Emily has a new-to-her playhouse on our back porch. It has been at Grammy’s house for a couple of weeks, but Emily was so excited to bring it home. We have had several meals outside; so that, she could get some additional playtime. We left half of the roof off of the house to allow additional light in. Every time we leave our house now, Emily runs around to check on her little house. It is really cute!

Julia has discovered the joy of tapping things. She will do it for quite a while. She just smiles and watches what she is doing. Emily announces that ‘Sister Tap’ and is doing a pretty good job of not taking away the toy from Julia. The best solution is to give Emily her own kitchen utensil and sing tapping songs with her.

Just a little pre-cake testing – Yummy!

A silly story with Daddy (who is more fun to be silly with than Daddy?) – Emily and Julia were playing on Robby’s lap with a play phone. The phone rang and Emily answered it. Robby asked her who was on the phone and she said “Maeve”. Then she put the phone to Julia’s ear. I guess she has figured out that Julia and Maeve are friends and that they should talk.

A photo from our last trip to Florida and just playing outside.

We were all playing on the floor together one evening, and I decided that Emily should learn to do a somersault. She already loves to roll across the floor. She has been doing somersaults for a while by accident. She will crawl off of the couch or ottoman and roll out into a somersault. She couldn’t figure out what she was doing to repeat it, but she loved it.

The best way of learning a new thing is to see it demonstrated. So Mommy cleared a path and demonstrated a somersault for Emily. It was a hit. She loved it and wanted to do it herself. She can get her head down, but can’t figure out how to roll her body over. She will get it soon enough. For now, it is still fun for Mommy and Daddy to push her over. Daddy did a demonstration too to not be outdone by Mommy.

Mommy did realize that she isn’t as young as she once was. I didn’t use the proper technique, and it took my neck and spine three days to get back to normal. Call me crazy, but I’m going to do it again with her. I will just pad the floor a little and work on my technique.

A photo of Emily learning how to play with the spinning toy. We were having a play date and Emily enjoyed playing with Aiden’s toys.

Emily is a typical two year old and learning how to interact with the big world. This involves a decent amount of push back against Mommy’s wishes and boundaries. I realized the other day that I was letting this aspect of our day define too much of my day. So, to help keep perspective and patience each day I am watching for the funny or developmentally cool things that happen. I’m going to try to document them here – not just share them with Robby. This way over a longer period of time I can be reminded of the joy she brings when she is giving me a little push back.

I have to confess that I am a closet belcher. This is a fact known by my immediate family and will be known soon enough by our daughters. I believe that with a few rules that women can hold their own against men. I have been setting the ground work so that Emily can learn the rules. Rule number one is that after you belch you say ‘excuse me’. Emily does belch on her own (no Mommy influences) and I have been encouraging her to say and sign excuse me. Enough setup, the other day the girls were sitting on my lap after the morning milk watching some cartoons. Emily was nose to nose with Julia talking to her and out popped a burp. She backed up a little and said ‘excuse me’ and signed it at the same time. I was so proud! She is starting to get rule number one.

As a side note, please don’t ask for a demonstration of my ability because I don’t preform on demand. Although for some good stories you can check with my brother.

Emily and I went out to play before it got dark on our rainy evening. We hadn’t gotten to spend much time together one-on-one today and I thought a little play time outside in the drizzle was in order. Emily fetched her favorite toys to carry around while we are outside, the kid rake and hose nozzle. Then she got busy looking for puddles. This one is right by our front porch. She was a careful puddle jumper, actually no jumping happened, as she held on to the railing next to the steps for additional support. The stuff which looks like snow in our yard is really Bradford Pear petals that have covered our yard. It is like snow with out the cold weather. By the time we came back inside we had walked around our yard and found more puddles, picked some flowers, and helped Mommy with two chores. We had a great time getting damp, muddy, and spending time together.