Week of August 12 - Fascinating Things

Like so many parents, my daughter never ceases to amaze me. Every day there are new things and accomplishments in Emily's life. Sometimes they are big, sometimes small, sometimes just fascinating.

This week it was fascinating things.

First fascinating thing. Monday's I work from home and Emily stays home that day as well. It is something we have done since we came home from China and we both love it. In most cases I am able to adjust my work calendar so that Monday's are limited interactions with others at work, and so I can pace my days work around Emily's schedule. Sometimes it does not quite work out that perfect and I end up needing to be in a Conference and cannot line it up to be when she is napping. This week was one of those situations. I needed to take a conference call from 11:00 to 12:00 and so I needed to get Emily fairly well settled into some activities so that I could be focused in the conference call. This can be tough because when she sees me on the phone she often wants to inject herself into the conversations if she can. My co-workers can attest to that fact. LOL.

Anyway, Emily is settled in reading some books and seems to be good to go so I dial into the call. Everything is fine, I'm poking my head around the corner every now and then to check on her. About half way through the call she pokes her head around the corner and wants to chat me up. So I am balancing two conversations and a mute button all at once. Eventually Emily returns to what she was doing and I continue my call. Well about 15 minutes later the call is done and I go to check on Emily as it has gotten kind of quite in the last 5-10 minutes in the family room. What do I find? I find that Emily has finished her little bowl of goldfish crackers, has positioned pillows just so on the couch, and has climbed up to lay down and take a nap. ALL by herself, and with her favorite little blanket pulled over her, and the empty plastic bowl still clutched in her arms. It was just so adorable, and she was deep a sleep. It was still a little early for her nap time, but no worries, as she varies a little bit day to day on that. Here is a cute little photo of my adorable daughter, for the very first time having tucked herself in for her nap. I was so proud of her. She was tired, and I was busy, so she took the initiative to settle in to nap all on her own. She slept for a little over an hour, and then popped right back up all chipper and giggly and asked for some watermelon.


The next fascinating thing is Emily's progress on drawing skills. We initially let Emily draw on scrap paper with a pencil. She got the hang of things pretty quick, and so a couple months ago we bought her some of the Fischer Price magnetic drawing tablets. She has one of these at our house and over at Nancy's parents house. She loves to draw, knows how to work the slide eraser, and is getting pretty good at her drawing skills. That said, I was amazed to find this morning one of her first really good drawings of a tree on her tablet. Wow. That caught me by surprise. Here is a photo of a tree that she drew.


I'm not sure how far her skills are going to progress, but we will definitely keep providing her with equipment, materials, and assistance to encourage her to the extent she has interest. I can tell you that Emily and that drawing tablet follow us around the house A LOT. :)

So now I am really glad that I decided to buy her a proper drawing desk. Nancy thought it was a little early for this, but there are a lot of things that are really 3 years + for children that I have found Emily quite good at using as she approached 2 years of age. So, while I'm not willing to load the pen/pencil holder slots with unsupervised use yet (I'm not crazy, and I like my walls the color they are, LOL) I do have to say she does enjoy her new desk and chair. It took her all of about one minute to scope out the built in desk lamp and toggle the switch (on top) to the on position. My little gadget girl never misses a button on anything it seems. Anyway, now I am very interested to see where she goes with drawing and similar activities over the coming months at her new drawing desk (photo below).


Once again, thank you to our friends and family who stop in regularly here to check in and catch up on Emily adventures. More to come next week :)