Happy New Year!

Wow, I'm really behind...Christmas felt like a whirlwind that took us all about a week to decompress from....I was still tired 2 weeks later!  Emma loved EVERYTHING about Christmas and we spent December doing "all things Christmasy".  We saw Christmas lights, her Dad drove her through a live Nativity (3 times), she sat on every Santa's lap in the city, requesting not one, but 2 baby dolls each time and of course the Elf on the Shelf was a hit for the first few weeks.  The Elf is making a later appearance next year...that was a lot of work.  There were several "Oh crap" moments, when I realized after we were already downstairs, I forgot to move him so diversions were created while I moved "Sparkles".  We spent about a week post-Christmas, re-explaining that Sparkles went back to The North Pole with Santa until next December...she still randomly asks, "Where's Sparkles?" at breakfast. 

2013 began with Emma starting Pre-school...she loves it, but won't talk about school...it is like pulling teeth.  However, she slips up during the day by breaking into songs she learned, artists they talked about or discussing classmates.  Owen, Wyatt and Sarah are apparently the bees knees...but they also get in timeout for talking, per Em.  She makes up a lot of stories these days, so not sure I believe the timeouts.  After spending all day trying to draw out of her what they did in school, she busted out a Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gogh conversation during tub time...I have a calendar and I know what they do each day, but she denies it, lol.  Homework begins in Pre-school!  Once a month we turn in homework and on a weekly basis we are asked to bring in books or make playdoh etc. to share with the class. 

Right now we are in a phase where every question you ask E. and she doesn't want to answer, she replies with "Zombies" then cracks up...I have no idea what Zombies is about or where she learned the word.  She has all kinds of goofy toddler behaviors going on right now...zombies, smelling people, licking everything, fingers always in the nose and cracking up laughing at nothing...a handful and REALLY hard not to laugh at.  We do a lot of covering our faces with pillows and pretending to be asleep until we can control our laughter to be stern.

There is so much silliness that E. says since turning 3, we keep a "Quote Board" so we have a record/don't forget funny conversations...we are approaching a page 2  of funny conversations.  My favorite this week is:

Emma to Mom:  Do you mind me cooking something for dinner, for Bunny, real fast?  (I was making breakfast for us at the time)
Mom:  sure, go ahead
Emma to Bunny:  you want a Bunny meal or a salad?

I am still laughing....no idea what a Bunny meal is, couldn't get her to explain it, aka received a "Zombies" reply.  Her sentence structure and connections amaze me everyday and provides a lot of comedy.

She is starting to express interest in writing her letters (finally) and drawing people since pre-school began.  This week she made her first drawing that I recognized as a person...but they all look like Mr. Potato Heads or aliens!