Lunch....

...or how to get crumbs in your hair, in your diaper, all over the floor and manage to still be hungry.

Emma isn't really a picky eater, and for that i'm grateful. She'll usually game to try anything you hand to her; but of course, she must smell it, mush it in her hands, pull it apart and then (and only then!) will she try it. Emma does love fruit...she will try to eat her weight in strawberries, grapes, apples, bananas. Grapes are currently her favorite, followed closely by strawberries. I've always had fruit on hand so i'm thrilled that she loves fruit.

But veggies?

sigh...not so much. I've tried drizzling melted cheese on broccoli and i thought that i had won that round until i noticed that she was sucking the cheese off of the broccoli and putting the sucked broccoli carcass under her plate. Where she learned that trick, i have no idea! I've also tried corn on the cob and it's no-go too...she sucks the butter off and leaves the rest. Maybe veggies are just one of those things that you have to continue to offer?

Nap time is also becoming a challenge....i think that Emma thinks that she's going to miss something, so she does her best to stay awake. And, in doing that, i have a cranky guata-tot on my hands. A friend told me not to give up and to continue putting her down because at the age of two, she still needs to nap...even if all she is doing is using her crib as a trampoline. (Thanks, Missy for the advice...your the best!) The only good thing that has come out of our challenging nap time is a much earlier bedtime. But, long gone are the twice a day naps that "i" loved so much!

As for talking, well, she's a singer and a talker. Her words are becoming more clearer-i understand them, lol, but i don't think that others do sometimes. And singing....the child loves, loves, loves to sing. I am constantly amazed at how quickly she picks up a song's words. Granted, we are singing A LOT so maybe that's why. Emma can do the ABC Song by herself which is so dang cute. We are working on some Spanish nursery rhymes so that's been really fun for the both of us. I just feel sad that my beautiful little daughter sings like me and sounds like a cat in heat. Hopefully, as she gets older, her singing voice will improve!

We are coming up on our second anniversary as a family in July. How fast this time has flown by...it seems like yesterday that we were in Guatemala meeting Emma. There are moments in your life that you can truly never forget and that you can re-call all of the details of vividly; meeting Emma is one of those moments for me. I remember everything about that day-peeking through the peek hole at our hotel door when i heard the elevator open and seeing her for the first time, how tiny and perfect she was, how she smelled and how she nestled to me as i sat down with her alone in the next room and fell asleep. It was the most perfect moment of my life...

...unlike those 'special' moments spent cleaning up from Emma's lunch, lol...