Long Overdue

I did not realize that it has been over a month since my last post! Things around our house get busier every day it seems like! I started the Special Education Master's program at Delta State in August and so far, I am loving it. It is a lot like what I learned in undergraduate speech pathology but with the focus being on all areas of life of a child with a disability rather than solely treating their speech. One of my professors is such a great teacher and is honestly the best one I have had since coming to college. Actually, she is among the top three of any teacher I've ever had. I have had a lot of adjusting to do after a summer of no school work. Last year while I was in school, Emma Kate wasn't running around so I could actually get some studying done while she was awake. Now things are completely different! The only time I can study is late at night after she goes to bed so I have started learning how important it is to not procrastinate (something I have done my entire life). Drew is working and being such a supportive and helpful husband and dad. I couldn't be going back to school if he didn't help me as much as he does!He keeps Emma Kate on Tuesday and Wednesday nights when I have class and they have fun spending alone time together.
Emma Kate has grown so much in the past month! And in more ways than just size. She is SO smart and even though she isn't saying many actual words yet, she understands the majority of what I say to her. She says "dada/daddy" but I don't think she really knows that the name only applies to Drew and not to every object she sees! When we tell her to say "mama" her response is "yaya". And it is so cute because she will grin and her eyes light up like she is saying it perfect that I don't even mind her thinking that is my name! She will figure it out soon enough I am sure! She knows what her paci and blankie are and if I ask her where they are, she will go around the house until she finds them. Just recently she has started actually helping me clean up, granted she doesn't always put things up where they are supposed to go. I never know what I am going to find when I open a drawer or cabinet and it always makes me laugh. The other day, I was putting up dishes and opened the cabinet and found her See-n-Say, a baby doll, a paci, and one of her Weebles. She has one book called My Goodnight Book that she loves! When I say she loves it, I mean that she brings it to Drew and me at LEAST 5-10 times each on a daily basis. We both have it memorized and don't even have to look at the pages to read it. For some reason it is the only book she will sit still and listen and look at.
Another funny story- A few weeks ago, Drew came home from work for lunch and Emma Kate got his phone off the table to play with. Normally, this is not a problem because she always either leaves it on the floor or brings it back to him. This particular day, she walked off with it towards the living room so we thought she was going to play with her toys. Drew was about to leave to go back to work and he realized he never got his phone back from her but in that hour, neither of us had seen her with it. We looked all over the house and the phone was on vibrate so I kept calling to see if we could hear where it was. After a few minutes we narrowed the area down to the kitchen and Drew just happened to open the garbage can and see something glowing at the very bottom of our very full garbage can. She had thrown it away when we weren't looking! We just had to laugh because it was so funny but I'm glad he didn't take the garbage out before he realized he didn't have it anymore!
The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a huge hit around here these days. EK started making the rain motions and when she realized that we would start singing when she did it, it became a regular thing. Both of us have to sing it and do the motions at the same time or she will get mad and walk over to the one not singing and put their hands together. She also has started to think it's funny when I sing I'm a Little Teapot with the motions. She could very well be laughing at my singing voice (which is HORRIBLE) though!
Outside is her favorite place to be! If someone walks out of the door and doesn't take her with them, she bursts into tears! It doesn't matter who it is or whether they are coming right back in or not, she must go with them no matter what. We spend the majority of our days outside playing in the yard and strolling now that the weather is not 100 degrees!
Until last week, we had not been out to eat with just the three of us for supper in a very long time. We didn't want to try to tackle the task of trying to keep her in a highchair and keep her entertained since she is such an active child that very rarely sits still unless she is about to go to sleep. We decided to give it a try and go eat at Lost Dog. She was perfect the whole time and loved seeing all of the other kids running around playing!
I am so thankful that she is not a picky eater. It amazes me that she prefers healthy food over junk food when given a choice. Her favorite food is broccoli and we just learned that she loves salad! She would eat a hundred grapes if her stomach would hold them all and she eats all day long! I guess she just burns off all of the calories because she still doesn't have much fat anywhere on her body.
We have finally broadened our television shows to more than just Barney and Mickey Mouse so at least we are not waking up with those songs stuck in our head everyday! Sleeping has been a bit of an issue lately. A few weeks ago, she started waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes multiple times. We were all a lot grumpier during the days because we were not getting very much sleep. It turns out that she started back teething and she just could not stay asleep because it was hurting. She now has a total of ten teeth with two more right under the surface. Three of them are back teeth and a fourth one is about to come through. She never gets just one tooth at a time; they always come in pairs at least and the three back teeth all came at the same time. Her sleeping is starting to get back to normal and so is our regular routine.
This is such a long post and it doesn't even cover all of the funny stuff she has been doing and all that she is learning but I will try to stay caught up so I can add in a few more stories that happened over the last month!