Beatles Update

New favorite songs now that we have moved on to the White Album: for the Moo, it's "Oob-lah-di, Oob-lah-dah" for self explanatory reasons (like, perhaps, the numerous references to Molly's pretty face??) and for the Bean it is "I Will." She listened the chorus [Love you forever, and forever, love you with all my heart, love you whenever we're together, love you when we're apart] and told me "Mama, this is how you feel about your little ones!"

Happy Birthday Alex!

Also, Happy Birthday to ALEX!! We hope that the bowling party went great today and we look forward to seeing the pictures. Happy sixth birthday to you!! We love and miss you very much, and talk about you and Christopher all the time!

Little Divas

We went out shoe shopping yesterday to get the girls new sandals, and I got talked into flip flops as well. These are the shoes the Moo picked out -- when you add them to the Lelli Kelly sneakers they are already rocking, it definitely looks like we have two little fashionistas in the making . . . and we wonder where the money goes!

Odds and Ends from Last Week

We had what seemed to be an inordinately busy week last week, although to be honest I am hard pressed to remember what we did. Thought I would start this post with a Crazy Moo shot, to symbolize all the craziness! I may have mentioned previously that Dad picks up the girls on Wednesdays, and this Wed he surprised them by taking them fishing at a local catch and release pond.

The Bean, who has never fished before, caught a wide-mouth bass on her first cast, and then caught two more fish. Dad said that at first this did not sit well with the Moo, but she perked up later as she started to get some nibbles as well.



Please note that if Mom had been the one taking them fishing, there would have been no shots of little ones holding slimy fish in their hands!












It ended up being so nice this weekend that we broke out the wading pool and slip-n-slide for the girls, who always enjoy having a "water park" in the backyard. Not sure how much our neighbors enjoy it, but we try to do it while they are at work so that the very loud sounds of merriment don't ruin anyone's dinner.
The picture above is the reason why Mom is always telling the Moo she needs to eat. She is 90th percentile for height but only 50th for weight . There are days when she eats like a horse, but unfortunately not enough of them to keep up with her growth spurts.



At any rate, a great time in the pool and at the pond was had by all. We got news this week that there will be an LCDS lower school track meet on 16 May that the Moo will be competing in that we are really looking forward to. There will be 10 events, and although the Moo informs me that she is only the second faster runner in her class, she claims she has the long jump in the bag. She also has a strategy for taking out John, the fastest runner: she said she is going to try and get him really tired before the races start. Dad and I had a long talk to her about the importance of doing our best vice needing to win all the time, and we are working on a strategy for harnessing her competitive spirit in more productive ways. Nothing wrong with wanting to win as long you know how to lose and not let it destroy all the joy of competing. Wish us luck with that one!


We are supposed to get word on the Bean's transition this week so we should have more to report on that front soon. She had a great week at school and continues to just be our little imp. Her swimming is coming along great, and we lucked out in that this semester there is only one other girl in her swim class, so she gets lots of one on one time with the instructor. She has her "big circle arms" down, she just needs to get the legs going.

Visits and Malaproprisms

This weekend we had a visit from Grandpa S, Grandma D, and Grandma's dog. At around age two the Moo developed a paralyzing fear of dogs of all shapes and sizes. She has been progressively getting better, in part because the stables where she rides has a pack of about eight very big but very friendly dogs roaming around, and she has to deal with them every week. At first I was picking her up and holding her as we walked the canine gauntlet, but lately I have been insisting on only holding her hand as we go through. She has become more and more comfortable with them and loved having Grandma's dog here. Now she is lobbying very heavily to get a "pooch" of her own -- so far Dad has been pretty firm in saying no, but I am curious to see how long his resolve lasts in the face of a pleading Moo.
Speaking of riding, the Moo has made amazing progress. The stable where she rides is owned and operated by a German woman, and safety is a huge issue with them. The students are not allowed off of the lunge line until they demonstrated their ability to balance. The Moo's teacher is now focused on working on that with her, and last Thursday the Moo spent the whole lesson posting without holding on to anything (saddle, reins, nothing). Mom spent the whole lesson watching through her fingers and trying not to gasp every time Molly the horse stopped short!
The girls are at a point where they constantly battle each other for attention from Dad and I, which includes talking over each other. We have talked to them about interrupting each other and the fact that they should respect others who are talking and not do it. Yesterday the Moo was trying to tell me something but the Bean kept interjecting with requests for Mango juice (her favorite!). Finally an exasperated Moo yelled out, "Mommy, she keeps erupting me!"
We are also having a tough time getting them to be respectful during prayers. We recite our nighttime prayer and then they each get to add their own intentions before we say Amen. This at time gets very silly ("God bless eyeballs. God bless soap."). The Bean especially is a major offender on this front, which makes sense she is our "anything for a laugh" baby. At any rate, she was being very silly during prayer's last week so I finally moved to cut it off by saying, "OK, Moo do you have anything to add." The Bean looked at me very reproachfully and said, "Mommy, I am not done prayering yet."

