Miss Emily

Emily is at both a gorgeous age and one that totally does my head in. How a two year old can have this much attitude at such a young age I have no idea! For the last week I've heard "my turn!" and "No, mine!" at least a thousand times.

And the drama! If you move something to the wrong place, or you try to help in any way, you'd think the world was ending. There's head down, face burried in her hands, thrashing about and screaming.

But tonight I just had to laugh. Emily has a couple of 'babies' that she has really taken to playing with lately. Every night while I'm cooking the dinner she lines them up, reads them a story, and then one by one changes their nappies. At first I had no idea what she was doing when I saw this.....

Apologies for the poor photo. Just after I tried to sneak this pic with the IPhone she totally cracked it at me for daring to take a picture of her!

Yes that's right, she has socks on her hands. But to her they're not socks, they're gloves and every time she changes her babies nappies she has them on. At childcare they read stories to the toddlers and change their nappies with gloves on. It seems Emily has created her own childcare center in our living room and it's complete with a naughty corner. While I was having a shower this morning I heard her telling one of the babies to "sit here!" and "Sshhhh!". I think she might have got that bit from me......

I'm totally loving her embrace of this new make believe world. It reminds me of when I was her age and everything was fun and a game. She has no idea of bad things in the world, of loss, of sadness. All she know is eat, sleep, play and love.

She is learning new words every day and mumbled sentences are starting to become clear. She now has friends at daycare who wave to her through the window when we arrive. A little red headed boy named Dean rushed over to us yesterday and said "Emawee ball!" and gave her a green ball. She was absolutely delighted and turned to me and said "bye", waved and ran off with him. It was totally adorable.

I know it won't be like this for long and I'm totally going to soak up every moment of it.

Emily's Obsession

My daughter Emily is currently obsessed with my parents, her Mama and GD (Dad wasn't quite ready to be called Grandad when my sister had his first grandchild).

 She wakes up in the morning and asks for them, she goes to bed at night begging for them and every time we go out in the car she wants me to go to their place. When we do visit it's a struggle to get her back into the car to go home. We usually have to trick her by having my Dad put her in the car with my Mum sits next to her pretending to come with us. Then she jumps out and says goodbye and Emily cries for the next five minutes in the car on the way home.

I'm praying this is a stage she'll go through and get over quickly. It's not like Mum and Dad purposely make her love them so much, she just does. And I'm glad she adores them and enjoys them because I a lot of kids don't get to enjoy their grandparents they way mine does.

Today was my day off and a day I always try to do something special with Emily. She's my one and only so I want to make the most of it. I declared it a sewing free day even though I got the most gorgeous Amy Butler fabric in the mail today......

So we went to our local cafe this morning for a coffee and an Anzac Biscuit and just spent time together reading Thomas The Tank Engine book and chatting about nothing (she doesn't really say anything but gibberish anyway and I just nod and ask questions).

We spent some time at the shop and ordered some Skeanie and Uh-Oh! Sleepwear shoes and PJ's for our trip next week.

On the way home I thought we'd swing by my parents business Albury Dream Cottages and say hello as they were just finishing up and there is play equipment out back that Emily loves.

I really should have thought about it before we went. It was 11am and she was already getting tired. She hadn't had lunch and I hadn't bought any with us because it was a spur of the moment decision.

Well she happily played for half an hour on the swings with Mama and chatted to GD telling him big stories. Then she began banging the back door of the house, refused to put her shoes on, started throwing things and I knew she had gotten past it. Getting her into the car was a nightmare and once she was in and we were driving home she sucked hard on the dummy and hugged her pink hippo. We pulled up in the driveway and she wanted to stay in the car as she was obviously comfortable and very tired. She refused lunch, she drank a bottle and fell asleep on her bean bag in front of the TV.

I felt bad, I should have taken her home an hour earlier and given her a proper lunch. When she woke two hours later she was hot and sweaty and crying. She asked for Mama and GD. *sigh*

None of this is a big deal, none of this is anything special or out of the ordinary. I know all parents go through stages with their kids. It does make me feel better writing it down and sharing.

What's your childs obsession? 

My Little Angel.....or should I say devil?

How did my perfect little sleeper turn into such a rat bag??

Today when I picked up Emily from Day Care her carer pulled me aside to inform me my darling daughter had not only not slept all day and was completely hyper, but she had to be removed from the room for being disruptive to the rest of the toddlers trying to sleep.

Surely they had gotten her mixed up with someone else? Emily has always been a great day sleeper and mostly a good night sleeper. But this is the third time in a week she's refused a day sleep.

Apparently she was fine all afternoon but getting her home tonight she was exhausted and miserable. And naughty! I keep telling her no and she just laughs at me and does it anyway.

Since when do almost 2 year olds get the upper hand?!

My little angel NOT climbing on her Daddy's office chair and playing with his new computer that he loves more than me!

I'm determined to get on top of this behavioural problem before it gets too out of hand. If anyone has any tips I'd love to hear them. We're heading to Ireland in less than three weeks now and I have to work out a way of calming her before we get there and her Nana discovers how loud her voice is!