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.