Emmy Lou's Adventures: What?! 19 months old, already?!

19 months sounds a lot older than 18 months. Doesn't it? I can't believe how fast our little baby is growing. I know that parents say that all the time, but I really can't. Emmeline has always been a little ahead of the curve (or at least I like to think so) and she certainly shows no signs of slowing down. She is now regularly speaking in simple sentences. Among others, she says: "I do it!", "See them", "I see you!", "There she is!", "Fix it!", "I hold it!", "I love you!" and she adds "Hi" to most peoples' names (including the cats). She sings parts of quite a few songs. This month's favorites include "The Wheels on the Bus," "Sing a song" (from Sesame Street), "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee," "Row row row your boat," and "Shoes" (also from Sesame Street). She is getting quite adept at recognizing letters and can just about put her entire alphabet puzzle together by herself. She is getting better about responding to commands like, "Can you please bring that to mommy?" and "Can you help clean up, please?". She likes to be a little helper by cleaning up her tray when she is done eating, putting things in the garbage ("Away! Away!") and putting dirty dishes on the counter.

In addition to these very positive growing and learning experiences, she had her first major meltdown last Friday. She screamed, whined and threw things for about an hour. I spoke to her calmly, got down to her level and tried to get her to look me in the eyes. This didn't really seem to work so at one point I put her in her crib to calm down while I sat in the rocker and continued to speak calmly to her. This didn't work either. She probably doesn't understand all of what I am saying but at least she hears that my tone is calm and even. Hopefully she got then hint that screaming and throwing things doesn't get results. Even if these things didn't seem to work in the moment, she hasn't had another temper tantrum yet. Here's hoping!