I have a toddler!

So, I keep vowing to update my blog more often.  Obviously I'm failing at that.  But I have a good reason.  Emma is keeping us busy these days.  She's not walking yet, but I would definitely call her a toddler now.  She has completely dropped her second nap, and right now takes one nap at about 11:15.  I've been able to start playpen time in the afternoon for an hour a day, which is awesome.  We tried a few months ago and she just cried and cried, but now she plays with her toys.  When she gets bored, she cuddles with her stuffed dog.  It's a nice little rest period for her and a good break for me!  Our biggest issue right now is feeding.  She used to eat anything and everything, especially her fruits and veggies.  However, for probably 2 weeks or so, she has hardly been eating anything.  Absolutely no fruits and veggies.  Even the foods she loved she won't touch.  She knocks the spoon or fork out of our hands, and if we let her feed herself, she drops everything in the floor.  I'm trying to let her feed herself a lot more, because I know she wants to start being more independent.  But she seems to have no appetite.  I know this is fairly normal with toddlers, but she's on the small side to begin with and she's not putting on any weight.  She has started eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but today she didn't want that either.  Needless to say, mealtime is stressful in our home right now.  Emma is crawling everywhere and she loves pushing her push toys all over the house.  She tries to pull up on everything and clearly she wants to be walking.  She talks like crazy!  She is constantly babbling ("zaps" is her new favorite word), and she knows several actual words now (hi, bye bye, ball, bubbles, dog, ruff ruff, mama, dada, book, truck, milk, all done).  She imitates us all the time.  She is still learning signs; she has more, eat, milk, eat and sleepy (or nap or bedtime) down, and we're working on please and thank you now.  Her favorite new thing to do is to put toys in containers.  She puts her shape toys in the sorter (not the right ones yet, but she's trying); in fact, she puts everything in something.  I found her baby doll's hat in her shape sorter toy yesterday.  She knows to put the basketballs in the goal; she puts her cars in our shoe container. 

Besides the eating issue, we're doing great.  She is almost always tons of fun to be around.  She's getting a little sense of humor, which is so funny.  She loves to swim and we've had fun this summer in both the little pool and some big pools.  Our hotel in Chicago has an indoor pool, so she'll be able to swim more there.  I'm really looking forward to our trip, even though it will be pretty short.  I need a vacation!