21 months!

Emma is 21 months old! We can't believe it! Time is flying! We are getting closer and closer to having a 2 year old! Some days we think she is already two with her willful behavior. Luckily, we've not had too many all out throw down tantrums, but even the minor ones are enough to test our sanity! On the other hand, she is getting more and more fun by the day. She loves playing with her truck and car, making blanket tents with Daddy, reading books, watching Strawberry Shortcake and Carebears, coloring, and playing in her kitchen. We were able to spend some time at the park over the weekend, and Emma was overjoyed to be back outside. We're sure she is very much looking forward to more consistent spring weather.

She is aware of numbers, shapes, letters, and colors. We count steps as we walk up them...many times each step is 'two' but she surprises us by pulling out a 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13 every once in a while. Several times she's used several numbers correctly in one flight. She is getting better and better at her shape sorter, however, she doesn't show much interest in learning their names. She does know circle, star, heart, flower shapes though. We sing the ABC song and try to show her letters but so far, she doesn't show much interest in them either. Although while coloring, she will tell me she is drawing an M for Emma. She knows basic colors and can point them out or say them if she is in the right mood.

Some fun Emma stories:

This morning, Emma started stirring her cheerios and looked up at Kurt and said, "I'm stirring them arooound." Although it was very cute, she was then encouraged to eat her cereal rather than play with it. :)

Yesterday, Emma woke up and said, " I think it's snowing." When Kurt assured her that it was not snowing, she thought for a moment and said, "I want to go to the park."

Emma's new favorite word is "Hi!" She'll just walk into the room, wave and say HI! enunciating the H. It's really quite funny.

Last week, I (Carrie) was frustrated that Emma was not showing any interest in numbers. That evening, after Kurt put her to bed, he told me that not only does Emma know her numbers, she also can subtract! He explained that he told Emma that they would read TWO books before she would lay down to go to sleep. She repeated 'two books.' After they finished the first book, Kurt put it down and Emma promptly said 'one more,' illustrating her subtraction capability.