Growing Up

There's nothing about Em that looks like a baby anymore--she's so tall, and agile and talkative--no denying that she's a little girl now.  Here she is as Snow White.

 And painting--one of her absolute favorite things to do!

 At least she'll normally ask before she paints her hands, face, feet or other body parts :).

It was Spot's birthday, so we had to make party hats one night after dinner.  It turned into everyone needing a hat, until I just gave up and said it was bath time.

Her babies need to go almost everywhere with us now.  We were heading to dinner one night, and she needed Chicken and Lucy wrapped in blankets.  They went in, sat at the table with us and everything.

We love Friday nights, because Em stays up a little later, and the rules don't apply...this pic was after having a scoop of chocolate ice cream before bed!

Her hair still hasn't grown out to where it cascades over her shoulders, but it always seems healthier (and curlier) after a little trim.  Em looks forward to haircuts now, because she gets a lollipop and watches herself in the big mirror (all while driving a fire truck)!

Em still loves bath time, and always wants me to make her a unicorn horn when we wash hair.  Then she wants a mirror so she can see how funny she looks.

She also loves bubble beards--she'll put bubbles on her chin and then tell us she's Santa, and ask us what we want for Christmas.  The little basketball goal behind her in these pictures is also a favorite--there are three balls, so we each get one.  At her direction (and only when she says so), we each take turns trying to make the basket.  She hands out pretend candy if we make it :).

 

The Circus Comes to Town

The circus came to town for a few days and we decided to get tickets--it was Em's first time, and the first time that Mick and I really remember.  When we got there, a few people were gathered outside protesting with signs claiming that Ringling Bros. mistreats the animals.  I would love to believe that's not true, but as we watched the show and saw all of the tricks these wild animals were performing, I started to wonder more and more.  There's plenty of information to find that supports both sides, so let's just say I'll be doing some more research before we decide to go back next year.

This year though, Em loved it.  She really enjoyed the show, and watched intently the whole time.  The only thing she stopped for was popcorn and hot dogs!

It was tough to get good pictures of her during the show because it was so dark, but I tried to get some shots of the action.

The animals were of course her favorite part.

She saw Dumbo and Ms. Jumbo!

And she loved that she could use her outside voice inside.

The theme of the show was Dragons, and this dragon came out at the end, breathing fire and all!

It really is a spectacular production--it was about 2 hours long with a 30 minute intermission, which fell right at lunch time.  It worked out well for us.

There were plenty of human tricks too, in addition to the animals.

This was my sad attempt at getting a picture of Em smiling with the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey sign behind her.  We were leaving at the time, so I guess she just wasn't feeling it.

Important Stuff

Some days, I think of a list a mile long of things I don't want to forget to document--Emily is such a magical, joyful little person.  I'm pretty sure I don't deserve to have such a sweet girl, but I'm certain she'll make up for it in challenging times to come :).

She's going potty now all the time--we do still have to pick up on her cues sometimes and remind her to go if she's playing, but most of the time, she'll stop and go on her own.  She has stopped looking for rewards every time now too, which is nice, because M&Ms were usually what she wanted :).  She was consistently staying dry at nap time too, so just in the last week, we've been skipping the pull-up during naps, and she's doing great.  She even stayed dry overnight one night, but I think it was an accident, because most nights she doesn't.

I was recently in Philadelphia for some training and talked with some coworkers with kids around her age--they mentioned a show on PBS called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood--it's based on the characters from Mr. Rogers, but it's animated.  We decided to try it, and Em loves it!  Daniel Tiger has a nifty little song for a lot of useful lessons like "find a way to play together" or "get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, put on shoes and off to school." I've learned if we can make a song about something, Em is usually more willing to cooperate.  Her favorite things to watch are still Dora and The Backyardigans, but she's much more open to watching any cartoon now, and a little variety is nice for us :).  We are pretty strict about only having the TV on for a couple of cartoons in the morning, and then it goes off.  Mick and I don't usually watch anything until after she goes to bed--instead, we'll turn on music most of the time, including during dinner.  It seems to make our time together a little less distracted.  She asks to watch TV more often now, but is fine when we suggest doing something else, and is happier helping with dinner or making "a project" anyway.  It makes it more special when we bend the rules for a movie or something on a Friday night or the weekend.

