Euphemistically speaking... (Anna)

There are a number of things that Emma does that help us to slow down and not rush our way through life. These include:

- eating cereal (or rice) one grain at a time. This is particularly effective when we are running late for something
- insisting on collecting 20 rocks between here and the bus stop, thus turning a 2 minute walk into a 1/2 hr expedition
- insisting on putting on her sandals "all by myself" and then taking them off and starting all over again
- making potty time into a three hour party, complete with animals, songs and books
- walking backwards
- biting on the toothbrush so we can't move it, while grinning inanely because she knows she's in charge
- balancing along the edges of anything she can balance on, and then going back and doing it again, thereby turning 2 metres of pavement into a distance equivalnt to the Great Wall of China
- suddenly finding something fascinating in her pockets wthat needs to be examined, whenever we believe we might actually be about to arrive somewhere
- asking to be "up", then "down" then, wait, did I say "down?" I meant "up"....
- spinning round and round on the spot, thus making zero progress on a linear plane
- Curcumventing any attempt we make to speed things up (by, for example, taking her out of her car seat instead of letting her clamber out by herself, or putting her t-shirt on) by reversing what we've done, and redoing it ALL BY HERSELF.
- Endlessly responding, "But why, Mumma-Mummy....uh huh....but why? Why Mumma-Mummy?" until it is all we can do not to snarl "I don't *&^&%$ know why, ok?! The question doesn't even make any sense any more!!"

In other words, Emma helps us to deal with the stress of a busy life by forcing us to stop and smell the roses...every single bloody one of them!