First day of second grade

I'm now the mother of a second-grader! Emma had a few butterflies in her tummy this morning, but I think it was just the excitement of being in second grade...


We went to orientation last night and found out who Emma's teacher is. There was one teacher I definitely did NOT want her to get, and I was super-relieved when I saw she wasn't on his class list. I feel horrible saying that, and I'm sure it's no fun being the teacher that no one wants to get. But he has a reputation for being kind of a yeller and I know that would not be good for Emma.

Anyway, her new teacher is Mme. Valluett - she is from France and is super-nice.


I'm hoping Emma has a great year...she told me some kids say second grade is "really hard." Hopefully that's not the case!

PS this is the first year I didn't cry when I dropped Emma off at her first day of school...I guess the next time I will bawl will be when I take her to college!

Emma and her Biggie

I know there's no one who loves Emma more than I do, but my mom comes close. She adores my little girl and Emma loves her Biggie (that is what Emma has called her ever since she could talk.)

It is so lovely...

...when your child spends the day with a friend whose mother is a brilliant professional photographer. I was trying to get through a long day at work when the mom dropped me an email saying everything was going great and she attached a few photos of the girls when they were helping her out in her studio...




I love this last photo of Emma and her friend Nikita...they are such sweet and pretty girls (in my opinion!)

The expander is in...

I had been dreading this day for several weeks...Emma's appointment to get her palate expander in. I have been so worried that this was going to be painful for my little girl...and I was not looking forward to having to stick a key in her mouth every night to tighten the expander.

Well, Emma was a total champ...she didn't wince or complain once as they glued the expander onto the roof of her mouth. They had me tighten the expander for the first time...it wasn't as complicated as I thought and Emma said it didn't really hurt...it just made her nose feel funny (they told me that was common and it stopped after a few minutes.)

Anyway, here's a blurry photo of her new $1600 accessory...


And not to leave you with that disturbing image...here's a photo from Emma's horse show this weekend...she got two seconds, which made me quite proud!