35 months old

Only one more month to go before Emily turns the big 3! She continues to take steps in becoming a “big girl”. At the beginning of this month we eliminated both the booster seat and a bib for eating. It has gone surprisingly well. She is definitely squirmier, and it’s harder to keep her in her chair the whole time without the booster seat. She has only had a few spills on clothes, which she hates. In general, Emily has always been a relatively neat eater. We haven’t had spaghetti yet, though. :o)

Another new item is graduating from a convertible to a booster car seat. This is much easier to buckle/unbuckle for us and she will hopefully be able to do it herself in the near future.

The new school year has marked the beginning of Sunday School for Emily. After a rough start the first day she’s doing great and loving it. It makes my heart smile when I hear her joyfully singing songs throughout the week that she learned in Sunday School. Another activity we started was Toddler Story Time at the Waverly Library. That has not gone quite as smoothly. Let’s just say I’m glad we actually made it through the whole 20 minutes last time. Emily loves doing the songs and finger plays throughout the week. I think it’s partially a power struggle and getting used to the idea of structured group activity where someone else is in charge. It’s the flipside curse of the blessing of having such an amazingly independent and self-entertaining toddler.

In order to encourage interactive play Emily & I have named the squirty fish in her bathtub Lemmy, Otto & Dottie to go along with George, Mama Duck and Baby Duck. They go on adventures to places like the library, park and store.

Emily has developed an obsession with purses/bags this month and can usually be found carrying at least one around with a random assortment of objects inside. They range in size from a small Easter hand purse to a reusable Wal-mart shopping bag. I have to convince her to leave them in the van when we go places and only take one or two objects inside the store. She also has attached herself to a small purple pillar candle and glass candle tray that she found in the home décor box in the basement. It goes to bed with her at night.

A fun toy Emily recently acquired was a tub of plain Legos I got from a garage sale. I got out the Lego table top I found at a previous garage sale and Emily has spent hours carefully arranging all the Legos like a real-life Tetris game. This toy will either end up in her room or the basement as soon as Lincoln is mobile.

Emily has entered the “wh” question stage. I think we hear “What’s that?” or “What’s Mommy/Daddy/Lincoln doing?” at least a hundred times a day. She hasn’t even gotten to the “Why?” question yet and my head already hurts! One day I asked her, “What are you doing?” and her answer was, “Being naughty with George.” Hmmm… Emily is also entering a whining stage. I don’t think she fully comprehends what constitutes whining, but she’s very good at it!

Emily & Cheney have not been getting along lately. He is always close by at meal & snack time since she no longer has a large bib pocket to catch things. Apparently anything within three feet is too close for Emily. She often yells at him or sometimes tries to take a swing at him. If he goes for a crumb or licks her chair she goes nuts and wants you to wipe it off. She also gets upset when he follows her around when she has a bowl of snacks. If she didn’t drop so many or leave her half-finished bowl lying around he wouldn’t be so interested. I don’t think the message is getting through, though. :op

After Emily’s younger cousin got potty-trained this month I was feeling jealous and inspired at the same time. I thought I would encourage Emily to possibly jump-start herself by purchasing a Dora potty seat and Dora underwear since she wears “Dora” Pampers Easy-Ups. When we got home from the store she literally threw the underwear package back at me and the only thing she did with the potty seat was parade around the house wearing it on her head like a crown. So much for that idea! She actually did sit on the potty seat twice for me today, but only because I bribed her with candy corn (which she calls “fingers”). I told her she could have a candy pumpkin if she actually went on the potty. No such luck. However, she has been having some digestive issues, and we’re experimenting with Miralax. Until we get that straightened out I don’t think there’s even a point in trying anything, let alone the fact that I am in no place physically or mentally to take her on at this juncture.

The September video player is below and the pictures have been uploaded to Winkflash. Happy Fall!