Growing Up

It has hit me this week how much Emma is growing up. After having her home with me all last week, I pulled out a bunch of my old teaching stuff and worked with her on starting to decode 3 and 4 letter words. She's starting to read! It was amazing how fast she caught on. She can now read short vowel words and understands word families such as: cat, mat, fat, sat, hat and rub, tub, cub and can decode other words like bed, wed, wet, cow, dog, pig, pup, etc. I am so proud of her and she loves doing it and asks to do her "word cards" all the time.
Another big milestone, for those of you that know us, know all about the bowel issues that Emma has had. She has struggeled with chronic constipation for about 2 years now and it has made going #2 a very long and painful process. It got so bad for a time that Emma was witholding her stool because it was so painful for her. It was very sad and frustrating to watch. We visited GI doctors and even took her to a behavioralist pediatrician to try and help her (which is a long, funny story) FINIALLY, and I am so hesitant to say this, but we have found the right mix of diet, fiber, and a little bit of miralax each day that has been working for about 6 months now. She has reversed her thought of going #2 to hurt, and now just goes all by herself everyday. Thank GOD! I was so worried she would suffer through this at school ,ect. not to mention how time consuming it was spending half and hour each night in the bathroom with her, coaxing her into relaxing enough to go. This is probabally something most parents of 4 year olds haven't had to worry about for years, but this is huge for us and a big weight off all of our shoulders.
I finially caved in and cut Abby's bangs. She has been pulling out all her bows, etc. and it was sticking to her face and yuck, yuck, yuck. Unfortunately, I did it when her hair was wet and cut them too short and she ended up looking like she had a baby mullet. So I had to take her in to get it fixed. Mike hates it- he likes his girls with long hair- but give me a break! I am not going to fight with another child about pony tails every day. I think she looks adoreable. I'll have to post more pics once I download them.