Draft written by Shannon, posted by her mom, Gretchen.

My sweet, darling Emmie,

Could you be any cuter? Or sweeter? Or funnier? Your personality is just blossoming and it is absolutely delightful. You are suddenly quite the ham and so much more outgoing than I ever would have guessed. You run up to those you love with your mouth open in sheer delight, even if it’s been months since you’ve seen them. Wherever two or three are gathered, there you are, making sure every pair of eyes is watching whatever adorable thing you decide to do next.

You are starting to use 2 words together more consistently and you are starting to use those combinations to express more ideas. You are starting to talk about past events more, which makes it challenging because I have to use a lot more context and memory to figure out that you are sharing something with me, not asking for it.

You are also using your ever-increasing communicative power to ceaselessly make your wishes known. You are a Tiny Tyrant, and we are but your huge slaves to command (or so you seem to think). You tell us exactly how everything should run, and heaven help us if we ever try to cross your path. You are also an incredibly demanding lady of the house and you will make an excellent inspector of a 5 star hotel or any place that demands immaculate perfection. My housekeeping, on the other hand, will never meet your standards. It’s a challenge to try to reason with you about how the dirty dishes in the sink that you call to my attention will never get done if you insist on staying in my arms (as you often do). It’s a real catch-22, since you refuse to be put down, yet also refuse to let me forget about those darn dishes.

You love to play and are getting ever more adventurous in your explorations. Always cautious, it’s wonderful to see you running that funny little stiff-legged toddler run across a playground or in our yard. It’s a far cry from a few months ago when you would cry if I asked you to set one dainty foot in the grass. You’ll walk in snow, across rocks, uphill and down, and almost anywhere your little legs can take you.

You LOVE to help and especially love helping me cook and clean (definitely not from my genes, but I’ll take it!). You are happiest when you have some kind of a task to do. You are actually pretty decent at doing a lot of things. You still need some help for some things, but you are really quite capable. You can feed Jasper, you can put your dishes & silverware in their drawer, you can open and close most lids, you can “stir,” you can

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Pictures added by Gretchen

22 mo w doll