Birthday Girls

Happy Birthday to Little Chicken, who turns three! You are now officially the same age as the Bean, although not for long, and hopefully your stint as a three year old will be less -- oppositionally defiant than the Bean's. We hope you enjoy all of your parties! The gymnastics party looked like the best time ever, and the cake looked incredible!!

We also had a brief update from the 60 year old birthday girl on her third birthday celebration, this one at the Inn at Little Washington, famous for their accommodations and their cuisine (see picture). The birthday girl literally just called, and reported having had a wonderful time at Monticello. They arrived at the Inn around three to find that, in honor of their birthdays, they had been chosen to be upgraded to the best suite in the house. Happy Birthday again Grandma and Grandpa!! Enjoy yourselves but hurry back - we all miss you!

Firsts

We had several firsts take place this week. First and foremost, this is the first week that Grandpa D has turned 59 and Grandma L had turned 60 (which happens to be today!). HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BOTH OF YOU! We love you very much and were glad that we were able to share your birthdays with you. And, if its Grandma's birthday, than that means it is Little Chicken's mom and dad's seventh anniversary, which is the first time that has happened as well. Happy Anniversary S&T! Hope you have/had a good one!! (I remember the year because there was some question as to whether or not I was going to be able to fly out for the wedding and there was no question that Dad and Grandpa D were not going to be able to make it -- ask me about it, later, Moo and Bean, and I will have a very sad story to tell you about 11 September 2001 in order to explain).
Our other BIG first this week (drum roll please) is that after 10 months of riding lessons the Moo is off the lunge line! She went off it for the first time on Wednesday, and did an unbelievable job. Mom thought that she would just walk around the ring a few times to get used to guiding the horse herself (without Instructor Julie doing it with the line) and was flabbergasted when the Moo started trotting! Julie later told Mom that the Moo asked if she could CANTER, but luckily Julie managed to talk her out of it. I literally would have had a heart attack. For those who don't know, one of the reasons we started the Moo riding was to build her confidence around animals (the other reason was that we were running out of options for her second activity, as she didn't like anything else we tried, and we pretty much tried them all). I used to have to carry her into the stables because she was so frightened of the dogs that roam around there, and getting her to go anywhere near a bridle or actually lead a horse by herself was completely out of the question. So, we are exceedingly proud of our little Moo and how she has really taken to her chosen sport, regardless of the fact that Mom's boss is always teasing Mom about how elitist it is. :) I know we have already inundated everyone with pictures of the Moo riding, but I could not resist doing it again to commemorate this occasion. She rode Pirate again (although frankly it seems the only days she rides him are days when we bring the camera) and above is a shot of her putting her grooming skills to work -- she has a tacking class this Friday, although she is getting to be a pro at that without formal instruction already!



In one of the pictures below the Moo is standing by the ironically named Mouse -- despite her new-found confidence, she told Grandpa that she does not want to even attempt to ride Mouse. Guess it is good that she knows her limitations!!

























Later in the week Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to come to watch the Moo's swim team practice with us -- I say kind enough because it is a *&%^% sauna in there, and we are there for two hours as the Moo has swimming lessons after swim team (I believe I have mentioned before that I messed up the scheduling right? In case you are wondering what kind of crazy mother makes her child swim for two hours straight??) This was not the first swim team practice for the Moo, but it was the first time she swam the entire length of the pool -- and she did it about 12 times all told! Really, truly unbelievable if you know what Mom went through trying to get her to do it JUST ONCE this summer in our community pool. It was also the first time that the Bean got to swim in the water as well -- last week was so hard for her, sitting in the sweatbox for two hours trying to patiently watch her sister swim, that this time mom decided to let her go in as well. The only problem with that is that Ida Lee rec center mandates that parents accompany any child under six years old in the water. So, Mom had to don a bathing suit in front of all of the other Moms and Dads who were there; humiliation, thy name is speedo. Moo and Bean, I want you to remember this as well, years from now when you say I never do anything for you.

