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!