5 years + 1 month

Another month has come and gone for Emily, and she has sure been busy!  You could probably tell that based on the number of "craft" posts lately.  She especially loves the "Make and Do" Child Craft book.  I tried hiding it once, but she's too smart for that.  The books are numbered, and it didn't take long for this firstborn child to realize #11 was missing!  Pictured here are the cartoon faces she drew using the instructions in the book.  She has also drawn some pretty good "Larry the Cucumber" likenesses after watching the bonus features on some VeggieTales DVDs.

Another thing Emily got into this month was doing experiments with water.  I would find random containers of water on the counter or in the fridge or freezer.  I showed her how to use the digital thermometer from the kitchen drawer to occasionally check the temperature of the water.  I'm not sure where she got the idea, and I don't think she understood much besides that it gets colder, but it was fun to see her all excited about science!

Emily often proves that you can never underestimate kids when it comes to electronics.  She is a whiz on the iPad2.  This month she also mastered the DVR.  Without my knowing, she figured out how to run the Smart Search function to find a show and then record the episodes she hadn't seen yet in addition to being able to find, play and skip through recorded programs.  Luckily, the show she was after was "Blue's Clues" after getting a couple of videos from the library.  Parental controls here we come!

Emily continues to have lots of "friends".  For most of the month her imaginary friend was named Addy, which was really confusing since she has both an Addie and an Addison in her preschool class and another friend named Addy from church.  Sometimes it was hard to tell if she was talking about a real person or an imaginary one.  Emily also continues to "imagine" with other objects.  Her bracelet named "Lasic" (I was corrected on this) has a bed in a shoebox but also has a decorated "sleeping shoe" that she takes naps in.  Ladybug Beetle is also a constant friend.  It looks like she's ready to go on vacation in this picture (with Sunglassa and Teddy Beara)!

Another thing Emily invented this month is "siwish" (pronounced swish),  According to her list (see picture), she has a teeth siwish, eat siwish, drink siwish, reading siwish and snowblower siwish.  I'm still unclear on the exact definition of "siwish", but her snowblower siwish is when she blows really, really hard on her food to cool it off when she thinks it's too hot.  She uses it a lot.

Emily is also quite the chatterbox.  Sometimes my head literally hurts from listening to her talk.  We also often have to make deals at the dinner table about taking a bite or two before she can say something again.  Otherwise, we would be cleaning up and she would still be talking with her full plate in front of her! 

This month Emily was really into corny jokes.  Austin downloaded an app for her, and she also remembers them from TV shows and books.  At the beginning of the month Emily all of the sudden figured out how to say a proper "S" sound without a frontal lisp.  We started practicing at night while reading books.  Then she started doing it during the day, albeit with a very concentrated effort and lots of hissing.  Toward the end of the month she slipped back into a lisp during everyday speech, but can do it the right way if reminded or prompted.  Hopefully, it won't be long before she won't have to think about it at all.

Final note: Emily is somewhat in denial that it is winter.  She also loves wearing skirts & shorts.  If we're not leaving the house, she often wears the outfit in her monthly picture or something else from her summer collection that she hasn't quite outgrown.