This little girl is three. I was looking back at her last update three months ago and couldn’t help cracking up at her wild and crazy hair. Now, her hair is slightly tamer, but still crazy. Just like her personality.
This girl loves chicken nuggets, her babies, and Harry Potter (only because her older sister does). She loves to cuddle, play outside, and pretty much do whatever her sister is doing. In fact, I have to give Olivia The Look when she asks me things like, “After Emelia goes down for her nap, can I play outside?” and Emelia is in the room because it inevitably ends up with Emelia screeching, “I go outside too!”
Her vocabulary has expanded like non other and our time with OT came to an end yesterday. We’ve been working with Miss Amanda for the last ten months and both of us are going to miss her. Emelia is stubborn, fiercely knows what she wants, and knows exactly how to be adorable.
I’m not going to lie, she’s at a challenging age where her independence is coming out and she wants to go head to head with whoever is making her do something she doesn’t want to do. “A strong personality” we call it and she’s going to go places. But right now, she’s our teeny tiny firecracker.
We celebrated her 3rd birthday with my parents this evening. She had requested her favorite – “Mac cheese!” and I have this mac n cheese in the Instant Pot recipe that’s our go to and it was a big hit. We had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday and it went so much better than last year when she cried the entire time opening presents from being exhausted from daycare.
In fact, she did a great job considering she was at daycare the entire day until 4:30. She loves Cocomelon and I think her favorite present was what Olivia got her – a JJ doll that sings. She also got a train set, a Melissa and Doug tea set, Melissa and Doug wooden fruit (I was waiting to give this to her so I could toss the rest of the cheap plastic play food we have.), some unicorns, and a Frozen lap desk like her sister.
Of course, she loves babies so much she refused to take a photo with us without an armful of them. I love this girl.
Stats
Clothing size: 3T, size 6 shoe, but moving into 7
Height and Weight: 3 feet 1 inch tall and 30 lbs. She’s gained 5 pounds and grew 3 inches this year.
Teeth: I think she has all of them?
Eating
Emelia went from nursing about 1 to 2 times a down to once every few days. Now that I’m pregnant, it’s quite painful and she only nurses for a few minutes at a time. I don’t think there’s anything even there anymore, and it’s just for comfort.
Her eating habits continue to be more particular. Veggies…let’s see, she’ll occasionally eat carrots. And of course kale or spinach if it’s in a smoothie I make her. She’s good at eating most fruits.
I’d say her favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, applesauce, crackers, chocolate chip Costco bars, chicken nuggets, *most* pasta, and a bowl of cereal. She pretty much scoffs at pizza though she’s been known to eat the occasional slice of Costco cheese pizza. Really sad, really, when you’re in a family that easily eats pizza weekly.
She won’t touch hamburgers or sub sandwiches which makes eating out with her difficult if there’s no macaroni and cheese or nuggets on the menu.
She does well drinking her 2% milk, and loves Crystal Light and requests it constantly.
There are plenty of nights where she literally will push her entire plate away without touching anything and go, “All done!” and then she’ll either run crazily around the house while the rest of us finish dinner, or she’ll constantly come up to us and ask us to come play. It’s maddening. But we try not to make a big thing of it.
Breakfasts on the other hand is a great affair, with no less than 2 bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios, usually a yogurt pouch and then if Olivia has something like a bagel, Emelia is screeching for that as well, never mind she rarely ever eats the bagel. Girl loves breakfast.
Sleep
We put her down between 7 and 7:30 and she’s doing well sleeping all night. Occasionally, Chris or I’ll go in there if she’s upset and cuddle her and she’ll go back to bed. Initially going down has been a little rough because a lot of nights she cries for awhile and one of us needs to go in there and reassure her. Though sometimes I suspect she’s doing it to get us to come in. I can have success talking with her through the monitor to lie down and she’s pretty good at it.
Chris has been the one putting her down for most naps and bedtime (she only wants him to) and her crib has grown from just her and her blanket and Dumbo lovie to all that plus her stuffed sloth nightlight and no less than 5 other stuffed animals and babies.
