6 years + 3 months

Emily continues to amuse and amaze us.  To our great disappointment, Emily & I finished up the Junie B. Jones series.  Emily has asked quite frequently when the next book will come out.  She also wonders if Barbara Parks will write about Junie B. in second grade.  If she doesn't, Emily has already volunteered to pick up where Ms. Parks left off and write the rest of the series herself. :o)  We have now started the Boxcar Children series.

Emily loves playing in the snow at recess and takes her snow duties very seriously.  One day she came home jumping up and down excited because a group of 1st and 2nd graders had asked her to help them roll snowballs for an igloo they were building.  Unfortunately, they asked during the third recess on a Friday and after a warm weekend, the snow was pretty much gone by Monday.  There are many more hours of snow play in her future.  However, I'm hoping she can get in a better habit of remembering to bring home the cloth bags her snowpants and boots get sent to school in every day.  Since they wear their gear home, more often than not the bag gets stuffed in the bottom of her locker and forgotten until I run out of bags to send (which is like five).  I hope this is not a sign of what her locker might look like in middle school!

One thing Emily has been obsessed with lately is wanting to be the mom.  She talks about it a lot.  Sometimes she asks if she can do my jobs.  I'd gladly let her do some of them, but there are just some things only the real mom can do.  (Emily has developed a habit of constantly correcting Lincoln about absolutely everything.)  During "thinking class" at school they had to draw a picture of ways they could help someone.  This was Emily's picture.  In case you can't tell, that's her talking on the phone, sweeping, dusting the TV with a Swiffer Duster, washing the dishes and working at the computer.

Another habit Emily developed this month was a reliable schedule of bedtime excuses.  We normally finish reading books by 8:00pm.  She is allowed to read on her own until 8:30pm when it's lights out.  Every single night somewhere between 9:00-9:30pm a voice calls down from the top of the stairs, "Mom?!?"  When I ask what's wrong, she comes up with some kind of excuse like, "I'm hungry/My tummy hurts/I have a headache/My eyebrows are hot."  After confirming that she doesn't feel like she has to throw up and/or chiding her for not eating her supper, my answer is always the same: "Take a drink and go to sleep."  One night she even asked why my answer was always the same.  I asked if it worked to solve her problems.  She didn't have an answer for that.  My all-time favorite excuses have been, "My leg is going to break" and "My neck feels floppy--like my head is going to fall off."  The answers have still been the same: "Take a drink and lay still in your bed so it doesn't roll away."  Just the other night I found this note laying at the top of the stairs.  Guess what my answer was?!? ;o)

Pictures of Emily's January art work from school are below and a video of her latest piano piece is in the January play list.