Hi Everyone! This is Emily's Mommy hijacking her blog once again, since the child doesn't seem interested in keeping this updated. I will speak to her about that - apparently, the movie The Little Mermaid is occupying WAY too much of her time/thoughts that she can't focus on anything else! ;)
It has been forever since I have written from my "mom perspective," and our baby girl is very quickly becoming quite the BIG girl. For example:
-She speaks constantly. CONSTANTLY. Complete sentences and thoughts started months ago and you can carry on a conversation with her quite easily. Lately, she's really into cause and effect relationships and will end by telling me how that made her feel. For example, "Connor cried and cried in the car and it was loud in my ears and that made me sad, so I cried," and "Mommy took me to Chick-Fil-A and I ate all my chicken and I got ice cream and that made me so happy!!" She also likes to describe OUR feelings: "I didn't listen at Chick-Fil-A when I was with those boys and that made you very sad because I didn't listen and you came up and said 'Emily, go down the slide RIGHT NOW." (Our first experience where Emily purposefully ignored us while she played with older boys at Chick-Fil-A. I like to NOT think that she was enjoying the company of multiple older boys. In a (toy) car. While ignoring her parents. Nice.) She will also say things like, "Excuse me, I have a question." (And quite often an actual question follows this statement - ha!) and I just heard the other day, "Excuse me, can I play with you guys?"
-She now sleeps in a toddler bed and seems SO grown up when she climbs into bed. The only downside is that whereas she USED to sleep until 8 am, she now wakes between 6:30 and 7. The good part about that though is that she gets to spend time with Brandon before he goes to work. :)
-She's potty trained! This might also contribute to the earlier wake-up time. We started training the end of January, and she has done great, with only a handful of accidents, never in public. Sometimes she catches herself and will tell me, "I just went potty in my pants but only a little bit. Just a little bit, Mommy." :) Also, this week, she's become an independent pooper, and doesn't need me to bribe her to poop after it's been two or three days. At school this week, I was told she asked to get off her cot to go potty, which is huge, as she's been working at staying dry consistently at nap, AND this week while Gran was here, she got out of bed on her own, went to the bathroom, and pooped! :) Wow...a whole paragraph of lengthy pee and poop descriptions. I must be a proud mama! :)
-We're working on drawing faces. Frequently, her faces are hard to, well, recognize as a face, but every once in a while, she gets it right. Below I'll post a picture she did completely on her own, of a pirate.
-Can recognize and spell her name!
-Can count to 13! (or farther, but she doesn't "get" what she's doing, so after 13 all the numbers sound the same.)
-Is very proud of being 2 AND A HALF and will tell anyone who'll listen. She will also say that her name is Emily LaBarge Madison. Close! ;) She can also tell people that her birthday is in July. (Again, all memorized. She doesn't understand yet what all this means.)
-Has an incredible memory. Last week she was recounting our family trip to a local pumpkin patch last SEPTEMBER. Good grief.
-Can open doors, totes stools all over the house to use when she's too short for something (turning on lights, climbing on our bed, etc.), and last week she demonstrated her ability to open the fridge.
-Has memorized a countless number of songs. Whether it be Christmas songs, Kindermusik songs, or songs from the Little Mermaid, she knows them and sings them frequently. FREQUENTLY. Her fave right now: "Those poor, unfortunate souls! So sad. So true. doo doo doo doo doo doo doo (which she puts in if she doesn't know the words) And do I help them? Yes I do."
-Can open juice boxes on her own.
-When she's really surprised or excited, she'll say, "Oh. My. GOSH." :)
-Can run upstairs to fetch stuff for Mommy. Yesterday it was a ponytail holder. "Emily, run upstairs and get a ponytail holder so I can pull your hair back before you eat your yogurt." "Oh, yes. I'll just use my stool, Mommy!" And she reappeared a few minutes later, ponytail holder in hand!
-Loves school and Kindermusik. She knows Tuesday is "preschool." (We call it that, even though it's just PDO) and she knows Friday is Kindermusik and "Emmy/Mommy Time." She ADORES her teachers - Miss Barb, Miss Shannon, and Miss Amy. Today at nap when she kept playing instead of lying down, I commented how sad her teachers would be if they saw her not listening, and she laid right down. HA!
-Can drink without a lid, with a no-spill rate of 80%. Although, I prefer her drinks to always have lids. Hehe!
-She pretends constantly. And each week her pretending gets a little more detailed. Right now she loves to be "Ursula, the Sea Witch" and for me to be Ariel, so she can "take my voice away." LOVES it.
-Has started to tell me there are monsters in her closet or under her bed. She's not REALLY scared of them quite yet, and this only stems from a favorite Veggie Tales movie, but it does require a small amount of extra Mommy time at bedtime.
-Is very aware of thunder and lightning. This might be an interesting Spring, since she is now able to get out of bed on her own. Oh boy!
Quite a detailed list, but these details are more for our memory and record keeping than for anything else. All in all, we are incredibly proud of this little lady and the person she is becoming. On Tuesday as we drove home from school, she told me that a boy in her class had hit her (not sure on the truth to this) and she said she told him, "I don't like that. Please stop," and then walked away. "I just walked away, Mommy. I just walked away." I was so proud of her!! True, there are many times where she tests our patience, but I'm discovering that when she's at her most difficult, she just plain doesn't feel good. She is so loving to her brother and I hear her copy me as she pulls toys he shouldn't have away from him while saying, "No no buddy." (Oh, and believe me, she will also say, "No No Connor, THAT'S MINE!) ;) Her sense of humor is outrageous and I adore her little voices and how she purposefully will say things in a silly way. Today as I sat across the table from her, I couldn't believe I was looking at MY little girl: my grinning, chicken-finger eating, song and dance loving, no longer a baby little girl. I am so thankful and proud to call her my daughter. I love you, Emily!
Emily and Brandon, January 30th
Pirate Drawing, February 19th, 2011
Me and a MERMAID!!!
Cheese!!!
Not a great pic, but here are Andrew, Danny and I enjoying dinner at "The Kids' Table." Connor and Baron and Baby Neihouse #2!!!!! will be joining us at the table soon!! :) (from Mommy: Where the heck did these FIVE, soon to be SIX, kids come from???? Holy cow!!)
Hanging with my Godfather, Aaron!
SUCKERS!!!!
I loved babies, so I LOVED Baby Baron, born in August, 2011!
