Deep Thoughts

Emily has really started to grapple with some big topics lately, and it has led to lots of really good questions and interesting conversations. Mostly, she has become interested in issues of life and death.

On the death side, there have been many questions. "Mommy, are you going to die?" And once I explained that yes, eventually we are all going to die, then she said, "Mommy, I don't want you to die." So, I though that she was starting to get the concept and that it is a permanent sort of a thing.

Then, last night, there were all sorts of "what ifs" designed to test the boundaries of this whole death thing. "What if someone's arm could still move, would they still be dead?" "What if someone poured water on their head, would they still be dead?" "Mommy, how do you throw up when you're dead?" Just all sorts of interesting thoughts.

This morning, she actually caught me in a pretty good trap. She asked if her elf on the shelf will die someday. I wasn't quite sure - on the one hand the elf has magic, but on the other hand all living things die, so if the elf is alive then the elf will die. So I decided to speculate that yes, someday the elf will probably die. Here is the unforeseen catch - she then said, "So, then will Santa die someday, too?" Oh, oops. Trapped.

On the life side, she asked me the other day "How you get a baby in your tummy". I tried to be pretty scientific, yet vague, about it. I ended up saying something about how a Mommy sort of has a seed that joins with a seed from the Daddy and that turns into a baby. To which she replied, "Well, I'd like to see that!" Ha!

Halloween!

Emily had lots and lots of Halloween celebrations. Her school did a parade and a party on both Wednesday and Thursday last week. They always do all special events twice so that students who only attend MWF or TR don't miss anything.

For the parties at school, Emily was a dragon, but for actual Halloween she was bat girl. Her school frowns on superhero costumes because they believe that a superhero's tendency to settle conflict with violence sends the wrong message - every school has their own little quirk, I suppose.

Our little bat girl tried on her mask initially, but quickly decided that it was poking her, etc. and refused to wear it the rest of the night. As you can see, though, I don't think it inhibited her ability to have fun. Our big challenge was to keep her from eating the candy as fast as she received it. She is a pretty determined girl when it comes to this stuff! 

In other news, a quick report from the world of Emily's imagination - the other night Emily said to me, "Ms. Cotton (one of her teachers) has a frog in her throat." I explained to her that her teacher doesn't really have a frog in her throat. Rather, this is something that people say when they aren't speaking clearly. This did not satisfy her, though. She said, "No, she really does have a frog in her throat - a little tiny one - because frogs know that throats are a dark place to hide. He has a flashlight in his paw." So cute, and so full of imagination. :)

Wow, turns out that Emily's mom is a slacker, too! :)

Emily has been attending school full-time for the past couple of months. She absolutely loves it. She is so social and she seems to have a lot of fun there. The only downside is that she rarely naps there. I think that she has started to adjust to the lack of sleep, but there have been plenty of days when she has been rather fussy and edgy. She does a good job of catching up on the weekends, though, and we have also found that if Chad can bring her home on Wednesday afternoons for a little mid-week nap, then she seems to do much better.

We had her parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago and they basically told me what I already knew - Emily is just the sweetest little thing. She listens well, follows direction, asserts herself when needed, plays well both alone and with others, etc. The teacher asked me if we ever needed to correct her because she just seems so well-behaved at school. :)

Emily has finally started to identify letters and she is really excited about it. Not surprisingly, the one that she has chosen to identify first is the letter E. She points is out to me all the time. Also, Abbie has recently started a "school" for Emily at home and has been helping her hold a pencil to write the letters A, B, and C. Abbie has decided that Emily needs to get comfortable with her letters before they move on to numbers. :)

Also, Emily had her three year old well-child check-up on September 13th (yes, we were very late this year). She is currently at 28.2 pounds (16th percentile), and 37.5 inches (44th percentile). Not much change from some of her prior check-ups, so that is good.

Emily had a great time on our recent visit to San Diego. She had wanted to fly on a plane for a long time and this was her big chance. She absolutely loved it and wants to do it again. Also, she really enjoyed our time on the beach. As tends to be the case with Emily, she was interested but also cautious. She liked the waves, but always wanted to have a grip on someone's hand so that they wouldn't knock her over.

I love the look of pure joy and excitement in this one above. Of course, as is so typical for San Diego, you can see that it wasn't that warm. Mom and Dad are bundled up while the girls were swimming in some rather chilly water. :) As you can see, though, Emily has a hold of someone's had in every single photo.

