23 Months

I can't believe that we are one month away from Emma's second birthday. Brad put it best last night when he said that he wished we could slow down time a bit and enjoy this age even more. She is becoming quite a little character and on the one hand can be such a little girly girl and on the other hand, hang with the boys. She absolutely loves her friends and is always ready to give them a hug and a kiss.
Emma's vocabulary continues to explode and every time we see a Starbucks, she has to yell out "Barbucks" (please note that we don't go there as often as you might think based on the fact that Emma recognizes it right off). The other morning she handed Brad one of her pacifiers and then asked him "Where's the other paci?". Emma had a huge revelation over the weekend that she is in fact, Emma. It is not that she hasn't known who she was and responded to her name but she would never actually say her name but now when you ask who she is, the answer is "Emma".
We introduced her to Sesame Street this past month and she loves Melmo (Elmo) and Abby Cadabby. While she has dropped most of the signs that she learned, she will still use the more sign especially when she wants more Abby.
We are working on potty training but not with a real concerted effort. She definitely recognizes when she needs to or has gone so things are moving in the right direction. We are thinking about trying out the big girl bed in the next few weeks so we'll see how that goes.
Emma loves to "help Mommy" with everything these days, from baths for Josh to making dinner and grocery shopping. She still loves her brother and for the most part is so good with him. Her one trouble spot is that she likes to steal his pacifier since she only gets hers for sleeping. We're still working on being gentle but she'll get there. I am sure that she'll continue to awe us over this next month.