40 months

"A mother's treasure is her daughter." -Catherine Pulsifer

Emma is 40 months old! Haha, really she is just over 3 1/4 years old :) She is the BEST big sister and daughter and is a friend to many! She is very strong willed, creative and playful and never meets a stranger. Her vocabulary is abunant and she talks in paragraphs all day long. She has given up naps and sleeps about ten hours straight at night. She enjoys the outdoors and strongly dislikes bed time. She surprises us with her knowledge and delights us with her sweet spirit.

She is already totally confused about where to go to college - but she knows it won't be to UT :) She is very active and is looking forward to performing in her second dance recital next month. She is also playing pre t ball for the first time this year. She will be taking swimming lessons in June and starts preschool this Fall. Potty training has been an ongoing saga for awhile now but fortunately has improved drastically over the past week (it has by far been the biggest parenting challenge yet)! She is not quite there yet but we finally see a light at the end of the tunnel :)

Emma is not at all a picky eater and we are sooo thankful! The only thing she occasionally fights us about is broccoli. We have encouaged her to at least try everything on her plate since she was itty bitty...and we have never prepared her something different than what we eat. I truly think that plays a part in her willingness to eat a wide variety of foods :) Just a tip for all of you with young babies who like advice ;)

Emma could spend hours playing with her Little People, Strawberry shortcake and My Little Ponies. She conducts pretend conversations and names each one :) She knows how to say her ABC's and can count up to 14. She can identify shapes and points them out everywhere! Did I mention she is brilliant?

Each Wednesday morning we drive 35 minutes into Temple. She dances to the radio, talks to Owen, requests to listen to her cd with "Lou lou skip to my lou" on it (and sings at the top of her lungs), and sometimes chit chats with me. Sometimes I reach my hand back to hold hers. Upon doing so she was admiring a gold ring Jarrod gave me during our dating years. She immediately infromed me that when she gets a little bigger she is going to get her own ring, marry a boy and have babies. A little later we pulled up beside a church. She made sure I knew that Jesus died on a cross :)

Her favorite TV shows include Phenias and Ferb, Martha Speaks and Curious George. She has finally outgrown her Sesame Street phase (which is a little sad but I need a break from that Elmo fellow)! Her favorite restaurants are McDonald's and Chick fil A. I craved CFA like crazy while I was pregnant with her :) Her beverages of choice are chocolate milk and 7Up. She must have pop corn when watching a movie and she could never get enough string cheese.

Here are some photos of Emma enjoying the beautiful weather at the city park this afternoon: