Way too long!

Once again, way too long between posts. I guess that life has been busy. The big update is that Emily has been back in school for two months and it has been going pretty well. She mastered the rotating class schedule, the locker situation, and the coursework like an absolute champ. I really didn't need to help out at all. She jumped in as if it had always been the way that things work. 

On the friend front, she has been making some progress, but middle school is also full of drama. There seem to be lots of girls who are sort of hot and cold, fine one day and bossy or mean the next. Overall, though, I feel like there are at least three nice girls who she is slowly forming a bond with. It just takes time. Of course, most of the girls are doing cotillion, but she is not, so that doesn't help with the bonding.

At a pre-cotillion party

 

Other than school, Emily continues to make great progress with violin and continues to draw every chance she gets. She really loves perfecting her craft. She has also been doing some reading, now that one of the girls turned her on to a book series that she really loves. I love the fact that there are lots of books in the series and all of them seem pretty chunky. She doesn't spontaneously think of reading as an activity, but once she starts, she can't stop with these books. One night, I went in to check on her (thinking that she was asleep), but she was wide awake and reading at 11pm!

Just looking happy (after petting the cat)

 

Next week is Spring Break for both girls and we are heading to Keystone for some skiing. We haven't been since before the pandemic so both are looking forward to it. Sort of feels like bookends on the pandemic in that the last trip we did before we shut down for Covid was this exact trip. Of course, Emily has grown quite a bit since then, so we had to buy her all new gear. I am certain that some photos will appear on the blog (hopefully sooner than two months from now!). :)

Back to School (for real this time)!

After being at home for almost two years, Emily is back to in-person school as of today! She did an awesome job during the fall of studying for and acing her entrance exam, writing her essays, and visiting the school. Her visit day went off without a hitch and she really hit it off with the sweet girl that was assigned to show her around, so hopefully she already has a friend. 

First Day of School

We stopped by school last week to get her schedule, see her locker, and meet some of her teachers. I thought that it might help get her oriented, but I think it all went by too quickly. She has a lot to handle today - opening her pad lock (which she brought home to practice over the weekend), changing classes, keeping track of her iPad, changing clothes for PE, and navigating the mask situation. As she was getting out of the car, she said, "Mom, I'm scared." Despite being scared, she refused to let me walk her in and get her situated, saying, "Then I would always be known as the weird kid." LOL. 

For all her apprehension, I think she will do great. I think she underestimates the extent to which the teachers and other kids will be there to help her. Also, now that she and Abbie are at the same school, Abbie can help, too. They are already planning to meet up at lunch everyday so that Abbie can make sure that she gets something to eat and has a fresh mask for the afternoon.

Sleepover!!

Emily and her BFF finally got to have their first ever sleepover with each other last weekend. They had both looked forward to it for a long time. They made all sorts of plans and accomplished some, but not all, of the activities on their list. They stayed up late, ate junk food, and watched a movie, but there wasn't as much karaoke or nail painting as planned.

Her friend's family went out of their way to make it special for the girls, getting them matching PJs and arranging a trip to the salon so the girls could get a blowout before doing a photo shoot together. With her friend's mom being a professional photographer, we definitely get to reap the rewards!

Post-blowout hairdo

It was cold that day, but in just 10 minutes at the local park, they were able to take a bunch of adorable photos. These are a couple of my favorites:

Such a couple of sweeties! After being cooped up for so long, it was definitely nice to see Emily get out and have some fun.

2nd shot!

Emily received her 2nd vaccine shot on Sunday and handled it like a champ. So far, she has not had much for side effects, if any. She is still looking forward to the sleepover with her best friend in a few weeks and we are still working on getting her back to in-person school after the holiday break. 

In other news, Emily is thrilled that Christmas season is here. We finished putting the tree up this weekend and got the house fully decorated. Right on schedule, our elf arrived and has been quietly observing us from various vantage points around the house. Emily has her Christmas list pulled together and we have started thinking about what she might like to get for Abbie and Dad.

The Vaccine is Here!

After waiting and waiting, the vaccine for the 5-11 year old crowd is finally here. We are very excited to get Emily on her way back to a more normal life. She got her first dose yesterday and did great with it. She said that it barely hurt. When she went to bed last night, her arm was a little sore, but other than that, she was feeling fine.

