Oh, What a Beautiful Morning...

Emma on the first day of school in her ladybug costume.

Emma is a very independent, opinionated, strong-willed 3-year-old who, for the past year, has claimed that she is six. She does not believe that she is too young to make her own decisions, especially when it comes to what she wears. Most of the time I allow her to wear what she wants (pick your battles) albeit I reserve the right to veto some of her clothing choices. However, even with the amount of wardrobe control she is allowed, getting dressed in the morning can still be rather traumatic if what she wants is not clean, doesn't fit right (she's very picky about that) or is inappropriate for the weather. This morning she wanted to wear shorts even though it is in the 40's and we are going to be driving into the mountains of New Hampshire where it is even colder. Fit #1 for the day! I just left her alone and she eventually came out dressed appropriately, although she is wearing her snowboots!

Emma at Story Hour

Emma goes to Story Hour at the library on Thursday afternoons. This was her second week to go. The first week she introduced herself to everyone she could see (Hi! I'm Emma!). She really enjoys going although Thursday she had a fit during the craft-threw her paper across the table and refused to do it-all because I colored in a square on it.

Woohoo!

So the economy is falling apart, panic reigns on Wall Street, major corporations are struggling but, Hey! gas is cheaper! The price dropped 20 cents in 5 days. Gotta love it!

-Dave just told me he got gas for $2.87!

Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

We were driving (we did a lot of that today) and Garrett started yelling, "Emma, put your seat belt back on!" She now knows how to get out of a 5-point car seat belt. Darn! She sure is pretty proud of herself though. Put that together with the crib being taken down so she is in a big bed means that I have a lot less control over her. Yesterday I put her down twice for a nap only to hear the tv come on a few minutes later. That child just wears me out sometimes...

Come what may...and LOVE it!

For the first time in too many years we watched all four sessions of General Conference. Okay, part of that was spent with my eyes closed and I took Emma to the bathroom several times so I can't claim all of it but I did watch most of it. I have to say that my favorite talk was Joseph P. Wirthlin's talk about dealing with hard times but there were many great talks. I look forward to getting next month's Ensign so I can read them!

This week in pictures

It has been a busy/normal week for us. The pumpkin pictures were taken at a farm stand near us. Alyssa has been aching to get some pumpkins. In Montgomery we couldn't get pumpkins until just a couple of days before Halloween or they would rot but here we can have them all month long. Emma asked where the farmer was and when I pointed him out she looked confused and asked where the other farmer was. I guess she didn't think he looked like a farmer!

The field hockey pictures were taken yesterday. The temp was in the upper 50's and with a brisk wind we felt quite cold as you can tell by Diana's outfit. I don't know much about field hockey. It seems like soccer with sticks but they have a lot of rules and the whistle is always blowing. She played most of the game and did well. The three younger kids had a good time running around in the grass. Emma introduced herself to some of the opposing team's players. (Hi! I'm Emma. What's your name?) She has been very friendly lately which will surprise some of you I'm sure. Diana invited several of the girls from the team to our house afterward for food and a movie. We stayed up way too late watching the Red Sox game (Go Sox!) and so are pretty tired today.

Emma and Alyssa had their swim lessons this morning. Alyssa is a fish! I can see her doing swim team some day. Emma did better this morning. At least she got in the pool even though she wasn't happy about it. She didn't scream today which was a big improvement . She screamed through the entire lesson a couple of weeks ago.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY ERICA!!!