Emery Tracker: Three Years

March 6th marked 3 years since Emery was born.  That concept is just wild to me.  On the one hand it feels like yesterday but on the other I honestly have a difficult time recalling life before her.  I realized recently that this little blog o' mine portrays my children and life only through my eyes which is ironic because the highlight of my days is seeing it through their's.  I figured the best way to try to capture that was to conduct interviews with them every so often and document their answers.  What better time to start than in her 3 year update?!

Haha- you thought interviewing me would be easier than this photoshoot.  Mama, you cray!

Interview
Author's Disclaimer: In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I conducted this interview while she was coloring.  As you read her answers, I think it will highlight a strong personality trait of hers- which is laser focus.  Like her Pawpaw, once she gets an idea in her head or once she's working on something- she's consumed with it.  

What is your name?
Emery Krackren Mar-in

How old are you?
'Sree years old

What is your favorite thing to do?
Play outside

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Umm... (careful thought and then huge grin)... a LION!

What is your favorite food?
'Shicken (is she my kid or what?!)

Who do you like to spend time with?
With Daddy!

What do you do really well?
I don't know.  (I explained this question a couple different ways and then she said...) Markering.

What makes you laugh?
Silly faces

What is the best time of day?
Busy day  (I never did get her to fully understand this question, but her answer indicates that her Daddy and I must talk a lot about having busy days.  Haha.)

What are you afraid of?
I don't know.  (I explained this question and then she said...) Monsters!

Who is your best friend?
Blake and Christian!  (This changes literally by the minute.  Blake and Christian are her friends at school.  Christian must be really special because she normally will only pick girls.  If I had to interject for her, I would say her best friend is actually Elonyee.)

What do you like to do with your family?
Color.

What do you love to learn about?
Paint.  (See what I'm saying?  One track mind.)

Where do you like to go?
Places where bears live!  (I'm going to assume she means zoo.  Or our room at 6 am.  Either/or.)

What is your favorite book?
Green Eggs & Ham and "With a Big Box" (I think she means Fox in Socks)

If you had one wish, what would it be?
That I had more markers.  (We've raised a real big dreamer, y'all.)

C'mon Peppa- give the camera your best pensive pose.

Mama's Thoughts
You didn't think just because I added an interview portion that you were going to escape my blabbering did you?  No dice, kids!  I'll try to keep it short and stick to just the things I want to remember forever about this age.  That's like... everything though, so we'll see how it goes.

I'll start with some of the things my lovey can do.  She knows her ABC's.  She can for sure point out E (for Emery), B (for Brynnie), D (for Daddy), M (for Mommy), N (for Nonnie) and P (for Pawpaw).  She does pretty well with other letters too but they're not as consistent.  She can count to 10 fairly reliably and then goes in and out up to 20.  She can usually identify how many of something there are up to about 5.  Not always though.  It's cool- her Mama isn't much for math anyway.

She knows every animal on the planet, I think.  Even ones I don't expect her to know.  She also can tell you her whole name, what day her birthday is and how old she is.

She still loves her baby dolls.  She rotates which ones she's into but Bella is fairly constant.  She's getting more and more into playing "pretend" with her Little People.  She has them act out things she does at school and lets us know who's the line leader and who's in time out.  She likes to "cook" things for us in her kitchen and with her Duplo legos.

Recently, thanks to the move, she discovered the iPad.  Specifically, she discovered YouTube kids.  YouTube introduced her to Peppa Pig.  This is the first show/thing/character I can say she is actually into.  She says "George" with a British accent and corrects us when we don't.  For that reason alone- I'm cool with this new interest.

She's still not really into the TV.  Ryan and I firmly believe this is because she can't control it.  When a commercial comes on, she's very non-plussed.  She says things like, "ugh- Daddy!  I don't want this 'mercial."  Another issue with standard programming versus the iPad is that with the iPad she can, and will, rewind to things she likes a million times.  When the TV is on and something she likes goes off screen she'll tell us "I want that bear to come back!"  Sure, let me just call Disney and let them know they need a re-write, Sugar.

Getting her groove on with the Pig family.

Emery loves her little sister and will let us know frequently that she's "being a good big sister!"  (Modest kid, clearly.)  She really actually does share fairly well with Brynn.  Although I see this becoming more and more of an issue each day as Brynn starts to become more assertive.  Truly her love for Brynn is unparalleled though.  When I walk in to pick her up in the afternoons, she usually greets her first.  She's always concerned with what Brynnie wants or needs when she's crying.

She remains a Daddy's girl to the core.  I enjoyed a brief moment in the sun and was preferred for like... a week.  Then it was straight back to Daddy.  She has that man wrapped around her finger, so it's not surprising.  She's also a big time Pawpaw's girl.  No one can incite as much giggling and grinning from that child in as short a time frame as he does.

Her personality continues to be as big as Houston is.  She's shy with people she doesn't know well.  She's feisty with those she does.  She's quick to tell anyone she knows well when they aren't behaving according to her wishes/expectations.

Recently I made her a peanut butter sandwich because I like them better than those with jelly and her preferences oscillate back and forth.  Apparently on that particular day, I guessed incorrectly.  She looked at me with disgust and said, "What I'm going to do with this peanut butter sandwich?  I need peanut butter and jelly AT DA SAME TIME!"  Aye, aye Captain!

Speaking of food- our superstar eater disappeared.  Maybe never to return.  She's become your typical toddler.  Whether or not she'll eat any given food (except chocolate milk) depends on whether Aries is in Virgo or Gemini is in Leo.  She is a snack-a-holic and would graze all day if left to her own devices.

Other favorite Emeryisms at the moment include:
- Saying, "For serious!" (this is when you know she means business.  Not sure where she picked this up.)
- Saying, "Heeeeeey!  Joo didn't ________." (e.g. turn the light off or other equally awful thing)
- Saying, "What I'm going to do with ______?!" (insert offensive item)
- Saying, "I need one, two, 'sree ______." (e.g. kisses, pieces of candy, etc)
- Saying, "Hey, don't forget me!" (incase you get 2 steps closer to the door than she is)
- Saying "Her is ______..." (e.g. "making me nervous"... basically used any time she should say "She is____.")
- Telling us her name is Emery Krackren
- Telling us what she shouldn't be doing ('We do not bite," "We do not say 'what the heck'," "We do not throw mulch.").  You are probably imagining this coming in the form of a correction when said behavior takes place, but nope.  She will just randomly tell you with absolutely zero triggering event.
- Telling us who her best friend is (Daddy) and isn't (Mommy).

I clearly could go on for hours but I'll wrap it up here.  Sweet darling of mine- we love you so much more than I could ever put into words.  You are hands down the spunkiest, most entertaining, sassiest 3 year old I know.  I would not change one single thing about you.  Thank you for making my world oh-so-much-better.  Happiest of Birthdays to you!

Are we done yet?!