Before

Of course, we were all so excited that we all went with her to her appointment. Abbie and I made her nuts by obsessively snapping photos - LOL.

During

 

After her shot, we wandered around the CVS for a few minutes to make sure that she didn't have a reaction and she picked out some sparkly blue nail polish for herself. I figured that would be a nice post-shot treat for her.

After

Her second shot will be on November 28th and she will be fully protected by December 12th. We already have a sleepover scheduled for her and her best friend on December 17th. What a nice way to kick off the Christmas break!

Trick or Treat

As you may recall, Halloween is Emily's favorite holiday, which is not that surprising, given her interest in scary things, magic, etc. Her greatest wish was to celebrate her favorite holiday with her best friend, Ansel. Unfortunately, Ansel's family has a long-standing tradition of going trick-or-treating with another family, so Emily was out of luck . . . or so she thought! It turns out that Ansel decided to surprise Emily this year by choosing to go trick-or-treating with her rather than the family that she normally goes with. It was a big secret and Ansel didn't tell Emily until the day before. Emily was super-excited. 

The girls decided that they wanted to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, so Abbie and I walked them around to a bunch of houses. Emily was a sorceress and Ansel was a character from The Hunger Games. It was a beautiful night and they had a blast. We felt like Emily was pretty protected in her N95, so at the end of the night the girls gave each other a huge hug for the first time since the pandemic started. For both of them, that was the biggest treat of the night. :)

As for other Halloween festivities, we made pumpkin spice cakes in the skull muffin tins on Saturday. It was a new recipe and they turned out great! I expect that we will make that recipe again over the next few weeks. On Sunday we carved pumpkins and Emily's turned out super-cute.

She decided to carve a heart into the back and to make the top into a sun. I had never thought of the sun idea before and it looked really great all lit up. It also gave the candle plenty of oxygen, so she got a great glow.

As for other events, Emily continues to be a trooper about online school. It is not easy for either of us and she really wants to get back to in-person classes as soon as possible. We are expecting good news on the vaccine later this week, but it is not clear that schools will be willing to admit her mid-year, so we'll have to see how it goes. 

In the meantime, online classes leaves her lots of flexibility in her schedule. She can sleep as late as she wants and has plenty of time to work on her drawing in the afternoons. We found an art teacher on Fiverr recently and arranged for her to have a 30 minute Zoom art lesson with him. She loved it. He was super-nice and gave her some helpful tricks of the trade. Above is one of her latest drawings in honor of Halloween. :)

Annual Check-up

Emily had her well-child visit last week. She is now 4'8.5" tall, which puts her in the 34th percentile. She has sprouted up 3 inches in the past year. The doctor referred to her as a "late bloomer," meaning that she has a good chance of gaining quite a few more inches before she finishes growing. He speculated that she may someday end up being taller than Abbie. Wouldn't that be nice! This was also a big visit from a vaccine perspective. She was a trooper and endured two shots in each arm. Of course, the shot that she is really waiting for is the COVID vaccine. Hopefully it won't be long now. We are looking forward to that and Emily is also looking forward to Halloween. In the meantime, she has been keeping herself busy with reading, making a gacha life movie, working on her art, and making plans to add new decorations to her room.

Daily Routine

Emily has settled into her online school routine really well. She really doesn't like being online, but she is good about getting her work done and staying on top of everything. We have developed a routine in which I drop Abbie off at school and then come home and get Emily for a daily walk around the neighborhood. After our walk, we both get to work. She will often call on me to check over her math with her, but she usually handles language arts, science, and social studies by herself.

Courtesy of Abbie

Around noon we have lunch together and she is usually done with her schoolwork by then, so her afternoons consist of legos, reading, drawing, and violin. Usually around 3:30 her BFF gets home from school and calls her, so the rest of the time between then and dinner is devoted to that. As for reading, she is really enjoying graphic novels, so there have been a lot of those lately. This dovetails with her love of drawing, I suppose. She continues to be interested in anime. Here is one of her recent drawings:

She recently found a website that offers online anime art classes. She has watched a couple of the free lessons and found them useful (I think), so we may end up paying for the additional lessons. She and her BFF have also been busy making an animated movie together. They are planning on hosting a Zoom premier for the other kids from school on October 11th.

