Six years old (and three days late)

Emily is six now.  She needs 2 hands to show how old she is.  And if her first two days of being six are any indication, it is going to be a moody year.

This past year Emily learned to swim without water wings...

...and really started riding her bike well (still with training wheels).  I think she's probably ready to take the training wheels off, but I don't know if Will's and my backs are ready.  She got her ears pierced....

...and moved up into a booster car seat.

She discovered a love of gymnastics, and has taken classes all year.

She still loves to dance though.

She started Kindergarten!

She gets homework for the first time this year, and luckily really likes it.

She can now count to 100+, she can add and subtract and I've briefly broached multiplication with her and she seems to understand that as well.  She LOVES science.  She enjoys outings, but still likes to spend large portions of time at home playing with her toys.  She has started needing more time to play alone, much to her sister's dismay.  She'll do physical play with Charlotte, but gets quite irritated when Charlotte tries to play ponies or something like that with her because Charlotte doesn't do things the way Emily wants her to. 

 She can sound out words and write out fairly readable sentences with a little help (there's a "y" at the end of "today", etc.)  She is doing better with being flexible and accepting disappointment, but she still gets pretty upset sometimes when things don't go her way.  She cries a lot less, especially while playing with Jazmin, which she still loves to do at every possible opportunity.  She still gets a few "yellow paws" per month at school, usually for talking or doing something distracting when she should be listening, but overall she's doing really well in school.  She adjusted well to the full-day Kindergarten and having to eat her lunch more quickly to get all her food in.  She can get dressed, brush her teeth, wash her face and brush her hair all by herself in the morning now, and with the help of a chair she can even get her own cereal with milk.  She LOVES spooky stuff, though her sister is easily frightened so we sometimes have to limit things she is ready for but Charlotte isn't.

She finally got her first taste of cotton candy, a longtime aspiration of hers.

She also took her first Ferris Wheel ride this year, with Daddy of course because Mommy is kinda terrified of heights.

Emily took her first cruise this year, and visited her first of hopefully many foreign countries.

She loves to explore, and as she has gotten older she has transitioned from just standing there throwing rocks in the water to hopping from rock to rock along the creek at the farm, just like her Daddy :-)

She's so mature in so many ways, and she REALLY does listen to you and process what you say when you explain something, but she is also still so young.  She loves unicorns, magic and sparkly colorful things.

She's REALLY very good at physical/gymnastics type things.  She can do an honest-to-God cartwheel now, and aside from her haystack dive a few months ago she is pretty good at doing crazy flippy hangy things and not falling.  She has spent a large percentage of her last year hanging upside down.

She's very helpful and doesn't mind running upstairs or downstairs to grab something as a favor to me.  She is heartbreakingly sweet, and gets so confused when people at school are mean to her. She even invited a boy who has been mean to her all year to her birthday party in the hopes that extending the olive branch could make him into a friend (he didn't even RSVP :-( )  She seems to be attracted to friends who are kinda mean, and she is often upset and hurt by someone she considered a friend announcing they're not her "BFF" anymore.

One thing's for sure.  She is getting more amazing every day, and I am still enjoying getting to know her and watching her grow into a person SO much!  Every age she has hit so far is better than the last, and I'm so lucky to have such a sweet, smart, beautiful daughter.

But instead of prattling on even further about Emily, I'll let her speak for herself.  Here is her 6 year old interview, transcribed word for word!  I never realized what a little valley girl she is.

How old are you? - Six

How is being six different than being five? - Well, like, when I go to first grade, like I get to see different friends, and like, I like my old friends!

Who is your best friend? - Well, um, it appears that like, hmmm...Donovan.  But Trynn was my best friend, but then she moved.

What is your favorite thing to do? - Um, I like to...WELL, there are a lot of things I like to do.  I like to play on the playground, I like to jump on the jumpy thing, I like to go to Chuck E Cheese, I like to play games.

What is your favorite color? - My favorite color is...well, I have 3 different colors that are my favorite colors.  One's pink, the other one's purple, and the other one's blue.

What is your favorite food? - Ooooh!  My favorite food, I have like, um, TWO different favorite foods.  Like, I like macaroni and cheese and I like spaghetti and meatballs.

What is your favorite thing to do with your family? - Oooh!  I like to go out at parties!  Especially my birthday party.

What is your favorite toy? - Um, I have three.  One, my strawberry pillow that you got for me on my birthday.  The other one is Pink Swirl (her stuffed dog), and the other one is, um, the other one is.....the other one is like Rainbow Glow! (her light-up rainbow unicorn pillow pet)

What do you want to be when you grow up? - Oh!  Well like, I like to be uh um, a scientist when I grow up AND, I like, want to teach science.

What makes you happy? - Hmmm, well, when I'm feeling sad, I always like a hug from my mommy.

