Emily is 3 Years Old!

Time for a monthly update...but this time it's a birthday month! :)  Emily is doing so well and we are so happy for our sweet girl growing up.

- She has moved to a new classroom at school and is LOVING it!  I love her new room too!  Ms Linda and Ms Brenna are incredible- they work together so nicely and I have already seen growth from Emily.  One thing I really like is the neat projects they do in this room- like this (forgive the misspelling...nobody's perfect:) )

Also in this room she gets to go to a different part of their playground, which I know she is loving!  They had a precious Halloween party last week and the kids performed a story and a song/fingerplay for the parents which was so cute!  Here's Emily in her favorite center (more pictures in the Picasa albums):

- Language-wise, Emily continues to grow.  She now answers us back when we ask her things (like if we say, "Come on, sweet girl" she responds, "I'm coming, I'm coming!").  She says "OK" when I end a sentence with "OK?".  She makes ALL kinds of connections now too- when she's watching a show or reading a story she'll realize something is the same for a character and herself and will point it out.

- She can get herself dressed completely without any assistance...I love this!  She is always SO PROUD when she is finished.

- She is trying to speak using correct grammar and you can really see the wheels turning with this- the other day she was asking me for help carrying her "plateses" instead of plates...so cute but you can tell she's really trying to work it out in her head before she says what she's thinking.

- She throws a ball underhand and overhand and actually does a pretty great job catching too.  She and Paul play catch a lot!

- She is finally starting to expand on what she will watch on TV/DVD....for SO LONG we have been stuck with Barney but she really likes Dora and SuperWhy too.  Thank goodness!

- She went Trick or Treating for the first time this year and LOVED it...she had a blast!  One funny part, though, was that we stopped at our neighbor's house first (Mr Gene and Ms Marie) and they let her come into their house to get her candy.....so then at every other house she was saying, "Trick or Treat" and then trying to edge past the person and walk into their houses!  It was hilarious!

- She continues to be a great big sister to Audrey. Audrey loves for Emily to come close and she focuses on her so well.  Emily is so sweet with her, it really melts our hearts to watch them interact!

That's about all our news for now.  I am so looking forward to the holidays- it is going to be so nice to have our sweet girls and to see Thanksgiving and Christmas through Emily's eyes...something tells me there will never be a dull moment! :)