Emilia’s development digest: 21 1/2 months

This is our 100th post!


I started this posting when Emilia turned 19 months, so you can consider this a wrap-up of what Emilia has been up to in the last couple of months now that she is nearly 22 months old. Our little girl is developing more and more every day. She is turning into an imaginative, stubborn and pretty funny little toddler.

• She has found her identity: She went from calling herself "Ya Ya" to"Mia." She's also getting much better identifying other people by name: Gamma, Gappa, Gammy, Poppy (although she goes back and forth and also calls both grandmothers Momma), Corey=Koorie, Melissa=Masia, Bob=Bob (she is excellent at this one), and Kyle, Owen and Henry are surprisingly close. She's also getting better at friends’ names. She asks to pray for Nay Nay and Cara (Clara) every night and constantly talks about her friends from daycare.
• She is making a lot of progress with her compound and possessive phrases: "Hi, daddy, how you?", "daddy's chair," "mommy's purse," "daddy tired," "Mia read the books," and "aw mon u mommy" (I love you mommy). Unfortunately, sometimes we hear things like, "Mia hold it," or "Mia want that."
• She has a memory that won't quit. About a month ago we saw a tree being cut down in the backyard next to daycare. She sees the remnants everyday and reminds me that the "tree" went "boom."
• She loves to sing Old MacDonald, although the farmer almost always has a “bok” (she means chicken, but it's always "bok"). Her favorite song, though, is Happy Birthday, although it goes something like this, "Happy day day you you, happy day day you you, happy day day Nay Nay, happy day day you you – yeah!" (claps hands).
• Physically, she is more active than ever. I think gymnastics class has helped with this. She spins in a circle, bounces, attempts to jump and her walk has turned into more of a jog. She loves to hold our hands and walk ("walka walka walka"); it's getting harder to keep her restrained in a stroller.
• She can’t stand for her hands to be dirty, although she still prefers her hands as the best eating utensils.
• She is obsessed with pictures and can’t walk by the computer without her wanting to look at digital photos or watch a home video.
• Our favorite car ride activities are playing Simon Says and spotting buses, trucks, fire engines and ambulances.
• She can spot or hear an airplane or doggie a mile away.
• She insists on carrying her "purse" to daycare, which is really just her lunch bag.
• She has her favorite books and asks for them by name "moon," (Goodnight Moon), "gilla," (Goodnight Gorilla), "doggies," (the Spot books), and "Jesus," (Jesus Loves Me or her children's bible, among others.
• She likes to play show and tell with her food, making sure I know everything she’s eating: “meat,” “carrot,” “potatoes,” “rice,” “cous cous,” “patta” (pasta), “ornj” (orange), "dawbies" (berries), etc.
• She can repeat colors when you name them, but if you ask her what color something is it’s either “pick” (pink), “lello” (yellow) or red.
• Her conversational skills are still a little limited. If she doesn’t know the answer, she always replies with “yeah”:
  “Emilia, did you eat lobster for lunch?” Yeah.
  “Emilia, are we riding in a rocket ship?” Yeah.
• She knows when to perform. She imitates us when we ask a silly question by responding, "noooooo." She does this happy scream and then quickly puts her finger to her lips and says "ssshhh." And, our favorite, if someone is laughing, she says "yoke" (joke), laughs hysterically and then says "Megan." Apparently, to Emilia, Megan equates to hilarious!