What makes you sad? - Well, sometimes I get sad because that like, sometimes I get sad and like I don't like something but like, I, it makes, like, sometimes not playing with Jazmin makes me sad cuz like, we're friends. (This is a very typical sentence from Emily...it takes her quite awhile to get to the point sometimes!)

What is your favorite show to watch? - Ooh!  My favorite show!  Well, I have three...one, Ruby Gloom.  The other, Casper's Scare School, and the other, ADVENTURE TIME!

What is your favorite book to read? - Oooh, I have a lot of favorite books.  One of my favorite books are like Ponyrella, I like that one.  And I also like Play Clay, AND I like that rhyming book (Shel Silverstein's Poems), and I like um Caroline (American Girl) and I like Sam (?).

What do you like to learn about? - Eyouuu, that's a lot!  Well, I like to learn about nature!  I like to learn about nature.

What was the best part of your birthday? - Oh, the best part of my birthday!  The best part of my birthday was getting to open my presents, and getting a long good sleep.

Where do you like to go? - I like to go like, I OH!  I like to go and visit the Mall!  And I like to go and visit trains, like, I liked the Santa Claus Train.

Who is your teacher? - Mrs. Utermohle!

What is your favorite treat? - My favorite treat is ice cream, and I like cake too.

What do you think about while you're falling asleep? - Well!  Well like my birthday night, I was thinking about the sad things that happened on my birthday (see the aforementioned attitude problem). 

What is your favorite song? - (singing) Roy G. Biv is a colorful man!

What do you want adult Emily to remember about 6 year old Emily? - Well, I want to remember that like, I had lots of friends AND that I had a happy family, AND that I lived with some friends for a very long time.

 

 Happy Birthday to my sweet girl.  I am excited to experience your 6th year with you!

Coffee Date

Wednesday eats....

I found it easier to get out of bed this morning, so I didn't have the same rushing problem I had yesterday, which was good because I had my breakfast...

Egg, 1/2 Applegate chicken and apple sausage, and 1 giant breakfast cookie

...then I helped Emily get dressed for "Dress as what you want to be when you grow up" day at her school!  She wanted to be a scientist, of course!

Stop making me look into the sun, mom!

I was really excited, but also kind of depressed.  The strap on my goggles was dry-rotted and the lab coat is a size I haven't worn in years.  It has been a LONG TIME since I worked in a lab and I do miss it.

Not too long after Emily left I realized she hadn't taken her homework to school with her so I dropped it off.  I L.O.V.E. that I can do that for her, because we never lived anywhere near my schools when I was growing up (30 min from elementary school, 15 min from middle and high school) so if I forgot a lunch or homework assignment I was screwed.  It was a good thing actually because it convinced me to leave the house, and while I was out I went by Baltimore Tea and Coffee to pick up a pound of beans since we're out.  When you buy a pound of beans you get a free coffee, so I helped myself.  Charlotte wanted a hot chocolate but I said no because of the sugar, then I remembered that they have free sample cups so I got Charlotte her own tiny decaf coffee with milk and she was beyond thrilled.  The girl actually does like coffee for some reason.

I had a small black coffee and a pound of dark roast vanilla for later

Charlotte was fantastic for most of our coffee date.  After each sip she would sigh and sit back in her chair, saying "Ahhhh, dis is da WIFE!"  She enjoyed pointing out airplanes.

But she couldn't hold off the crazy forever.  It soon made an appearance.

When we got home Charlotte wanted to re-create yesterday afternoon exactly.  I remember having this urge as a kid...it's sad when you get old enough to realize that you can never TRULY re-live a fun time you had.  We tried though.  We had lunch first.  I started putting together a taco salad because apparently I STILL haven't had enough of them (maybe it's because Cinco de Mayo is coming up?) but didn't make it very far before I realized there was no leftover beef or beans.  I called Will to see if he had put them in a weird container or in a different fridge, and it turns out he took the wrong container to work for lunch so instead of leftover pork stir-fry he had about a cup of plain refried beans and some ground beef.  Disappointing.

I made my salad anyway, it was mostly devoid of protein but still tasty.

Charlotte lunched on vegetable soup (since that's what she ate yesterday) and I finished the leftovers.

After playing in the basement for awhile, we headed outside to play on the swings for awhile.  When I saw Maxx sunning himself so nicely I was reminded of a couple super-cute pictures I've seen that people have taken of themselves with their doggies and I decided to try to snap a selfie with my canine buddy.  I didn't exactly get what I was looking for.  I don't know why I thought I would.

I snacked on an apple with almonds.

Then it was time to get Emmy.  Charlotte wanted to jog most of the way there, so I obliged.  I haven't been getting much exercise otherwise lately.  We took a slightly different route home so we could walk on the pink carpet created by the cherry trees dropping their blossoms.  It reminded me of the second Cat in the Hat book where they dye the snow pink.