We had several other firsts this weekend that are reported on by Grandma and Grandpa in the wRight blog, so I won't belabor them here. They include, among other things, our first trip to the national book festival, our first metro ride, and our first enounter with an albino hedgehog. We also had our first trip to the Franklin Performing Arts Center in Purcellville to the Loudoun Ballet Company's performance of Peter and the Wolf; more info on that trip will soon be available on Grandma's blog! We had a wonderful time and the girls were mesmorized for the whole performance. Maybe the Bean will be up there one day!!

Wright Girls, Visits, and Anniversaries!

I wanted to call your attention to the new blog listed on the left and also linked here. This one belongs to my older sister, and with her joining the blogging community all three of the Wright girls are now officially online (younger sister's blog is also to left and also linked here). Of course, not one of us is legally/formally a Wright girl anymore, but it's more of a state of mind! We are a little bit older (OK a lot bit), a little less crazy (not much, but a little) and all of us are now mothers to little Wright boys and girls of our own, regardless of the actual last name. Looking back, pre-marriages, pre-kids, if you had told me that all three of us would end up more or less suburban moms blogging about and to our children, I would have said you were crazy, although it definitely feels (w)right! (as long as I am entertaining counterfactuals, though, I have to confess that 15 years ago I probably would have put money on Aunt T being the actress and Aunt B being the teacher, Of course, I also thought that I would be living a single life of jet setting intrigue, so what did I know??).

We here at the Moo Bean blog are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of the ultimate Wright girl, Grandma L, who gets in today. Grandma and Grandpa D are coming back to attend a team of the year ceremony. There are two other teams in the running, but we are hoping that the third time nominated is a charm for Grandpa, and that all of the tremendous hard work and long hours they both logged in Pakistan will be recognized. Plus, the ceremony is on Grandpa D's birthday, so hopefully he will get a nice trophy as a present.

We are also fondly remembering the visit we had last year from a whole host of CA-based family, including Great Grandma and Great Grandpa (thanks again to Great Aunt M for the wonderful photo book she sent us last year after the trip!!). The girls still speak warmly of everyone who came to visit us last year, and of our trip to North Carolina for the Pope family reunion. They conveniently forget the fact that the Bean had a complete meltdown the minute we got to the reunion, causing us to beat a hasty retreat. Mom's fondest memory is visiting the WWII memorial with Great Grandpa, a WWII vet who was repeatedly thanked for his service by young and old alike while we were there. We plan to mark the anniversary by hiding snakes in the bed in the spare room, but will have to remember to get them out before Grandma and Grandpa go to sleep!

Retail Therapy

Nothing can ever really take Hani's place, but hopefully these shoes will make the Moo feel a bit better! I saw them on miniboden and had to order them for her. Plus, Dad took her out and the two came back with a small blue beta named Snowflake, who is now happy swimming about in Hani's old home. The Moo told Snowflake all about Hani while the new fish was acclimating to his new home, and was finally able to say Hani's name without crying. So, I think we are on the road to recovery.

In Memorium

Hani Sprinkle Sweetcakes Kennedy, the purple beta fish, passed away today after two years of being the Moo's constant companion. We don't know when Hani was born, but we remember the day that he came to live with us. The Moo picked him out right away; she knew as soon as she saw him that Hani was the fish for her. Hani was buried in a short ceremony in the backyard, and the Moo said a beautiful prayer thanking Hani for being such a good fish. The Moo remembered Hani this way: "He was an awesome fish when he was alive, and I hope he still is when he is in heaven. He was a magical and miracle fish when I bought him. Once I thought he died quickly but he didn't; he was asleep. Today I bless for Hani and I will meet you again Hani, and you will be in my memory forever. I will never forget you. Bye Hani, I love you."

The Moo is devastated by her loss, and left flowers at Hani's grave site. The Bean wrote Hani a letter and left it by his grave site as well. We will miss you, Hani! Thank you for being our first fish!!!