For Halloween this year, Emily has decided to be Bat Girl. She has a cute little costume with a black mask that is very stunning with her big, blue eyes! She is desperately looking forward to candy, and I think she is at an age where she is really going to enjoy the whole Halloween process this year. Pictures to follow soon, I promise! :)

Lots of Changes

Emily went from having very few changes to having lots of changes all at once. First, she just got her "big girl bed" and began sleeping in it last Friday. So far, it has gone great. She stays in it (thanks to a tot clock that turns green when it is time to get up), and she doesn't seem to roll around too much (although we have guard rails just in case). She really loves her new bed, and it is a very comfortable mattress, so I can see why she is excited about it. Naturally, she also loves having the power to get up on her own and to bring toys and books into her bed as needed.

(being a goof)

The second big change is that Emily just started full-time preschool yesterday. She has been away from school all summer and was really looking forward to going back. She was very excited both this morning and yesterday morning. Also, she seemed to be in a great mood last night, despite the fact that she didn't nap in the afternoon. Last year, she was in the toddler program two mornings a week, and if the kids weren't outside, then they were in one room together. In contrast, this year, she is doing what they call the outer school rotation - she starts in the creative dramatics classroom, then rotates to language arts, to music, and to art class as the day progresses. Such a big kid thing to do!

As for her evolving personality, Emily continues to be a quiet, gentle child who has a great imagination and can keep herself entertained for hours. She loves to throw "parties" as she calls them, which really involves her setting out elaborate place settings, and plastic food for her dolls and stuffed animals. She also likes to spend hours in the shower washing her little toys and imagining elaborate activities. I'm not exactly sure what is going on in the photo below, but this is what I found in my shower the other day and I realized that it isn't random - all the toys have been set very carefully, and purposely.

It kind of reminds me of some sort of modern art thing. Maybe something like this:

http://meganmarlatt.com/artwork/929415_Scattered_Toys_2.html which was done by an art professor at UVa.

Emily's other new personality quirk is that she has decided that "kisses are yucky" so any time we try to kiss her she'll squirm away from us. If we do happen to lay one on her, she'll wipe it off with the back of her hand and then rub it on our body somewhere, declaring, "I took the kiss off me and put it on you." To some extent it is a game, but it is also the case that she is really big on this "no kiss" thing right now. Hopefully it'll pass because she really is such a cute, cuddly thing, and its hard for her mama to not kiss her!

Lazy Days

Not much is new with Emily lately. She has been enjoying the lazy days of summer - running around the house naked, having no real agenda, and just going with the flow. There has been lots of swimming, coloring, and book reading.

She is really interested in drawings of her family, but not really willing to do the drawing herself. Ellie pushed her pretty hard one day and walked her through all the necessary components - we need a circle for a head, we need arms, we need legs, etc. She finally produced a drawing of Daddy on her own but was very displeased that it didn't look like him, so she has since backed off trying to draw people herself. Instead, she'll draw a frame around the outside of the paper, sign her name to the back of the paper (a squiggly line), and then come to any adult present and say "Can you draw our family for me?" She'll watch carefully, dictating who to draw next, etc., but she is only willing to take on a supervisory role. Once the required people have been drawn, she is happy to color them, and draw clothes on them, but she just refuses to do the initial stick figures.

Emily's interest in monsters has grown since the last post. I still need to check her closet and under her bed for her before each nap or bedtime, and this is all the more important since we discovered a great new book, "I Need My Monster." We found it at the bookstore last week, read it 3-4 times, but did not buy it. She kept talking and talking about it to the point where Chad went back and bought it for her. She loves it and asks to read it many times a day. Fortunately, it is a really cute story with really great illustrations. I highly recommend it. :)

As for reading, Emily has started to display an interest in learning to read, but the actual reading is obviously still a long way off. For now, she often pretends to read, or recites stories along with me as I read them, or asks me to tell her what a certain word says, etc. I try to facilitate things by gliding my finger along the words as I read, but it is all a long, slow process which will certainly take years. Hopefully she will ultimately come to enjoy reading as much as Abbie does.

Happy birthday, Emily!!

Emily is officially 3 and she is so excited about it! We had a small celebration with Grandma and Grandpa C. over Memorial Day weekend. Emily was so happy to have cake and to get presents.

