Emily has been a singing machine! It's been so fun to watch her learn how to sing songs - and also super impressive at how much she memorizes lyrics! So far, Emily can sing Happy Birthday, the Alphabet, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, God is So Good (in english AND korean!), Old Macdonald, and a few songs from Little Baby Bum - her favorite tv show. It's been so so fun watching her sing - and she just loves to sing all the time. Sometimes, she'll just lie in her crib singing by herself. Other times, she loves to grab the mic on her mini piano and just sing straight into the mic. And the rest of the time, she just loves to sing all day long. It's pretty cute that she doesn't even want me to sing sometimes. She'll say "Emmy sing it!" and not let me sing along. Haha. Or otherwise, she demands I sing it first and then she sings afterwards.
It boggles my mind how much she can learn these songs. I mean, the alphabet is 26 letters. That's a lot to remember! I'm so incredibly proud of her and also thrilled that maybe music is in her genes! Maybe she'll be a singer like me!
She's also been really into dancing these days! Her dance moves have evolved from her baby days, and now she likes to move her arms up and down in alternating movements or do little fist pumps in the air and I'm surprised with the agility! Her old baby days, it was mostly just swinging her arms side to side. But this new coordination is pretty cute!
On another note - Emily has begun telling stories. It's pretty cute that she's learning to string words together to make sentences and turn them into stories. She also repeats these stories over and over and it's so interesting to see how her memory has improved so much. She remembers events from weeks ago. She remembers facts and details we tell her. This new brain development is so fascinating!
Emily's top stories: "Emmy fall down downstairs. Carol put bandaid Emmy face. Umma sorry." "Emmy fall down bed". "Santa Habujee - Emmy cry". "Habee take Emmy jokee". Haha, these stories crack me up! Emily fell down the stairs while I was talking to Sy's mom, and it was a pretty big fall. She fell from half the stairs downwards, and then bit her tongue on the way down and bled a little. Overall, she was fine, but she definitely loves telling this story. She recounts her story of how she cried when we tried to sit her on Santa's lap every time she sees someone wearing a santa costume. She has learned that "Santa bring Emmy presents!" but when I ask her if she wants to sit with Santa again, she says NO! Hahaha, what a greedy girl - wants the presents without the action to get it. Sy's mom once tossed Emily's vest to him to take down with the laundry, and Emily flipped out bc he took her vest. She cried and they eventually had to give it back bc she was relentless. And now, she will constantly tell us how her grandfather took her vest. Haha, I guess it was traumatic for her!
That being said - Emily's terrible 2s have come early. She now cries hard whenever we do something she doesn't like. It's surprising to see how the tantrums are so ridiculous. We tried to put a new green jacket on her, and she cried bc she wanted her black jacket. I told her no iPad right now, and it was full on crying. She doesn't want to take off her backpack - full on crying. When we tell her no, she cries. She throws things. It's very frustrating. The interesting thing is, she has somehow learned the concept of sorry. When she's been bad, we tell her to say sorry. And every time, she looks down, and quietly says sorry as if she were ashamed. I don't know how she learned this emotion or even this gesture, but it's so interesting that she understands that she was misbehaving. There was one time when she was being so tantrum-y, just yelling and crying and whining, but not using her words. And I kept yelling at her to say - I don't understand what you want! You have to use your words! You can't just whine bc I don't know what you want! Tell me what you want!!!! And finally, she looked at me sheepishly and in a nearly-whisper, she said "kka kka" (snack). I think she knew that she was being a brat about something unimportant, but it was still what she wanted. It has been a frustrating and trying time, but interesting regardless. (I will say - I just hope that she doesn't get any worse than this. Emily's cousin is in the terrible 2s as well, and she cries bloody murder for 1 hour if she doesn't get her way. I hope that we don't come to this!)
Emily's sentence structure has gotten better! She went from 2 word sentences like "emmy jacket" to now 3 to 4 word sentences like "emmy eat that," "emmy did it," "umma shower all done," "where are you?" It's pretty awesome to see her learn how to string words together. I've been told that Emily's speech development is pretty fast for her age. I hope that this never slows down and she just continues to excel!
