Pillows

First off, allow me to brag on my man :) 'cause I don't take him for granted!

The moment he walks into our door, he takes full responsibility of our child.  You'd think Santa was walking in through our door the way Emma squeals and runs with excitement to greet him!  He helps keep her busy while I finish off dinner prep, gets her cleaned for dinner time, then cleans her off after dinner.  If it's bath night, he ALWAYS gives her a bath and puts her PJs on.  He is who reads to hear and prays with her before bed.  I do still have "rocking privileges" though :)

One of their favorite games to play in the evening (and mornings too, sometimes) is the "pillow game."  It's a very simple game.  All you need is a long, comfy sofa and four pillows.  Emma normally gets everything ready and goes get daddy.  She lays on the sofa and has daddy stacks them on top of her:  "one.... two... three... four!"  Just like this:

This game has really encouraged her to begin counting.  Her favorite number is "fow" (four).  You can hear her counting with one of the following versions (Spanish is sometimes mixed in):

-  "fow, fye, sits"

-  "dos, fow, fye, se'en"

-  "tee, fye, sits"

-  etc...

We've also been working on her colors.  Orange is one color she ALWAYS gets right.  Everything else seems to be "zul" (for "azul" - blue).  We've been noticing lately she can recognize other colors as well (she says most of them in Spanish):

-  Gris (gray)

-  "Fe" (brown - cafe)

-  "vede" (green - verde)

-  "zul"

-  Black (normally in reference to shoes -- "back shoes")

She can also point out a few other colors if we ask her to find them without saying them, colors such as yellow, red, etc.  These are not as consistent as the others though.

She has also started to take a real liking and interest in reading.  After reading through her book collection about six times over the past three days, we finally made it to the library today to expand our collection (more for mama's sake -- she would have continued to be happy reading "Let's be thankful" 20 times in one day if it were up to her). 

One last thing -- she has started recognizing places.  Even though she is still facing back in the car, she can normally recognize where we are going.  She'll shout:  "casa!" (home) when we are arriving to our home, or "Kroc" when we arrive to the Kroc Center.  She'll even recognize places such as Kroger or Costco (which sadly reveals how often we go there :p).