29 months old

Instead of opting for a dressed-up/put-together photo this month I thought we'd go for a straight-from-the-bathtub/ready-for-bed picture in Emily's favorite outfit--jammies. Notice how crazy curly her hair is after washing (this picture really doesn't do it justice)! Emily can often be found wearing at least part of a pajama outfit when Austin comes home from work. It's not that I don't dress my child (although there have been days where we've both spent almost the entire, if not the entire, day in our pajamas). Emily just loves her pajamas. If you leave any piece of them anywhere within reach, she'll find them and change into them herself--usually at nap/quiet time. The other day she wore her "monkey jammies" top (which is button-up) backwards for the entire afternoon & evening. :o)

Speaking of nap times, after enjoying a month of returned afternoon naps, I've decided to purposely mess with them again. Emily's nap times kept creeping later and later (like not until 3:30pm or 4:00pm), which forced me to wake her up before she was ready, which made her crankier than if she hadn't napped at all. Plus then she would bang around her room until 10:00-11:00pm, and we'd have to constantly fight her to stay in bed. Instead, I've been working hard at establishing a quiet "play hour" in her room from 1:00--2:00pm where she can look at books and play with toys while I take a desperately needed nap. ;o) So far it has been working well. (See tomorrow's post for more details.)

One very important skill Emily acquired this month was the understanding/capability of blowing out through her nose into a Kleenex. You take such a small thing for granted until you have to deal with an infant or toddler with snot continually running out of their nose and you just want them to blow it out good for once! Unfortunately, the reason Emily learned it this month is because she had a runny nose for quite a bit of the time. After generously sharing a cold with me she skipped a week and then shared another bugger of a cold with Austin. I also had to compromise with the whole Kleenex battle. I have been "helping" her wipe her nose most of the time recently, but I decided there is a distinct difference between me initiating the blow/wipe because of a runny nose from a cold and her insisting on a wipe if she sheds a tear after getting upset about something.

Another skill we've just started working on is drinking out of a cup without any kind of sippy lid. I know this is long overdue, but it's just so much easier (and safer and neater) to stick a lid on everything, especially when the drink is not being consumed at the table. Emily pretty much has it down but still requires a bib when practicing to catch a few stray drips. We're also working on the difference between "poking," "stabbing" and "scooping" with a fork and the frustration the follows when using the least effective method for a particular food. There has been a bit of digression in that area lately that needs to be corrected.

In general, though, Emily is a very good eater. We are both excited to see the return of strawberry season. Emily would eat a pound of strawberries a day if I let her! One funny discovery this month has been that for however much Emily loves having an ice cream cone, she still doesn't particularly care for the actual cone itself. She's also a bit picky about the flavor of ice cream. Up until recently she had only ever really had vanilla. On St. Patrick's Day I broke out a box of mint chocolate chip. She was all excited for "green" ice cream, but took one tiny lick and declared, "I don't like this!" So Mommy got a double-dip and Emily's cone was refilled with "white" (i.e. vanilla) ice cream. A week later I gave her some S'more Please (the feature flavor of the month from Blue Bunny). She didn't seem to mind the graham-flavored ice cream too much, but she didn't like the chocolate flakes/chunks at all--even after I told her they were "M&M's", which she usually tries to pick out of cookies first. She just licked around the solid pieces and said, "Mommy'll eat it." Yes, she will! :o) I'm curious to try plain chocolate or strawberry sherbet or something without any chunks (i.e. good stuff). Or maybe she'll just be happy with plain old Fastco vanilla!

Lastly, I just noticed that Emily's 2-year molars are finally popping through on the top. There's no sign of them on the bottom yet. I don't know when they're "normally" supposed to come in, but I've been wondering when they'd show up since the rest of her teeth were pretty much in "on time."

I apologize for the shortage of videos again this month. The Winkflash pictures should be up shortly.