Emma turns 4!

Happy 4th birthday Emma Grace!

This feels like a big birthday! Emma is officially a preschooler and no longer a little toddler. She is full of personality and is very active still, loves pretend playing with Mom, and loves to be in charge of what we do!

A look over the past 12 months starting last February:

-Started disobeying a lot more, refusing time out

-Started watching Spirit (show about a girl and her horse)

-Underwear at night starting a bit after her 3rd birthday - fully potty trained

-Still attached to her lovies the whole year

-Tells people we are moving to Ohio but no concept of time

-Why phase

-Bad sleep routine regression. One more hug one more kiss, getting out of bed, untucking and then wanting to be tucked in again, crying when we say no

-Loves to play teacher and boss everyone around and plays that we disobey a lot so she can take stuff from us. She always wants people to follow her and do what she wants!

-Baby sister Ava was born a month after Emma turned 3. 

-“Mommy. I feel sad that you took my cup." Then we had a conversation about why I had to take her milk. “Daddy made me grumpy. He made me angry so I’m standing like this.” Expressing feelings better. 

-Can get completely dressed alone including underwear, pants, shirt, socks, shoes, and jacket zipped! 

-In June, she started boycotting naps saying she’s not tired (3 y 4 mo).  

-Back on track going to bed and taking naps without a fight in July

-Loves to draw and color and can color in the lines if she goes slow in July

-Knows 21/26 capital letters in July

-Can write Mom, Dad, and Emma pretty well

-Moved to Ohio!

-Started new school for 2 days a week at Legacy Christian Academy in Xenia, OH

-Not really napping anymore unless it’s after 3:00 (3 y 7 m). She is required to still have a "rest time" in her room every afternoon. She can play, read books, lay down, or whatever but has to (is SUPPOSED to) stay in her room for an hour. 

-Still won’t eat many cooked things or regular foods that we eat for dinner. She eats plain fruits, dairy, vegetables, crackers, and breads mostly. 

-We quit Legacy and started Fairborn First Baptist WEE school in September which is only 7 minutes away instead of 25 minutes. She goes 3 days a week from 9-12.

-She claimed she had her first dream. She thought there was an alligator from Madagascar pulling on her piggie pants and she was just thinking about it. “Were you awake or asleep thinking about it?” Asleep! “Were you scared?” Yep but when I waked up they were gone! (3 y 7 m)

-Working on obeying the first time because she’s been tuning us out a lot and we have to repeat ourselves.

-Still super shy around other adults but could pass out Halloween candy to all the kids!

-Does well going to her class at church and going into her classroom at school on her own. I drop her off in carline and she goes in independently to her classroom!

-She has had trouble sharing with Ava now that Ava is crawling and wanting to be involved with us. She has good days of giving her the most favorite things, and bad days yelling "it's mine!" and hiding everything up on the couch. It is a work in progress but when she does want to play with Ava, it is so sweet to see!

-Definitely a Mama's girl and will play with Dad and let him put her to bed when forced to. I think because Mom is always here and the stay at home parent, she has just made that a thing. But her favorite thing to do with Dad is RUN in circles and be chased or swim together on trips!
-Favorite movie is Frozen, loves to listen to music from her favorite movies, can sing the songs quite well actually
-Favorite food is sugar
-We were able to celebrate her 4th birthday with her Nana and Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Uncle Matt, Kyla, Kaiden, Kody, and our friends from Okinawa, the Danahers. We started at the trampoline park and jumped for a fun hour and then had pizza, cake and presents at our house with everyone. The next day, we went to Indianapolis to spend 1 night in a hotel so she could bring whatever animals she wanted, swim, and go to the Children's Museum on Presidents Day (it was free!). We had a great long celebration with lots of sugar so now everything is back to normal!

She sure is a hoot! We love her personality and are constantly trying to train her up in the way she should go according to the Bible! We have 5 family rules from a devotional book we used to read. 

1. Be kind

2. Children, obey your parents.

3. Do good and share.

4. Help your neighbor.
And the most recently added- 5. Emma's not in charge.