Emily's New Shirt

Emily's t-shirt becomes official on or about April 2, 2009!

First Day of Nursery School

Dressed and ready for school!

Wearing the monkey backpack

Back view of the backpack

Walking down the stairs

Trying to open the door

Nametag and Rain Coat and in the hallway of school

Trying out Nursery School Play-Doh

I don't know if I have mentioned on here, but at the end of this past school year, I became a stay at home mom to Emily. It is something that I've wanted to do and so far, I've been really enjoying my time with Emily. Right now, I plan to stay at home for several years before returning to teaching high school kids.

Since Emily was not going to be returning to day care or a sitter's house, we decided to send her to a 2.5 year old nursery school program. Her class meets twice a week for 2.5 hours. It's just enough time to have a lot of fun playing and get a special snack before coming home for lunch. And it gives me some time to get to the gym and run a few errands.

Emily had her first day of school 2 weeks ago. The first 2 weeks had shortened sessions of school to help the kids adjust, so tomorrow will actually be the first day of 2.5 hours.

On the first day, Emily was ready to go long before it was time to leave. She sat at the top of the steps waiting to leave. She even brought me my shoes. It was all very cute. When we got there, she got a little unsure of everything. We sat down and did a little bit of play doh before I told her that I was going to leave. She said ok and I left and ran a couple of errands. The class time was only an hour. Well, I got back to a red faced and tear streaked little girl. The teacher said that she had needed a little bit of extra attention. That was an understatement! Emily told me (very excitedly) that she had a snack and had a cookie and apple juice! The teacher said it was just a cracker. The apple juice is a super special treat because Emily only drinks water and milk at home. Now she says that she gets apple juice at nursery school and it is her favorite! She also said "I played play doh with Mommy and then I cried and the teacher picked me up. Mommy leave and I cried. Mommy came back." She was very matter of fact about it and was excited about going back for the next day. I put Molly (her monkey) in her school back pack and when I left (and she cried) I let her reach in and take Molly out. The teachers reported that she did much better and only cried for a few minutes. She has been very positive when talking about it and told me that she played with Michael one day. She also loved going out to the nursery school playground. In fact, she talks about the nursery school stuff in "nursery school toys" "nursery school snack" and so on. She seems to enjoy it in spite of her clinginess at drop off time. She did great this past Thursday, so I am hopeful that tomorrow will be even better.

Play-doh, Finger Jell-o

Using the "garlic press" play-doh toy

Yummy Finger Jell-o

Reading Paddington Bear with Paddington Bear

Just a few activities of the end of the summer (I'm posting a bit late). Emily has loved playing with play-doh recently and has gotten quite good at using some of the tools in our play-doh set. It's always a fun activity when we are having a quiet morning.

We made finger jell-o for Emily. It was a huge treat and she loved eating it. We've finished it so I'm debating what flavor/color we should try next. Maybe purple or orange would be fun?!?

We have started going to our library again. They are renovating the children's room so all the kids books are crammed into a very small area of the adult section. And the storytimes are postponed until it reopens. The children's room used to have plenty of space to move around and look at books and there was no concern about the volume of little voices. Emily was good about being fairly quiet, but it was still hard without much room to move. We're looking forward to the new children's room re-opening next month, we hope! When I tell Emily to use her quiet, library voice, she says "Elmo's Opposites." Initially I had to wonder what she was talking about, but we have a book called "Elmo's Opposites" that talks about loud and then quiet voices and mentions the library. Funny how she connect it all. We checked out several books including "Madeline" (one of my childhood favorites) as well as several newer books. We also got "Paddington" and we read that to her while she held her Paddington Bear that Aunt Jill gave her when she was born. Emily enjoyed having a special bear to hold for the story.

We returned those library books today and checked out some new ones. She was very good about pushing the books through the return book slot and is enjoying her new books. We've been walking to the library which has been nice! Hopefully we can continue that most of the winter except on the coldest of days.

Swimming in 2008

Emily and Greg in the big pool
Weeeeeee

She became a pro at climbing the ladder out of the pool this summer

In the toddler pool

Making "dinner" in the bucket with a paintbrush

Painting

Lounging after fun in the water

Playing on the swings at the pool

We had a great time at the pool this summer. Emily loved it and was able to do so much more than last summer. She loved going and we were able to go quite a bit. The pool closed Labor Day weekend, but it has taken me a few weeks to get up to date on my posts. We're planning on taking Emily to the Y this winter during family swim times so that she can continue to enjoy the water.

Day at the Zoo

We took Emily to the Philly Zoo a couple of weeks ago before we went to see Scott and Adrianne and their beautiful new baby. We found a couple of different play areas in addition to looking at the animals. Emily really enjoyed seeing the elephants and giraffes, but we don't have pictures of those!

Popsicles and Markers

Trying our new Popsicle molds, yummy!

Hard at work with her new markers

Look at this smock, it hits her toes!

Just a couple of pictures of Emily enjoying some yummy orange yogurt popsicles and Emily's first try with her new markers. She colored great with them. The smock is one of my old t-shirts that is stained, it's practically bigger than she is!

Play with Oliver

Oliver checking out the stroller wheels

Emily's turn

Oli's Turn

Chris, Danielle, and Oli were in Philly a few weeks ago so we were able to see them as well as some other friends from grad school one day. It was fun catching up with everyone and Emily and Oli had a good time playing together. We brought Emily's doll stroller and a box of Lego's figuring that that would give each of them something to play with. Nope, things with wheels are the most fun. Just like each time we've gotten together with Oliver, he and Emily really play nicely together. They had their hug and kiss, but it isn't on our camera. So far, each time we see them, Emily and Oliver manage a kiss. We're going to have to watch them as they get older! :)

Outer Banks, NC

Get ready for picture overload!

Greg and Nathan Boogie Boarding

A sand crab crawling out of the hole

The view from walkway at the back of the house

Sunrise the day we left

We had a great time at the Outer Banks. None of us had ever been before, but I know our immediate family would love to go back. The beach was so nice and relaxing and Emily really loved to play in the sand and have the full attention of at least one (of six) adults at any given time.