In more fun developments, Emily has learned our names! She first learned my name because there's a song on Little Baby Bum about names, and the main character's name is Mia. So she learned Mia a while ago, but it was fun when she learned that my name was also Mia. So then she learned that appa's name is Sy. So when we test her, she's always right! We have now trained her on Adam's name, Carol's name, Gomo (Gina)'s name, and Gomoboo (Eric)'s name. She legit remembers, and it's really fun to watch her think as she tries to remember! She's even getting better at remembering where things are. Like if I tell her to go get her bubbles, she knows which drawer it's in (which is actually better than Sy - bc he never knows where all her toys go. haha). Even if I tell her about something she might not remember where it belongs, she remembers the general details and vicinity of things. For example, Emily has a picture flashlight that you has 3 different reels of film (purple, blue, green). One time, I was searching for the purple one bc it was missing, and I asked her - Emily - do you know where the purple one is? And I showed her the green one and the blue one, and i said - where's the purple one? And I watched her face comprehend that 1 of the 3 was missing. And she started looking around for the purple one. Haha. It's so interesting how she remembers. The funniest is when she remembers promises - like when we promise to give her a bite of chocolate after bathtime. She'll patiently sit through the lotion, diaper, putting on clothes process and then run out and look for chocolate. Despite so many things to distract her, she still remembered the chocolate process.
Emily's ability to count has become fun bc now she likes to shout 1, 2, 3, 4 before she runs or jumps. It used to be 1, 2, 3. Then it increased to 4. and sometimes she goes up to 6 before she propels herself. It's pretty funny. She still has a little trouble recognizing her numbers. She usually gets 1 right and 10 right. The rest is still shaky. Same for the alphabet - W is her best one. She can find W really well, but the others not as well.
Emily's stranger danger seems to have gone up to another peak. While she still doesn't cry, she seems to be recoiling more and burying her face in our bodies. And if she can't bury herself, she'll just close her eyes to avoid eye contact. While it's hysterical to watch her close her eyes, it's still hard to deal with bc you want your child to interact and be friendly with other people. It can be a little disheartening when other people (mainly adults like aunts and uncles) don't show her as much love bc she's being too shy to make them see what a fun little girl she is. And while I get that this is just who she is, she's just a shy person, it's hard on my soul to know that she isn't being fully her wonderful self in front of other people. Instead, they just see a somewhat rude, petulant toddler who won't say hi, won't smile, won't do high-five, won't give hugs, won't say thank you when she accepts your bribe, won't do anything - and no one likes that child. It's tough bc Carol is such a friendly, social girl. So the juxtaposition can be stark and also immediate when it comes to the lack of affection for Emily. I truly hope she gets over this phase soon and that people will get to see what a fun-loving girl she is.
Emily is such a little rascal and goofball. She loves to be mischievous and laugh at her own jokes/practical jokes. She makes herself laugh, and she loves to deliberately do the opposite of what you tell her - all while giving you a sly smile and side eye. It's super funny and cute to watch. Sometimes I wonder who she gets that from - me or Sy. Sy is one of the funniest people I know - so I wonder if Emily just has a good sense of humor bc of him. Or is she like me - just a corny goofball who likes simple jokes like "boo!"? One of her favorite jokes is to say "don't throwwwww" before she throws her puppy and lovey out of the crib. She cackles with laughter every time. She loves giving us funny kisses with her mouth wide open - just because it makes us go Nooooo! It's pretty sweet.
She's also little miss independent now. She's learned how to go down the slide by herself (or at least low ones), and she always says Emmy do it! or Emmy honjah (alone)! She wants to feed herself, and walk by herself. It's times like these that I feel so much like my baby is gone.
Food-wise, still loving all soups, maybe starting to come back to liking rice again. She's coming around on avocado again, and really loving clementines. She has been eating a little more frequently at her little table, but maybe bc she just is so active during her meal times. Her preferences and dislikes over specific snacks is annoying bc who wants to waste money throwing away snacks just bc she doesn't like that flavor anymore! Still hates animal crackers, starting to dislike ritz crackers, but going strong on all puffs.
It's been a busy month for us - celebrating Sy's birthday, Thanksgiving, and just doing lots of friends hangouts. It's been really wonderful to continue making new memories with Emily - our night drives to the city for pizza and cookies, blowing out birthday candles, playing with cousins, it's all been great. I can't wait to see how our Christmas enfolds as we make even more memories. The holidays are chaotic, but they sure are nice.