Now that it is October, Emily is really getting excited for Halloween - her favorite holiday. We haven't put our decorations out yet, but we have ordered her costume already. In contrast to last year, I expect that she will be able to do real trick-or-treating this year. She has also requested another trip to the cemetery. She really likes cemeteries!

Speaking of outings, she and Abbie had me take them to Lowe's so that they could each buy a plant. It was a lovely day and the garden center is all outside, so it was a good place to wander around. Emily decided to get some purple heart to plant outside. It is supposed to be pretty hardy and should spread, so she is happy about that.

Enrolled!

Emily is officially enrolled in online school. Her classes started on August 30th and much of her work is asynchronous. On the one hand, she likes the flexible schedule, but on the other hand, she would prefer to have a teacher providing live lessons. I have been sitting with her periodically to offer a bit more interaction and make sure that she isn't just "fast-forwarding" through the material. 

Obligatory 1st day of school photo

So far, she is doing pretty well with everything, but I think that both of us would like to have her back to in-person classes sooner rather than later. We are keeping an eye on the vaccine schedule and hope that she will be able to get vaccinated this fall. We were also able to obtain a nice supply of N95 masks that are sized to fit kids, so those will be an option for her once she is vaccinated and able to go back to class. It took a little finagling because the masks are made in Canada and only shipped to Canadians, but we were able to get a contact in Canada to send us a bunch. :)

Aside from all things school-related, Emily keeps herself busy with a new-found interest in magic. Not like card tricks, but more like spells. She has a couple of books on witchcraft and she has been following the phases of the moon (which are very important to a witch). During the last full moon, we made moon water, which basically involved leaving water outside in a jar overnight so that the light of the full moon could shine on it. Apparently moon water is good for drinking (and Emily insists that it tastes better than regular water), but can also be used in other spells. Emily is also very interested in rocks and loves to bring home new specimens. Sadly, it is shockingly difficult to find a rock identification app that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Who knew that the secrets of rocks would be so well-protected!

Back to School?

I am long-overdue for a post! We finished out our vacation with some enjoyable time in Minneapolis. Abbie and Emily were able to get lots of biking time on the trails around the lakes. The weather was a bit warm, so Emily usually looked like a little red tomato after her rides, but she was a trooper about them. The fact that there was usually ice cream or some other treat included in the process certainly didn't hurt her motivation.

Before

Just as happened with Abbie earlier this summer, Emily was spontaneously bit by the haircut bug. Somewhat unexpectedly, she demanded that we chop off a fair bit of her hair. I think it is a big improvement and she is happy to have a length that doesn't tangle as easily. 

After

Now that we are home again, Emily has been relaxing and enjoying the final few days of summer. Although, as fate would have it, the final few days may be more days than we planned on. Her school starts next Tuesday, but they are not able to accommodate our request to have her online again this fall. As a result, we are exploring a different online option to keep her moving forward until we can get her vaccinated and back to in-person classes. Our hope is that we can get going on an alternative sooner rather than later, but we will see. 

Vacation

Pizza crust

I think that Emily has been having a good summer vacation so far. She spent about five days with Grandma and Grandpa P. before returning to the cabin that we rented for five weeks. 

Selfie!

Over the past couple of weeks, she has been taking it pretty easy - swimming, a little bit of kayaking, feeding the fish, rescuing turtles, biking, etc. All the typical cabin activities. This morning we are going to see if we can pick some raspberries. She is looking forward to it. She picked strawberries with Grandma and said that they taste so much better when they don't come from a store. So true. 

Of course, Emily continues to make us laugh with her quips and unique observations. Earlier this week, Emily noticed some water on the bathroom floor by the toilet. She wondered whether the toilet was leaking and asked Chad to help investigate. He was trying to figure out where the water may have come from, so he asked Abbie if she had done anything that would have gotten water on the floor. He said, "Abbie, did you wash your feet or anything?" Emily responded, "Dad, Abbie wouldn't have washed her feet in the toilet!" Of course, that is not what Chad was asking, and we all cracked up at the comment. It always hits when we least expect it!

