The Toddler Triathlete

What?!? You don't eat lunch with your goggles on? Food could splash in your eyes, you know.

Emma continues to be such an absolute delight. She is seriously at such a darling stage, I am tempted to follow her around the house all day and video tape all the hysterical things she does. At 22 months old, here are some of my favorite things about Emma:

• She still has a shoe fetish and will go all the way upstairs to retrieve my shoes if she wants to go shopping.
• We call her "Sir Mix Alot" with her singing. She now knows an array of songs, which she combines into ONE glorious song when she is singing around the house. Last night she sang, "A-B-C-D-E-F-G How I wonder what you are Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z". She'll throw in people's names to make the song interesting. At about any time throughout the day she is singing something. It is really adorable.
• We still play the game... Who loves "fill in the person's name?". To which she screams "I do!". Yesterday after eating a particularly tasty PB&J sandwich she cries out, "Who Loves Peanuts? I DO!!!" When I laughed she continued the game for 15 more minutes.
• When she wants to get out of bed we will hear her say, "Mommy Hold You. OK." If I don't come she will replace the first phrase with "Daddy Hold You. OK". You can guess which parent buckles when he/she hears this pathetic plea.
• She is obsessed with the colors of our cars and our bikes. Many times a day she will yell "Mommy White" when she sees my car. This is fine at the house, but I get a little embarrassed out in public as I don't want people to think I am raising a cultural purist. :)
• She loves Barney and sings his closing "I Love You" song all day. Wherever she is in the house, she will run and find me for a huge hug when she gets to the line, "great big hug".
• For the first time this week she drew some scribbles and then identified those scribbles as an airplane. She really loves to color, but when she colors she INSISTS that any adult present in the home must color with her.
• When Greg gets home from work she wants NOBODY but her Daddy. She does not let me read to her or play with her or bathe her. Greg thinks it's adorable and I LOVE the reprieve. When she talks about her Daddy through the day, she always says "Daddy so nice. Daddy handsome." That he is my friends. That he is.
  
• Whenever she sees my cell phone she asks to "Call Glen, Call Glen".
• She loves to have her diaper changed. As soon as she poops, she will promptly come and find me and say "poopy, change you, ok". Then she will run to the living room, lie down on the rug and wait for me to come and change her. As soon as I change her, she will say "trash" and run the diaper to the trash, even without a prompting from me. The only annoying part is when she is not poopy, but insists on a diaper change... we think because she has just peed and she gets confused. Still. Who wants to waste expensive diapers on silly pee.
• She LOVES to play in the dirt. Especially the dirt that is covering my precious flowers. I have gotten mad at her a few times and now she scolds herself. So whenever she starts playing with the dirt in my flowers I hear a very stern "EMMA!" come from her little mouth. It's nice because I don't have to say it, I just give her that motherly look that tells her to stop.
• We borrowed Greg's dad's truck a few weeks ago. Emma is obsessed with trucks and now whenever she sees Grandpa Ray she exclaims "Grandpa Ray Truck!". She thinks that is his name... and I don't think he minds one bit.
• She is starting to take an affection to dolls. I caught her last week giving a doll a bottle at my Aunt's house saying "there go. there go.". Today she tried to change her doll's diaper. When she got frustrated with the task, she came running inside screaming "Mommy help you."
• Emma thinks farting is hysterical. Every time she farts, she dies laughing and says "Emma toot. Emma toot." Seriously how did kids know this is funny? Does farting ever NOT get funny? Not in our world, evidently.
• I have a "Children's Songs CD" in my car. Within 10 seconds of getting into the car. Every. Single. Time. Emma asks for the "ABC Song. OK." How can I resist? We sometimes listen to it 15 times in a row - and I pray for short trips.
  
• She LOVES the website starfall.com (a great website for teaching children the ABC's). Now when Greg or I are on the computer, she comes running at full speed yelling, "Fall. Lap. OK." Just as a side note: Her favorite letter is "M" and she asks for it first every time.
  
• Last Sunday we were practicing with the stake choirs for our upcoming stake conference. I am playing my violin with the children's choir and Greg is singing with the adult choir. Both choirs were singing a combined version of "I am a Child of God" and Emma and I were sitting in the back of the room to listen. As soon as she recognized the song she started singing full voice to the lyrics. When they were finished she was so excited she starting YELLING "YEA! YEA!" and clapping fanatically. The whole choir erupted in laughter. She then noticed Greg in the choir and yelled even louder, "Daddy! HI! Daddy!". More laughter followed. She certainly does not mind being the center of attention. Wonder where she gets that from?
  
• We just love our little miracle daughter!! We feel so grateful to be her parents.