Em's vocabulary continues to impress us, and most people we meet make comments about how well she talks for her age.  Some of her favorite things to do right now are making up songs and rhyming.  We sometimes don't even listen to music on the way to school--she'll sing her own made-up song the whole way there!  She loves to rhyme, and when there aren't real words that rhyme with something, she'll make up her own nonsense words, and totally understands how silly she's being.  She's really got a great sense of humor.  She also likes to abbreviate everything now--she'll call cupcakes cups, or popcorn is pop, and she'll laugh and correct us if we say it the wrong way.

Em recognizes most of her numbers now, and some letters--they're working through the alphabet at school starting with A, and focusing on one letter each week.  We play games at dinner some nights to see who can come up with the most words starting with a particular letter, and she loves those (and will occasionally throw in a nonsense word too).  This week is E, which she loves, because Emily and Elmo start with E :).  She recognizes her name when it's written, and will often pick out E on signs we see.  I've picked up a lot of little "brain games" with dry erase markers for her when I see them on sale, and she'll sit and play as long as I'm willing to sit with her and give instructions--circle 5 monsters on this card, or draw a line through every green thing on this card, or trace a number or letter--stuff like that.  I'll have to post some pictures of her favorites.

I'm sure there's other important stuff I'm forgetting, but I'll try to keep these up!

Good Ear News!

We took Em to the ENT specialist on Wednesday, and were prepared to hear she needed tubes in her ears.  We met a couple in the waiting area with a 14 month old daughter--their appointment had been earlier in the afternoon, and they said the doctor saw her and scheduled her surgery for the very next day!  They gave us a lot of information to read over while we waited, and there were some puzzles to keep Em busy.

We got in to see the doctor, and Em had to lie down on the table and be held down for him to look in her ears.  Poor little thing was so scared when she had to stretch out and everybody pinned her down--she started crying, so I held her hands and we all sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer together.  It was actually hilarious, because both nurses in the room joined in and sang with us.  I keep reminding Em that Christmas is over, but she just loves that song!

Anyway, after the traumatic exam, she got a Cinderella sticker and all was forgotten.  He said there's fluid in both of her ears, but neither was infected.  He asked us about the effect on her quality of life, the frequency and severity of the infections, and when they started.  She rarely ever says they hurt and wants medicine to make them feel better--she usually just says it feels like there's something in them, but goes about her business and seems fine.  He also looked in her nose, which has been constantly stuffy this winter.  He gave us a prescription for Flonase, and wants to see her back in a month.  He thinks we have a few things in our favor, including the fact that she's almost three and might be close to growing out of the ear issues.  The hope is that if we can get her nose cleared up, the fluid will be able to drain.

On our next visit, he'll also do a hearing test, just to make sure there hasn't been any temporary loss of hearing.  It was great news for us, and we're glad that Em won't have to undergo surgery at this point!

Long Weekend



Em and I were both off on Monday, so my parents decided to come for a visit on Sunday.  Em is always so excited to see her grandparents from either side, so we had a good couple of days with them here.

Em was thrilled to show Grandma all of her babies, and they had plenty of diapers to change.

We spent the afternoon doing some shopping, and Sunday night, we decided to cook hot dogs over our fire pit.  Em had a great time, and especially liked the s'mores for dessert!  

Both sets of grandparents always say they worry about how well Em will remember them because we're not able to be together as much as we'd like, but she reassures them every time.  She has a great memory, and we keep reminding her between visits with all of the pictures!

A Taste of Winter

On Friday morning, we woke up to a very light dusting of snow.  We were hoping for a couple of inches, but you can see how much actually fell.  It didn't affect school or traffic, except for some icy spots on the road.

