Update on life...

I feel bad, it's been so long since I've written. Life is just flying by, and we are out living it! Not a lot of time to sit and write. So figured I'd attempt to update....

First an update on Ashley. She is 3 1/2 already. Crazy! I have to say, I always thought the baby time was my favorite age--I LOVED newborn, infant, and early toddler ages, and was really sad to see it go. But, I think 3 is my new favorite age--or perhaps more like 3 1/2. The first half of 3 was actually rough with lots of "threenager" behaviors that can test a saints patience. We still have our moments from time to time, but we have been moving past that more and more since the last time I wrote. It went from being my least favorite age to my favorite age. She is just lots of fun!

It's just so fun to watch Ashley. I love watching her play and use her imagination and pretend, I love watching her dress up (she always loves to dress up), and she also enjoys dressing herself. She has a wardrobe of clothes, but wears the same 3-4 outfits over and over again. She likes dresses with "tutu's" on them--her purple and grey striped dress with a butterfly, her light pink dress with flowers on it, her light blue polo dress, and her blue and one striped dress. Occasionally she'll pick something else out, but that's usually her wardrobe. Then she has to find a matching headband, and when she has her breakfast she needs a matching plate to go with the color of her pajamas or clothes. Too cute.

She is just a sweetie. First off, she now will say "I'm sorry" if she does something she's not supposed to. If it's an accident she'll say I'm sorry, and then remind you that "accidents happen sometimes". Lol.

She is very bright--she does great with letters, numbers, spelling some basic words, she knows the days of the week, months of the year, her birthday, our address, she's learning the planets, she knows lots of facts about animals and other things. She has also majorly entered the "why" phase, wanting to know and understand more about everything.

She is overall very kind and caring toward her sister and other kids. She's always been very social, she loves to walk right up to kids and say hello, still tries to give kisses and hugs, etc.

Her favorites:
Right now her best buddies are Tyler (our 3 year old neighbor), Hannah and Amanda, and then still of course Katie and Eli from SC.
Favorite lunch: PB and nutella ("chocolate"--she could live on that stuff if I let her.
Favorite song: Frozen, Katy Perry Roar and "burping song" (Dark Horse)
Color: Pink
Hairstyle: ALWAYS wants to wear a headband (even to bed). If we are lucky, she'll sometimes let me put it up in a pony tail with it.


As far as Emily, she is also growing in leaps and bounds. As someone put it, it's "painfully beautiful" to watch your babies grow right before your eyes...painful for how fast and fleeting the time is, and beautiful at the same time to watch them grow and change and discover. She is definitely a "little girl" now, no more baby. It absolutely amazes me with how much she can do. She def has an older sister that she wants to be like and do like, so she really gets around and does a lot. For instance, the playground had been my nemesis. I hated it because I still had to keep and eye on Ashley to make sure she was behaving and also overlook some of the things she'd do/play with there. At the same time, I'd have to follow Emily like a hawk to make sure she didn't fall and get hurt. Now, she can climb and get around totally on her own at the toddler playground. Even at the bigger playground she does great. We walk to the school playground sometimes, and she can even climb up the rock climbing wall on her own (I still of course stay nearby on the bigger kid things). And forget about the baby slides, she wants to go on the big kid slides--and can--all on her own. She does great. I'm so amazed by her.

She is also saying so much more now. She even sings. Her FAVORITE all time song is Katy Perry Roar. I hear her singing it to herself when she's in her crib, she sings and asks for it all the time. It's so cute hearing her sing and "roar" like the tiger. I love it!

She's also becoming a little stinker. She likes to mess with Ashley and start trouble. She will walk up to Ashley, yank off her headband, and run away laughing. Or she'll steal a toy she's playing with and do the same thing. She thinks she's hysterical.

She is fascinated with body parts--loves to stick her fingers in my ears, or poke us in our eyes, or play with my hair when it's wet.

She's starting a little of the normal temper tantrum stuff--figures, one is growing out of it, while the other is just starting...lol.

She is not potty trained, nor am I planning to push it anytime soon, but she will hold her diaper to let me know she's gone potty (particularly after poopy diaper). We do let her sit on the potty and try from time to time. There were a couple times when she'd want to sit on it on her own. She had just been changed and was dressed, so I let her sit and pretend to go...well, sure enough she did go in her diaper . So I think maybe she was really needing to go and telling me.

She is a great eater (most of the time), particularly breakfast time. She will eat 3 pancakes just like me. Also with eating, she can climb into her chair on her own now, and likes to practice buckling her straps in her seat and also in her carseat.

Overall she and Ashley still play so nice and are best friends, and sometimes they fight like cats and dogs (mainly when Emily's instigating with Ashley...lol). But they are so sweet. Sometimes they will hold each others hands in the car (without prompting). And Ashley will look out for her. Like yesterday, we went to a Children's Museum in Brooklyn (took the train in, made a fun day out of it). Well, at the Museum they had this dinosaur demonstration with a dinosaur that was like 8 feet tall and looked and moved like a real dinosaur. Well Ashley thought it was the coolest thing ever, and we wanted to try Emily. So before hand we explained it was a big pupped, and talked up how cool it was, etc. Ashley put her hands on Emily's cheeks, looked her in the eye, and kept saying to Emily "it's not real Emily. It's just pretend. You'll be ok". So sweet.

Well, that's about it...We've been having fun. Some days we do the typical routine, other days are filled with fun stuff like petting zoos, running in the sprinkler and playing in the pool, going to playgrounds and play dates, few trips to the beach, nature walks and parks, BBQs with friends, visit from grandma, etc. It's been fun....Will try to post pics soon....