Happy 2nd Birthday, Emily!

That's right, Emily is two years old today. Hard to believe, isn't it? She has grown and changed so much in the last few months and becoming more and more like a toddler. She is learning new words everyday and her latest favorites are "noisy", "dirty", and "both". She started using "both" in the last week or so. Nelson and I will ask her if she wants pretzels or crackers, or milk or water and she will respond with "both". A few times she has gotten it a little confused and called her pretzels "both", but for the most part she understands what it means. :)

She has also gotten to be quite fascinated with the moon -- especially when it's in the sky before it's dark. She'll do everything in her power to find it and then point at it and say "moo". And she won't stop pointing at and saying it until you acknowledge that it's there and talk to her about it. It's pretty entertaining! :)

Lately, we've been working on teaching her numbers and colors. She loves the color blue and if she doesn't know a color's name, it will ALWAYS be blue. For the most part she knows pink, yellow, blue and green. As far as numbers, that's a different story. This is how she counts, "one...two...three...five...nine".

Animal info and sounds are pretty hit or miss too. She knows a dog goes "woof-woof" and a cat goes "maow". The cow goes "moo", the sheep goes "baa". The latest one is that turtles live in the "wa'er" (this I attribute to either her turtle bath toys or the turtles from "Finding Nemo" -- her favorite movie). If there is an animal sound she does not know, it will always "roar". I will try to get a video of that because she evens holds up her little hands as if they were paws with claws -- it's the cutest thing you will ever see! :)

She LOVES to swing. This is the one activity that she wants to do everyday -- rain or shine! And she loves to color. She has started to say "co'or" instead of "gai-gai", which has been nice for us to hear. She still hasn't quite caught onto the fact that you color on the paper, not the table. So needless to say, our coffee table is constantly covered in crayon marks. :)

And what can I say about her personality. She has a strong-will, no doubt about that. She has started to want to do things for herself but then gets very upset when she can't do them. For example, she likes to buckle and unbuckle (and buckle and unbuckle and buckle and unbuckle) her booster seat. Well, she can buckle it, but the strength and coordination to unbuckle it is still not there. So, we'll ask her if she needs help and she'll respond with a strong "NO". She'll try to do it herself a few times and then throw a fit while asking for help. The good thing is that at least she asks for help . . . it's just not always in the nicest tone! :)

She has definitely noticed my belly and we are constantly asking her where is the baby or where is your brother. Most of the time she will point to my belly, but every once in a while she'll call herself the baby. It's pretty adorable though to hear her call my belly "bro'er". I think she'll be a great big sister!

The last two years have been amazing and we feel so blessed to have been given Emily. She is constantly learning new things, imitating us and everything we do. She is funny and bright and beautiful and we cannot imagine our life without her! She's the best little girl a mom and dad could every hope for! Happy Birthday, Emily. We love you! :)