word of the week

Emmett's word of the week is "t-ck."  What's he saying?  I'll give you a hint: it has wheels and is often used to haul things.  That's right, truck.  He is becoming obsessed with vehicles of all kinds.  What a typical boy, right?  He knows the word "car" too, but has trouble distinguishing between cars and trucks sometimes.  Anything with wheels right now is a "t-ck", including the trains at Barnes and Noble today.  Whenever a vehicle goes by the house, he stops everything and runs to the window and says, "t-ck" and I say, "yes, truck" hoping that he will eventually get the middle of the word too.  But I'm actually excited that he at least has both the beginning and ending sound of the word, because he leaves the ends off of most words right now.  I just wanted to share this, because I think its cute.  This is the first time he's shown a major interest in anything.

and the student becomes the teacher

In my last post I was wondering whether or not I am teaching Emmett enough.  Well it seems every time I question something, he shows me the answer.  The other day I was actively trying to work on body parts with him, like the parts of the face and other body parts.  Sometimes he will point to them when I ask, and other times he looks at me like I'm speaking Chinese.  Well the other night he was in the tub and without me even asking, he pointed to his nose and said "No."  (He doesn't get the ending on most words.)  "Good job!" I told him.  And then he pointed to his ear and said "Eh" which is the closest he can get to "ear" at this point.  I asked him where his mouth is and he touched his mouth and said "Mo."  I asked him to show me his eye and he just about poked himself in the eye.  We have to be careful with that one.  He knows where his belly is but he can't say it, and he knows where his peepee is and can say that one too.  And he knows and can say toe.  Then just a couple of days ago he pointed to his knee and said knee and I haven't even tried to teach him that.  It just goes to show that you can't force these things, they learn from watching the world around them.

Today the weather was pleasantly cool for June but still sunny.  So I postponed laundry to tomorrow and we headed to the park.  We stayed for nearly two hours and had a great time.  Emmett is getting really good at climbing the ladder to the one slide and he climbs the stairs up to the other slides too holding onto the handrails.  He even climbed the "rock wall" which is really just a plastic wall with little steps cut out, but its relatively steep.  Its been a few weeks since we have been to that playground and I was so impressed with how much more he could do this time.  We sat on the bench and he ate some raisins and drank some water from my nalgene bottle, only pouring it down himself once, which is pretty good considering its the wide mouth variety.  It was just nice to be outside without feeling like we're going to melt in the heat.  I hope this cool wave continues.

This is one of those days where I could eat an entire can of frosting with a spoon.  Good thing I don't have any.  Bummer.  Or a whole bag of marshmallows would do, but again, none in the pantry.  Maybe today is not a good day to go grocery shopping.  I'm afraid of what I might come home with.

This is how my thoughts flow

I don't really feel like posting, but I need to since its been too long.  So here goes the random flow of my thoughts.

Its getting harder and harder to get housework done lately.  Emmett is just all over the place and its getting so that I can't leave him alone in the living room for very long without him climbing on things he shouldn't.  And I don't want him right with me when I'm using cleaning products and things like that.  So, I just do a little bit every day and check on him a lot to make sure he's not scaling the walls.  Since I went back to work part time in January I have even less time for housework during the week.  At first it was kinda nice to be back at work, out among adults a few days a week.  But that has worn off now, and I really wish I could just be home with him.  I am especially starting to hate working on Saturday mornings.  By the time I get home from work its 12:30 and Emmett naps from 1:00 to 3:00, and then the day is almost over already before we even get to do anything as a family.  The weekends go by too fast and then its back to work, all week for Chris and just Monday and Tuesday for me.  Ho hum.

