People who don't eat meat . . .

. . . get some pretty strange ideas about food. Certainly, this has been the case for Emily. As a project at school the kids all made Thanksgiving placemats, and Emily has been very excited about hers. Of particular interest is the area in which they asked the kids how to cook a turkey. Here is Emily's plan:

So, all you silly people who have been putting your turkey in the oven, apparently you have been doing way too much work. If you had just cut the bottom off, you would have been all set. Keep that in mind for next year.

Speaking of coming up with new ideas, our little Rosie Revere, Engineer continues to create. Below she is wearing the glasses that she made (with some help). Originally, she wanted to make goggles, and was very disappointed to discover that it was probably impractical to think that these could be waterproof, so she settled for glasses instead. We taped pieces of a plastic sandwich bag in for lenses, and she was somewhat surprised to discover that she couldn't see very well through the tape, but clearly she was proud of the creation nonetheless.

Lots of Updates

There are lots of updates to give you since the last post. First, in early October, Emily had her 4 year old check up with the pediatrician. She now weighs 33.8 pounds (28th percentile) and is 40.5 inches tall (47th percentile), so she is growing well and her percentages are holding steady. We are all amazed about this because she is such a picky eater and her diet is so limited, but apparently it is all working. This was a particularly un-fun visit, however, because she got her big round of vaccinations - four shots in total. She knew they were coming and she knew it would probably hurt, but I don't think she was even remotely prepared for it. As soon as she felt the first poke she looked all shocked, and when it was followed by three more pokes, she was downright furious. After it was over she just laid on the table and cried and howled for quite awhile to let everyone know how darn mad she was.

Also since the last post, we had Halloween. Emily ended up wearing the Elsa costume for trick-or-treating (along with about 70% of the other girls in the country), but it was a rather cold night, so she needed to wear something under her costume to stay warm. I tried to get her into a nice white shirt that would have actually matched the dress, but she wanted none of it. She chose her own clothing to go under the dress and was somewhat oblivious to how it looked, but she was warm, so that was good.

Of course the dark creature standing next to her is Abbie in her grim reaper costume - talk about polar opposites this year! Emily got lots of candy and had fun running up and down the street. She met another little girl that was her age and the two of them became fast friends, which was fun for both of them, I think.

Emily also continues to have a great imagination and always comes up with interesting things to think about. One night before bed she was silent for a long time. Then she said, "If dinosaurs came back, firefighters wouldn't need ladders anymore." This was the beginning of a long brainstorming session about how life would change if dinosaurs were back in the picture. Just in case you are not aware of the changes that would likely take place, here are a few:

If dinosaurs came back . . .

 . . . they could fly kites really high.
 . . . they could make the clouds come down.
 . . . they could help pirates dig for treasure.
 . . . dentists would have more teeth to clean.
 . . . on and on it went.

Emily has also taken a more pronounced interest in learning lately. She has started asking for a definition every time she hears a word that she doesn't know. She is also really interested in writing her numbers and in doing math, so we often work on her addition facts with her (at her request) and she is actually doing pretty well with it. She will be leaving her preschool and moving to Abbie's Montessori school next year, and she is already really excited about that change. :)

Recent developments

Emily has reached a new phase in her development again. She has become more complex in her thinking, more mature, and more talkative. She has started to embrace the idea of being a "big kid" and asks us almost every morning to check and see if she grew while she was sleeping. "Let's size up," she'll say, and she'll stand right next to us to see if she is taller than the day before.

Clearly, there is still much love for Woofy, but she also frequently makes plans for our next pet. "When Woofy dies, can we get a cat?" she'll ask. What? we just got this poor dog, and you're already waiting for him to die? Craziness.

One of her make believe themes lately has been to choose a couple of her stuffed animals and to label one as "the big sister" (usually the taller one), and label the other "the little sister." Then, she usually plays the role of the mama. Of course, sometimes one of the sisters is mean to the other one, which is something that she helps them resolve. I'm sure that part of this comes from having a big and a little sister in our family, but I think it also comes with her recent obsession with Frozen, in which there is a big sister (Elsa) and a little sister (Anna).

In fact, Emily has decided to be one of these two sisters for Halloween this year. We started out with an Elsa costume but she was wearing it so much that Chad was afraid that it wouldn't make it to Halloween, so we had to buy a back-up - this time an Anna dress. Good thing that we bought them when we did because apparently most stores are already sold out of Frozen costumes.