We went from it being Very Challenging for the bedtime routine (she loves fooling around and running away from us) to being pretty good at helping get her PJs on and brushing her teeth. Sometimes we enlist Olivia’s help in which she’ll gladly let her big sister help with her PJs and teeth. At the advice of her OT, we try to keep to the same routine every night.
Her nap in the afternoon has been a hit or a miss. She apparently does sleep at daycare, but Fridays and the weekends are up in the air on whether or not she’ll nap. Sometimes she just plays and talks to herself for an hour and sometimes she’ll sleep for 2 hours. I think she still needs one, so we’re riding it out, thinking maybe this is a stage.
Potty Training
I talked in her last update about the need for her to be completely potty trained by her third birthday. She officially started potty training on September 3. I have a really cute photo of her sitting on her Minnie Mouse potty we got her, but I promised myself I wouldn’t ever post photos like that of my kids on here. I’m telling you though, it’s adorable.
She took to it quite well. Olivia was 2.5 when she started potty training and I think this extra time with Emelia helped it be more successful. In order to entice her more, I had this Minnie potty I bought that only came out for the official potty training day. We let her drink juice all day and hung out in the basement, and all in all, she did really well. Naked potty training is definitely the way to go, but those first days are stressful.
And obviously, since the school is the one pushing this, they are of course 100% on board with sending her that Monday in underwear. I know it took longer with Olivia because her home daycare wasn’t supportive of the whole underwear method and she had to wear pull-ups during the day.
I sent Emelia with 10 outfit changes that first Monday at school, but that whole week she only had 1 to 2 accidents a day and sometimes, nothing. So it’s been a pleasant surprise.
She’s in pull-ups for naps and overnight, and I suspect she’ll be in those for quite some time.
It is kind of funny because the girl can definitely hold it for a long time. I’ll pick her up from school and she will decline the bathroom, and it’s not until two hours later after dinner that she’ll finally go again.
Health
Emelia has been quite healthy considering, save for the occasional runny nose and cough. No stomach bugs (thankfully), I don’t think she’s even had a fever, except for maybe once awhile back.
Language
Her language is just exploding. One of my favorite things she says is when I ask her if she’s my baby, she’ll indignantly tell me, “I’m not a baby! I’m MEEYAH!” Lately, she’ll say, “Em-me-ya!” for her name, but she’s forever calling Olivia “Sister!” and not by her actual name. Like, ever. She can say Olivia, though. It’s actually really adorable, and she’ll also say Ollie, but when it’s just her, it’s always Sister.
I also love how instead of saying, “Yes,” she’ll say, “I did!” As in, did you have fun at school today? “I DID!” Or, I didn’t. Or “I are!” instead of “I am.” She’ll also try out bigger words in order to keep up with her sister.
She’s talking so much more and clearer that Olivia wants to now play with her more, so it’s fun watching them do imaginary play together.
Milestones
She is definitely not into any sort of art except the occasional watercolor session. So I don’t know how her drawing skills are compared to where she should be. Her OT says not to worry about it, since she’s still fine with her overall fine motor skills.
She has trouble with her shirts, but she can almost always get her undies, socks, and pants on. She’s great at her shoes and coat, but still practicing her zipping.
We’ve made attempts at brushing her teeth first and then letting her finish but thanks to her Montessori independence, she won’t have any of that. Instead, she frantically sucks off the toothpaste, does decent at brushing, and then finally allows me to finish brushing with a naked toothbrush. I try.
We visited the dentist last week and Emelia watched as Olivia climbed into the big chair and had her checkup. But when the time came, Emelia just sobbed and made us hold her down between our laps as the dentist did the quick check. Oy. Maybe in six months, kid.
Favorites
- Toys: Her babies, her Magnadoodle, Sister’s toys, Barbies – especially the ones with babies or animals, Bluey figures, PJ Masks, and toy cars
- Books: Her Halloween book where she has to find the little critters, Her Usborne ladybug book that races on the track, the Sesame Street flap book that’s been ripped to shreds, the Berenstein Bears Visit the Dentist.
- TV shows/Movies: Cocomelon, Doc McStuffins, Encanto, and Frozen II
- Activities: Running around, playing with Olivia, playing outside, taking a bath
See more of Emelia’s monthly updates here.
