New Skills

In addition to talking, Emily and Caleb have been working on several other skills that will come in handy later on in life.
Last night Emily got all dressed up, grabbed a wire rack, and started serving cake all around. She dropped the wire rack a couple of times but was very careful to scoop all the crumbs off the carpet before proceeding with her work. I love her oven mitt.
Caleb has taken a strong interest in the piano and works really hard to improve his skills. His first major hurdle - being tall enough to reach the keyboard - has been passed. Now he has enlisted Emily to help him arrange the sheet music (since that is still out of his reach). Don't they make a great team?

Though I am most often surprised by how old Emily is getting and by how quickly she is growing, I am sometimes struck my how much of a baby she still is. I think she looks so young in these pictures!














One marker of her innocence is her inability to lie. It is like that option hasn't yet crossed her mind. For example, a couple of months ago while I was still having trouble with Emily climbing into Caleb's crib, I walked into her room during nap time and caught her about half way up the railing. I said, "Emily, what are you doing?" And she said, "I climb into baby's bed!" Oh. Right. Duh. So then I said, "Why are you climbing into the baby's bed? You need to stay in your bed!" and she said, "I a push baby down!" She uses "a" as a filler word when she can't pronounce the word she wants.
So, yeah, she's innocent of lying, but she's not so innocent when it comes to how she treats the little guy. In her defense though, he is quite the little tag-along and he's a hair puller.
I think it's good for both of them to have the other around so one day they will be able to associate with other people without pulling hair or pushing.