Monday with Emma

Monday Emma stayed home with the grandparents. She was a bit unhappy at first when she didn't get to put shoes on in preparation for leaving for school, but she soon caught on, and there was no further fussing. As Sarah has mentioned in her blog, they are getting good at taking turns. That may be best seen in deciding who gets to sit in the favorite car seat in the van. They know the order of the turns, and understand that they will get that chair the next trip, or the one after that, if they didn't have it this time.

We explained to Emma that today was her turn to stay with Gramma and Grandpa, and that her sisters would have their turns later in the week. Perhaps her being first made it a little sweeter today, not that there's any competition among them.


We had a leisurely breakfast. All three start with some dry Cheerios and a cup of milk to start. One by one they get dressed for school and return to the table. They'll have their main breakfast at school.

With Emma staying home, we munched our way through the first course, then had some banana, raisins, more milk, etc. for the rest of the meal. I had coffee and a bowl of cereal, too. There was an empty chair between us. Emma proceeded to push her bowl to her left, then the napkin, then her cup. I figured she was through with the meal, but instead, she wanted to shift to the chair closer to papa. Neat.

Later, Grandma was preparing her cereal, and Emma did the 'shift left' maneuver again. This time there wasn't another chair to shift to, she just raised her arms to me in the universal 'up' pose. She shifted to my knee to continue breakfast so Grandma could occupy her previous seat. Charming.