First Day of Pre-K and Valentine's Day

This week really has kicked my butt.  I'm not used to being up and moving at 6 am and going all day long.  The kids have had multiple doctors appointments this week too.  I spent all day Tuesday in the car running kids to and from school and doctors offices.  Tuesday truly was as follows:  take Emi to school - get breakfast - pick Eriks up for his appointment - take him to doctor - return him to school - grab super quick lunch - get Emi from school - get Eriks from school - take both to Emi's yearly checkup - go home and make dinner.  Note to self, never, ever schedule a day like that again!

So Emi is a big girl and in school.  She's doing well but dislikes it when I leave.  Because of her separation/abandonment issues I have spent at least the first 30 - 40 minutes with her at school in the morning.  On Mon & Tues when I left, she was fine.  Yesterday and today, not so much.  She cried.  I'm thinking because her little body is not used to this routine and she's not really napping at school, yet (she has a 1 hr nap time but has not fallen asleep during it) she is tired.  When she's tired, she's super clingy and this whole school experience is new to her.  She also is just getting to know her teacher and the para-pros that work in the classroom.  With that being said though, in 3 days, I have seen how beneficial this is for her.

On Tuesday we got home after the insanely busy day and Emi was wearing jeans that had an owl on them.  She tapped me, pointed to her jeans and said, "owl".  After that she made the sign for owl.  She can say apple clear as a bell.  She is actually working hard to get clear b's pronounced.  In general she's just making these amazing yammering sounds.  Sounds you can tell she's trying to turn into letters.  Driving home from Eriks' dental appointment yesterday afternoon, she "talked" non-stop.  Her favorite word of the drive was apple.  She's also learning new signs at school so I'm having to keep up and that's a very good thing.  It means I'm moving in the direction of becoming trilingual.

As Emi and I are learning more sign (hoping Lane and Eriks catch up to us) it's amazing how much more I'm watching people staring when I'm communicating with her.  I guess it is pretty fascinating to watch people talk with their hands.  One of the things Lane and I told Eriks is that if he learns ASL, he will be able to talk to Emi without other people knowing what they're talking about.  I do speak to her out loud as I sign.  She needs to hear the words that go with the sign in order to learn to talk.  I can't wait to see how different she's going to be in a month.

Valentine's Day was no big deal in our house.  It never has been.  Lane and I didn't even exchange gifts until 11 pm that night.  We had a date planned on Saturday but our babysitter canceled on us about 2 hours before our big date.  It really stunk and put a damper on our night.  We were looking forward to getting some time away from the kiddos.  We'll make up for it this weekend with a new date night and some family babysitters.

So here is a photo from Emi's 1st day of school and Valentine's Day.  I could not get her to pose for the photo.  She just wanted to dig through her new backpack and lunchbox.  Forget looking at mom.  The kids also enjoyed the giant cookie we got.

She Turned 3!

Last Thursday Emi hit the big 3!  I looked at her today and wondered how this little creature who was placed in my arms 1 day shy of 17 months, has become this big girl.  She's still a tiny, petite thing and likely will be her entire life, but she's not a baby anymore.  She can dress herself.  Loves to button and zip and put on her shoes (all velcro fasteners for now).  She has become so independent and wants our help less and less. 

We didn't do anything super special for her birthday.  With it being a school night, we decided to put off going out to eat to Friday.  So I made a dinner of chicken, roasted potatoes, and green beans.  We also didn't do a traditional cake.  For the 4 of us it's kind of crazy to buy or make a big cake.  I had heard about this bakery in Marietta and decided to give it a whirl.  Emi had a very yummy strawberry shortcake.  Eriks wanted New York cheesecake.  Lane and this mousse cake and I had a to die for red velvet cake.  I told Lane for my birthday, I wanted a red velvet birthday cake from this place.  It was so crazy good.  We all sampled each others desserts.  Emi got some more Ameri*can Girl doll stuff for her birthday.  She loves, loves, loves that baby doll her Aunt Marla & Uncle Corey got her.  

Her vocabulary is growing and today, she started a pre-K program for kids who are deaf/hearing impaired.  Getting up at 6 was very HARD.  Emi and I would snuggle in bed watching Playhouse Di$ney in the mornings until about 8:30ish and then eat breakfast and get dressed.  To be more exact, she'd watch while I snoozed some more.  School starts at 7:50 and we have to be out the door at 7:10 because it's about a 20-25 minute drive to the school.  We do have the option of bus but she has to be on the bus like at 6:45 and that's just way too early.  I'd rather drive her.  It was kind of hard this morning for both of us.  She was so excited this morning to take her backpack and lunch box.  She yammered in the car the entire drive there.  But once we got there, she wasn't so sure.  She got super quiet.  I stayed for about an hr.  She kept looking back at me to make sure I was there.  But when they stopped learning to have some center time, that's when I left.  I watched her in the kitchen/house area with a vacuum and sneaked out.  I just hope she didn't cry when she noticed I was no longer there. 

Luckily her day is only about 6 hrs long with a 1 hr nap time which should be starting right about now (12:15 pm).  School ends at 2 pm.  Again, this is so good for her because she's not only learning ASL, but they are encouraging her to use her voice and with her vocabulary growing, that voice needs to grow too.  I'm hoping that by the time the official school year ends, she'll be starting to talk to us in more complete sentences.  Or at least 3 - 4 word phrases.  She has the opportunity for summer learning which, while we are here still, she will do.  She has so much catching up to do and I want her expressive language to be closer to a 3 yr old's and not a 12 month old's.  She's behind in receptive language too, but not as much as expressive.

Time to show off some photos from the birthday girl's big day.