Life, Really Blog

Emma was 21 months back on January 7.

This past month was still a little rough in terms of Emma’s sleep and daytime whiny-ness — and she got the flu and an ear infection for the first time — but this is still such a fun age. I love watching Emma learn new things, even if they’re things I sort of would prefer she didn’t know how to do… like climb into the bathtub on her own, open and close doors, and flush the toilet.

A sick Bisky

Emma is still a water fanatic and would seriously take a bath 5 times a day if we let her. Often this month, the first thing she does when she gets up is push one of the kitchen table chairs to the sink for playing with water. We give her a bowl, some spoons and small dishes, turn the faucet on a trickle, and she plays for 15-20 minutes at a time — always ending up soaking wet.

A couple other things Emma loves to help with now is doing laundry and feeding the dogs. She’ll go get dirty clothes and bring them into the laundry room, then push a chair over so that she can help put the clothes in the washer. When they’re done in the washer, I hand them to her and she puts them in the dryer. She still doesn’t understand the concept of putting clothes away though — she’d rather take all her other clean clothes OUT of the drawers instead. And with feeding the dogs, we fill the measuring cup up for her and she pours it in the dogs’ dishes. Someday she will inherit this chore in full!

Emma gets on certain “kicks” where she is obsessed with something for a while, and then moves on. It used to be “brushing” her teeth (and she still does like sucking on her toothbrushes) but now it’s washing her hands (especially the whole soap thing) and putting on lotion. What a silly girl.

After Travis’ and my trip to Denver, we had a couple of VERY rough nights with Emma (one during which she screamed and thrashed around like a mad man for over an hour) and discovered that she does better going to bed when she’s been awake for around 6 hours. So this means her naptime has been pushed back from 12:30 to about 2 pm, and her bedtime is now often 8 or 9, instead of 7 or 8. She hasn’t really been sleeping that much later in the mornings (still gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 most days) so it just means less time for Mommy and Daddy.

But on a positive note, Emma is finally taking naps on her own again! We’re still not sure if she has been teething — no teeth have appeared but my friend who is a dental hygienist said it can take months for the 2-year molars to come in. My suspicion, though, is that her problems with napping and falling asleep at night were caused by separation anxiety. I make sure now to tell Emma every time that I will still be there when she wakes up, and I’ll see her after naptime/in the morning. I also encourage her to be a big girl and sleep in her crib on her own. Who knows if it helps, but anytime I get a break during naptime, it’s amazing! Funny how small things like getting a break can really make a big difference in your outlook and mood.

A couple other recent, challenging developments with Emma have been that she now refuses to sit in her highchair to eat anything, and she refuses to eat most things (even things she has gobbled up in the past). This started when she got the flu, which is understandable then, and maybe it’s still after-effects from her being sick, but she has gotten better, and these behaviors have not. Travis and I are going to probably give her another week or so, and then be more adamant about her eating sitting down (we’re thinking about buying a booster chair for her to sit in at the table) and eating what we give her (especially when it’s food we KNOW she likes). If you’ve had either of these issues and found a solution, please share!

We’re also attempting to wean Emma off her naptime and nighttime bottles, which has had limited success. I’ll update you next month on how things have gone and what, if anything, worked.

As far as language goes, Emma is rocking the sign language, and doing much better trying to imitate words when we ask, and even saying the words that the signs mean (like “more”). She calls me Mama and Travis Dada when trying to get our attention, and will say things like her version of Bye Bye without being prompted. She also babbles like she’s having a conversation with herself a lot more, which she didn’t really do before. It’s exciting to see progress!

Emma also loves looking at and touching my belly, and I think she kind of understands that there’s a baby in there. I took one of her baby dolls and held it up to my belly, and said that I had a baby in my belly. Emma is absolutely infatuated with babies, so hopefully she will love being a big sister and not struggle too much with jealousy.

And that’s Miss Emma at 21 months! Time to start thinking about plans for her 2nd birthday party (which we’re probably going to have a few weeks early, just so Baby #2 doesn’t make an untimely appearance and steal the show).

Tags: baby, Emma, toddler