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| Emerson's First Day |
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| Stella's First Day |
After a wonderful summer of achieving new personal goals (learning to really swim, jumping off high objects, making sandwiches for themselves, an awesome ward campout in our new family tent), the kids are of course back in school. Let's be honest, I never really worry much about Stella and school, so I wasn't too stressed for her in preschool. You could plunk that girl down in a completely different culture and within minutes she'd have an entire entourage of friends.
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| The First Tooth |
But I can confess to some nerves about Emerson starting first grade and being in school all day. It's pretty amazing, though, because he's decided to absolutely love school this year. When anyone asks him about school, he says, "I love Mrs. Barnson." Last week they had a perfectly nice substitute, but before school on Monday, Emerson was literally jumping up and down and saying, "I can't wait for Mrs. Barnson!" And he's learning and growing so fast. Monkey bars -- check, reading with fluidity -- check, taking piano lessons -- check. Here's the really big one -- last night he lost his first tooth (thus the post title). The mixture of excitement and terror right before Tad yanked the wobbly sucker out was truly palpable. And that super-generous Tooth Fairy brought him five dollars.
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| Stella at dance class |
Stella's experience at preschool this year can be summed up in this short story: when I dropped her off the other day, she immediately grabbed Sophia's hand and they ran off comparing their similar shoes. Sophia's dad then told me that she hated preschool until she made close friends with Stella and now she won't let him leave her at school until Stella shows up to hold her hand. That's my girl, the spreader of joy and light. She's learning to read and she can't get enough of coloring and painting. We've already lost several new school clothing items to tragic preschool painting incidents.
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| Pony ride at the fair |
Atticus is growing too fast. He wanders all around naming everything he sees, combines words like a champ ("uh-oh chair"), and insists on running as much of his life as he can. Just like big brother was, he's obsessed with trucks and tractors. At the state fair last weekend, he literally quaked with excitement as we placed him on the seats of several real tractors. And he finally made it through an entire two-hour session of nursery last Sunday with only one brief cry. I've never had a child this good at getting into mischief and I constantly find things he's pulled out of closets, drawers, bags, etc. If he wants it, Atticus will find a way to get it.
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| Tad's Big Cottonwood Race |
Tad did another bike race, the annual Snowbird Hill Climb. Despite a slightly longer and more challenging course, he got the same time as last year! We really had fun cheering him at the finish of this one -- the canyons are so beautiful. I ran our annual neighborhood Labor Day 5K and finished second overall! The only person to beat me was an 18-year-old boy and I ran just over seven-minute miles, so I was really pleased. My next race is a half-marathon this Saturday so fingers crossed!
