Progress....

Remember while we were in Ukraine and we told you about the small puzzle that Emma could not do on her own? Well, yesterday we hit a milestone. After doing the puzzle about a thousand times, Emma finally did it on her own with no help from mama! I was very excited and so was she. Even though learning has been a little difficult for Emma, I was very glad that she was excited and felt a sense of accomplishment after doing it.

Emma is also mastering her ABC's. She loves to sing the ABC song. She can count to 10 with no problems and can almost count to 20 (she misses the odd "teen") Colours and shapes still give her difficulty. She can easily say them all, but she has a hard time recognizing them. We are working with her as much as we can on this. Anyone out there with some tips? We would appreciate them!

The other day Emma was playing with a little girl next door. I've been trying and trying to teach Emma how to pedal her bike. She was having a hard time and always pedalling backwards (applying the brakes) so she found it frustrating and would always quit. Leave it to the four year old next door to teach Emma how to do it! I was so happy, once again, to see the excitement on her face that she figured it out. It also made me feel better about putting her in school so soon. She seems to learn alot better from kids than she does from us!

Emma's english is coming along quite well. Every so often she'll pop out a word or phrase that we didn't know she knew and it totally surprises us. The other day, I was brushing our dog's teeth (yes, I actually brush the dog's teeth...quit laughing!) Anyway, Emma LOVES to watch me brush the dog's teeth. On this particular day, the dog was pulling away and giving me hassle. Emma kept saying "mama..ouch!" After I finished with the dog, Emma wrapped her arms around her and said "good dog, Tifa...you're so smart!" I laughed my head off!

Overall, things are going quite well. We are really cracking down on the discipline now that Emma can understand us better. She seems to go through "streaks" where she's really good, and then it'll seem we're doing nothing but disciplining her. It gets hard sometimes and I feel bad for her, but we know it's the right way to raise a child.

That's all for now. Sorry these posts are becoming less frequent. I keep thinking all these little stories are boring, yet everytime I come to the blog I see many of you keep checking it. So, I guess until people quit reading the blog, I'll keep posting!