Singing along with the dress

Anyway, regardless of which one she decides to be, both dresses are very fancy. They light up, and the Elsa dress plays an excerpt from Let it Go, while the Anna dress play an except from For the First Time in Forever. Check out the link above for a video of Emily trying to sing along with the Anna dress.

Emily also seems to be displaying great project management skills, with the ability to conceptualize a project and take it from start to finish. One of her recent projects involved making a bowl out of play-doh, waiting a few days for it to dry, painting it, and then using it to eat out of. Another one involved decorating pieces of paper and then taping them together to make a basket for collecting Halloween candy.

Finally, I was surprised the other day when she asked me, "When can I start doing math?" I explained to her that she already does math, she just doesn't know it. As an example, I said "If you have two oranges, and you get one more, how many oranges do you have?" She thought for a minute and replied "Three." I explained how that is addition, and she was all pleased with herself.

Back to School

Emily attended her preschool full time for most of the summer. However, last week they had a week off so that the teachers could get ready for a new school year. Emily (and Abbie) got to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa C., who came to stay with us. It gave Emily a chance to catch up on her sleep and to go to the bookstore, which she loves, but rarely gets to do. After a full week off, though, she was ready to go back. Yesterday was the first day of the new academic year, but her teachers, the kids in her class, and the daily routine stayed pretty much the same. She was pretty tired when she came home last night, though. I kept asking her how her day was, but she just kind of stared off into space - too tired to talk, I think.

Other than a new school year, Emily's new routine has been sneaking around the house. I have started thinking of her as my little creeper, and she prides herself on being able to get from spot A to spot B without anyone seeing her. She is particularly concerned about this in the morning when she first gets up. She'll come into the main part of the house, but she doesn't want any acknowledgement. "Pretend you don't see me" she'll declare. She also likes this trick at night when she is supposed to be asleep. The other night I saw her dart across an opening and into the kitchen where we couldn't see her. I actually forgot about it until 20 minutes later when I heard a little noise behind me. I turned around to see a little face watching TV by the back of the couch. Who knows how long she had been there. The other thing she likes to do at bed time is to hide under her covers so that we can't see her. Then when we start talking to the lump in the bed, she'll yell out, "I'm not here."

The flip side of all this invisibility is that when she does want to be seen or heard she is very sensitive about it. If she is talking, she expects that everyone in the room will listen attentively without cutting her off, or finishing her sentence for her. Heaven forbid that anyone starts speaking during her turn. She gets pretty aggressive, declaring either, "I'm trying to talk!" or "It's my turn!" Likely this sensitivity comes from the fact that she is very soft-spoken, and probably has been cut off pretty regularly over the past four years. Poor little thing.

Meltdowns, monsters, and mutts, oh my!

Emily's determined personality, coupled with a natural need to control her environment, has been a challenge for us lately. There has been plenty of whining and crying fits that I hope she will grow out of soon. There is also a little contrarian in her that likes to see how often it can get away with doing the opposite of whatever it is that we want her to do, so there has been a lot of conversations that sort of go like this:

"Emily, get your shoes on so that Daddy can take you to school."
"But, I want you to take me to school, Mom."
"I can't take you to school today, so you need to go in Daddy's car."
"But I don't want to go in Daddy's car." (Insert whining here)
"Well, I'm sorry but Daddy is taking you to school today."
"But I want you to take me to school (Insert more whining)
On and on it goes.

Note that if this conversation had started with me taking her to school, then she would have been demanding to go in Chad's car instead. :)   So, we have been working on all of these challenges by pulling a harder line with her. Hopefully we can nip it in the bud pretty quickly.

When she isn't pushing our buttons, Emily continues to be very imaginative and creative. She is always busy playing some imaginary game, which seems to require our participation more and more often lately. She likes to assign roles and then have people play their part in the story. Again, probably a control her environment sort of a thing.

She also continues to be fascinated with monsters and scary stories. As for monsters, she got a Sully from Uncle Greg and Aunt Elizabeth for her birthday, and then got another monster when they came to visit this past weekend, so she is pretty well stocked up with monsters! Greg says that the blog doesn't really capture how cute Emily is, so I thought that I would post the song that she made up to thank Greg and Elizabeth for Sully (which I think is pretty cute):

As for scary stories, she likes me to tell her new ones all the time, so I have started a multi-part story recently about a little girl who visits the monsters under her bed and they get her to try all of the strange foods that monsters like to eat (it isn't actually scary, but she seems to like it anyway). So far the little girl has tried "pillow", "sock soup", and "hairball chili" (a dish that the monsters only make on special occasions because it takes so much work). She seems to like these stories, so I'll have to start thinking of other gross things that monsters could enjoy eating. Of course, part of the hair for hairball chili came from a little red dog that lives with the family (aka Woofy, our new addition).

