Julia has missed having Emily around to play with. Still, Julia is great at playing by herself and is also enjoying having time with Mama to herself. While much of our time isn’t spent doing "exciting" things, we try to have fun in just the normal moments of life. As an exercise Mama has tried to take random photos of the things we do. Here is a selection of our life.

Someone blew the bubble and then caught it back. It looks like her fancy magnifying glass.

Some of our morning walks are on chilly mornings. To stay warm Julia prefers blankets to a coat.

Who can pass a random bike rack without having to play with it before moving on?

Coloring anywhere is fun, but the front porch is as good as anyplace.

When we walk Julia has great smiles to share with others. Her favorite song to sing while we walk is "twinkle, twinkle, little star".

Just loving and playing with our toys are fun things to do too.

We are on-the-go so long some days that we just give out in the car. This day was really funny because five minutes before this photo was taken, Julia had just informed Mama that she was not tired.

Rainy days are great days to jump in random puddles. This one was outside of the preschool.

A week can’t go by without some train building. This day she made the Diego house into the train station. The trains are lined up on the porch waiting for their turn on the track.

Never underestimate the fun of helping Mama shop at the super-warehouse store. Yes, the cheese puffs are almost as big as she was. And yes, her Mama bought it because she was so darn cute.

Driving the grocery car is always a bonus. She informed me that she was Milli driving her UmiCar. If you don’t know the reference you have not been watching Team Umizoomi like we do.

There is always the fun of an after-lunch slide to go down.

Julia doesn’t always stroller on our walk. Although it is not so strenuous for Mama, little girls have to stretch their legs too.

Weekends have been different since school started. It is the time the girls are together and some Mama/Emily time that we were used to. There is nothing better than spending the morning together not necessarily doing much, but just hanging out.

Mama and Julia getting some snuggling in!

Side-by-side sister coloring – never to be under appreciated.

If there is a morning person at our house it is Julia, but everyone else seems to be a bit slow getting going in the morning. We are grateful that Julia gets up and gets her routine completed and breakfast eaten without any complaint and minimal trouble.

Emily is not inclined to get up and get busy in the morning. The correlation between not wanting to fall asleep at bedtime and morning tiredness hasn’t sunk in for her yet. Not sure if it has for her Mama either. To help with each morning, we have two routines in place. One is pre-selecting clothes for the week and labeling each outfit. Maybe, we will learn how to spell the days of the week while we’re at it. The second routine is nifty routine cards Mama found online. They seem to work well to remind the girls what is expected without so much interaction from Mama. While all the morning excitement is going on Mama is making breakfast and lunch. As long as the girls have gotten their responsibilities done on time they get a few minutes of play and TV time before going to school.

Before school even started Emily was looking forward to the day she could ride the bus like all the big kids did. We promised that she could try after school had been going on for a little while and the bus drivers were used to the routes and drop-offs. This would limit the time it took to get home. She was patient and waited until September and then she was ready to give it a try.

The bus gets Emily home thirty minutes after school is over and it drops her off just in front of our house. All kindergarteners are only released from the bus if there is someone to get them. Emily has loved riding the bus home. She has had some adjustments though. One is that it is the first time she has ridden un-restrained in a vehicle. For someone so small it is hard to hold yourself on a seat as the bus takes turns. She had to go fetch her backpack a few times. She has made a friend on the bus – another kindergartener girl who occasionally rides the bus. When it is time to get off the bus, she jumps off the bottom step and then runs straight to the front porch and sometimes into the house without even a hello. She has such focus and intent. On occasion, Emily is getting to ride home to her Grandparents house instead of home. It is great that they live on the bus route. She enjoys the treat when it works out.

Emily is thrilled when she finds out she gets to ride the bus home from school!

Julia used her playtime to build herself a track. It started simply with the track coming up to Diego’s Treehouse. Then over the day she continued to build onto it. She was very intent as she built the two loop pieces into a bigger loop. After she finished she proudly showed it to Mama saying “it took me forever”. Then later she added the mountain track loop. She was delighted to show it off to her Daddy too. This little track has also gotten a lot of play. I guess it is fun to take the train to see Diego. Mama was pleased with her creativity and joy over her creation.

Her complicated loop that “took forever”

Today was Emily’s third day of school and the start of her first full week. I asked Emily if she wanted to walk in to class by herself or if she wanted to be dropped off. She definitely wanted to be dropped off. She had been saying this since Friday morning when I walked her in. We practiced what would be involved in getting out of the car with her backpack and lunchbox. Here is a photo of Emily walking away from the car all determined to walk in by herself. I love the determination, it will serve her well in life.

On the drive to school today, I remembered a trip we took when Emily was just nine months old. Emily and I tagged along with Daddy on a business trip to San Francisco. During Daddy’s meetings, we walked around the sites of the city. We rode the cable cars a few times and one time I rode on the outward facing bench in the very front. I held on very tight to Emily as we rode, but I felt pretty exposed. It was a strange sense of excitement and thrill combined with a little terror mixed in. Taking Emily to school and watching her be bold and try these new things has been very similar. I’m so excited for her and watching it happen has been thrilling mixed with trepidation.

The other story from the morning was Julia’s response to Emily going to school. She asked me why we switched the car seats around in the car, she asked when we were getting Emily back, and when Emily got out of the car and we pulled away, she proclaimed that she “wanted her Emily back”. They missed each other so much that . . . before they were out of the car at home they were yelling at each other and mad about a grievance. Oh well, they are just kids and most likely a bit tired and hungry. Hopefully, it will all even out in a week or two.