Double Trouble

It has been WAY too long since I posted! The girls have changed so much I don't even know where to start.
Though only eleven months old (how crazy is THAT?), Emi has officially crossed over into the Toddler Realm. She began walking two weeks before Christmas, and runs now! She is extremely opinionated, much more prone to fits than Camila was at that age, but Camila also never had a big sister there to consistently foil her plans. Overall, though, she is the HAPPIEST child you will ever see, and entertains herself easily. One of her favorite games right now involves a farm animal peek-a-boo book. The animals have their faces covered by a flap in the form of their "arms". She lifts the flaps, squealing, "Boo!" and giggles away until the next page.
Now that she has walking down, she is determined to master speech. So far she says "boo," "hi," "bye-bye," "go," "all done", "nigh'-nigh'," "up," "ball," "cat," "puppy," and I have a witness to vouch for me when I say the other day, she said "squishy". She tries to repeat other words but they aren't clear enough to really count. (Like when I try to get her to say "Up PLEASE", she will repeat the "p-p-p" sound but can't get the whole word out yet.) She also signs "more," "dog," and "eat". She blows me kisses when I leave. It's absolutely amazing how quickly she's growing.

Camila's growth is has slowed down physically, but mentally she continues to mature. For instance, last week I was teasing that I needed her blanket or something, and she firmly informed me, "It's not OURS. It's MINE." Quite an impressive grasp of grammar for a two year old!

She constantly cracks me up. A couple weeks ago I was struggling with a picture frame. She watched me trying to pry the tabs open with a screwdriver. Finally she said rather gravely, "I think you're too little."

We play pretend a lot. One of my favorite things to do is pretend I'm a baby and she's the mother. She never goes along with it, but always bursts into giggles when I go, "Waaa! Change my diapee!" She laughs and squeal, "You don't have a diapee!"

One thing has been bittersweet. She is realizing already that not all children have a nanny. She watches Olivia, a cartoon about a little pig's adventures at school and at home. Olivia's mother is constantly on the scene, fixing her lunch, driving her back and forth to school, going to the grocery store, putting her to bed, reading to her...most of which I do for her. Then Camila goes to "school" where she sees children crying for their mommies, not their nannies. We go to gymnastics, where every adult is "so-and-so's mommy".

When we're in the grocery store, every adult makes a comment referring to me being their mom. She finds it amusing, turning around in the cart with a grin and asking, "You're my mommy?!"

I act surprised and go, "I am?!"

She'll giggle and go, "No! You're Baba!"

But she has experimented here and there. When I was putting her down for nap one day, she hugged me tight and clipped out, "Goodnight, mom!"

I froze but kept my voice light. "What did you say?" When she repeated it, I squeezed her tight. "Goodnight....DAD!"

She giggled. "I'm not dad!"

"Well I'm not mom!"

She laughed and went to bed, and usually she only does it when she wants attention or sometimes in the store, as a joke. But she has gotten clingier to her mom (not necessarily a bad thing) and occasionally is less-than-happy when I come in to work because she knows it means her mom is leaving. It saddens me in that she used to be so happy to see me every morning and would ask for me all weekend, but it's good that she's recognizing who her mother is and has some loyalty to her. For now, Emi gets excited when I come in!

We have fun during the day anyway, and yesterday I was showered with hugs and kisses before I left. Here are a couple pictures just to update you: