First-ish

We've had lots of things going on lately that were KIND of firsts. There was Emily's first day of preschool, which was kind of also not a first since she went to the same preschool with the same teachers last year.

Also Emily had her first-ish dentist appointment last week. The first one she made it all the way through anyway. We tried over a year ago but I had to carry her out screaming uncontrollably when she had a complete meltdown before they could even look in her mouth.
Everything was going so well...

The most recent dentist appointment was also harrowing, and Emily took a good 10 minutes of convincing before she'd let the hygenist brush even one tooth. She hates being tickled, and she was afraid the tooth brushing was going to tickle. She also spit on the floor (there was no sink!) and hosed down the tools area with the sprayer, but we made it through and she now agrees that it wasn't so bad.
More mature, but still a goofball

Will and I went to our first wine festival in a long time. We used to go fairly often, but mobile kids and wine festivals don't really mix so we've been out of the scene for awhile. I was AMAZED at what has happened to the wine-making industry in Maryland since the last time we went to this festival 5 years ago. There used to be about 8 wineries that came to the MD wine festivals, only 2 of which were any good at making anything other than really sweet wine. This time there were almost 40 wineries! I sampled about 9 (holy crap, it didn't feel like that many!) and was very impressed with some of them! There were even some Rosés that were decent, and it's really tough to pull those off in the best of circumstances, let alone in chilly Maryland. The development of the Traminette grape in the last couple of years really seems to have helped MD's wineries because it grows well around here and makes a tasty wine. In any case, it was worth coming out in the rain, and Will and I had fun on our wine festival date!
Dry wines on a wet day

Ok, yeah, it does look like I tasted 9 wineries

Then came Emily's second first dance class. We started her in dance classes a year ago at Little Gym, but after the excitement of the first couple weeks had worn off she'd just sit there and cry the whole class. After we finished out the semester we stopped because a little girl wearing a tutu just sitting in the corner and crying is super-depressing. Since my sister showed her an episode of So You Think You Can Dance at the beach this summer, Emily's dearest wish has been to learn to dance, so we've started her back up at dance classes, this time at a "real" dance studio. This place is more expensive, but you pay by the month instead of by the semester, so hopefully this time we can stick it out. Also it turns out her teacher is the same woman to used to teach ME tap back when I was 9 years old who now has her own studio, so that's all very neat and leaves me humming "Circle of Life" under my breath. I did not take a picture of her this time, because it seemed silly to take a picture just because it was her first class at a NEW dance studio, so instead here is a picture of her a year ago before her FIRST first dance class:
Didn't I say in my last post that she hadn't changed much in the past year? I take that back. Look at the little BAYBEEEEEE!


Charlotte got her first-ish ice cream cone at the fair this week. We make banana "ice cream" at home all the time by jamming bananas through the vitamix and scooping it into cones, but this was the first REAL ice cream cone she's ever had, and I ate most of it :-)
The ice cream scoopers don't know what "just a little bit" means

The fair is so big and so arduous to do with kids, we ended up going twice last week, once to have dinner and do the animals, and again later for Emily to do a couple rides.
Peeking at the duckies

Love the ducky slide

Cute chicken!

Mean chicken

Zhyoonicorns love to drive lawn mowers

Charlotte's ready to go

But then she decides riding is better

Fall is the time for firsts and first-ishes, I suppose, which is part of the reason I love it! Now if only we could get rid of this hot, humid, rainy weather then I could start enjoying the other part of the reason I love Fall!