Getting Into the Swing of Things

We are now three weeks into the new school year and therefore three weeks into our new schedule. Things are starting to more or less fall into place, and all four of us are starting to adjust to the new way of doing things. The Bean, I think, has had it hardest of all, as she has never been to school five days a week before. To add to her stress, she is in not only a new class, but a new room (after months of her not going anywhere, she has been moved up three times over the past five months). She has started telling Dad, who does the drop offs, that she does not want to go to school anymore. We have talked to her teacher, Ms. Hadley, who notes that there is no sign of her being unhappy when she is at school, and she is always in the thick of things when Mom comes to pick her up at 2 pm. Poor Dad is very stressed out by the situation, however.
On a more humorous note, Dad went to pick her up the other day, and could not find her in her classroom. He noticed a group of boys dressed up in the dress up clothes over in the corner -- there were doctors and firemen and police officers. When he drew closer, he noticed that they were gathered around the Bean, who was lying on the floor. She jumped up when she saw him, and said, "I'm the patient, Daddy!!!" Dad immediately called Mom on the cell phone, and told her he was definitely not ready for his daughters to start playing doctor!
The Moo is slowly but surely starting to get more into Kindergarten and all of the fun things that they are doing. She loved making a Jackson Pollack painting last week, and had the paint in her hair and all over her clothes to prove it! This Friday was both her first day of swim team practice, her first day of school sponsored swimming lessons, and her first theory class for her riding certificate (on proper grooming). She did an amazing job on all three. She was required to get on a bus from school to be taken to the swimming pool for swim team -- the school asks that Moms meet the children at the pool. So, she had to get on the bus, get to the pool, get to the locker room, change into her suit, fold and pack her clothes in her pool bag, and get out to the pool all by herself. A big challenge for a five year old, and one that she executed beautifully (the clothes folding needs a little work, but no one's perfect!). She did a great job at swim team, even attempting dives, which she has never been asked to do before. Mom was very concerned that asking her to go to swimming lessons after practice would be asking too much, given how tired she seemed afterward, but she insisted she wanted to go and did a great job (swim team is from 245 until 330, and lessons are from 4 until 430, due to an error in scheduling on Mom's part). She is a wonderful little swimmer! After that, we only had time for a quick bite to eat and handing off the poor Bean to Dad, and then we were off to the stables to learn the proper way to groom a horse! The Moo did great but Mom got reprimanded for answering a phone call from Dad on her cell during the class -- the instructor decided to make an example of Mom to drive in the fact the no one should have their cell phones in the stall area. Mom understands the need too make a point, but wishes that the instructor had not referred back to Mom quite so many times in doing so! Oh well.
The picture above is of the Moo's Fall Fun Fair poster for the poster contest at her school. The fair is coming up and this is the second year she has entered. Her Pre-K poster was covered in lizards, so this year's entry is a little more on topic!! She decided she wanted to use leaves, and she wanted to draw some of the jars from the popular jar game: each family donates two jars filled with whatever treats they want to put in them, and the kids win them in a roulette type game. I think she did an awesome job!
The other wonderful news of the week was finding out that Aunt B and Uncle J are expecting a healthy and perfect little BOY, although Mom is a bit chagrined to see the family shifting from a female dominated to a male dominated unit with the new generation. The Moo and the Bean are tough enough to handle it, though!! Congrats Millers!!!! Although Mom guessed wrong, the Moo knew all along as she insisted that Mom buy a lizard-themed Blue Banana outfit for the baby months ago (we figured we could send it to Cousin S if the baby had ended up being a girl). We can't wait to meet the little guy!
Not much to else to report on the Mom and Dad front, and the natives are getting a but restless, so I guess I will close this out. We can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa again on Tuesday, and are keeping our fingers crossed that the third time nominated for team of the year is a charm!

Sticks!

This mirror is from the Sticks store referenced in the previous post. Really wonderful and inspiration things!