She's 11!

Emily celebrated her 2nd pandemic birthday yesterday. At this point, we are pros at having pandemic events. She requested Dungeons and Dragons, un-inflated balloons, and a piano mat as her gifts. In addition we gave her some books and some water shoes for the lake this summer. Greg and Elizabeth also got her a card game and a necklace. Grandma and Grandpa P. have some gifts waiting for her when we see them later this summer.

A piano mat bigger than she is

As for special treats, etc., she decided on both a mixed berry dessert (just like last year), and mini bundt cakes. In addition, Chad took her and Abbie out for ice cream and her friends surprised her with a giant cupcake. Needless to say, she was not able to finish either the ice cream or the cupcake. Even Emily has her limits!

Impromptu party in the driveway

All in all, I think that she had a good day. She said that she doesn't feel any older, but of course, we never do!

Emily is also enjoying the fact that she is now on summer break. It has only been a week and she really hasn't done much with the time. However, she does continue to be interested in art. Here is a cute little image that she texted me during the last week of school:

She was having a rough day and was sitting at her desk, feeling kind of sad. She was in class, so I decided to surprise her with a cup of tea and a brownie. She thanked me by drawing the whole event as a comic strip. It is hard to appreciate if you didn't actually see the events unfold, but she captured the moods really well. So cute.

So close to Summer!

Emily is more than ready for summer vacation. She has one week left and the time can't seem to move quickly enough for her. 

As is often the case, the end of the school year involves a big project. In her social studies class, they are holding a Living Wax Museum event tomorrow. Each student chose a historical figure (living or dead) that they were interested in learning about. Then, they researched the person's life and created a tri-fold with information about the person. Tomorrow, they are supposed to dress up as their chosen person and then "come to life" to recite a speech about the person when other students approach their tri-fold. Who did Emily choose? Much to her teacher's dismay - Madonna. LOL.

I think that her teacher was concerned that, as part of her research, she would encounter images or song lyrics that were not age appropriate. However, she seems to have done fine with it. The attire was also a concern in terms of age appropriateness, but I think we navigated that effectively, as well.

Due to COVID, I think that everyone will give their speech through Zoom, so hopefully Emily will be able to feel involved and well-integrated into the event. There are already end-of-year events that she has had to miss, which has sort of disappointed her, but overall, she has done great with being online this year. That said, the summer break may be even more welcome this year than in past years.

Spring Break and More

It has been way too long between posts and I have all sorts of updates and stories to share. As you can imagine, Spring Break was a stay-cation this year, but we still managed to get out a little bit and it was warm enough that Emily could swim in the pool. She has also developed an interest in chess. She has an app on the iPad that teaches her about the moves that each piece makes, but Chad and I have been playing with her a bit, too.

We are actually all pretty evenly matched. Emily won a game against Chad at one point, which was exciting, but her response was, "Yup, there's no match for dumb luck!" I guess that's one way to look at it.

With Emily being fully online this year, there was no opportunity for a school photo like the other kids did in person, but one of her teachers was kind enough to drop off a backdrop so that we could make our own school photo at home. Abbie was the photographer and here is the photo that I chose. I emailed it to her teacher so I think it will actually be in the yearbook with all of the other kids' photos.

Emily is funny as ever these days. One night she told Chad that she wanted to sell doorknobs that glow so that people can see where the door is when it is dark. Chad didn't think this was really a product that would sell so he asked her why people would want this when they could just use night lights. She replied, "Dad, people are stupid. They'll buy anything." LOL.

We also had our second Easter under COVID and, yet again, the Easter Bunny was able to deliver the goods.

As is always the case, the girls dashed around the house looking for eggs. With Abbie being so much older and bigger there has always been the sense that she needs to hold back a little bit so that Emily is more evenly matched. This year, however, they discussed it in advance and agreed to an all out competition. Then, as the competition ensued, it got to the point where Abbie had to remind Emily about their agreement. I piped up and said, "Abbie's right. I heard you agree." To which, Abbie responded, "Thanks for siding with me, for once." I said, "I am not siding with you. I am siding with the truth." At this point, Emily got her dig in, saying, "Yeah, Abbie. Mom would never side with you." Ouch. She may be out matched on the egg hunting front, but she holds her own in other ways. :)

Big Plans

It has been a long time since I have mentioned Emily's plans for her life. As you may recall, from the time she was 2 years old, she wanted to be a baker. It turns out, however, that her only reason for becoming a baker was because she thought that was the only way that she would be able to eat desserts whenever she wanted. Now that she knows that isn't the case, her plans have changed.