As you can imagine, Emily is really enjoying this little guy. He is just the right size for her and he is really good with her. He doesn't try to jump on her, and he really doesn't lick, so there is nothing to torture her. :) She likes to feed him treats, and he is very good about taking the treat from her hand very gently. Sometimes he "talks" and sometimes he likes to show how he can stand on two feet. She really gets a kick out of these tricks and it is fun to watch her get excited about the dog. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Emily!

Emily turned 4-years-old yesterday, and it was a very emotional day for her. On the one hand, she was so excited about cake and presents, but on the other hand, the thought of being 4 really made her feel the pressure of being a "big person."

In the morning, she plopped down on the shower floor and informed me, "I don't like the feeling of being 4. I don't want to grow up and be like a big person." As soon as she got to school, however, she seemed to do better and was all excited to be wearing the little headband and "birthday girl" button that we got for her.

For her birthday this year, she requested, "a kite, a parachute, a toy monster, and a doll." We got her the kite, and Uncle Greg and Aunt Elizabeth got her a Sully plush, so she achieved a 50% success rate, I suppose. She also received books, a chef's coat, and lots of clothes, so I think she did pretty well.

We had a small party with Grandma and Grandpa C., and of course the cake was the big excitement for Emily - she just loves sugar. We were concerned that the wind would blow the candles out so we decided to sing Happy Birthday pretty quickly, which is why it sounds so crazy in the video below. She didn't seem to mind, though.




Afterwards, she said something to the effect of, "I wish that I had a little star, twinkling in the night sky." Then it was time to devour mounds of sticky pink frosting, and she gave it her all.

As I was putting her to bed, she seemed torn again about her new status, telling me to say "Goodnight 3-year-old" to her and to hold her like a baby and to sing her a song while rocking her. After which, I guess she felt better because then she declared, "I like being 4!"

Lots of Activities from April

In my last post, I mentioned Emily's art that appeared at the school's art show, so I felt obligated to post a photo of it. Not surprisingly, she made monsters. The 2nd picture is the one that was in the art show (and I think that she must have had some help with it). The 1st picture is just one that came home from school with her. Its not a monster picture, but I do like all the colors that she used.

Emily had a great Easter weekend. Below she is strategizing before the neighborhood egg hunt. I love the determined, "how can I get as many eggs as possible?' look on her face. She actually did really well. They had separate areas for kids in different age groups, with the eggs being harder to find for the older kids than for the younger kids. Emily was one of the oldest kids in the youngest age group, so those poor one-year-olds didn't stand a chance. :)

She and her cousin Jacksen also had a great time together. They are very close in age and got along really well - swimming, and playing together.

We took the kids to a wildlife center a couple of weekends ago. It is a very large park, with 10 miles of road. Everyone drives through the park and feeds the animals from their cars. The slow moving wide open roads gave both Emily and Abbie an opportunity to test their driving skills. It was pretty cute to watch and both kids had a blast.

We had Emily's parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago. She is doing great with her language development, her creativity and confidence, her social skills and her motor skills. She is still working on her letter and number recognition skills, but she is writing her name now and is showing an interest in reading. They have classified her as a right-brained kid, and commented that, "Emily loves to tell scary stories and laugh with friends. She is quite the entertainer. She is a sweetheart."

Finally, we had a Mother-Daughter Tea Party at Emily's school on Friday to celebrate Mother's Day. It was really cute. Each kid asked, "Would you like some tea? Would you like lemon, cream, or sugar in your tea?" Then they carefully brought us our tea cups and a cookie. The kids spent lots of time practicing and preparing before the party and were so excited and proud of themselves. They finished by giving us each a card and a long-stemmed rose. :)

Tell Me a Scary Story

It turns out that we have a little Stephen King in the making. Emily's big thing lately has been a strong need to hear scary stories. I think it started one night when I told the girls the story about the man with the hook for a hand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hook). This must have thrilled her because now she is constantly asking for more scary stories, and I do my best to come up with good stuff, but it never seems to be scary enough for her. Pretty quickly I grew tired of making up my own stuff so I started using watered down snippets from classic scary stories. So far, she has heard bits from The Shining, Misery, Psycho, The Birds, It (I thought that a scary clown story would put an end to it, but it just seemed to encourage her!), The 'Burbs, and likely more. I am quickly running out of material!