 

When we got to school that morning, Ms. Cathy (the morning teacher Em stays with until 7:30) was putting salt on the sidewalks, so I let Em play in the snow for a few minutes until she was ready to go in.

 I guess it's only in the South that a little girl would get this excited over a half inch of snow!

Doctor Updates

It's been a while since I've really caught up with everything happening, so I wanted to update on a few doctor visits that Emily has had over the past two months.

In December, we took her back to the orthopedic specialist for her hip checkup--she was actually supposed to go when she turned two, but our appointment got cancelled and it honestly fell to the bottom of our priority list because we felt like it wasn't presenting any problems for her.  Em certainly has no trouble moving her legs, whether it's dancing, running, jumping or climbing--she seems to be constantly in motion!  So we finally got the appointment scheduled several months ago (this doctor books up pretty far in advance), and she went in on December 19.  She's very outgoing and never meets a stranger (something I'll talk about at another time), so she's great at making friends with everyone in the office.  They checked her hips and did an x-ray.  The doctor said her left hip socket is still just slightly more shallow than her right, but it's within normal range, so he doesn't need to see her again until she's about five.  Sadly, I know that will be here so quickly...but five seems like a long way away!

Em then went back for her dentist visit on January 3--another doctor that books up quickly since her dentist is also a pediatric orthodontist.  We chose her for all the great reviews we read, but also because I didn't want Em to have to switch dentists if she needs an orthodontist sometime in the future.  Her name is Dr. Bird, and the office is very kid-friendly (trees with birds everywhere, which Em loves).  I even talked to her about the dentist that morning, telling her she was one of Hermey's helpers (Hermey, of course, is the elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer who wants to be a dentist instead of make toys).  She got pretty excited about that until she went in and asked about Hermey, and the technician (with a confused look on her face) said "who?"  I guess part of my plan should have been bringing everyone in on it first.

Em is doing much better brushing her teeth at home--still probably her least favorite thing to do, but she cooperates most of the time--so I had high hopes for this visit.  Unfortunately, it didn't go well.  It took three of us (Mick, the technician and me) to hold Em down for her to clean her teeth (which really only consisted of brushing them with the little spinning brush), and the only reason she could even get to them was because Em was screaming.  It was horrible.  Part of me wanted to just forget the whole thing, but I don't want her to think that she can get out of it by throwing a tantrum!  So we stuck with it, and the dentist brushed on the flouride and said her teeth looked great--no cavities!  

Over the past few weekends, I feel like we've had Em at her pediatrician every Saturday for her ears (luckily, they have appointments in the mornings on Saturday and Sunday).  Sometimes she says they hurt, and other times she'll say it feels like there's something in them.  Once she said there was a baby caterpillar in her ear, and another time it was Tinkerbell flapping her wings--at least she has no trouble telling us what's happening.  She just finished an antibiotic for an ear infection in her right ear, and we took her back last weekend to make sure it was cleared up.  The doctor said there was still some fluid in her right ear, but the infection was gone.  This weekend, we took her back again and it's infected.  AGAIN!  So I asked for a referral to an ENT specialist, and as the doctor prepared to write another prescription for an antibiotic, I asked if she really needed it.  He said at her age, she's healthy enough to fight off the infection on her own, and the antibiotic doesn't get rid of the fluid, which is really the problem.  So we decided to skip the antibiotic this time, and if her ears are hurting, we'll just give her Tylenol or Advil.  She's such a trooper that most of the time she doesn't want to take anything, but I know they have to be bothering her.  She asks "what?" or "what did you say?" pretty often now, so I'm worried that it's affecting her hearing too.

Our ENT appointment is on January 30, so we'll know more then--I'm afraid I see tubes in our future :(.

More Dress Up



Em really puts together some beautiful outfits from her dress up clothes.

 Check out this look, complete with shoes and a hat!