Back from the Midwest

Back from a very productive if somewhat waterlogged trip to Michigan. This was my first time in Ann Arbor, and I have to say that I highly recommend it to anyone who has not been. It has a great small town feel to it, with lots of restaurants and little boutiques (the picture is from one of my new favorite stores, Sticks, on South Main Street). The university was also very impressive. Grandma D is from Michigan, so Dad has some roots there and had been hoping to bring the girls up to join me for the weekend, but it did not end up working out. Probably for the best, given how rainy it ended up being. I did manage to snag him a "Harvard: the Michigan of the East" T-shirt and found some shark tooth necklaces for the girls at a local farmers market. No Big Blue paraphernalia for Mom though, as her Wisconsin roots just would not allow it!
So, the Moo is now officially on the LCDS swim team! Our schedule appears to be shaping up thus: Mondays, Bean swims, Wednesday Moo rides, Fridays, Moo swim team followed by Moo swimming lessons (only for the rest of the semester, and then swim team will be enough, I think). Add into that the fact that this week we have back to school night tomorrow, a playdate with the new LCDS family we are sponsoring on Thursday, and the Moo has her theory class on proper grooming of horses on Friday night, and I think the following conclusion is inevitable: I have become the psycho mom I have sought to avoid morphing into. Add on to this the fact that my car is once again in the shop (the AC was broken when they fixed the water pump) and you are looking at one stressed out psycho mom.
SO the constant mantra now is the reminder that things could really be much worse and that other people have real problems and would give almost anything to be beset by the issues we are dealing with. Most of our major annoyances are self-inflicted or are really minor little issues when placed in context, and for that I am trying to remember to always be thankful and count the little blessings . . . like husbands who understand when you have reached your breaking point and act like it is TOTALLY normal to break down crying because the rental car the dealer got you is bright yellow and slightly less elegantly styled than a Toyota Yaris. (I defy anyone to not burst into tears at the prospect of driving such a car, stress or no stress -- it's YELLOW).

Odds and Ends

The Bean started her 6 pm swimming lessons tonight, which is a little late for all of our tastes but has the wonderful benefit of allowing Dad to come and see her swim now. We had to move her because Mom had shifted her hours starting this week to be in the office five days a week, for six hours each day. This way I pick the Bean up right after nap time at Beantree, and the two of us go and help out in the LCDS library until the Moo gets out at 330. Then we three girls have the whole afternoon together. It will be a nice routine once it gets established and will ease the Bean into school five days a week, something she has never before experienced but will if she gets into LCDS for next year (she applies in November and will undergo testing in January/February -- we will find out in March). Right now, it is just making me sad to lose those days the Bean and I had together, but she is happy with her new room at school and her friends.

The Moo will start new swimming lessons through her school on the 19th and will try out for swim team sometime within the next two weeks. She is also starts taking theory classes in horse care that evening at AAES, as part of their Rider Certificate program; they have one or two classes a month and they are geared at her level.

So our new routine is still taking shape, and it will be awhile before it feels natural to us. We are excited about the changes though! Mom managed to sit on her hand when they were asking for room rep volunteers this year, but did decide to tackle the Book Fair. Mom has it on good authority that the librarians will work closely with her on this, as Mom has volunteered at but has never chaired the Book Fair before, and has no clue how to do it. Hopefully it will not be a huge disaster.

On the work front, Mom got her performance evaluation on her new account, and was ranked "exceeds expectations," which was a pleasant surprise and probably the only area in her life where she would get such a ranking. I am off to Michigan this week for consulting and recruiting, which has the wonderful benefit of making Dad take the Moo to riding lessons so he can see how she has progressed while I am in Ann Arbor. And having brought this post neatly full circle, I will sign off until next week, when I am back from the not so frozen north!

Hurricane Hanna(h)

Our house got slammed by Hurricane Hanna this morning, leading us to the ponder the following question: how is the Bean like a tropical depression?? Well, they both make the household lose power, one through inducing sheer exhaustion and the other by knocking out the electricity. Both can really turn on the waterworks as well, although the Bean on her best day can not produce wind gusts of over 40 miles an hour (in her defense, she may not be stronger but she is arguably louder). The Bean is a lot more cuddly and easier to love, however, especially when one is contemplating how one is going to get ready for and drive through the deluge to the birthday party of a close family friend's son when one has no power.

All is well that ends well though. Mom had the wrong day for the party (phew -- it's tomorrow) and just as Dad was spending $300 on a battery powered backup sump pump the electricity came back on (we're going to install the backup system anyway though). The girls went with Dad to Home Depot and came home with Kids Korner aprons and little wooden goal posts that they had hammered together (next week they are making firetrucks so it looks like we will be back). Mom and the girls then made Grandma's famous no bake cookies (YUM!) and painted the goal posts. All in all, not a bad way to weather the storm!