She is still interested in art, but has also decided that she wants to own her own business. I am not exactly sure what she plans to sell, but she has decided to have a shop of some sort. The plans are even more specific in that she has decided that it should be a shop in a touristy area of Rhode Island that she can live above with a bunch of cats that will be allowed to roam freely in the shop. Why Rhode Island? Well, she read a book that highlighted all of the history in Rhode Island around the time of the revolutionary war. So, she likes the history aspect and also likes the notion that Rhode Island might have really cool cemeteries. Her love of ghosts and all things scary makes her a sucker for a good cemetery. All this being said, she would still like to go to school for art, both because she likes it and because she thinks that graphic design skills could come in handy in her business. I mentioned that the Rhode Island School of Design is one of the best art schools in the world, so apparently RISD it is! :)

But wait! The plans don't stop there. She has also decided that she would like to adopt a child rather than have any children of her own. Her reasoning is that you shouldn't create people that will have to grow up in the face of the world's problems (she's convinced that the melting ice caps will inevitably lead to another pandemic), but if there are kids that have already been created, then you might as well give them a good home. So, she would like to adopt a 10 year old girl because "ugh, I just can't deal with the toddler phase!" Further, the girl will go to school someplace that is walking distance from her shop so that the girl can just walk to the shop after school. She is still debating whether the girl will attend public or private school. She is going to have to explore the possibilities. I did mention that she had a bit of time to figure out these smaller details. :) 

So there you have it! I'll be sure to do a better job of updating as the plans evolve. LOL.

Snow!!

If there is one thing that Emily hopes for every winter, it is snow. For the past few years, she has clung desperately to minor amounts of frost on the car windows, basically the closest we have come to the real deal.

This year was different, though. Emily finally got her wish - actual, real snow. Even better, it fell on a Sunday so she was able to spend the entire day enjoying it (and repeatedly getting soaking wet). She and Abbie were even able to take the sled out. The only downside was that every other kid in the neighborhood did the same thing, so it became hard to keep their distance. That said, she really enjoyed all the usual kid activities - capturing snow flakes on her tongue, using sticks to beat snow off of plants, etc.

Of course, there have been far more days in the 60s this winter than there have been snow days, but that isn't all bad because it makes it more enjoyable for Emily to get outside for her daily PE requirement. 

Other than this one day of big excitement, January flew by without much to report. Emily was thrilled when we put up a bird feeder. Both the birds and the squirrels were such fun to watch, but one night we saw a rat on the feeder and that was the end of that. :( When Emily isn't in class, she continues to entertain herself with FaceTime, baking, and endlessly creating characters in Gacha Life.

Happy New Year!

Fortunately for us, we are accustomed to spending the Christmas season at home, so things didn't feel too different this year. Emily's school did a modified version of their annual Christmas lunch and gift exchange. For her, that meant that she dressed up for the Zoom meeting and made a gift at home for her assigned buddy (which we delivered to the school in advance, and picked up the gift that someone made for her at the same time). Luckily, she never eats what they serve for Christmas lunch anyway, so this year wasn't any different on that front. :)

Ready for the fancy Christmas lunch!

 

She was definitely happy to have a couple of weeks away from school, but I also think that there was a lot of boredom, too. Without the usual play dates, she was reduced to FaceTime calls and many of her friends spent the entire call playing video games, so it didn't feel very rewarding. We did manage to get some cookie decorating in and Emily really took pride in creating elaborate decorations for each cookie. 

I suppose that this is consistent with her continued interest in art. She has become interested in Gacha life characters, which are a type of Japanese anime. She draws pretty regularly, but likes to do so on the iPad rather than on regular sheets of paper. I guess that drawing on the iPad makes it easier to correct mistakes, etc. 

