Happy Halloween

What will Emily be for Halloween this year? A toddler, apparently! That's right, no costume this year.

I just assumed that we would dress Emily as a lamb because this is the costume that we had from when Abbie was this age (http://our-first-baby.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html). However, two problems emerged. First, I had forgotten that the costume was actually a bit big on Abbie when she was one. Emily is even smaller than Abbie was, so the costume would be huge on her.

Why wouldn't I be a good mom, and go buy a smaller costume, you ask? Well, that leads us to problem number two. Emily has developed very strong preferences about what she will and will not wear. If she decides that she doesn't want to be put into a costume, then no amount of coaxing is going to get it on her. She is very opinionated and stubborn about this. This past weekend, she dictated what she was willing to wear, and on Sunday, I never did get a shirt on her. She spent the first half of the day wandering around topless, and the second half of the day wearing a little sweatshirt that she finally decided would be acceptable.

Her preferred outfit lately has been a diaper, socks and shoes. She seems to think that is sufficient for leaving the house, and really can't understand why we insist on more. She is also getting very insistent on getting herself dressed and she gets really upset if anyone tries to help in even the slightest way. Yes, she is just barely 17 months, and already she is a full-blown two-year-old!

Me

In my last post I noted that Emily has been hesitant to say her own name. It seems, however, that she has come up with an interesting solution for tackling this tough word. She now refers to herself as "me". I think it is her shortened form of "Emily" or "Emmie", but it is ironic that it also happens to be the pronoun we use to describe ourselves. I don't think she realizes this at all, and it is funny that she has stumbled upon something to call herself that makes so much sense in the context of the English language. It is also funny to hear her wandering around the house declaring, "Me! Me! Me!"