Apologies in Advance

Ahem . . . we just spammed a bunch of Moo Bean blog readers with a request to support the Moo's fundraiser by purchasing some Sally Foster items. PLEASE PLEASE do not feel obligated to do so -- we're very sorry to have spammed you, and would have said so in the email except I got the feeling Sally Foster might have come pounding on my door had I added a postscript to that effect! So if you are in the market for some gift wrap and the idea of going to the local Hallmark is just too taxing, that would great. If not, thanks for not blocking our email address and PLEASE feel free to spam us in return with fundraisers for your children! To those who we chose not to spam, if you are also in the market, the Moo's seller number is 200039 and if you order online it gets delivered directly to you .. SORRY! INFOMERCIAL DONE and I promise, this is the first and only fundraiser of the season!

Did I mention that all the money goes to teacher enrichment programs (at least the part that doesn't go to Sally Foster)? OK, DONE, Sorry! :)

www.sallyfoster.com. Absolutely last word on the subject. Totally, totally done.

Angst

Dad had to work late last night, so Mom was in charge of getting everyone fed and into bed. The girls were tired and therefore cooperative, so the operation went pretty smoothly. Later on in the evening I went to check on the Moo, however, and found her crying softly in her bed. When I asked her what was wrong, she said "I want to go back to PreK."

So, it turns out the the Moo has inherited her mother's resistance to change. She does not like that things are different in her new room: different teachers, different kids, and different centers. She informed me, for instance, that only THREE people can be at the writing center at a time instead of four, and you have to go and get the markers. In PreK, the markers were already there. Quel horor!

I felt very bad because up until now I had heard nothing but positive things from her about moving into Kindergarten. I think she was afraid to tell her Dad and I how she was feeling because she did not want to disappoint us. I sat with her for awhile and reminded her that she had felt the same way about going back to Beantree when she first started at LCDS, and we talked about how in a few weeks the new routine will be old hat.

Then I went downstairs and felt just awful for the rest of the evening.

(As a postscript, I volunteered at the school today and the Moo looked like she was having a great time with her new class whenever I happened to see her -- hopefully in another week she will be back in the swing of things.)

First Day of School!

Today was a day of firsts -- the Moo's first day of Kindergarten and the Bean's first day in the Preschool II classroom at Beantree. The whole family got up and headed out together, although in truth we did not really have much choice, since Mom's car is in the shop! The Moo had a short orientation day, so Mom let her go out of uniform -- she chose to wear a jean skirt and her new horse shirt and was thrilled to find out that the aide in her room, Mrs. Roberts, rides as well and used to own her own horse. To the Moo, that makes Mrs. Roberts the coolest.



You will note the pirate attire on the Bean - we can't get it off of her since Grandma and Grandpa took her out on the Chesapeake Sunday to battle enemy pirates and find the sunken treasure! Thanks to all who inquired about her health after she nearly killed herself last week -- she is much better physically and the dresser is now more firmly affixed to the wall. We still can not get her to talk about the incident so we don't have all the details, but I think that Grandma's theory that the Bean was standing in an open drawer in an attempt to reach one higher up is probably correct. I have not really recovered from the whole thing and have had nightmares pretty much every night since it happened. I'm really focusing on the wrong aspect of it though, and should just remind myself to be grateful that she came through it with only bumps and cuts and bruises. One more minor miracle to add to the list that came out of this incident -- despite being left without water for I'm not sure how long, Pizza the Beta fish survived and is now happily swimming in his new (plastic) home atop the Bean's dresser, none the worse for wear save a scratch on his forehead. I now refer to him as Pizza the miracle fish.

We are also recovering from missing Grandma and Grandpa, who left yesterday after a wonderful visit. The girls were very mopey after we left them at the airport yesterday, but I am hoping their new classrooms will be a big enough diversion. Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa -- we loved having you and can't wait to you are back for the team of the year ceremony!

One final first: we watched the very first episode of Sid the Science Kid on PBS and the girls love it. This one was about the value of charts, and as soon as it was over the Moo and Grandma made a ton of charts (eye color, favorite colors, family members etc). Sid is now on our DVR schedule, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone with a preschooler or Kindergartner at home!

Hope everyone who is back to school this week has a great one, and CONGRATS to Aunt P on her first official week as Principle with a fully operating school. We know very proud of you and know that you are going to do a great job!