Play Date

Em's best friend at her old school was Declan--they acted like brother and sister, because they would hug one minute and push each other the next.

 

We never had a chance to say goodbye to them when we moved Em to Rainbow Station, but we ran into them unexpectedly and exchanged contact information a while back, so we got in touch around Christmas and decided to get together for a play date.

 

They were so excited to see each other--we went to the Sports Connection, which is a bowling alley, bounce house, arcade and cafe.  They jumped right in and started playing together.

The arcade seemed to be their favorite,

but it was pretty easy to spend money in there!

It's funny to see them use these "Connection Cards" they give you--it's a reloadable card that you swipe for each game.  They clearly don't comprehend that the cards don't have unlimited money on them.  We've talked before about how much more difficult it will be to teach Em about money when we so rarely handle it (we hardly ever carry cash).

But obviously, we weren't here to teach her financial responsibility.  There's a kids' bowling alley that was fun for them,

and this game that was like a tornado--she had to hold on tight and the seat moved and these fans blew pretty hard.  Em loved it!

They tried dancing, but it was a little more advanced than they were.

This one was fun for Em's and Declan's Daddy to play too.

Mini basketball,

and there was only one mallet to smash the sharks here, so Em used her fist.  Nice team effort!

They refused to pose for a picture together when we finished, but they were both exhausted.  Em made it home before she fell asleep, but they played pretty hard for about 3 1/2 hours!

Artsy

This girl loves her paint! She was painting with watercolors here and decided to try a few hand stamps.

She's always entertained when she's making a mess.



Random Things

I've been jotting down some funny random things that Em says--she has a great sense of humor and will often say things intentionally, but a few of these are just her normal stream of conciousness.

• she sometimes answers "sure" instead of "yes" to something--it probably doesn't sound that funny until you actually hear her say it
• she'll say things like "this is a horse...in Spanish, I call him donkey" or "this is a puppy...in Spanish, I call him doggie"(there's a Spanish teacher that comes in once a week at her school, and she knows quite a bit so far, but says silly things like this for a laugh)
• after breakfast one morning, "Mommy, I finished my toast, so now I can have ice cream!" (umm, no)
• she LOVED singing Frosty and Rudolph all through Christmas, and we're having a tough time getting her out of the Christmas mindset!
• she is crazy about nonsense words now--she answers questions with them, names her friends with them--things like boola, buka, wooshey, doolu (and I think how her tiger got the name Daku)
• we went through a couple of weeks of pure fighting to get her to go to the potty, which was funny because we felt like everything had really been clicking--then one day, it clicked again and now she's a master at it!

Two Christmases

We took a couple of days off around New Year's Day and went down to Brunswick, GA to spend Christmas with Mick's side of the family, which is always fun, but Em was super excited this year because she's been looking forward to time with everybody.

 

We drove down on Friday night, knowing it would be late when we arrived, but glad we wouldn't have to spend most of the day Saturday driving.  We got there around 11:00 Friday night, and Em was up bright and early the next morning!  We had a nice healthy breakfast of doughnuts, and of course she chose the one with sprinkles and icing :).

The weather was pretty warm, so we spent a good amount of time outside--we took a walk and had brought Em's bike so she could show off her skills.

She was happy to do just that.

Later Saturday night, we had our Christmas celebration.

There were way too many wonderful gifts to post pictures of everything, but I captured a few--Grandma and Papa gave Em the Bitty Baby twins, and she's named them Lulu and Baby Chase (after her cousin!).

She was so excited for Chicken to have a brother and a sister!

She helped everyone else open their gifts too!

And then she took her babies for a spin in their carrier.

She always likes to hang out with her cousins.

Zachary got this boxing set, and Em wanted to help him try it out.

Zachary was such a good sport about it--he knew to take it easy on her.

We got ready to leave a little after lunch on New Year's Eve,

and Em had plenty of hugs and kisses for everyone.

We had a great time...next year, we'll plan to go somewhere cold (with SNOW!).