In trying to get myself off the hook, I tried to turn it around by asking her to give me a scary story instead. She rarely lets me get off this easily, but sometimes she will actually come up with a scary story for me. Surprisingly, her stories are pretty good. Not scary, but at least well-told (all things considered). One afternoon, we actually made a story together. She shut us in my bedroom (so that it would be dark) and made me crawl into bed with her. Then we took turns, each doing a few words of the story. It was actually pretty fun because neither of us knew where the story would go, but we both still had power to redirect it every time our turn came around. She was very pleased with that whole adventure.

In other news, school continues to go well for Emily. They just had an art exhibit (but we didn't go to it), and apparently Emily had a picture of a monster in the exhibit that one of the teachers thought was really good, so now I am curious to see it. Also, in school news, it looks like the social comparison process has begun. Yesterday, Emily declared that she wanted to wear a dress to school because, "All the other girls wear dresses and I don't and that makes me sad." Little does she realize that hearing her tell me an "All the other girls . . . " story is MY version of a scary story!

Funny Girl!

Emily has always had a great sense of humor, but lately the teachers at school have really been commenting on how funny she is. She just loves to get a laugh out of people and has started to develop a repertoire of things that she knows will work for her. Even her little boyfriend, Andrew, has been saying to the teachers, "Emily is so funny." Yesterday when I dropped her off the two of them got into this Three Stooges routine where Andrew would pretend like he was going to poke her in the eye with his finger, and then she would collapse onto the floor, pretending that he had knocked her over. I know what you're thinking - That's too elaborate. There's no way that is actually what was going on - but it really was. Honest.

(Emily after Abbie dressed her up in a ballet costume)

They also commented to me today that Emily is one of the few kids who will actually sit still in art class and really concentrate on what she is doing. She has started to draw lots of pictures of the family. One that I picked up today was a picture of the 4 of us in a snowstorm, and she had actually drawn each of us with a big blue cloud at the top of the picture. Here are a couple of my other favorites:

Emily is also very good at picking up on the emotions of the people around her and diffusing them. She has a couple of classic lines that she uses strategically. One line, which is probably similar to something that she has heard us say before, is for times when someone (usually Abbie or Chad) gets an irritated tone of voice. She'll step in and say, "Now we're having a nice night with no fusses." just to remind us all to keep the fussiness in check. Her other lines are ones that she tends to pull on me when she can tell that I am getting irritated with her requests. For example, when I am antsy to get her to bed, and I start to sigh about one of her requests (which I know are designed to stall bedtime), she'll say, "Mom, you're my best friend." or "Mom, I love you." She just knows that it will completely melt me. Such a little charmer.

Finally, in an effort to get Emily to try new foods, we have started what we call, "Emily's Food Adventure." Basically, it is just a piece of paper where we record the new foods that she has tried and whether she liked them or not. It seems to be encouraging her to try stuff. So far, we have gotten her to eat corn, green and red peppers, caramel apples (all of which she liked), a piece of steak (which was so horrid to her that she dropped it out of mouth almost as soon as it went in), and balsamic vinegar for dipping bread in (liked it). For a kid whose diet is 90% PB&J, pasta, egg, raspberries, and yogurt, this is big progress!

Pajama Day

Emily had a great Christmas season this year. She is at a great age to really know what is going on and enjoys being a part of all of it - singing, decorating the tree, eating sweets, opening presents, helping with our annual puzzle, etc.

She doesn't quite get the whole concept of keeping secrets, though, so there were a few incidents where she would point to a present and say something like, "This one is for you, Dad. It's a frame that we bought for you." This makes Chad crazy because he likes everything to be a big surprise.

Emily is back at school now, and is happy to be back with her friends. Apparently there is one little boy that is a special friend of hers. The teachers say that they are very smitten with each other and they will wake each other up after nap and hug and rub each others backs. So cute. Apparently she goes for the older men, though, because this little guy is 4 already. :)

One of Emily's favorite events at school is Pajama Day. She asked and asked about it and it finally arrived last week. Here she is, all ready to go school, and looking like a little goof in her pj's, robe, hat and shoes. Quite a get up.

Other than recovering from a cold that resulted in a nasty ear infection, not much else is going on with Emily. She has been a big fan of Abbie's violin playing lately, and has begun requesting "Twinkle, twinkle little star." She often makes Abbie play it more than once, and she likes to sing along as Abbie plays (which makes Abbie crazy, of course). Very cute.