Emily and Ally

I cannot believe Emily will be starting kindergarten next year! I thought we still had a long way to go before she would go to school, but in the last couple of months I have realized it is next fall! She is growing up so fast. We had seriously considered homeschooling her but after seeing how well she thrives at preschool and how much she loves being around kids her own age, we would like to send her to school. She talks about Kindergarten all the time and about riding a school bus, even though Dave and I have not talked to her about either in detail.
Emily still continues to struggle with her asthma but we have not had any bad attacks like last year. She has only gotten sick once since starting school! Last year we didn't make it a full week at school until after Christmas. Her doctor wants her on Singulair to help with asthma and allergies. Dave and I have struggled with the decision to keep her on it or not. The pill is really expensive and we are not that excited about our 4 year old being dependent on a daily pill. She went off of it over the summer and did great. She didn't get sick at all. But we started her back on it in the fall, doctor's recommendation, and decided we wanted to try not using it after a couple of weeks. Unfortunately that is when she got sick and we had to use the nebulizer and take her to the doctor to get antibiotics. Now she is back on Singulair and she seems to be doing good.
Ally is talking up a storm these days. She is saying complete sentences including "Daddy will you turn the light on for me?". She is still in the terrible two stage of throwing tantrums, but they are not nearly as bad or as often. She and Emily are getting along really well the last couple of days. They have been playing together and making up games. I have so much fun watching them interact and get along. Ally is very in to possessions and everything has to have an owner (my hat, mommy's chair, daddy's phone, Emily's book). She is really good at remembering names. She can tell me about half of the kids in her class and if we are talking to her about a specific family member, she can tell you the names of the other people in their family without hints (this morning we were talking about Katherine and she started talking about Lyla). We think that Ally's motor skills are much more developed than Emily's, probably because she has someone to learn from. Ally can already buckle herself into her car seat and Emily just learned how to do that in the last year. She can also put on her shoes and socks completely by herself. Now this all may sound great, like she can do everything on her own, but the key is to helping her find the motivation to do them on her own.
Both of the girls seem to understand that I have a baby growing inside of me. Ally has only recently started acknowledging it but Emily seems to really get what is going on. When Emily plays dress-up, she now sticks a ball under her dress and pretends she is having a baby.