For those new here, be sure to read Our Story to learn more about Emma and some special things she deals with.
Miss Emma was born in October 2002, a month before our first anniversary. She was a fiesty little girl from the beginning! She has always had a very strong personality, which must be something she needs.
Below she is wearing her new favorite outfit: her pink "I'm Brilliant" shirt from Charisse, and her pink tights that are way too big. Isn't it a totally cool outfit? I especially like how it bunches up down her legs and that you can see her underwear through it.
Hmmm... She is five years old now. She weighs about as much as 12-18 month old baby (23 lbs). Her baby brother is almost her exact weight, and he's only eleven months old. She's 36" tall, which is shorter than an average three year old, but I'm not sure what age it's average for. She's a pretty tiny little girl.
Emma loves to dance. She LOVES LOVE LOVES to dance. At the end of every movie, if there is music, she is dancing. She makes at least one person dance with her. It's so cute how much she loves it. She also loves to sing and has been working on her skills. She is getting the vibrato down pretty well. It's pretty cute.
In the picture below, she was acting like a baby (if it wasn't obvious). She does that sometimes. And yes, I promise she does eat! She's just super tiny and very thin.
She is very flexible and can do the splits, handstands, cartwheels, and backbends. According to her, she can also fly by jumping off of the couch or bed. She is often in some sort of peril and must be regularly rescued from unseen foes. She is very dramatic and has a very active imagination.
She loves to swim in the bathtub. She does a great job too. She'll hold her breath and stay under the water for ten seconds or so as she swims around. She opens her eyes and loves it.
Emma takes her job as big sister very serious. She loves her little brother. She loves to take his toys, knock him off balance, pour water on his head, as well as help change his diaper, put lotion on him after a bath, comb his hair, and the list goes on.
She is a very smart little girl with many challenges behind and in front of her, but she doesn't seem bothered by it at all. Well, she used to be bothered by the doctors and would scream and fight and kick and go completely crazy whenever we went, but she's kind of grown out of that now (thank goodness!).
One of her main issues right now is her communication skills. She is hearing impaired but can hear well with her hearing aids, as long as there isn't a lot of noise in the room. She knows over a hundred ASL signs. She picks them up so fast. She had a cleft that was repaired (the cleft was only in her mouth), but the two things together (cleft/hearing) cause her to have a pretty big speech impairement.
She was struggling with comprehending language as well, but lately she's been making leaps and bounds and she can carry on a normal conversation for the most part. She cannot pronounce several different sounds, so it's difficult for most people to know what she is saying, but she's learning and progressing daily. It's something we work on with her almost every day.
Right now with her health, she's doing pretty okay. She isn't on any medications. Her blood levels are all below normal, but they are still in good ranges for being in bad ranges...if that makes sense! Her platelets are the ones that are the lowest and cause the most worry.
She's such a special little girl and we are so grateful that she's ours. She brightens our days with her fun loving personality and goofiness. She does plenty of silly things and we try to keep our family blog updated on her latest happenings.
