Well Emma decided that she is just too busy to write journal entries anymore, so I guess I’ll have to fill in for her! March has been a big month for the Abdalla family. Ruthie is so busy and active and wants desperately to crawl so that she can keep up with her big sister. The girls have the most amazing love for each other; Ruthie reacts to Emma like she reacts to no one else. Emma will walk up to her, rub her head and say, “What a cute little guy!” Ruthie giggles.
Emma is big on rhyming this month. One day she said, “Mom, does seven rhyme with heaven?” She walks around and makes up her own rhymes.
She goes to sleep with two backpacks, her binoculars, her nini night night, her baby Pnine and a “fresh” sippy cup of water. There is hardly room in the bed for Emma. As soon as she wakes up in the morning she immediately gets suited up in her exploration gear (bed head and all) and heads down for breakfast. After breakfast she asks me if I’d like to go exploring (usually in the living room, “big jungle,” or the dining room, “rain forest”). She is constantly taking us through wild adventures in our own living room. We have to creep on the floor to duck under the vines, or we have to jump off of the step to hurdle snake creek.
Steve and I are constantly marveling at Emma’s imagination and speech. The other day she told me her nini was missing. She said, “It must be on vacation, Mom.” Then she giggled and said, “Huh, how’d I come up with that? That’s silly!” She also told us that Boots the monkey from Dora the Explorer is from El Salvador.
Em speaks beautifully but has some usual two-year-old pronunciation difficulties. Her G’s would sound like D’s and her C’s would sound like T’s. Last week she decided to correct herself and teach herself proper pronunciation. She came up to me and said, “Mom, Gorilla, not Dorilla!” and “That’s Cool, Mom, not Tool!” She was so proud of herself as I was of her! It’s pretty cute.
Emma is now writing lots of letters. She writes H, I, T, L, M, N, O, E and A.
She has gotten very good at sharing her toys without the fear that she would never get them back. If I say, “Em, it is Sadie’s turn with the ball,” she will say, “And then she will give it back and it can be my turn again, Mom?” During the Olympics she would hear the Star Spangled Banner played frequently. A couple of weeks after the Olympics ended I heard her humming a familiar tune. I thought, “Is that the Star Spangled Banner?” I then began to sing the words to the tune she was humming and she got so excited that the song has words! She wanted to learn them right away. It is pretty hilarious hearing a 2 year old say 'Ramparts!'
Ruthie is most huggable and squishable! She is a very inquisitive child and studies people very closely. Many strangers even comment on how intently she makes eye contact. She is now moving herself from her tummy to a sitting position. She is also scooting backwards as well as rocking on her hands and knees. She wants to go forward but finds herself further and further away from her intended target. Hopefully we will have some crawling news to report next month!
The other evening she was in the tub and she would let go of a toy by accident. It would float to the other side of the bathtub, so she would start splashing the water like crazy. I finally figured out that she was splashing to get the toy to come back to her— and it worked, the little smarty-pants! She also likes to bang on the floating toy drum in the bath. When music plays she rocks and bounces to the beat. Whenever she awakens (even if someone awakens her) she greets you with an irresistible smile. Her big sister makes her smile and belly laugh just by getting close to her.
Ruthie’s hair is surprisingly light and her eyes haven’t yet declared their permanent color. She has finally started to sleep through the night! One odd night this month, though, both girls were wide-awake at 4am, so we ended up having a little girl snack time!
This month we celebrated two important birthdays—cousin Michael’s 4th in Cleveland, and cousin Faith’s 2nd in Indy. Faith invited us to Sesame Street Live on her birthday. It was great to see the kids react to the characters as they saw them in person. Emma was a little bummed that Ernie wouldn’t directly greet her from the stage as he so openly talks to her at home as a puppet on my hand.
We look forward every time we go to Cleveland to spend quality time with the Abdalla side of the family. Sittoo and Giddoo are always so gracious and loving. We'll have more Abdalla-family news next month (April) for the big Easter reunion.
Sorry about the delay in getting March posted. Hopefully April will post on time!
Blessings to you all.