What is nocturnal?

Even at two we talk to Emily Grace about animals that are nocturnal. We have owls, raccoons, opossums and armadillos that wander around the yard and we talk about why they only come out at night. At dinner tonight the subject came up and I asked Emily Grace "What's nocturnal?" She listed all of the above animals and added one more new one that we had never discussed...Ghosts. No more late night TV for this kid.

Love,
Dad

sign of the times

Emily Grace and mom just went out for a little drive around the neighborhood to look for Halloween lights. Santa who?

Love,
Dad

love bugs

Emily Grace saw Love Bugs for the first time today. They're an annoying bug, or more often set of bugs making love until they come in contact with a speeding car. When Emily learned their name she gave them a kiss.

Love,
Dad

I never noticed that Fruit Loops are spelled Froot Loops, no wonder kids can't spell.

that's a problem

I don't think the terrible two's are as much of a problem as Emily Grace's prodigious language development (hey, let me brag for once). The problem is that she can only pronounce, (recognizable to most adults) about 200 of the 2000 words in her vocabulary. How many babies ask for sentimental trinkets to mark the second anniversary of her birth? Just Emily Grace.

Love,
Dad

It's just another sign that she's not a little girl anymore. She used to have "cute" names for her grandparents-Nanna and PopPop. Those were hers; not prompted or taught to her by adults. The adults also referred to them that way to acknowledge her "speak". They were unique to my parents and we always knew who she was talking about. Well, just this past week things changed. I told her Nanna was coming in the morning to get her and she looked back at me and said, "Grandma coming?" I was too sad to even answer her. She still goes back and forth, but each day it's becoming more "Grandma/Grandpa" and less "Nanna/PopPop". Being a parent is crazy. You are so glad she is becoming more self sufficient and independent while at the same sadden that she's no longer a baby...she's a big girl!

Love,
Mom

backseat driving...

Emily Grace likes to shout directions and driving instructions from the backseat as we drive around town. Did I mention she's only two? We get on the highway and she starts yelling "turn left" I explain that there is no left turn on the highway. Why do I try and explain this concept to a two-year old? Because, that's what adults do. Emily's mom's solution seems to work much better, she just agrees to make the left turn and then just keeps on driving. Emily also like to go fast. That's also a frequent refrain from the back seat. It doesn't matter if we're on the highway or sitting in traffic. Emily wants to "go fast." Once, after multiple requests to "go fast" I asked Emily how fast did she want to go? Almost immediately she answered "real fast." Recently, Emily wanted me to make a left turn at an intersection so she could see something. She told me what the something was but I could not for the life of me figure out what it was that she wanted to see so I kept going straight. No sooner had we driven through the intersection before she started yelling "turn around, turn around." We had a little talk about driving the car and being a good driver. Emily informed me that she wants to be a bad driver. Watch out State Farm.

Love,
Dad

The best laid plans...

These pictures are "other Pop-pop and Nan-Na." Emily Grace had her first visit to the Veterinarian, as a helper not a patient. Emily has been waking up at 6:30/6:45/7:00am all summer, now a week before we go back to school she starts sleeping until 8:00+; based on her old sleep pattern I made the appointment for 8:30am. At 8:15 I had no cat, no kid and no help to pull this all together, a mad scramble ensued. I made it there on time, but by the time I got there the cat was strapped in the car seat and Emily Grace was in the cat carrier. The Vet, Dr. Barsch was great about explaining everything he was doing so Emily could watch and understand as he examined the cat and gave her her shots. The only part I wasn't so sure about was when they collected a stool sample. Looks painful, if the cat was a boy I would have suggested they check the prostrate while they were in there.

Love,
Dad