Almost TWO YEARS OLD!!

Well, here I am again.... dealing with the reality that my little girl is growing up WAAAAAY too fast. She's almost TWO YEARS OLD!!!!! Okay, apparently I can't write about that right now because I am in a public place, now holding back tears.

I am so far behind with this blog, but it probably doesn't seem like that to anyone else. To me (and to her daddy), it seems like she does something crazy and awesome and blog-worthy every hour! In honor of her turning 2 in a few minutes, I would like to discuss this chica's incredible personality and recent "milestones".



She's a diva. It's true. And although I'm not exactly proud of it, I am impressed (and maybe a tad jealous) that in her mind, the world revolves entirely around her. Even when she swings, she says "MEEEEEE" instead of "WEEEEEE"! It is so funny:) I realize that I am mostly responsible for her diva-tude, but I can't seem to stop myself from catering to this theory she has of herself and her little world!

That being said, she is ridiculously polite. She says, "No, please", "thank-ew", "Thanks, Daddy", "Thanks, Mommy" and most recently, "Thanks, Mom" - which oddly crushed my heart a little bit (I'm not ready to be "Mom" and not "Mommy"). She says "Excuse me" when trying to get past Maverick and even when she burps.

She counts! Kind of. She doesn't start with 1 but goes right into 2, 3. She will then choose numbers to join in on, like maybe on 6, then 8, then 10. That is the extent of her counting. She is interested in letters, but the alphabet song is a little long for her toddler attention span. Her favorite songs are Mommy and Daddy's remix versions of "Baby, Baby, Baby" - James Brown origin and "Let it Snow". She also digs "Old MacDonald", but it gives Mommy a headache. On the radio, she currently requests "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" and "Airplanes". She doesn't seem to care that Mommy is very tired of these songs.



She's a performer. This shouldn't surprise many of you. She loves the attention and applause that she receives when putting on a show. She will dance, mimic, twirl, make faces and make you feel like a million bucks if you clap for her immediately following.



She knows she's cute. She will actually say, "Emme cuuuute!". It's adorable. I wish I had her confidence. She loves clothes and will say, "clothes cuuute" or "pretty dress" (it doesn't even have to be a dress. It could be a t-shirt). Awhile back I went shopping for her and brought home a bunch of clothes. I took off the tags and had them in a little pile. She pulled the clothes all around her, sitting in the center of the pile and repeatedly said, "So cuuute!". I joined her. They really were so cute!

She loves to be outside, and she is still obsessed with animals. If you can get both at the same time, you are guaranteed to have a happy kid on your hands. That is, until it is time to go. Then you are screwed.



Her bottom canines are coming in, so she has started biting. She only bites me, though, so I'm sure everyone thinks I'm making this up (because she is an angel in front of others btw). Most recently, she bit me as we were getting in the car so I had to sit her in time-out in the parking lot. Good times.




She is a runner. First of all, you should know that this child NEVER walks. She is either asleep or running. There is no inbetween. She literally runs around her room at night, or before nap, until she runs by me (or Daddy) close enough to grab her and quickly zip up her sleep sac. Then she sweetly says, "Night, Mommy" as I put her in the crib. And every time, she will go right to sleep. And every time, I am shocked that she does that.

When you mix a runner with a fearless child you get an anxious Mommy. The other night, we went to dinner for Zoe's birthday. Yvette had reserved a special room so the kids didn't have to sit the entire time, but that room didn't have doors. Therefore, after a few minutes of goofing around with her cousins, Embree took off. She ran out of the room, past the hostess stand, and right into the farthest dining room that was bustling with activity. She was giggling the whole time and never slowed down (even when I yelled, "Freeze" while chasing after her). She was warned, threatened, and after the third chase-down, punished, but I guarantee if we hadn't left the restaurant after that, she would still be trying to run off. It worries me, but I'm so curious how far she would go or what it would take to make her turn back around, simply for the fear of the unknown.






She's mastered jumping! Big time! Our little monkey learned how to jump very early. She jumps all the time! She prefers to jump off of high objects or in rocky areas to give Mommy little heart attacks.

She mimics and she mimics well. A few months ago, some deer were out and about. They made that weird deer sound (a barking sound). Anyway, Em heard it and immediately copied. It was dead on! She's an amazing little mimic!



She has no fear - not even a healthy dose of it. She runs into things all the time and is always covered in bruises. She plays rough... probably because she thinks she is a monkey (a baby marmoset to be specific). She loves her family and treats her cousins like royalty - except when she is rough-housing with them. She'll even pull on their hair when playing horsey. I told Ethan not to let her be too rough with him, and he so sweetly said, "I don't mind"! They let her get away with anything;)



I think it is AMAZING what this toddler is figuring out all on her own. She knows how to work an iPod Touch better than anyone else I know! Seriously! She can unlock it, switch from a Dora tv show to a game and anything else she wants to do on there! Crazy!

I love that she's made some friends at Mother's Day Out that she looks forward to seeing. Their names are Abby and Sasha. Em talks about them all the time. It cracks me up:)




In summary, I am head over heels in love with my baby girl. She is more than I thought possible in every single way. I see myself and her daddy in some of the things she does and expressions she makes, but the best part of this whole thing is catching glimpses of EMBREE ROSE, purely and exclusively.