A New Year!

Time sure flies. I have been very neglectful of this blog, but I do try to keep up on everyone else's, even though I don't comment too often. Christmas was very fun this year. Ella was just so excited and it is great to have some new toys in the house. We really don't buy the kids too much stuff except on holidays and birthdays, so we were in dire need of some updates. Emerson had a great time as well. She loves company (especially men, especially men she doesn't know). She was in her element prancing around and having all the new people pay attention to her. I will never forget waking her up from a nap and her realizing that we now had a house full of guests. She walked around with her hands up in the air, exclaiming, "yah, yah, yah!!!" She liked unwrapping her presents and the toys she got are being played with somewhat. The best gift Santa brought were some musical instruments, a recorder, kazoo, horns. She loves them. She has been drooling more lately so we are bound and determined to work on that.

Ella has been quite a little dancer lately. She loves listening to music and dancing. The other day she told me, "Mom, I just love that hip-hop music." Wow, they grow up fast. I've realizing, however, I need to invest in "Kid Bopz" because some of the lyrics on XM are so not appropriate. I heard Ella belting out, "I kissed a girl and I liked it". Pretty funny, but that will not win me Mom-of-The-Year.

Emerson will be 3 in a month. Life with Emerson continues to be an adventure. She is adorable and sweet, but boy can she cause a ruckus if she doesn't get what she wants. I am trying not to baby her and make her more responsible, well as much as I can for her developmental age. I'm trying not to carry her as much, make her throw things away, put items on the table, get me diapers, get herself undressed, things like that. She is talking a bit more lately, but boy is this area slow. Her vocabulary continues to grow, but she really struggles to combine words and it seems like it is a motor planning issue. We are doing lots with rhythm and using carrier phrases like, "I see _____", "I got ______". She does have a few phrases she uses a ton, "read book", "where (daddy) go?". And the other day when Ella came in the room wearing a dress I heard her say, "Wow, beautiful!"

Emerson will start Early Childhood at school next month on the day she turns 3. I am looking forward to it. Birth to 3 was really just a support for us and not really providing any type of extensive therapy. She was only getting most therapies once a month. They really were relying on me to do the bulk of therapy. Well, I am incredibly relieved that now she will be in a program 2 1/2 hours each day and will be getting all therapies 1-2 hours per week. That will be incredible and I will feel less pressured to be her therapy provider. I know she is going to love it and I know they are just going to LOVE her. We have our IEP next week which should be interesting. I've written many a goal in my day as a Speech Path for an Early Childhood Program, but it will be a whole new experience on the other side as a parent. I already feel vulnerable and I'm not sure why. I do know that I will miss my baby girl every morning when she is at school. Hope I'm ready for this.