Saturday, March 26, 2011

More Words

Emmett is adding to his verbal arsenal. He is saying monkey, What's that (sounds like, "sssah?" as he points to different objects), no no, yeah, yay, and a few others that I can't remember at the moment. The flood of words is beginning! Emmett definitely seems more and more boy, rather than baby, with each word he says. My oh my, time sure goes by quickly when you're having fun.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Protective Instincts

For those who haven't heard, we are in the process of buying a house and are hoping to close by the end of the week. I went to pick up some boxes to use for our move at a Wizards of the Coast store (a gaming company) with Liliana and Emmett in tow. When we got off the elevator and walked into the office's lobby, we were greeted by a giant dragon (at least 9 feet tall) hanging from the ceiling. Emmett was so excited that he wriggled out of my arms and started running toward the dragon. Liliana let out a yelp and ran after him. She yelled, "No!" and grabbed the back of Emmett's shirt and started pulling him back. "I don't want it to eat you!" she cried out. I laughed and explained to Liliana that it wasn't real, but she still didn't trust Emmett anywhere near it. It was quite adorable.

Emmett is saying more words now - though they often require parental interpretation. He says Hi, bye, ball, outside, cracker, dirty, and - my personal fav - no touch. That last one is usually repeated over and over as Emmett removes the little plastic covers from our electrical outlets. It is also occasionally stated when he starts playing with the handle on the diaper pail or pulling on my shoe rack, knocking all my shoes to the ground. He attempts to say Liliana and banana - which both sound the same coming from him - but needs a bit more practice before we can really claim that he says either. He still uses a lot of sign language and does rather well with communicating his wants/needs that way. What a big boy he's getting to be!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Tutus and Tiaras

Liliana and Emmett don't want to be held down by was is considered "normal" behavior for their sex.
Example 1: Liliana comes out of her room in a princess dress and runs down the hall yelling, "Peeeew Peew - I got you!" When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I'm dying the bad guys so they don't die me."
Example 2: Emmett finds one of Liliana's tutu's in the toy box and brings it over to me to put on him. Once he's wearing it, he happily returns to playing with the other toys.
Example 3: Emmett brings me Liliana's princess tiara and holds it up to me. Thinking he wanted me to wear it, I put it on my head. He reaches for it so I lean over and let him pull it off of me. He holds it up to his head and I realize he wants to wear it himself. I put it on his head and he smiles happily and starts playing with other things. He returns to me for help in putting the tiara back on several times as it slips down during play.
Example 4: Liliana borrowed Emmett's Lightning McQueen Pajamas that he received for his birthday (they were a little big for him). When I asked her why she took her brother's pj's, she responded with, "They are for boys, but that's Ok. I like Lightning McQueen."
Example 5: The other day Emmett found his nice Sunday shoes in his closet and brought them to me to put on him. He proudly wore them around the house for over an hour.
Liliana has only boys as 1st cousins and only one girl second cousin who lives in the area, but is much younger than her. There is only one little girl at church close(ish) to her age (about 9 or 10 months older) and all the other kids in her age group are boys. It amazes me the kinds of things she picks up from all those boys.
I find it fairly interesting to think about society's role that tells us what is or isn't acceptable for girls or boys to do. I wonder how things would be if my first born was a boy and my second was a girl. Emmett is more than happy to mimic his big sister's behavior and unless someone told him so, he'd never know that there was anything different about when he wears his sister's tutus and tiaras than when she does. If a little sister copies her big brother's behavior, she's a tom-boy. Tough girls are much more readily accepted around here than boys who copy their big sisters. I wonder why "acting boyish" -whether you are a boy or a girl - is alright, but doing girly things is looked upon in a more negative or weak light. Well, someone else is going to have to break the news to my son that he's not supposed to wear tutus and tiaras because I think it's cute and he's having too much fun for me to rain on his parade.