Two

Two years now I've been blessed to be this busy girl's momma. It seems like just yesterday that she slept all day and could fit in one arm. That's not the case these days!

Our sweet girl is learning and growing constantly. At two years old, here are some highlights:

• Emerson weighs 26 lbs and is 32.5 inches tall.
• She says her name: "Enson," which is an improvement over her first attempts: "Enyan"
• She LOVES to read. She finally has the attention span to sit and listen to longer books and we're finally getting through some of our soft cover books that have been on our shelf for awhile. I'm not sure why it took so long, but I'm enjoying the beginning of rereading some longer, non-board book, great childhood classics. 
• Her favorite books are Goodnight Gorilla and any version of Wheels on the Bus. I think they're her favorites because she's got them memorized and can 'read' them by herself. She goes through phases of loving different books for weeks at a time, but these are the constant favorites. 
• "My help" Emerson is my shadow. Whenever I start to do something she quickly drops what she's doing and is by my side telling me, "mommy, my help!" And she does actually help... most of the time!
• She loves to paint, draw and color. We spend several mornings a week painting with her watercolor pages, coloring or drawing. She gives up a little quickly and needs encouragement to use all the colors or to fill in more of the page but she's always asking for more. 
• She recognizes/labels the letters E, D, N, O and M. Her favorite is E (of course) and a big E is the first thing she asks me to write when we have blank paper. She tries to write it but until just recently couldn't make horizontal lines. Now she's pretty proud of herself when she makes a 'big E' all by herself. 
• She's really into size adjectives with 'big', 'jumbo' and 'giant' followed by 'tiny' and 'teeny weenie' being her favorite way to describe things. When she wants a song to be louder she says big, when she finds a big grape it's 'JUMBO'! and when she finds a tiny object she gets her voice really high pitched and says, 'tiny ____!'. 
• Her favorite song is and always has been: "Amen" aka the Sunday school version of If You're Happy and You Know it. She recently discovered that she also loves Who Built the Ark by Raffi. Our car trips go like this, "Mommy, more big Noah? More big Amen? Tiny Amen? Please?" 
• She can count from 1 to 10 with a little prompting but has had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 down for awhile. She likes to skip 6 or 7 and loves to say 8, 9, 10. 
• She has her basic colors down, blue and green were her favorites for awhile but she also seems to favor pink and brown (!?). Her full list is: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, pink, black and white. 
• When she reads a book to herself, she usually starts out, "one day". 
• Emerson wakes us up, like clockwork, at 7:00 am, sharp. Sometimes a little earlier but almost never later.
• She is starting to use pronouns correctly in some contexts. In general, she used to say 'my book' or 'my potty' but now she's into 'Enson book' 'Enson potty'. I, you, my/mine are all coming along but the third-person default seems to be her go-to when she isn't sure.

It's so hard to believe it's been two full years of growth, snuggles and fun with this sweet girl. She amazes me each day with the things she's picking up and learning. I'm excited to see what the next year holds, even if I'm sad to see the 'baby' slowly slipping out of her face as the 'little girl' look starts coming in. 

My dear, sweet, spunky, inquisitive Emerson. How I love you!

"Happy!"

She may be great at saying 'CHEESE' whenever a camera is out, but that doesn't mean getting her to sit in the same chair is very easy after a few minutes! After every session now I think that it just might be our last! We'll see. It sure was easier when she wasn't very mobile!