Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

Emma just hit the road with her mom Anne back to Ann Arbor where they live. She has been here for some time, but also to Lake Michigan and spent a day or two at her Aunt May's house up near Traverse City.

She must be pushing nineteen months now, and basically she is talking. No, I am not saying in complete sentences, but putting words together to tell you what she wants. And she wants to do all kinds of things, grown-up things or whatever she sees anybody else doing. Monkey see, monkey do.

One thing she has been doing is dispensing food from her highchair in the kitchen to our dog Molotov happily waiting on the floor below. In fact, she has dispensed so much that Molly's back and fur are peppered with all kinds of odd stuff, much like Emma's bib. I will need to take a vacuum cleaner to Molly and Molly hates the sound of the vacuum clearer. He is afraid of it.

Speaking of fear, Emma loves to come in my office and sit on the couch with grandpa and watch movies. We have to be careful what Emma sees, so the more bland the movie, the better for Emma. However, it is hard to tell what is going to happen in a movie you have never seen.

For example, we were watching some dumb movie and one of the actors put on a ski mask, one of those black-knit things with two holes for eyes, and so on. Well, that was too much for Emma, she started mouthing "Mama, mama," turned around and let herself down from the couch and made a beeline out of the room…that kind of thing. Emma is her own censor.

Emma's interest in what grandpa does and grandpa's office in general continues unabated. Mostly she likes to order up one of two music videos, mostly by telling me that she wants "Walkin Air," which would be the lovely song "Walking in the Air," which goes along with the cartoon "The Snowman." If not that one, she says "May, May," meaning she wants to see my daughter May's (her aunt) kick-starter video for the album "The Long Way Home."

I have no idea how many times Emma and I have watched those videos. Once she is happy with the choice (her choice), the next command is "Up!," which means pick up her and sit her on my knee, so she can see better and clap along with the music.

Lately, I no sooner get one video started and she wants the other, which if started, she then wants the other. I finally told her no. We will watch one at a time until it is done playing.

And she has started ordering me up and out of my chair. Emma grabs my hand, announces up, and walks me out of my office and somewhere, often no where really, but she won't let go of my hand. We just take a walk.

The enclosed photo is of Emma and grandma washing dishes up at May's house. Emma loves to wash dishes or wash vegetables. Those veggies really get washed.

And Emma still loves the tiny stroller she has, with her doll baby in it. She pushes that stroller through the house for long stretches of time, although sometimes the baby falls out, and Emma does not even notice.

I made her a little cardboard house from a large box, and she likes to go into that house, close the door, and call to us from one of the windows.

And so it goes.