18 Months

Don't worry, I will be back to my regularly scheduled holiday ranting later but for now I wanted to take a moment to breath and log what's been going on in Emma's 18 month. We are back to our old schedule and I am LOVING IT! I have more time with Emma in the afternoons now that m commute from hell is gone. She is growing and changing so rapidly that I am just trying to keep up from one day to the next. Here's a peek into Emma's 18th month so far:

Singing:
This is probably the cutest development this month. She is just starting to sing her ABCs! Thomas and I heard her singing herself to sleep the other night and we both stood in the hallway right outside her door listening and swooning. Her other favorite song? Row, row, row your boat of course! She can be in the throngs of building a massive block tower and all of a sudden out of nowhere she will look at me and yell "MOMMY! ROW ROW!" To which I am suckered into a rousing rendition of row row. For some reason she doesn't like any other line in the song other than the first one and will constantly ask for it to be repeated so my husband and I have started singing it in rounds to spice things up. She also loves twinkle twinkle little star. Apparently they must have taught her a dance to it at daycare because she starts making hand gestures and twirling around. Adorable!

Counting:
The first time I heard her count my jaw pretty much hit the floor. It hadn't been something we were working on at home so she must have picked it up at daycare. She can count up to ten! Sometimes she skips the number 5 for some reason which I'm hoping we can resolve since our currency consists of multiples of 5. The other day she started holding up her fingers while she counted and I was so amazed! She always smiles and laughs at the end, when she gets to ten like she knows how freakin awesome she is (yes my child is the awesomest ever!!! I invite you to start your own blog if you would like to rave about your child :)) - The image below is from her first outing in the snow (last year she was too little) she wasn't quite sure what to do and mommy probably had her bundled up too much.)

Testing the waters:
This month hasn't been all sweet songs and the makings for a hopefully successful mathlete career. This has also been the month where it has become crystal clear that Emma is testing her boundaries with us to see what she can get away with. I have no intention of letting my child walk all over me, however I do encourage her to be independent and explore her world. That being said, there are things that have to be done and some that are an absolute no. Getting her to comply is becoming a challenge. For example: she has taken it upon herself to feed the dogs about 10 times a day. After a careful explanation of why she cannot continuously feed the dogs, she will look at me with a sly crooked smile and continue about her business. Being a creature of mild intelligence I see what she is doing and with the best mommy authority I can muster up I remove her from the situation which leads to constant tantrums. This has been frustrating but we are slowly making progress. The other time we are having problems is when I pick her up from daycare. She refuses to put on her coat in order to leave. I have had to chase her around the room and hold her down in front of her caregivers and I am not to thrilled about looking like I can't handle the situation (however ...um I can't). My temporary solution is to pick her up and carry her down the hall to put her coat on by the exit door. I'm still not sure how to handle this or why she feels the need to practice dominance over me in front of others but perhaps I should read up on it.

Traditions:
This month has brought with it some awesome family traditions that Emma has participated in. I'm not sure if she has actually fully grasped everything that has been going on but I still love watching her learn about our fabulous American culture.

That pretty much sums it up for now. Lots of growing and some growing pains. One thing still remains the same...overall we really enjoy each others company and I defiantly look forward to what next year will bring.