How could I not want 10 kids just like her! This little person is truly the best thing that’s ever happened to me!

I want to give credit where credit is due — toddlers are incredibly bright! It’s outstanding that Emerson seems to understand most everything I say even without being very articulate herself. At 21 months she constantly learns news things and continually surprises mom and dad with new interests, expressions, words and emotions. Here’s a little break down of what she’s been up to…

At the table

Her favorite foods are still cheese, blueberries, yogurt and pasta but she’s been a lot more willing to try new things lately like asparagus, shrimp and nuts. She likes to impress us with skilled utensil dexterity and has wonderful manners when it comes to saying ‘please,’ ‘thank-you’ and ‘more.’ Several months ago we switched her to almond milk which has been going very well (this was around the same time she began sleeping through the night regularly and the rash around her mouth cleared up… could be thanks to the almond milk or complete coincidence but I’m happy either way!).

Vocabulary

My list may be missing a few words but here’s what we hear out of her mouth most often: hi, hello, bye, thank-you, more, please, cheese, baby, puppy, Bela, mama, papa, daddy, kitty, meow, woof, duck, quack, up, paci, night-night, stick, wow, boots, milk… She also recognizes the tunes to a few different songs and tries to mimic the melody of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Sleep

We finally made it to all-star bedtime routine status! By 8pm she knows it’s time for bed and after a story and a few songs she’s ready to tell us, ‘Night-Night’ and lay down in her crib. We went through quite the process to get to this point but all of those nights of sleeping on her bedroom floor paid off!

Daycare

Emerson has been going 5 days a week since mid-February. She was recently bumped up into the ‘Big Dippers’ room for 18-24 month aged kids and had no problem with the paci-free transition from cribs to cots for her daily nap. There are currently 6 children in her class and she seems to really enjoy being there every day.

Activity

While she still has a great appreciation for sticks, E recently discovered the world of rocks. I think we have a collector on our hands (just like mom) because she likes to hang on to everything she finds outside, especially small items in large quantities that can be sorted, moved from one container to another, organized and counted. What a better subject than rocks? She targets the tiny pebbles in our window wells and loves to show me each individual specimen. She could easily become an archaeologist when she grows up.