2!

So I know I already posted a little bit the other day about Emily turning 2, but it's been so long since we've done an update that I thought I should do one now. There's a lot to report, and this will be going in my journal and Emily's baby book later, so feel free to just look at the pictures if it's too much writing :) Here is our Emily at 2 years old...

We've been practicing her interview for weeks and she knows how to answer every question. Obviously she was a little distracted when the video was taken. We didn't get through all the questions :( you get what you get I guess!

-She is now 31 1/4 in. tall and almost 23 lbs. In case you're not an expert on 2 year old growth statistics, that makes her quite tiny. Grant and I were both little growing up, so I think she will always be a petite little girl. I usually love her being so itty bitty, but occasionally it gets annoying with strangers thinking she's way younger than she is. I'll have people making comments like, "wow! look how good she is at walking!" and I think to myself, "uh, yeah... that's because she's 2. She's had a year of practice at it!" But I just grin and bear it. At least they're still compliments :)

-Some of her favorite things include: the color purple, any and every animal (real or pretend), baby dolls, music and dancing (if she ever hears music she jumps up and yells "dance!" and proceeds to dance around the room... she's really good at it too and matches her movement and style to the song), riding on nana and papa's golf cart, being outside (she would spend the entire day outside if I let her), puzzles, phones and iPads (though she hardly ever gets them because she likes them a little too much), and swimming.

-Her least favorite things are: things that make loud noises (vacuum, blender, hair dryer, lawn mower, etc), going through the car wash, baths, doctors, and not getting her way.

-She's been learning a lot lately! Her vocabulary has exploded in just the past few months. She can say the names for most common items and is very good about communicating what she needs or wants with words. She's just starting to make some 2 word phrases, but we can tell she really wants to talk more so she's getting better and better every day. She also knows over 20 animal sounds!

I posted a video several months ago of some of Emily's first animal sounds. This video was taken about 2 months ago and includes some more recent animal noises. She doesn't do her best with all of them in this video, but it gives an idea of what she knows. Her elephant sound is her very favorite. We have a church book that has elephants in it, so she often makes that sound during sacrament meeting. We get some funny looks :) (P.S. my brother taught her that a pig snorts instead of saying oink, so that's why it may not sound like a pig to you!)

-She knows all of her colors and can identify some letters. She knows the vowels pretty well, especially e and o. She gets those right every time. She also knows a few consonants like b, d, l, m, n, and t, but she's not always consistent with those. She's having a harder time with the numbers, though. She'll repeat them correctly after us, but when she's counting by herself (which she does all the time... she LOVES counting things), she just says "2, 2, 2, 2, 2!" I guess we'll just practice, practice, practice.

-She's become very friendly lately. She's always telling people hi and bye wherever we go and she LOVES spending time with other kids. Whenever we have play dates with friends, she continues to ask about them for days after. She can be shy though if strangers start talking back to her :) She's also really close with all of her family, those that live close by and those that live further away. She knows most of their names and will talk to them on her pretend phones. Her favorite people to talk to on the "phone" are daddy, Aunt Irene (nee nee), and Uncle Stevie (tevie).

-She's such a daredevil! I'm so worried she's going to really hurt herself one of these days. She's always wanting to climb over the backs of couches and jump off of things and bellyflop into pillows and other things of that nature. I try to make everything as safe as possible and still allow her to have fun, but there are times when she has to get a time out because she's just being too dangerous :(

-Unfortunately, Emily has turned into quite the picky eater in the past several months. It's driving me crazy! She still loves just about any fruit. Her other favorite foods are cheese, yogurt, pretzels, mac and cheese, and meatballs (I give her turkey meatballs to make them just a little healthier). She could eat freeze-dried apples for every single meal. Vegetables are almost always a no-go. She pretty much despises every one except for edamame and corn. And I don't know that those even completely count as vegetables :( She'll also do carrots if they're the thin, stringy kind that you put on salads. When she first started finger foods, she would shovel down vegetables, but now it's a huge fight to get her to even try them. We've tried everything! So right now I just have to hide vegetables in other foods so we can get them in her somehow. She drinks a lot of smoothies, not knowing that mommy is sneaking veggies in :)

-She's starting to enter the terrible 2 phase and I'll tell you what- this girl can throw a tantrum! She's still fairly easy and mild most of the time, but when she gets upset, she gets UPSET! It's exhausting! We're working on it... that's all I have to say about that :)

this is her "don't look at me" face... we know it all too well

-This girl loves to sleep! She's so awesome about going down for her naps and bedtime, sometimes even asking for it, by saying "night night." She takes one nap a day now in the afternoon, usually lasting about 2 hours. I'm so grateful that she's such a great sleeper!

-She's incredibly independent, so it's rare that we ever get cuddles. She just wants to do things on her own, without help from us. She would much rather have one of us play with her, though, than to play by herself. Especially daddy. When daddy's home she's constantly bringing him toys and books because she wants to keep him busy so he won't leave again. Poor girl. She misses her best friend when he's gone :( I call her his shadow in the mornings because she'll just follow him around while he's getting ready so she can get as much time with him as possible. The one time that she will still be cuddly is right before bed. When we read and sing to her, whichever one of us is holding her gets some awesome cuddles. And for the past couple of weeks she's been laying on my shoulder and putting her arms around me when I take her up for naps. I cherish those moments! She is great about giving hugs and kisses when we ask for them, but those magical moments, that are few and far between, come when she randomly comes up and gives us a hug or lays her head on our shoulders or head. Little piece of heaven right there!

It's still crazy to me to think about life before Emily! How was there ever a time that I didn't know her? She's like my little sidekick now. We go everywhere together and do everything together. I literally feel like she's attached at my hip! She's such a part of me and who I am now. We're so looking forward to our next little one joining our family, but it's a little bittersweet knowing that it won't just be me and Em anymore. We have so much fun together and learn a lot from each other! I love this little girl more than I ever knew it was possible to love and I'm so grateful that she joined our family 2 years ago. She's growing up way too fast!!