Status Report...

I haven't included much of an update on Em's development lately. So, for the record, here ya go!

Em continues to grow and is catching up on the growth charts at the pediatrician's office. She weighs a little over 26 1/2 pounds and is around 31 inches tall. She's still a tiptoe walker and is still receiving physical therapy once a week for tightness in her legs and trunk.

Emily had a speech assessment when she was 26 mos. old and while she was assessed as being at 30 mos. in language comprehension, she was only at 11 mos. in verbal language. Even though she's one smark cookie, she was listed as being "severely delayed" in verbal language and it was recommended that she receive speech therapy once a week for a year in order to help correct this.

She's now 27 mos. old and has had visits to speech therapy. At this point, I'm frustrated with the results... while speech therapy for toddlers is considered play-based, it seems that all we're doing at speech therapy is the play part right now. Emily hasn't quite warmed up to the speech therapist yet and she's not one to talk on command.

As of today, Emily is very fond of saying: Josh, uh-oh, What is that?, What is this?, cheese, whoa, and she's been experimenting quite a bit lately with "bi..." as in the first half of word "big".

She'll also throw in a small dose of: mom-mom, dada, and Are you ready?

She loves to, swing, play on the slide, play with her alphabet puzzles, build tall towers, blow bubbles, wrestle with Daddy, pet and hug our cat, and staying at Grandma and Papa's. She likes to tease her family, look at picture books and play with her new friend, Alexis, at the babysitter's.

She's become a picky eater over the past couple of months. She loves raisins, strawberries, grapes, peaches, plums, mandarin oranges, apples, and bananas and will turn her head away and say "Na" to most melon, and pineapple. In the vegetable category, her favorites at the moment are peas, lima beans, corn, mashed potatoes, and french fries or smiley fries (if those can technically be classified as vegetables). She turns her nose up at carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and other semi-crunchy veggies.

She will gladly eat cheese slices, peanut butter crackers, chipped ham, fish sticks, and the occasional chicken nugget although not a favorite. She loves cereal, pop-tarts, milk and a variety of juices. And, Grandpa has introduced her to the joy of ice cream, cookies, and other treats.

Em likes to help around the house. She likes to help clean the table after she's done eating and helps push a lightweight sweeper around the house. She gladly puts away her toys when asked, loves taking a bath and loves brushing her teeth.

We have a large foam alphabet puzzle on the floor in Emily's bedroom, a wooden alphabet puzzle and a Leap Pad magnetic alphabet toy. We bought these because she tends to like playing with letters. We have played with these toys for quite a while and never tried to drill into her the letter names. If I ask her to bring me a certain letter, she can identify all the letters in the puzzles most of the time. Every now and then she gets them mixed up, but sheesh, she's just barely over 2 years old. ;-) She can also identify quite a few shapes if I ask her for them (rectangle, circle, square, triangle, half-circle, moon and sometimes even the pentagon, and hexagon).

On most days, Emily is still very easy going and well-behaved. She still loves her big brother and her family and her pets. Life is good.