Happy New Year...a few weeks late

Ahh...Christmas is over and 2014 has begun in full speed.  Emma loved Christmas, but became a little overwhelmed by the amount of stuff and numerous places to go.  Two gifts seems to be the magical number, beyond two, she is merely unwrapping and tossing to the side, not paying much attention or respect to what was opened.  We had a couple of moments, after abundance of gift openings, where she asked, "Is that all there is?", so we had the conversation about how she has more than enough and there are children who have nothing.  We picked out a set of Legos for another child and had her place them in the Toys for Tot bin to nurture the idea of giving is better than receiving.

Preschool is going well, Emma comes home singing new songs every week and is now counting to 30 with no mistakes.  She pretends to count to 100, but after 30 we have to start her off at 40, 50 etc...she wants to repeat/start at 30.  The idea of reading isn't that interesting to her yet.  Emma can write several words, i.e., cat, dog, town, mom, dad but sitting down to sound words out doesn't hold her attention yet. I have a feeling it's going to take another kid in her class to start reading and her competition gene will be peaked. Emma's teacher has asked us several times if we sleep really well at night, lol.  In class she is in constant motion and running, so has to be reminded to walk.  We are constantly saying, "walk, walk, walk".  Emma was born to move, which is fine as long as she isn't tripping or knocking into others.

Gymnastics is propelling forward at lightning speed too.  A few weeks ago they asked us to move her up to the next level, so we are exploring other gym facilities to make sure we are in the right gym.  Today, they invited Emma to a special invite only class, said they did not want to keep her in the current enrollment, she has to move up.  In the invite class they work on specific gymnastic skills, whereas the general tumble classes they do a little of everything for every skill level.

Speaking of motion...the constant motion and inattention to danger causes a lot of accidents.  The past two weeks has been filled with head bumps, bruises and even her first bloody nose.  Emma is flipping off couches, doing cartwheels, hanging on edge of counter tops,  tipping back in chairs etc...she needs to live at the gym or we need to buy her one.  In the meantime, we cleaned out the basement and purchased an indoor trampoline, with a cage net around it, so she can burn off these urges in safety.  We had been thinking about buying one since the summer, but kept hemming-hawing, since we are already maxing out our available space.  This type of trampoline is a sensory-seekers dream come true.  Emma is doing crazy flips and twists inside "the cage".

Last week we began swim lessons in prep for summer safety.  In the first class she scored two ribbons for back swimming and blowing bubbles/going under water.  The kid is a natural at sports!  The look on Emma's face was priceless when they announced her name over the intercom and presented her with the ribbons.

Emma has quite the creative gene...loves song and dance, even "composes" her own songs, that can last up to 5 minutes when she really gets going.  Yesterday, she sat down and "composed" music for the piano...it's a bunch of random letters on a piece of paper, that she titled, "The Princess Song".  The sun room and fireplace hearth has become her stage for recitals and puppet shows.  We saw the movie "Frozen" a few weeks ago and she is constantly pretending to be Elsa and singing "Let it Go"...the music was fantastic in this movie and we downloaded the song track.  We found the barbie-like dolls that go along with the movie, but haven't given them to her yet...can't wait to see her act out the movie with the dolls.