Breakfast with Teacher, Fishing with Dad, and Minitransitions

The Moo's school has been celebrating "Teacher Appreciation Week" all this week, which has been quite the production! On Monday we took in a note for the teacher's, written and illustrated by the Moo, of a "special memory" she had of both her teacher and the teacher's aide. On Tuesday we took in treats from Harry and David and Godiva. On Wednesday we sent in Pottery Barn gift cards to clip on to the azalea bushes each teacher received. On Thursday there was a raffle; every hour a teacher's name was drawn and the teacher received a prize donated by the parents. And finally today we had Breakfast with the Teacher, which Mom coordinated. We arrived at school early and set everything up; we contributed cereal, Cinnamon rolls, and Chile Relleno casserole, and the other moms brought a ton of other goodies. Good thing too, as today was also the annual Pre-K "Fishing with Dad" trip, so all of the dad's were there for breakfast as well!
Dad just called me to let me know that he and the Moo are on their way home from the fishing trip. The Moo caught EIGHT fish and according to Dad a good time was had by all. Dad was practically glowing as he described how the Moo baited the hooks with worms all by herself and also handled the slimy fish by herself as well (despite the fact that the fish were pretty feisty and apparently were biting). So, a great bonding day for Dad and his oldest daughter.
In the meantime, the Bean and I cleaned up the Pre-K classroom after the breakfast, which included several trips to the school dumpster. The Bean is now fascinated with dumpster and wants to throw all of her trash in on (we had a debate over whether or not her empty juice box really needed to go in the dumpster -- luckily I convinced her that a plain old trash can would suffuce). Then we got out her bike for her to ride to the park. The Bean was amazing on her bike. She has from an early age proved to be natural athlete, and she completely blew Mom's mind today with her ability to ride a bike that just six months ago she could barely fit on, let along peddle up hill and over uneven pavement. Amazing!
We also got news from Beantree that there will be a "minitransition" (roughly translated: Moving of your child to another class to get you off our backs) in the next week or so, so the Bean will be moving on to another class. It is a shame in that both she and Moo really love Ms. Jen, but the bottom line for us is that IF there is no developmental reason to keep her from moving up and being challenged, then we want her moved up. Hopefully she will love being back with her friends, even though we know she will miss Ms. Jen.
The girls are excited because Grandma D and Grandpa S (Dad's parents) are coming to visit this weekend, which means Mom needs to spend the afternoon cleaning the house! Guess I better stop procrastinating and get started!! Happy Friday everyone!

Beatlemania! (or "We all live in a Honda CR-V")

I am desperately trying to reclaim the music in my car, but have met with formidable opposition from the Pre-K and under set. Instead of fighting them, I am trying to shape their musical preferences to mirror mine, so I can once again listen to decent music in the car (although dad would claim that was debatable). At any rate, they are now lukewarm Modest Mouse fans and rabid They Might Be Giants junkies. So, I have now brought out the big guns and have started to introduce the Beatles!

I've been proceeding slowly as I don't want to mess this one up (and risk never being able to hear the Beatles in my car again); we have not yet progressed past Revolver. Generally, this is not a bad place to be, but the girls are fixated on five songs and five songs only. We hear "And Your Bird Can Sing," "For No One," and "Got to Get You Into My Life" intermittently, but they have two favorites that we hear OVER and OVER and OVER again. Not surprisingly to anyone who has ever had to wake her up in the morning, the Moo's very favorite song is "I'm Only Sleeping." And our little psychedelic Bean now knows all the words to the ultimate Beatles-for-kids anthem "Yellow Submarine" . . . as do we all!

