Monday, October 31, 2005
Singing Sister
There are so many neat things to tell you about Emily Anne from the past few weeks. Her personality is really developing and her vocabulary is exploding by the hour!
One momentous accomplishment is her behavior during a recent trip to the pharmacy. This was no ordinary trip. The Dreifuss Family stood in line for nearly two hours waiting to receive free flu shots (thank you, Blue Cross/Blue Shield!). During this time, Emily squirmed and fidgeted, but no meltdown occurred! She really is to be commended. I fully expected her to liquify into a heap of tantrum, but I was pleasantly surprised and proud.
Another major milestone is her growing familiarity and fascination with games. This brings tears to my eyes. :) She now knows the word 'game' and when we mention it, she gets excited, goes for the closet, and sits in the middle of the floor - the designated game playing area. She deals out Memory cards to Big Bird, Elmo, Belle, and any humans that happen to be around. So she hasn't quite figured out exactly how the game works, but she is picking up things here and there. We're using the Memory game as mostly a lesson in vocabulary for now.
The third story comes from our bedtime routine. After the teeth are brushed and the pj's are on, we pick out a book to read. The book of the night was "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." After I read the title, Em starts to sing the song!! She doesn't have all the words down yet, but she has the first few of each verse, and she has the melody down pat. It's an awesome thing to hear her sing on her own. And her voice is so angelic! Hopefully I'll be able to record it and post it to the site sometime soon.
Now for the final story for today. I have been thinking lately of how to explain to Emily Anne that a new baby is coming, and that she'll be a big sister. I do stuff like point to Meg's belly and tell her that a baby is in there. It's hard to explain concepts like this to a toddler. But the following makes me think I underestimate her powers of comprehension.
I tell her that she's going to be a big sister and that she's going to have a baby brother or baby sister coming soon. She says the words 'baby','brother', and 'sister.' Dad is impressed. Then, she goes to the refrigerator where we have some magnets with the names and stylized pictures of the different people in a family. She brings over the ones for brother and sister. She then hands me the one for brother and points to it! Now maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I think Em wants d4 to be a boy! I wish that voting counted when determining gender. :)
Well, tomorrow we should find out if 'It's a Boy!' or 'It's a Girl!'
There are so many neat things to tell you about Emily Anne from the past few weeks. Her personality is really developing and her vocabulary is exploding by the hour!
One momentous accomplishment is her behavior during a recent trip to the pharmacy. This was no ordinary trip. The Dreifuss Family stood in line for nearly two hours waiting to receive free flu shots (thank you, Blue Cross/Blue Shield!). During this time, Emily squirmed and fidgeted, but no meltdown occurred! She really is to be commended. I fully expected her to liquify into a heap of tantrum, but I was pleasantly surprised and proud.
Another major milestone is her growing familiarity and fascination with games. This brings tears to my eyes. :) She now knows the word 'game' and when we mention it, she gets excited, goes for the closet, and sits in the middle of the floor - the designated game playing area. She deals out Memory cards to Big Bird, Elmo, Belle, and any humans that happen to be around. So she hasn't quite figured out exactly how the game works, but she is picking up things here and there. We're using the Memory game as mostly a lesson in vocabulary for now.
The third story comes from our bedtime routine. After the teeth are brushed and the pj's are on, we pick out a book to read. The book of the night was "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." After I read the title, Em starts to sing the song!! She doesn't have all the words down yet, but she has the first few of each verse, and she has the melody down pat. It's an awesome thing to hear her sing on her own. And her voice is so angelic! Hopefully I'll be able to record it and post it to the site sometime soon.
Now for the final story for today. I have been thinking lately of how to explain to Emily Anne that a new baby is coming, and that she'll be a big sister. I do stuff like point to Meg's belly and tell her that a baby is in there. It's hard to explain concepts like this to a toddler. But the following makes me think I underestimate her powers of comprehension.
I tell her that she's going to be a big sister and that she's going to have a baby brother or baby sister coming soon. She says the words 'baby','brother', and 'sister.' Dad is impressed. Then, she goes to the refrigerator where we have some magnets with the names and stylized pictures of the different people in a family. She brings over the ones for brother and sister. She then hands me the one for brother and points to it! Now maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I think Em wants d4 to be a boy! I wish that voting counted when determining gender. :)
Well, tomorrow we should find out if 'It's a Boy!' or 'It's a Girl!'
