What's Happenin

Not a whole lot to report. We've battled more illnesses than we're used to lately and we've also celebrated both of the kids' birthdays. Both birthdays went well. Emmy turned four a few days ago. Can't believe she's already 4. Insanity. It was by far her best one so far because she actually understood what it meant and had a great time playing with all her new stuff. Aside from all the birthday excitement she keeps busy. I think she will be very ready to start school next year. But because of the birthday cut off in NC she will have to wait an additional year. We'll just have to put her in preschool. She loves learning and pretending. She has a very active imagination. Her imagination reminds me of me when I was a child. I was constantly pretending and imagining. The words she comes up with are quite entertaining. She has also pretty much overcome her fear of vacuums. She's still a little apprehensive with them but works through it without getting too upset. She also overcame her fear of showers. I have no idea why she thought they were so scary but she did and now she loves them. With old fears disappearing comes new fears appearing. She is now afraid of the dark and has bad dreams some nights. I know she understands more and more all the time and so I guess some things scare her more than they used to. So I guess it spills over into her dreams. In other news, she has been doing a little better with staying dry through the night. Lately she has been having more mornings where she is dry. She still wears a pull up at night and still pees most nights but she's showing some progress. Baby steps. Speaking of vacuums, Joshua is now afraid of them. Woo hoo. He's not afraid of much of anything else though. He keeps us on our toes. He is constantly getting into things he's not supposed to. Luckily he understands the word "no" and has started to respond to it. It may take a few times but he eventually gives up. He's also quite happy,silly, and entertaining. If he makes you laugh by something he does he will repeat that something a few more times to make you laugh. He's still into playing with balls (he can throw them and play "catch" with us) and has started to enjoy putting stuff into things (i.e. objects into a cup). He also enjoys water (he's discovered the toilet),his sissy (he still thinks she's hilarious),his doggie Mattie,his doggie blanket,being tickled, being upside down, and peekaboo. His vocabulary is limited to 2 words. He only says "ma ma" and "da da." And he understands "more", "bye bye" (he'll hold his hand up), "high five" (he'll slap you some skin), "no",and "doggie" (if you ask him where doggie is he'll look for Mattie and point). He's still not walking. He has taken a few steps but hasn't consistently done so. He has been standing without holding on to anything more and more for longer periods of time. He now has 6 teeth and eats everything you put in his mouth. We call him our bottomless pit. I guess that's all there is to report for now. I'm out.