With Olivia in her third year, I did updates three times a year, but now with two kids and being 8 months pregnant…it’s not happening. So here we are, with the last update 6 months ago, and she’s changed so much.
This girl loves life. She loves to run and be active, especially after dinner where she races as fast as she can down the hall, through the living room, and dives head first onto the couch, legs thrown up over her head from the momentum. And then she runs back to her room and does it all over again.
She’s in the Children’s House at her Montessori school and is doing great. She loves her teacher and her friends. She does so well getting ready in the morning and just has some trouble getting her head through her shirt and taking it off again (though she apparently has no trouble stripping naked at night with just her pull-up on) (thank God she doesn’t take her pull-up off).
Emelia got her first haircut at the end of January and only would sit in my lap to do it. Thankfully, Olivia stepped in and took some photos to commemorate the event because I was a big pregnant mess who had no hands because I was trying to balance a toddler on my minuscule lap.
Chris took the girls to their dentist appointments later in March because I had another appointment and Emelia actually braved the dentist chair by herself. No pictures, because that’s how Chris rolls, but I wish I could have seen it.
About 6 weeks ago, she suddenly blossomed in her language after a solid month of hellish daily (multiple daily) tantrums that we were suspecting was a developmental leap. Once that was over, her language just exploded and she’s now this talkative little girl with complex sentences and intriguing things to say.
It’s like talking to a little person now instead of a tiny toddler and she’s been so much fun. One of her favorite things to do is sit next to me on the couch and have me read to her. Then, when I’m done with a book, she’ll go, “Okay, now I’ll read this to you.” And then she’ll page through it again and repeat back what she remembers.
Oh, and when you ask her what her name is she’ll say, “Emeeyah Jane Curse-e-lake!” Really quickly. That’s progressed from when she’d call herself Meeyah Jane. And she calls her sister “Owifia!” or “Liv!” which is the cutest thing ever.
Stats
Clothing size: 4T, size 8 shoe
Height and Weight: ???
Teeth: According to her dental appointment from a few weeks ago, she has all of them.
Eating
Well… she continues to love her favorite foods and be very particular over anything else. Macaroni and cheese, meatballs (BBQ, sweet n sour, and with spaghetti), cheese rollups, and Chick-fil-a or McDonald’s kids meals (though those are also a hit or miss) are pretty much what she consistently eats for dinner.
Her lunches (if she’s not eating a school meal in which we have no idea how much she’s actually eating of her lunch) are peanut butter sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and chicken nuggets.
Favorite breakfast foods are cereal, yogurt, and mini muffins. She still loves her smoothies luckily, and fruit is always a hit. She’ll occasionally eat carrots and lately has been eating frozen peas. And for some weird reason, she totally digs eating almonds with me when I’m snacking on them. But a lot of foods are a hit or a miss. She’ll scarf two hot dogs one night for supper and then scoff at them the next week.
She still refuses to eat pizza, burgers, or tacos. Thought one day I was eating lunch at a Mexican restaurant with my mom and Emelia and she decided the chips and queso she usually doesn’t care for were the best things in the world and wouldn’t stop eating them.
We’re trying to roll with the punches and not make a big deal of her eating habits, knowing she (hopefully) won’t be like this forever. She loves Crystal Light, milk, and juice, but doesn’t care for Bubly water like her sister is obsessed with.
In the last update, she was nursing once every few days, but she pretty much was done nursing shortly after her third birthday. Not necessarily by choice, but I was pregnant and miserable and just couldn’t do it. She did really well with it though and continued to ask periodically over the last months, though she now understands that “there’s no more milk” and it’s for the baby when he comes.
Sleep
Overall, she does really well at sleeping. One of the biggest changes since her 3-year update has been moving into her sister’s room at the end of December and getting bunk beds. It was so different the it was with Olivia since Olivia was alone in her room when transitioning to a bed. So in a lot of ways, it’s gone a lot better this time around because Emelia had her sister with her. She rarely comes out of her room and that’s when she makes weird requests like needing lotion on her hands, and sometimes she wants to go to the bathroom.
She goes down with Olivia by 7:30 pm and they wake between 6:30 and 7:00.
Naps have been a hit or a miss for the last month, and I think the process is starting for giving up her naps. When she takes them (which can be anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours) she tends to have a hard time going to bed at night, and therefore keeping Olivia up by chatting away. When she doesn’t take them, she falls asleep at night almost right away. So we’re starting to transition away from them and she’ll take them occasionally when she seems especially tired.
Potty training
Emelia is doing well with potty training. She’ll have accidents at school when I think she accidentally pees on her underwear while going to the bathroom, or when she’s too busy to stop and go. But at home, she rarely has accidents.
She’s pretty stubborn though about actually going to the bathroom and tends to wait until she’s ready to explode before she’ll run to the bathroom in a panic. It’s actually quite annoying and we’re just trying to take the advice her OT gave us a long time ago of reminding her to listen to her body and when she has to go, to go to the potty.
At night and when she takes naps, she’s still in pull-ups and I don’t see that changing anytime soon due to her general stubbornness of refusing to pee before she goes to bed.
Favorites
- Toys: Her Cocomelon toys, coloring, her babies, anything of her sisters, her Barbies
- Books: Berenstein Bears books, her Highlights High Five magazines, Amazing Me, I am Anna, I am Elsa
- TV shows/Movies: Cocomelon, PJ Masks, Cry Babies, Frozen, and Frozen II
- Activities: Running, playing with Olivia, playing outside, reading books
Looking forward to
Watching Emelia as a big sister was something I wasn’t ever planning on having her be. But she’s so ready for it. She loves hugging my tummy, talking about her little brother, and reading books about being a big sister.
She’s also going to be playing soccer through the city this summer. She now has her little cleats, shin guards, socks, and soccer ball. This girl is ready. Though we’ll see what she actually does when the time comes.
See more of Emelia’s monthly updates here.
