19 Months

We have reached the point where she's no longer our baby - she's definitely our toddler!

• She is wearing 18 months now in most clothes, size 4 shoes, size 4 diapers.


• Her vocabulary has exploded - she communicates exceptionally well for her age.


• Her temper has also started to come out more - we are having to work on asking nicely for things rather than hollering and she is starting to test boundaries.


• Knows quite a few of her colors & shapes - our favorite "lellow"


• The rest of her teeth are finally coming in - with her cuspids & molars has come quite the whiny hiney! We'll be happy when these last few breakthrough and hopefully her normal demeanor returns.


• Is finally feeding herself from a spoon without creating a total disaster! This is particulary handy in the morning when she can now feed herself her yogurt.


• LOVES to brush her teeth. If you ask her if she wants to go brush her teeth, she runs giggling to the bathroom to get her toothbrush.


• Has starting participating in saying her prayers at night. At the end of our normal prayer, we say "God Bless".... and name off family, friends, etc. On several occasions she has named people but last night when we got to that point she launched right in on her own. We caught Mommy, Daddy, and then a string that we couldn't make out. So adorable!


• Begs to play with my iPad - she loves a flashcard app that shows a picture of an animal, transportation, etc. and the accompanying sound & name and also an Elmo ABC app.


• Is OBSESSED with school buses! She loves playing with her musical school bus and on the way to/from school if she hears one she will scream BUS! Followed by swish swish with the hand motions (for the wipers).


• Loves puzzles - most mornings when I drop her off at school she goes straight for the puzzles.

Holy Guacamole!

Emma Claire LOVES guacamole. We make fresh guacamole at least a couple of times a month. Emma Claire often eats it from a spoon but she's learning to eat it from a chip. This particular day - no lie - she tried to lick the bowl. Here's a link to our favorite recipe I found a couple of years ago - we add freshly diced tomato to it as well.

Our Girly Girl

Emma Claire has become quite the girly girl. She loves her hairbows and insists on wearing one all the time, loves jewelry, baby dolls, and now loves to pretend primp. She will come into the bathroom when I am in there and beg "up up" to sit on the stool and play. I have to keep a close eye on her because I've already caught her with the mascara unscrewed and ready to go!

Dancing in the Rain

For the past few months, Emma Claire has been fascinated by rain. She can even sing Rain Rain Go Away. On Monday night we had a tropical storm moving through that brought lots of rain. I took her to the sliding glass door to watch it and she leaned over and starting pulling the door handle and asking to go outside. My initial reaction was - "you can't go out silly, it's raining" but decided why not? Bathtime was next so it she was going to be wet soon enough anyway. She had a ball running around the deck in the rain for a good 5 minutes or so.

Labor Day Fun

On Labor Day we headed to Lake Wheeler Park to take Emma Claire to the playground. She got so excited when we got out of the car and she saw it. She started squealing and laughing and wanted down so she could run to it. She had a blast and especially enjoyed all 3 of the slides which she went down all by herself. She would have stayed all day but after an hour or so the rain clouds rolled in and forced us home.

Little Ham

The grandparents get a daily phone photo sent to them each morning so I've compiled quite a few cute ones over the past few months along with some random other moments we've captured. Here are a few of my favorites...

Blowing kisses to her grandparents!

Singing Skidmarink a Dink

Signing Ice Cream

Taking a "big girl" bite

1st Football Game of the Season

Lots of ice cream this summer!

Cookies & Milk before bedtime with Nana
A little sweet tea never hurt anyone :)

Emma Claire has decided she is Poppy's girl and no one else's. We honestly aren't quite sure why this became so embedded in her mind because she has not been coached to say it but if you ask her if she's mommy's girl or daddy's girl she will shake her head no and say Poppy's girl. She has also started saying at random times - walking to the car after school, while riding down the road, etc. Here are a few pictures of her playing with Poppy!

Mess!

Relinquishing control of the spoon to Emma Claire has been a bit hard for me due to the obvious mess that accompanies a toddler feeding herself. She is doing much better but on this particular day our Blueberry Applesauce ended with being sprayed down in the kitchen sink. And yes... that would be temporary tattoo on her arm courtesy of school. Let's just say Mommy & Daddy are not a fan...

First Haircut

Emma Claire's hair has grown alot recently and has really started to thicken up. It was starting to look scraggly so we broke down and decided to trim it in an effort to shape it up. For whatever reason her hair is much longer in the back then on the sides so the plan is to keep trimming the back and let the sides catch up. Lucky for us, her teacher - Ms. JoJo - also cuts hair so she came over to the house and trimmed it. Emma Claire sat suprisingly still for it and it looks much better!

Baby Love

Emma Claire has recently begun showing more interest in dolls. She loves to push them around in her baby stroller, pretend rock them, hug and kiss them. This past week she's been spotted pretending two of her babies were kissing each other and today baby made her first outing with us to lunch & the grocery store. We convinced her baby was going to take a nap in the car during lunch but we let her take her into the grocery store and she rode in the cart with her.

Tuckered Out

We've been giving Emma Claire a pillow some at naptime/bedtime so she can get used to it as we start to look forward to transitioning into a big girl bed (Mommy is in no rush!). As you can see the pillow was a big hit on this particular day. Notice the Teddy Ruxpin pillowcase from my childhood!

Backyard Fun

Here are a few shots of an afternoon of backyard fun. I love the picture of Emma Claire & Savannah - those two love each other!

Emma Claire can climb the wall on her swingset now by herself.


Helping Daddy in the garden

Signing Time

PBS has a sign language show for children that we DVR for Emma Claire. On this particular day she was signing along with the show - she is signing water in the picture above. She was pretty proud of herself as you can tell from the picture below!

A Day at the Park

We had a playdate at the park with Jeremiah who until recently was in Emma Claire's class at school. He's the most adorable little boy and the two of them are adorable together! He's protective of her at school and they've been caught hugging/holding hands/etc. on multiple occasions. Sadly he moved up to the next room but we are looking forward to more playdates!

Hot, tired babies!