--She climbs everything. She learned how to climb up on the couch at 16 mon. Now, she can climb the ottoman and tries to do flying leaps over to the chair. She has no fear.
--She likes to stack her blocks. She will stack her nesting blocks up and they are taller than she is.
--Emily's spoken words include: mama, dada, hi, hi-dee, bye, duck, bear, bird, dog, cold, hot, doll, ball, baby, car, beep-beep (her car sound), jack (for jacket) and NO! These are words she uses regularly and doesn't count words that she repeats when we ask her to try to say them. Mostly, she gets the first consonant and vowel sound. For example "hot" is "haa" without the "t" and with a concerned look. She also places a hand over the hot object as if she were feeling the steam from it. It is pretty hilarious because I'm sure she has seen her mama do this.
--Of course, Emily understands WAY more than she can say. She understands and can pick out about 10 different animals. She knows the words for most household objects and rooms. She knows most of her body parts and can point to them when we ask her, "Where's your nose..." She definitely understands upstairs/downstairs and inside/outside. As soon as I ask her if she wants to go "upstairs", she is running to the gate--same for diaper changes. She knows where to go and where we throw them away. She understands words associated with food and where we keep the food. She often runs to the fridge and grunts with effort as she tries to open the door. We are working on colors, but it is inconsistent. She usually gets one or two right when asked. Emily LOVES books. She picks out the books she wants read to her from her shelf and then climbs up in our laps. If we happen to be sitting on the floor, she still parks herself on your lap. It is precious.
--She likes to play hide and seek. She loves to be chased. If one of us is playing on the floor and ask her to help us up, she gives us a hand and a push.
--Her new independence is causing temper tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. We are experiencing more crying lately. We ignore the fits or try to distract her with something else; however, I can see that when she has her mind set on something, she is becoming harder to distract.
--Emily sleeps form 8 to 7 or 7:30. When she gets up, we like to cuddle with her in our bed for a little, and if time allows, we watch a Mickey Mouse Club video on the i-phone to buy mom and dad a little more rest time.
--Still doesn't care for meat. Luckily, she eats beans and eggs and other protein sources. I have tried a lot of sneaky ways to get her to eat it. She will eat a thin piece of lunchmeat in a grilled cheese or a tiny amount of meat in something soft like sweet potatotes. She eats meat in her ravioli. That is about it! She doesn't even like Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets!
--At 16 mon, Emily started hitting. As I understand, this is "age appropriate behavior" even though you hate to think of your child as a hitter! She was hitting some of the kids at parents day out and her little playmate, Alex, at the babysitter's. She was getting much better at not doing it anymore. Well, last Saturday, we took her to All About Kids for some indoor gym activities. She loved running around and trying out the ball pit, play houses, little tyke cars, slides, stairs, etc. but when another kid was playing on "her toy" she DID NOT like it. She would yell, "no, no, no" and kind of swat in the air at them. Jeremy and I couldn't believe how fiesty she was! I mean, she would even say that to the older 3-4 year olds. Again, she seems to have no fear. We couldn't help but stifle a few laughs, but of course, we took every opportunity to help her learn to take turns and share with others. I think she needs a sibling....