Emily also participated in the Zoom violin concert that her teacher arranged shortly before Christmas. In addition to performing traditional carols with Abbie, she also performed Minuet 2 by Bach as a solo. I think that she was pretty nervous (I have heard it go more smoothly in the past), but it is still good to see how much progress she is making (excuse the amateur videography):

Emily was kind enough to make a present for her elf this year - a miniature backpack - and Frisbee took it with her when she left for the year. Christmas was good overall. Emily received some Beats headphones, a Mighty (a mini device for playing music), lots of clothes, American girls books, etc. 

Above, she is sporting one of the sweaters that she received, along with one of the many fluffy scrunchies that Grandma and Grandpa P. sent her, all while reading one of her new books. 

School resumes next Tuesday, and she claims that she isn't ready to start classes again, but I have a feeling that she will welcome the return of the routine. I know that I will!

Holiday Season

Thanksgiving has a little different meaning to Emily than it does to the rest of us because she isn't willing to eat most of the things that we eat on the holiday. She is happy to have croissants for breakfast, but that is pretty much where it ends. To her, the day is more about the Macy's Day Parade and the National Dog Show.

Ready for her Thanksgiving

 

This year, Emily made a plan to watch both shows with a couple of friends. She got up and got dressed in a nice outfit and then waited until it was time for the group FaceTime call. I think all three girls enjoyed the virtual party.

At our actual Thanksgiving meal, Emily was willing to eat cranberries, but nothing else so she had to fend for herself. She grabbed some graham crackers and used them to make little cranberry sandwiches. It wasn't much of a meal and definitely not as filling as our meal. The rest of us ate around 3pm and then were too stuffed to eat for the rest of the day. Given that we were full, I didn't even think about the need to feed Emily. Around 7:30pm, she came to us in the living room and seemed pretty irritated that we had never offered her dinner. Oops.

With Thanksgiving behind us, Emily was pretty antsy to set up for Christmas. I couldn't exactly figure out why, but then I remembered - our elf never appears until after the tree is decorated. I think she had some concern this year that COVID would keep Frisbee away. One of Emily's friends received a note from her elf, saying that it wouldn't be coming this year. I think Emily was concerned that Frisbee would send a similar note. Much to her surprise, she was happy to see Frisbee waiting for her when she woke up this morning. Frisbee did write Emily (and Abbie) a little note, saying that she was glad that we have been so careful about quarantine because it means that Frisbee feels safe visiting us. Yay!

Halloween

Emily's Jack-o-lantern

As I think that I have mentioned, Halloween is Emily's favorite holiday, so she was looking forward to it for a long time. On the day before, she designed her pumpkin and I carved it for her. She added the toothpicks, and I think that it turned out pretty well. Also on the day before, her school celebrated and all of their kids wore their costumes to school. Emily decided to be a vampire this year.

Dressing up for school

Finally, the official day arrived and she was curious as to what we were going to do to celebrate because we had told her that there were definitely surprises planned. We started the day with a trip to a local cemetery - an Emily request. It turns out that cemeteries are actually great places to walk around during a pandemic because there is almost no one else around (no one living, anyway). It was a beautiful day and we wandered around, reading tombstones. I think that Emily liked to imagine that she might see a ghost, but no such luck.

Pinata time

After lunch, we surprised Emily with a pinata in the garage. This is also something that she had requested and we were happy to do it. She had a great time whacking it and then ultimately collecting all of the candy that spilled out. After the pinata, we watched a Halloween movie. Emily requested the original 1931 version of Dracula. I had never seen it, and it was about like you would imagine, but she seemed to like it.

Hopped up on sugar

As evening arrived, we surprised Emily with a fully decorated house. Abbie put white lights along the floor, we set up a strobe light and some colored lights. We tried to set up a fog machine, but it didn't work. Oh well. Then we hid candy all over the house to create a candy hunt. Both girls ran around the house, gathering as much candy as they could find given the dark lighting, and then they had a mini dance party before calling it a night. Overall, I think that Emily was reasonably happy with the day.