Emily's shirt turned out to be camouflage 

 After playing some 3-person duck duck goose, I was feeling snacky so I had:

Snap peas (not all of them) and hummus (not all of it)

4 dates with 1 Tbsp almond butter

Curry sauerkraut (not all of it)

 Will had a beer meeting tonight, so we ate early; as soon as he got home.  Meatloaf "muffins", steamed broccoli and cauliflower, and quinoa/amaranth mix.

Dessert, of course.

Then, there was extra snacking in the evening that I didn't photograph :-(  It wasn't terrible though, and I've decided that I am going to start the 30 Day Shred tomorrow to force myself to exercise (and hopefully I will see results quickly to keep me motivated)!  I was GOING to start it today, but well, that didn't happen.  Way to go, Sara.  That doesn't speak well of my dedication even now at the beginning, but I've promised myself that I will do it because I have it, it's quick, and it will fit perfectly into the schedule my life seems to be in right now so why not?

Cookin' Cookies

Tuesday eats...

I ended up making this morning quite stressful by lazing in bed for a few extra minutes.  I've recently taken to waking up at 5:30AM and then not being able to get back to sleep until about 6:50AM, 10 minutes before our girls come bouncing in the room to wake us up so it has been EXTREMELY hard to get out of bed.  I know most of you are probably rolling your eyes because the loss of an hour of sleep is hardly something to complain about, but it is the loss of THAT particular hour of sleep and then falling back asleep right before it's time to wake up that is so annoyingly difficult.  Will has decided I should just start getting up at 5:30.  I feel like making a sarcastic comment about that but the truth is he has a point.

Breakfast was 2 eggs with salsa and 2 slices of turkey bacon.

I spent this morning working both of my jobs.  The stay-at-home mom part consisted mostly of getting food for Charlotte.  The child must be growing because between breakfast (a bowl of cereal and turkey bacon) and lunch (a large bowl of vegetable soup) she had an extra bowl of cereal and turkey bacon, 2 containers of seaweed, half an apple, an orange, a banana and a cheese stick.  She makes me jealous.

Oh, and during the morning this happened:

Well Crap

Yeesh.  As if it wasn't bad enough that I dropped it in the toilet 2 weeks ago.  It still works, but eventually a chunk of the screen is going to fall out and there's no going back from that.  

My lunch, for simplicity's sake, was a highly attractive bowl of Amy's black bean vegetable soup and an orange that looked pretty typical.

I admit, I had quite a few snacks this afternoon, including meatballs, a chicken leg and lemonade...

...and a serving of noodle-bread which I shared with a lamb wearing half a felted wool mango for a hat.

She ate most of it.

Charlotte, like her mama, believes in richly-seasoned dishes and makes heavy use of her spice shelf.

Since school let out 2 hours early today we had plenty of time in the afternoon with Emily.  The first order of business was making "Giant Breakfast Cookies" from Heavenly Homemaker.  I was shocked at how well my children #1 restrained themselves from diving into the dough #2 shared the responsibilities without fighting and #3 avoided grabbing at everything on the counter that was within reach once they were standing on the stool.

My cookies didn't end up looking quite as nice as the cookies in Laura's picture.

Totally looks like a Pinterest fail

 They definitely could've used some extra flour and some time in the fridge before cooking.  They tasted yummy though.  The buttermilk makes them lighter, more crispy-cakey which isn't my favorite cookie consistency (I like them chewy and DENSE) but they worked.  The girls had them as a snack with some kombucha.  This batch turned out REALLY well and the girls chugged it and asked for more.  It was peach ginger, which I think is the only kind I'm going to make from now on because it fizzes up and tastes delicious so reliably.

Our next gallon of kommmmmmbucha fermenting, small jars in their second fermentation and the filtered final product.  

Then the girls did something that is starting to happen more and more often and I LOVE it.  They went off and played by themselves for a significant chunk of time, which gave me the chance to enjoy my cookie while sitting down and drinking tea like a civilized person and not in bites between handling one disaster or another.  I did periodically sneak out to take pictures of the cuteness though.

The dandelion problem that draws yard chemical salespeople to my door like flies

Cookies are an acceptable snack if you have them in the afternoon with tea.

Even though we ate at Café Rio this weekend my craving for Mexican-style food was not yet slaked so I made taco salad for dinner tonight.

My tumbly was still a little rumbly after my salad, so I finished Charlotte's leftovers.

My dessert was 2 more cookies.  I was proud of myself that I didn't eat half the batter before making them or half the cookies themselves as soon as they came out of the oven.

I did have a glass of wine in the evening.  What?  I said I wouldn't have beer tonight, I said nothing about wine!