Most of the time I think I do a pretty good job of enjoying my time with Emmett and just loving being a mom.  But like a lot of moms sometimes I worry about things.  Recently I have begun to worry that maybe I don't spend enough time actively teaching my child.  Of course I provide him with educational toys and he watches a few educational kids TV shows each day.  And he brings me books and climbs into my lap and we read A LOT.  His vocabulary has literally exploded lately, to the point where Chris and I have started being more careful about what we say.  But I'm just not sure I am finding the right balance between structured learning time and free play.  I think free play is how most 18 month olds spend the majority of their day.  And part of the time I work with him on his shape sorter and he even uses it correctly on his own sometimes, but mostly he just plays with the blocks and the bucket.  And he has a farm animal puzzle that we work on sometimes, but mostly he just chews on the pieces.  And a lot of his books are about colors and I try to work on that with him, but I wouldn't say he really knows any of his colors.  He can say blue, but I'm not sure he recognizes the color.  But to bring it all back to my original point, I'm not sure how to know what the right balance is between structured learning and learning through play.  I have a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education, which you would think would make me more likely to overdo the educational aspect of being mom.  But a lot of days I'm not sure I'm doing enough active teaching.  And since he doesn't go to daycare, he isn't getting any other structured education, its up to me, which is the way I want it.

On that note, I have considered possibly getting him involved in some kind of preschool or playgroup or something like that to get him around other kids his age.  Our church has some kind of program like that and I've been meaning to find out more about it.  I also belong to a mommies group that sometimes meets for playdates with our kids.  It just seems like they don't have events often enough and when they do, they often don't fit in our schedule.  Now that Emmett has given up his morning nap we have that morning time that we could use for preschool or playdates.  I think for now I am going to focus more on making playdates with other kids his age.  He's a little young for preschool and we can't afford to tak him anywhere like a daycare center that charges a fee.  Unless I went to work while he was there.  But then I'd barely break even.  And I'd much rather be with him.

Tomorrow afternoon we are taking him bowling for the first time.  My mommies group is going and kids can play free for the whole summer.  So we'll see how he does.  I'm mostly afraid he will just want to run all around the bowling alley and not stay anywhere near our lane.  My child knows no boundaries.  I will take pictures and fill you in later!

Memorial Day Weekend Beach Trip

This is the best picture of the three of us out on the beach in Oak Island, NC.  We are so spoiled because Chris's grandparents live at the beach and we can go anytime we want, its just a 4 hour drive.  We had a great time.  Emmett loved the beach this year.  Last year he was only 6 months and he mostly sat under the umbrella on a blanket.  He was just sitting up on his own then and I was too afraid to let him get sand all over him or get "dirty seawater" on him.  It took me about the first year to get over that kind of stuff.  This year he ran all over the beach and through the water.  He got covered in sand and had a blast.  At first he wasn't very good at walking through the waves, he kept losing his balance and falling down.  He was like a little drunk baby.  But on the second day he got better at it and by the third day on the beach he was a pro.  He ran through the waves without any hesitation.  He ran up and down the beach stopping to say hi to everyone we passed.  Here are some more pictures of him on the beach.

Yes, I am actually posting pictures of me in a bathing suit on the internet.  I am finally satisfied with my current weight, even though I am still Whitey McWhiterson.  Can't help that.  Nothing is more hideous than a redhead with a fake tan.  Emmett mastered the skill of drinking from a water bottle.  He refused to drink water from his sippy cup all weekend.  Chris and I drank plenty of Bud Light Lime.

Here he is drinking from his own water bottle.  He seemed to be less likely to drop it in the sand if we put a coozy on it.

Here he is sitting in the water watching his sand toys float all around him.

Building a sand castle with Pawpaw.

Running on the beach.  He was full speed the whole time.

Here is all three of our footprints.  Chris is on the left, Emmett is obviously in the middle, and mine is on the right.  I know, my footprint is the same size as Chris's.  He has small feet for a guy and I have big feet for a girl (only size 9, nothing crazy though).  Emmett's little footprints in the sand were just too cute so I wanted to take this picture with all of ours.

The weekend was over way too fast.  Not sure when we're going back, but I can't wait!