10-year check up

Looking fancy

Emily had her 10-year check up with the pediatrician a couple of weeks ago, so we have some updated statistics to share! She is now 53.5 inches tall, putting her in the 28th percentile. From a percentile perspective, she is right in-line with where she always has been, so things are looking good.  

On the school front, things continue to plod along. Being online, and being the only one online, is not always easy, but Emily seems to be making the best of it. I had to meet with the teachers a few weeks ago to suggest to them easier ways to handle the logistics. Fortunately, they were receptive to my suggestions and things seem to be running more smoothly, which is good for everyone. Emily's 1st quarter report card came out last Friday and her grades are looking good. Now that she is older, she is getting actual percentage grades rather than just E = Excellent, G = Good, etc. Personally, I like the percentage system better!

Sporting her new Halloween sweatshirt

Given that it is Emily's favorite holiday, we are slowly gearing up for Halloween. We ordered Emily a new sweatshirt and a new t-shirt, both of which are loosely Halloween themed. The sweatshirt says, "Normal People Scare Me" and the t-shirt has potions, bats, and a spell book on it. We also ordered five huge pumpkins, which we are planning to carve the day before Halloween. Emily wants to make one scary and another not scary. We have also been trying to throw in some Halloween movies. We watched the Addams Family, and plan to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas, and Hocus Pocus in the coming weeks. Emily had never seen the Addams Family before, but I think that she really liked it. Hocus Pocus will also be a new one for us, but the Nightmare Before Christmas is an old favorite. 

Finally, Emily continues to entertain us with her interesting questions and her unique perspective. One day, she asked me, "Hey, Mom, is there a safe place for pigs?" I told her that I thought there were probably plenty of safe places for pigs in the world, but then she responded, "It seems like they are either on a farm where they get eaten or they are in the wild where they get shot." OK, fair enough, apparently there isn't a safe place in the world for pigs. I just hadn't thought about it before. LOL.

The Ups and the Downs

We are a month into the new school year, and six months into our pandemic quarantine. All things considered, things are going well. Emily's experience with being the only kid in her class that is attending school online has been hit or miss. With the teachers that are online, everything runs smoothly. With the teachers that are in-person, things get a little trickier. There have been multiple times where I have had to call the school to remind them to let her into the Zoom session, etc. 

As for her work, she has been doing great. She is on top of everything and seems to have no problems with the material. They took a diagnostic reading test at the beginning of the year and her reading level is very high. I was concerned that it would drop off over the summer, but apparently it did not. 

We are currently working on a book called Hounds Hollow. It is a spooky sort of a book, so it has definitely kept her interest. A favorite that we read not long ago was Alice in Wonderland. Emily really liked it. After reading the book, she and her friend watched the animated version together (over FaceTime) and she liked that, too. Her other obsession is with Gravity Falls. This is a TV show that she has loved for a long time, but she now has books that go along with the show and she loves those, too.

FaceTime with Grandma

Socially, the new school year has been hard because the other kids get their fill of interaction during the day, so they are less interested in FaceTime in the afternoons. Although she gets some calls with friends, she also takes advantage of calls with Grandma at least once a week. When Emily isn't talking to friends or family, she keeps herself busy with her drawing. She has been really interested in trying out different styles of drawing. She borrows from styles like anime and then creates her own characters. Here are a couple that I have been able to snag photos of:

Emily's art teacher at school has recognized her interest in creating new characters and has decided to customize her class requirements so that Emily can do more of what she loves. Emily is really happy about this. She also keeps asking me for private art lessons. I haven't set anything up yet, but I know that I need to. 

Other than art, we have also tried our hand at recreating Emily's favorite treat from Starbucks - lemon bread. We found a recipe that claimed to be a dead ringer for the original and we gave it a try. It was definitely good, but also not a perfect substitute for the original.

We are also back to violin this fall. After taking a break over the summer we are back to Skype lessons and Emily is making her way through Suzuki Book 1. She is currently working on Minuet III. After that, I believe that there are only two pieces left before she graduates to Book 2. 

Looking ahead, Emily is very excited about Halloween. Apparently, this is her favorite holiday of the year. This year is particularly good because it falls on a Saturday with a full moon. That said, I doubt that we will be attending the usual neighborhood party this year. We will have to see what we can come up with to make it fun.