She carefully licked the frosting off of her cupcake, insisting that despite how it looked, she really was eating the cake, too! She chose a Dora theme this year. She is very into Dora these days. She has started acting out the themes from the Dora book by insisting that she will make us a map every time we need to go somewhere. Then she'll tell us, "See you go over the mountain, and through the spooky tree, and that's how we'll get to Target!" She is very serious about it and brings the map in the car and everything.

Her mind continues to be very active and imaginative. She will often sit and play by herself, talking quietly the whole time. If you are able to hear what she is saying, or if she is willing to tell you what she is working on, it is usually some game that involves either some imaginary friends who always have goofy names that rhyme, like "Mauper" and "Lauper", or she is imagining that she is playing with kids from her class at school, like Jack and Gavin, who are twin boys.

Her imagination has also started to affect our bedtime/naptime routine lately. Before I leave her room, she always asks me to check under her bed for monsters. Once I give it the all clear, then she asks me to check the closet for monsters. Once the closet gets the all clear, then she will declare, "Ok, so I'm safe!" Only then can she concentrate on going to sleep. Of course, Abbie, being so incredibly helpful, started to tell Emily the other day that the monsters are only visible after I leave the room. I quickly changed the subject before Emily had time to process that one!

Emily's school year is over for the summer, but there were lots of good events during May. Close to Mother's Day, they had a tea party for all the moms. It was very cute! They had all practiced with using their manners and offering their mom a cup of tea, and Emily was so excited to have me in her class.

They also had an end of year party which was basically just a big sing-along. It was cute, but there were a lot of songs and I think both the parents and the kids started to fatigue after awhile. One of the cuter things that they did, though, was to let the kids act out Little Miss Muffet. They all took turns with one kid being Miss Muffet and another kid putting the spider on the tuffet. Then, at the appropriate time, the kid playing Miss Muffet would jump up, pretending to be afraid of the spider. I was so busy trying to get a picture of Emily in her wig and sitting on her tuffet that I only caught the tail end of the rhyme on video, but it is still pretty cute.

Sweet Little Girl

A rare photo of Daddy, Abbie and Emily during our trip to see the bluebonnets. Getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time is nearly impossible, but all things considered, I think this is a pretty good photo of the three of them.

Below is Emily lying in the field of bluebonnets, which I just love because her eyes and the flowers are exactly the same color! She had so much fun running through the field. There were areas where the grass was almost as tall as she is. It is rare that she gets to be in that sort of environment. I always loved that sort of thing as a kid. As an adult, though, all I can think about is the rattlesnake that is likely hiding out there ready to strike.

Also during the month of April, we found a great park in Dallas that has areas for both bigger kids and smaller kids, which is perfect for Abbie and Emily. It is in a convenient location (other than that it is in Dallas), and we spent some time there one morning before getting lunch at our favorite TexMex place.

It actually made me realize how infrequently we take Emily to the park as compared to what we did when Abbie was this age. I think Emily had a nice time and it was really cute to see her making friends with other kids her age. She is generally a soft-spoken girl, but she has no qualms about walking up to another kid and saying, "Hi, I'm Emily. What's your name?"

We received her first report card from her preschool a few weeks ago. They evaluated her development in seven categories - social/emotional, language, cognitive, fine motor, gross motor, art/sensory, and music/movement. As has always been the case for Emily, her gross motor development is the slowest to progress, but I don't tend to worry about that. Neither of my kids are likely to become Olympic athletes. Her teacher's comments were, "Emily is a very sweet little girl. She is very observant of others. She is starting to initiate play with friends and she is very empathetic. If a child is hurt, Emily is the first one running to get a tissue to wipe the tears away. She is well-mannered and very respectful of our toys. She has been a joy to have in our class." :)

Easter

Emily went absolutely wild for Easter this year. In contrast to last year, she was totally into the whole egg hunting thing. Every time she saw one, she would get so excited and run over to it declaring, "An egg!" She was just so overwhelmingly happy with the whole thing! Of course, being able to shove gummy bears and malted milk balls in her mouth also didn't hurt her feelings at all. Every time we looked at her she had a giant cheek that was filled with some sort of candy.

She was also totally thrilled to see the Easter bunny at brunch. She just wanted to cuddle up with this big, fuzzy bunny. I think she would have brought the bunny home if she could have. She was also really excited about the opportunity to dress up a bit and she actually let us brush her hair, which is a rare even these days.

