Saying no

I had a proud Mama moment today. We were at My Gym for Ellie's class and there is a little girl, who's probably close to 5, that always sits in the lobby with Emmie and they generally behave. Today there was another little girl, who was probably around 7, in the lobby as well.
My Gym sells Melissa and Doug toys and they always have toys sitting out but Emmie knows that she is not supposed to touch them. Well, the new little girl apparently didn't know the "you break the packaging you buy it" rule (and apparently neither did her mother who was sitting in the lobby as well) so she kept picking things up.
Earlier when the new girl was messing with some toys I had gone over and reminded Emmie not to mess with any of the toys. Later on in the class the older girl had picked up a foam bat and was swinging it around and then Emmie's friend started swinging it around too. I was standing about 7 or 8 feet away from Emmie and was watching her out of the corner of my eye. The girls soon offered Emmie a turn swinging the bat. Emmie thought for a second and shook her head. I was so proud of her. Then the older girl snidely said to Emmie "well if you want to just sit there and not have fun..." and Emmie once again shook her head no. She looked so sad and hurt but I was SO proud of her.
I called her over later and told her I saw her tell the kids she wouldn't play with the bat and I told her how proud I was for her of doing the right thing even when it was hard and you could tell how good it made her feel to know she'd made the right decision.
I have told her many times that just because someone else is doing something doesn't mean that she should do it and it's nice to know that she has listened and applied what I've told her. I know she won't always make the right decision and I know it helped that I was standing there but I know how hard it is to say no to peer pressure but I couldn't have been prouder of my sweet Emmie today.

*Update: tonight Emmie told Paul "You shouldn't say mean things about people. God doesn't like that. We should make God proud." (this was randomly said...Paul wasn't saying anything mean about anybody...just to clear that up :) ) Three year olds can be very humbling!