Three Year Old Emmy

Height: 41 inches (off the charts, supposedly Emmy is as tall as the average 4 and a half year old. :-P)
Weight: 32 pounds (50-75th percentile)

Emmy is such a loving little girl with so much spirit.  She thrives in a "helper" role, and visibly stands taller when she has a task to tackle.

She has the ABC song down pat, and we're working on letter recognition.  She is a pro at spotting "E"s  and is practicing writing them; they look much like a ladder with one side and many rungs.  A solid start, especially because she's excited about it. :)  She can count to 20 and has all of the basic colors and shapes down.

She has become so much fun to chat with, and blows me away with her verbal capability.  Nick and I get a good chuckle out of her sense of time, though.  Anything in the past is "yesterday" and anything in the future is "tomorrow" and anything that she's going to do after she wakes up (from either night time or nap time) is "in the morning."

Some of the most unforgettable Emmy-isms (I have to kick myself for not writing more down as they come):

"I use the big scissors.  I didn't ask you.  I asked myself."

"Wait.  Stop the music. I don't want to forget to get a treat."

"I hope you have sweet dreams.  DON'T wake me up when I'm asleep, Hannah."

"Mama.  I'm a rockstar.  You're a cleaner.  That's the truth."

"What are you going to get for your best friend, Daddy, for Valentine's Day, Mama?  A dinosaur, maybe?"

"Aww, Mama, what happened?" (Pointing to the giant hole in the bottom of my sock.)
"Oh Emmy, Mommy has a hole in my sock, I need to throw it out."
"It's ok, Mama, you don't need to throw it out, there are no holes on the other sides."

Me, after finding Emmy pillaging through my overstuffed wallet, "Emmy please close Mommy's wallet at put it on the table."
Emmy: "Mommy, it won't close.  But that's ok, Daddy can do it.  Daddy's a rescuer."

She is into imaginary play big time.  As I predicted, based upon her hyper-activity in-utero during Taylor and Danny's wedding ceremony, she is absolutely, 100% wedding-obsessed.  I got her a Ken doll, just to add some variety to the commitment ceremonies between her female Barbies that were occurring multiple times each day.  If her Barbies aren't getting married, she is.  To Nick.  She asks him to marry her every chance she gets, and then insists that they dance.

She still loves to cook with me, her favorite dish being anything that involves chocolate chips.  I wait until the very last possible moment to add them to whichever recipe we might be working on, because she reliably jumps ship from our cooking project and hoards chocolate chips, stuffing them in her mouth as if she hasn't eaten in a week.

Her most requested activities at home are having tea parties and watching a movie with popcorn and Grandma's special hot cocoa.  Her favorite movies are Cinderella, Brave, and the classic, State Fair. :) She also loves to paint with water colors, play with play dough, read books, and play dress up.

Emmy goes to bed around 730 (at least that's when we tuck her in and the lights go out.)  She has three strikes until her bedroom door gets locked (until she falls asleep when we unlock it).  She has three post-it notes on her bedroom mirror, each with a number: 1, 2, or 3.  Each time we have to go into her room to tuck her in again, she loses a number.  Whichever is the highest number left by the time she's asleep (if any at all), is the number of m&ms she gets in the morning.  The negotiator that she is, has rationalized to herself that two m&ms are completely adequate, so her feathers are never ruffled after her first number is pulled.  She still takes an awesome nap (which I'm sure only adds to our bedtime battle,) but the tired mom in me is clinging onto that nap as long as I can!  She will go down between 1230 and 1 each day and will sleep for 2.5-3 hours.

Currently, her favorite foods are: pepperoni, soup, Pirates Booty, oranges, strawberries, quesadillas, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, waffles, almond milk, popcorn, and anything to feed her sweet tooth.

We have spent a great deal of time reading about approaches to parenting, in addition to attending a seminar run through our church and a Positive Parenting webinar.  We have learned some awesome tools for managing our strong-willed Emmy girl, and are excited to see her responding well to them.  Above all else, consistency has been key.  I think I would have gotten way more out of my child development classes in college had I been a parent, the way a child thinks is fascinating stuff (and maddening all at the same time! :-P)

I came upon an idea where you ask your child the same 20 questions each year on their birthday and see how their answers change over the years.  Truth be told, I attempted the questions three times before her answers were void of potty humor, this is what I ended up with:

1. How old are you?  "Uh. Old."
2. Who are your best friends?  "Dane Dane and Lauren."
3. What is your favorite thing to do? "Play games."
4. What is your favorite color? "Purple."
5. What is your favorite food? "Soup."
6. What do you like to do with your family? "Play games."
7. What is your favorite toy? She didn't answer this one...
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? "Princess."
9. What makes you happy? "My Barbies."
10. What makes you sad? "I don't know."
11. What is your favorite show to watch? "Dora, the Mermaid one."
12. What is your favorite book? "Stink Soup"
13. What do you love to learn about? "Dancing.  I love to dance."
14. What was the best part of your birthday?  "My Cinderella doll."
15. Where do you like to go? "To school."
16. Who are your teachers? "Ms. Ashley, Ms. Jill & Ms. Erin."
17. What is your favorite treat? "Chocolate."
18. What do you think about before you go to sleep? She didn't answer this one...
19. What is your favorite animal?  "Elephant."
20. Who is your favorite singer? "The ballet teacher." (?)
And then she was done..."Mommy, I want you to stop talking, please."