From NC to PA...: Emmy Snapshot: 2 years old

Time for my 6 mo update for little Miss Emilia Caroline <3 I can't believe she is TWO.

Emmy has seriously blossomed over the past 6 months. She just bursts with personality and confidence. She's our house comedian doing anything she can to make us laugh. Her laugh is the sweetest sound in the world and makes everyone smile. Her language has exploded and she now talks in sentences! She runs, climbs, jumps, and dances to keep up with her beloved big brother. She is a mama's girl at home and an explorer when out. She is the big girl on campus at school - many parents tell me their kids at home don't stop talking about Emmy - friends that I am not even that familiar with! She's strutting through life with gusto and is a force to be reckoned with!

Don't mess with this girl!

Favorites at 2 years old:

Foods: She unfortunately has left the "I'll eat anything" phase and is a bit more picky now. She will reliably eat pasta, mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, meatballs, broccoli, corn, yogurt, pouches. Favorite snacks include fruit snacks, raisins, pirate's booty, goldfish, cheese sticks, berries

That hair!

Styling at the table

Apple juice - special treat

Cookies!

Pizza with Daddy at Jules

Toys: Coloring, Play doh, Play kitchen, play cash register, bikes/scooters outside, nesting dolls, wonder woman, books, anything Nolan is playing with
Books: Mickey Mouse book, Mr Clumsy, Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see, Little Blue Truck, Pout Pout Fish
TV/Movies: Emmy is officially in the "I want to watch the same thing over and over" stage. It drives Nolan crazy because "he gets things stuck in his head". I know what he's saying because for awhile she only wanted to watch Frozen and those songs will not leave your head afterwards! We've persuaded her to watch something different and now it's only the Minions movie (at least it has classic rock music including Beatles songs!) It's really just that other than the occasional Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Mickey and the Roadster Racers. She also went through a Yo Gabba Gabba phase recently.
Sleep: Emmy had many back to back to back ear infections this winter - enough to land us at the ENT (first appointment is this month). These have led to very unpredictable sleep (which is hard to blame her for if she's in pain). Joe and I were just remarking that we don't think she's slept through the night consecutively for more than 4-5 days at a time since she's been born. She's old enough now that we are drilling in the "Emmy sleeps in Emmy's bed, not Mommy & Daddy's bed" and she acts SO proud of herself when we get her in the morning when she's made it through the night so she knows what she has to do, it's just getting it done consistently. We're hoping moving into the Spring that we can avoid more ear infections/ear tubes for the time being.

Napping in Mommy's bed

Napping on Mommy

Sweet Girl

Asleep in the stroller

Pacifier: Emmy is still going strong with her Paci. At school she never has it - I even asked about during naptime and they said she's usually asleep so quickly they don't have to give it to her. At home is a different story - she constantly wants it (and wants to be held by mommy). We are going to have to start only giving it during nap/bedtime as our first step towards breaking the habit.
Clingy-ness: Emmy is very mommy-obsessed at the moment. One of her favorite sayings is "that's MY mommy!" when she's with me or I pick her up at school. She doesn't want Daddy often these days and she gets jealous when mommy is with Nolan. It makes it hard to get things done at home like cleaning/cooking/showering - my best bet is to try to get her engaged in something else (coloring, playing with Nolan, watching Minions) and slowly sneaking away to do something else ;)

Tantrums: Well I know we are now in the "terrible twos" but so far we haven't seen a ton of tantrums. She's pretty good at verbalizing, which I think helps avoid them, and she also recovers quickly when upset so things don't drag on and escalate. I know we have a long road ahead of us (three was definitely worse for Nolan) but I'll take this for now!
Speech: This girl is definitely advanced with her speech! She does pretty well at communicating, although sometimes it's hard to decipher exactly what she's saying. She's also starting to talk about how she feels "Mommy, I'm very very happy!" and tells me "Mommy, look at me!". Other favorites "That's my Mommy!" "I need a break" (when Nolan is playing rough) "I need space" (for kids at school) "I Emmy!" "Not that one!" "I OK!" "I got blue! Nolan got green!" (referring to plates/cups etc).