it's all rote memorization, but fascinating all the same! (End of major bragging)

On the downside Emily has begun a bad new habit of ripping pages out of her books. I've performed 4 major surgeries in the last week. I have yet to actually catch her in the act. I either find the evidence or she comes and tells me and then says, "Mommy'll fix it."

She has also become fascinated with CD's, DVD's and cassette tapes. She hauls them around and takes them apart and comes close to breaking them all the time. After spending 20 min trying to match tapes, CD's, cases and folder covers back to each other this morning I had had enough. We don't have a good place/way to move them right now, so I did the next best thing. I got out the Saran Wrap and threatened Emily with a spanking if she touched it. She got one, but I don't think she has touched it since. I still may have to get out the leftover window winterizing plastic shrink wrap. We'll see.

The December video player is posted below and the Winkflash pictures are up.