Baby Em: 32 months!

em and tanner got a dora birthday cake this month! (all daddy...)

i have to say it. i can't believe she is more than half way to three already. or that i'll have to have her 3rd birthday party planned next month (since i'm a planner and i like things personalized and most of the etsy sellers will be way behind or will be off during the holidays. oy!). so while i stress about her upcoming birthday party and what schools we need to send applications to, here are the exciting things emily is up to:

she really loves playing pretend. she will even tell me "it's just pretend." lately, she's taken it as far as giving me a different name, i.e., tinkerbell or big tinkerbell (she uses the latter when she has her hair up and is little tinkerbell, or emilybelle).
she's all about tanner (or tan tan, boogers, bo-bies, bobos, brother) these days. she wants to love on him as soon as she wakes up and will ask us if she can go pet him. she has to ask b/c he is very grumpy in the morning (or whenever he is sleeping) and will snap at us if we scare him. we usually tell em she cannot touch him when he's sleeping, so she'll just stand there and look at his "pretty face." one morning, tanner yawned and em was so excited, "mommy, tanner just roared like a tiger!"
one night, as we were leaving my sister's, em said, "aaron was being mean today." the next morning, as d was dropping her off and she saw candy, she told d, "i will tell miss candy that aaron was bad yesterday." and so she did.
my sister was changing aaron's diaper (he was standing) and em was in the room. she smiled really big and yelled, "AARON!!! YOU HAVE A FRONT TAIL!!!" elna and hg died laughing, while miss candy just seemed so embarrassed, "emmmilyyyy." a week later, we got, "daddy! you have a front tail!!! all boys have front tails." (sidenote, d was fully dressed).
she memorizes books like amelia bedelia's first day of school and reads them to her babies. (last month, she was obsessed with her fancy nancy books. she calls them fancy nancy pink, fancy nancy posh puppy, fancy nancy mariposa, fancy nancy beauty day, and small fancy nancy).
she corrects herself in the cutest way. e.g., she'll look at me and say, "daddy. (pause). not daddy. mommy..." she'll also do this when looking at tanner, "aaron. (pause). not aaron. tanner."
she still asks us, "what you said?!" (while laughing) when she hears something funny or unfamiliar.
she explains things like this: "so that why..."
"mommy kate bolton! look at me. are you listening to my words?!" or, "tanner bolton! stop it! do not bite my shoes."
she still fights with aaron all the time. mostly, it's "i not want aaron to see this." one day, she was wearing her t-shirt from storytime live. she said, "aaron cannot see dora!" and crossed her arms across her chest. aaron, silly boy, would laugh and point to the corner that was not hidden and say, "i see dora right there." em got soooo mad that she stomped to wall and faced the corner so aaron could not see.
em still surprises me at how she catches onto things. although we try not to talk about it much around her, she knows that ong is sick :(. she never used to ask to go over to ong and ba's house, but lately, she has been asking all the time. "i go check on ong." then later, she'll say, "ong's good."
we've been to visit ong in the hospital and em is just fascinated by the nurses/doctors. she told us she did not like the hospital and wanted ong at home. that said, she likes to play doctor and tells us she will be a doctor when she's a grown up so she can make people feel better :).
ong shaved his head last week, and em is a little scared of his new look. poor thing. she did tell us this though, "yesterday i was really happy." why? "because ong makes me happy."
but perhaps what d is most proud of this month (last month it was hook 'em), "i want to see mack brown on tv." yes, em knows who he is and can pick him out. whenever she sees sports on tv, she will ask for mack brown.
she still doesn't like to sleep in her big girl bed. when i'm laying with her (in our bed), she will tell me, "hold me all the way," which means she wants to lay on me so i can hold her. i love this, even when she falls asleep and gets all sweaty.
she still looks for the moon every time we are in the car and it's getting dark. when it's dark outside, she knows it's time for bed. and during the day, when it's naptime and we tell her she needs to sleep, she will ask if it's dark outside yet.
she loves going to h.e.b. and target and asks to go to one of them almost everyday. she likes putting her things on the conveyor belt. when she sees candy at the checkout line, she'll ask us for it. when we tell her no, she will try to be slick and sneak it onto the belt anyway.
she went to her first real tailgate (where she slept the majority of the time) and UT football game. once she got her cat nap in, she loved it and has not stopped talking about it since.
she loves "puhpwizes" and usually asks me if i have one for her in my purse when i get home from work.
she was feeding herself one day and told her she was doing such a good job. her response? "i eatin' a yot. that why i'm poopin' sooo much. and that why i tootin' sooo much." haha.
she likes to say "soooo much" a lot.
earlier this month, my sister texted me at night to ask if i knew that emily put the cat's food bowl in her litter box. so i asked em, who immediately knew she was caught. she smiled so big and said, "yes!" apparently, no one but aaron knew that em did this and my sister didn't find out until mousey was screaming at the top of the stairs that night. when i told donnie about the texts, em looked at me, as serious as a heartattack, and said, "mommy. why you tell auntie elna i put mousey's food bowl in her litter box?" as if she was annoyed with me for sharing her secret. she makes me laugh so much.
i told em to stop shutting the door because i didn't want her to smash her fingers. she did it anyway and told me, "mommy, you can't get mad because i closed the door."
she's great about covering her nose/mouth when she sneezes/coughs. and when i give her "magic soap," she tells me it's because she got germs from the playground.
when she needs to walk around us or we are in her way, she will ask, "mommy, can i cross you?"
in other news, she's great with all her numbers and letters. she can count to twenty and will do so when walking up the stairs by herself. she likes to spell out all the letters on signs/shirts/anything, really, and she also has a new liking for clocks so that she can read the numbers. "eight, dots, one, and zero!"
she has a great naming system. her baby dolls are named- pink, crawlin' baby, marshalls baby (as in the store), itty bitty baby, green baby, baby boy, baby girl, and dots baby (as in polka dots), to name a few. this makes it easy for donnie and i to keep up.
she says "bless you" to tanner and other dogs when they sneeze.
"don't call me memma. i am dr. emily." i love her ambition.
she can unlock my ipad and use netflix better than i can. (speaking of ipads, any of you know how to update your blog and post pictures from the ipad?)
her favorite movie right now is monsters, inc.
she is loving her dance class (but i am not. the other kids in the class? eh, i guess i can tolerate the unruly children. after all, they are only 2 1/2. but the parents?! seriously, they are all weirdos. it's no wonder their kids are, too. so i'm hoping to find a different studio come spring).
she's getting better about using the potty at school, but she still won't go at home. hmm.
apparently we missed grandparents day this month. so happy belated to ong/grumpy, ba/granny, grandmother, and hg!
and lastly, at 32 months, em wears a size 2t, 8-8.5 shoe, weighs 33 lbs, and is 36.5 in. tall. such a big girl!