One Young, Two Youngs, Three Youngs, Four: Spoiled? Three? Scared?

So Emma started a new school back in February, and things did not go well. She cried in the morning and said she was scared of her school (we later figured out that she doesn't actually understand the full meaning of the word scared). She said she wanted to go back to her old school with her old friends. This was after being away from any school at all for almost two months, away from church for about six weeks, and being with an adult, one-on-one, being coddled and waited on for about six weeks. Oh, and she was three years old. Emma was also going to school five mornings a week with VERY early mornings, so we had to get a little stricter with her bedtimes. We finally feel like we have reached a near-perfect combination of sleep, comfort in her school setting, and regained independence. She is still struggling with Wednesday nights at church because she gets so tired so quickly in the evenings.

For a while, too, Emma was just plain whiny. A pill about EVERYTHING. She had to learn some really fast lessons about sharing, saying I'm sorry, not getting your way, not yelling at Mommy and Daddy...all the things you deal with with a toddler/preschooler, but we were hit with all of it in about a week's time. Maybe she was spoiled from all the post-op attention, maybe she was just being a three-year-old. But she was not our Emma.

Thank goodness, she's back now, for the most part. This child is happy and hilarious (when she's well-rested and fed). Some of you can actually vouch for this: in the last two weeks, she has become less shy and more huggy. As in, push her wheels as fast as they'll go, throw her arms in the air for a hug, and let her wheelchair stop by slamming into your shins...but you hardly notice the blood trickling down your shins because the hug she is giving you is one of the best, tightest hugs you've ever had. And those little wheelchair-pushing arms are stronger than most three-year-olds' :)

Emma has done amazingly well at therapy; we were all prepared for some setbacks after surgery. She LOVES to walk on the parallel bars at therapy, and our precious PT loaned a set to my parents so that Emma can walk with them at their house. She absolutely adores them. Today we were informed that her therapists would be teaching Emma to pop wheelies in her wheelchair. For real. I think it's to help her gain a better feel for the movement of the chair and understand how to balance it better when it comes to ramps. Or it could just be for fun.

Medically, Emma seems to be doing fine, after her back incision FINALLY healed. We disagree about one thing in our family: I personally don't think Emma's choking is any better, but my mom and Russell do. In the end, it doesn't really matter what we think because the surgery is done, and it is what it is. Troup never made any promises. We understand that these surgeries were necessary at some point in time, and I'm glad that we did them early enough that her symptoms weren't even worse.

Ok, so pictures...

Back to a change in sleep patterns. Here's what happens after 4 birthday parties in one day - falling asleep in the car and being completely oblivious to the fact that you've been carried inside, prepped, and put to bed:

One day, she will KILL me for posting that last picture. Her belly looks so huge, too...oh wait, it was a day filled with cake and ice cream!

First (and happiest so far) day at her new school:

Something occurred to me after Emma started crying about going to school...I will never and have never cried about my child going to school...realizing that she's growing up and time has flown by, blah blah blah. I think it's because we have such a desire for her to live a "normal" life, and school is her biggest opportunity to do just that. There are so many things that she CAN'T do, things that her friends are starting to do. So if she's happy going to school, I am ten times happier than she is...however, if she cries about it, I'm ten times more upset about it...because, again, this is her biggest opportunity to do things just like all other kids do. And if she hates it? There's not a whole lot left.

Emma's small party at The Children's Museum - this place has the best setup for parties I can imagine. I didn't take very many pictures because I was trying to be the mom of the party and be with my baby girl at the same time.