End of Summer

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Our summer is officially over. I am a little sad with all of the changes...Sam going back to work and Emma heading off to kindergarten, but ready to start having a bit of a schedule. We had a lovely summer with Sam off for a good portion of it. We hit the beach, went camping, visited Northern Cal. seeing the King Tut exhibit, climbed the tree in our front yard and went SWIMMING a lot. This was the summer Emma learned to swim. She had been adamant about not taking swimming lessons and hated to get her face wet. Then she put on a mask at my parent's house and started to love going under the water. "How do you do a somersault," she asked, and then proceeded to do it. She did it all over a few weeks, trying out things like going to the bottom of the deep end with me. In the last 2 weeks she has stopped relying on the mask and is using goggles and being really successful. It was exciting to see her do it on her own terms. And I love her with goggles on. She looks like a crazy chameleon. Today was Emma's first day of kindergarten. She had been looking forward to it for some time, and was always excited when she talked about it. I was hoping she wouldn't be nervous, but know that she takes a while to warm up in new situations. She was fine until just before we left, when she became hysterical about everything. Her new shoes were HORRIBLE. Why did I buy them for her??!! Her uniform was ITCHY. She HATED her skirt!! She ABSOLUTELY wanted to stay home. She cried half of the way to school, and then she pulled it together quite nicely. When I picked her up she said, "It's great! I love it!" Her teacher really seems like a good fit for her. I think it will be a good year.