It's all about Emery!

Emery's new thing is to spin.  She will spin and spin and spin and then stop and stare... she's experiencing being dizzy!  And then she laughs!  lol   It's so cute!  She loves the new pad cuz she can run and play and has more freedom than in our last house.  We are all more relaxed with the carpet and no stairs. :)  She loves playing with her train her uncle and auntie gave her for Christmas last year.  She pushes it all around and loves to throw all the blocks out and across the room, and then puts them back. We are working on putting things away that she makes a mess of. lol  She's really good at cleaning up.  The other day, she spit out her cucumber on the carpet.  I told her "we don't spit our food out on the floor" and asked her to pick up the pieces and put them in my hand.  She did it!  I was very proud of her for that.  We are working on her NOT throwing her food off her tray table when she's done.  Now, most of the time, she will push the bowl away from her and sign "all done".  Or if she's eating yogurt, she puts down her spoon and closes the lid.  Yeah!  Progress! lol  Her other new thing is putting all her books and animals in a tall basket I have in her room.  I put it there to store her toys.  But she will take all the books off her bookshelf and I will find them all in the basket!  Also, if anything is missing, we have to look in our kitchen trash can because she likes to throw things in there.... toys, my flip flops, Sean's kermie.... that's a big 'no' and I am working with her on that. But I can't help but laugh when she's not looking.

We just started time-outs.  I'm really not sure what I'm doing, but I realized as I do them more when the occasion arises, she will figure out it is a consequence to her bad action.  I did a timeout for the third time today.  I will usually sit her in the corner of the hallway, facing the corner, and sit behind her to make sure she doesn't get up, for one minute.  Well today, she got mad at me for something and bent over, looked at me, and with both hands, pinched my leg really hard.  It shocked me, and I told her no and slapped her hand (still not sure about what this teaches her... but she needs that immediate discipline) and took her to a timeout.  She immediately started crying when I did that and continued to cry, although didn't move, the whole one minute.  It was the hardest one yet, because usually she plays and talks, but this time she was balling.  I wanted so bad to comfort her, but I knew I couldn't.  At one minute, I stood her up and turned her around.  She had the most sad and "I'm sorry" kind of face.  I talked to her about it and she looked at me, seeming to listen, the whole time.  I'm trying to teach her sorry and what it means.  But for now, I talked to her and then gave her love.  And off we went to play.  I really think it was a successful time out.  She seemed to understand that there IS a consequence for her actions.  But, Man!, it was so hard for me!  broke my heart...

She is still not saying many words... she says mama, dada, cheese and duck (I think I've posted about that before),  but still no others.  Sometimes I worry about this, but then again, lately she has been "talking" a lot more than ever.  She is definitely trying to talk and speak sentences.  So I know its there. Before we know, she will be talking a mile a minute!  So, I won't worry about it.  The effort is there, it is just a matter of figuring out the words and making its way off her tongue. :)  She loves talking... to us, on her phone, to the cars driving by.  It's so precious.

Sean started a routine of taking her out on the balcony in the mornings when I work.  So I started doing it too and we'll all go out together when we are both home.  It's so fun!  And right now, the mornings are so nice and cool.  She will point out all the birds flying by, wave to all the cars as they head off to work and talk, talk, talk.  And it's a little bit of cuddle time too. :)

Her little personality is really coming out more and more everyday.  She is constantly cracking us up!  She loves to laugh and dance...  She is so much fun!  I'm always stopping and just staring at her in awe of the path God has brought us on over the last 12 years!  Such faithfulness... so much love He bestows on His children.  His love is never failing!  Great is HIS faithfulness!