Other than that, life is pretty standard here. Emily continues to be a picky eater, and also has an incredibly stubborn side to her, but is also totally entertaining. The other day, she and Abbie and I were talking about something when she declared, "Think dirty thoughts!" I was a bit shocked until a realized that this is a line from Finding Nemo in which the fish are trying to do everything they can to make their tank dirty. :) She has also become quite the list maker. We started making checklists for her to help her with getting ready in the morning, and now she has started making her own lists. Last night she got paper, and a crayon, and made three distinct scribbles - one for "get PJs on", one for "brush teeth", and one for "go to bed". She very diligently carried the list around with her as she completed the tasks so that she could check off each item as she completed it. So organized. :)

Sweets

Emily has always had quite the sweet tooth. Last week was my birthday and she was very excited because she knew that there would be cake involved. She works very hard to get her hands on anything sweet. At Christmas time she kept taking candy canes off the tree and asking if she could eat them. If I said no, she would ask Daddy. If Daddy said no, she would ask Abbie. If Abbie said no, she would ask one of her stuffed animals. Then she would report back to us that her stuffed animal had said yes. Then I would usually say that if her bear said she could have the candy cane, then he must be willing to open it for her. This worked for a while, but then she figured out how to open them for herself.

(in one of those rides at the mall)

Lately, she has discovered that a lot of restaurants have mints at the door. Chad will often bring some home with him and put them on the counter. She goes to great lengths trying to plan the best way to get her hands on these. Here is the conversation that she had with Ellie the other day:

Emily: "Can I ask you a question?"
Ellie: "Yes, Emily."
Emily: "Do you like chocolate and mint?"
Ellie: "Yes, its a great treat."
Emily: "Daddy got me some. Can you get it for me?"
Ellie: "Oh, you can ask Mom and Dad about that later."
Emily: "That's not the answer I wanted to hear."

 As you can see, lots of strategizing and planning went in to her approach.

(at the aquarium with some Peruvian dancers)

All of the sweets that she gets her hands on must account for her being such a sweet little girl. She has been so cuddly and lovey lately. We were reading a book while laying on the floor the other night before bed. She turned to me and said, "I love you, mama. I just love you." It was so cute. As I continued reading, she continued with things like, "I love you in the morning." and "Let's just sleep on the floor together." Such a little sweetheart!

Filled with Questions

Like any toddler, Emily is always full of questions. Unfortunately, many of her questions lately have been things like, "Am I better yet?" and "How did I get germs?" The poor little thing got a nasty cold right before Christmas. Then, shortly after the New Year she got a stomach virus that took about a week to resolve. Once she finally felt better, her appetite returned, and things were going great for a few days. Now she seems to have another cold, though. This one is much more mild but there have been a couple of days where she has had a fever, which is never fun.

Between all these illnesses, Emily does get a chance to have some fun and be her usual, adorable self. This is a photo from before Christmas, and is Emily doing her impression of a monkey.

She is really into animals and loves to go to the zoo. She was pretty happy to get back there after her stomach bug and visit all her old "friends" like her crocodile buddy (below) and her elephant buddy (both of which are statues that she likes to climb on).

Unlike Abbie, Emily was not too interested in the snow at Christmas. In fact, she informed me this morning that she likes hot weather. Fortunately for her, the weather has started to turn warmer here and she has been able to get back to some of her outdoor activities like playing with her water table. She was so excited to get back to this that she actually helped clean it out to get it up and running again.

Emily continues to surprise us with the things that come out of her mouth. One night as I was putting her to sleep she was telling me about how when she wakes up we never come to get her quickly enough. I told her that she should call for us more loudly - she is very soft spoken and we usually just assume that she is mumbling to herself. Anyway, she responded, "Yeah, I'll say, 'Get your butt in here!'" Funny.

Emily continues to enjoy going to preschool twice a week. Often in the mornings, she'll ask me, "Is it a school day for me?" Today was a school day for her and she was definitely looking forward to getting back (she had to take Tuesday off this week due to her fever on Monday afternoon). The kids were outside playing when we arrived and I was able to "spy" on her a bit before I left. It was so cute to see her taking pretend tools out of a toolbox and using them to fix a car. There was another little girl doing something similar. Emily pulled out a tool and said to the girl, "What's this for?" To my surprise the other little girl actually answered her. So fun when little kids are actually able to converse with one another - usually one or the other will just stare blankly. :)