It's been one of those weeks where on the surface it has not seemed like there is a lot going on, yet somehow we all feel run ragged. I was up until midnight last night assisting at the annual LCDS auction -- Mark and I opted not to attend this year but after seeing what a huge event it is, I think I may twist his arm this year to go. The theme was roaring 20s and it was great to see everyone all dressed up. I ran the "superboard" for most of the night, and in my downtime had a front row view of the effect of open bar for three hours before dinner was served on the amount of money people were willing to bid (it's a positive relationship, in case you wondering -- one class auction project went for $10,000 and two parents got in a bidding war on the superboard that resulted in one of them paying $3000 for a class scrapbook and another paying $3500 for a parking space at the school!). We donated a basket of items from Pakistan collected by Grandma L for the silent auction portion. The total cost to us was about $100 -- a friend told me halfway through the auction that bidding on the basket was up to $350. Craziness.
We have had some nice weather lately so yesterday Dad and the girls went out and planted a garden. Assuming we did it right -- which is a BIG assumption -- we will have carrots, corn (!), flowers, and radishes in our backyard this summer. Mom remains a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but it was fun to see how much they enjoyed planting everything and FINALLY getting to spend a little more time outside.
The Moo is had a good week, and continues to make amazing progress at her riding lessons. Her confidence has reached a point where she was able to post, while trotting, without holding on to the reins. Her teacher tells me she did a great job but I really could not say as I had to look away.
The Bean has had a bit of a rough week, and is really not enjoying being at school since most of her friends have moved on to the next class. It got to such a point that Dad, who rarely if ever gets involved in these things, stopped by Beantree on Thursday to have a heart to heart with the administrator. The frustrating thing is that they still have not given us a good reason for why she has not moved forward with the rest of her class, and continue to say that there is no developmental reason for her remaining with Ms. Jen. Dad's bottom line upon hearing this was "The move her up." They promised to take some action next week, so we will see what happens. In the meantime, I'm sure Ms. Jen is plenty annoyed with us, and I don't think the teacher's appreciation week gift we have for her is going to mollify her.

Hysterical Motherhood

The results of some recent studies have suggested that parenthood is actually bad for your health, and that childless couples tend to be in better shape physically over the long term than their counterparts with offspring. I can't argue at all about the physical part (although I do know some moms who look like they have never been pregnant a day in their lives, regrettably yours truly NOT included) but they forgot to mention the deleterious impact on your mental health. Parenthood makes you absolutely, certifiably, beyond a shadow of a doubt crazy.

To illustrate, I had a mini meltdown this week, as I suddenly noticed that I did not recognize most of the children in the Bean's class. Looking around, I realized that the majority of the children who had moved up to Ms. Jen's class with her were now with Ms. April, including children that I knew -- due to our whirlwind social calendar of birthday parties--to be younger than her (OK, only by like a month, but still) and who were also part time. Beantree schedules assessments and parent teacher conferences three times a year, so we are not due to have an in depth conversation with Ms. Jen until May, but I have asked her informally about the Bean's progress and always gotten a positive reply. So, what gives???? right? I mentioned my concerns to Dad and managed to get him spun up in a tizzy as well, especially as I pointed out that the Bean is going to be applying to LCDS this year and will have to complete testing to get in -- and if she doesn't get in she'll have to go a lesser school, and horror of horrors there go her young girls dreams of Harvard (have I mentioned in this blog that the Bean is THREE??!!!). So, if there is some developmental area she is lagging behind in we need to work on it now, now, NOW!!! right? I was so worked up I spoke with the school administrator who promised to talk to Ms. Jen, and made Dad say something about it when he dropped the Bean off that morning as well.

When I went to pick her up that Thursday afternoon, Ms. Jen was waiting for me. She explained that they had had some openings in Ms. April's class, and that she had had some Tuesday-Thurs part timers to move up (The Bean is a hybrid part timer since we pay for a full time slot and can drop her off on any day during the week, although we try to adhere to the Tues-Wed-Thurs routine). She also noted that the kids who moved up were not that much younger, and argued that there were more children still left in her class with the Bean than I realized.

Now, here is the genius part. She looked around, dropped her voice, and said conspiratorially, "I don't want her to go. She's such a good girl."

So, Ms. Jen wins the prize for managing hysterical moms and knowing just what to say to defuse the situation. It's not that my Bean can't move up, it's just that she's such an angel that her teachers don't want to let her go. Sure, I buy that . . . Well played, Ms. Jen!!!

Crazy mom, signing off for now.

Earth Shaking and Ambience

One of my first posts was about trying to explain the word "ambiance" to the girls, who had wondered why the lights in restaurants sometimes got turned down low. This afternoon was a beautiful 73 degrees so the girls and I were outside drawing submarines on the sidewalk with the sidewalk chalk (not sure why submarines, but I have learned to go with the flow). A dark storm cloud moved in, covering the sun and briefly casting a shadow over the street. The Bean told me, "Mommy, that's called ambience."

Yesterday there was an abundance of Bean-defined ambiance as we stood outside for two hours in the mud and rain for the groundbreaking ceremony for LCDS's new campus. The picture above is the plan for the new lower school, which is the first building scheduled to be built, and of VA governor Tim Kaine who came to speak at the event. Dr. Hollister, the headmaster, was visibly choked up at seeing his plans so close to fruition. The Moo was frustrated because when she was told she was going to a ground breaking ceremony she thought she was going to be able to help break the ground. Apparently she envisioned everyone jumping up and down as hard as they could until cracks emerged in the Earth. Somehow, the governor with a gold shovel failed to live up to this expectation.