All the single ladies!!

The Moo and the Bean have discovered Beyonce. :) They were a little tired of dancing by the time it occurred to Mom to record it, but this gives you a sense of the fun we have been having today. I am still struggling to explain what the singer means when she says "if you like it then you should have put a ring on it" though -- they think she just likes sparkly things. :)

Trick or Treat

My budding entomologists ready for a night of trick or treating -- Mom is sick with strep so she will not be going! The girls look great in their costumes though, and poor Fidel is the saddest trick or treating dog I have ever seen (the girls insisted on dressing him up).

PreK Halloween Party 2009

From Movies

Mom is the room mom for the Bean's PreK class, and was in charge of organizing this year's Halloween party. One of the other Moms was kind enough to take LOTS of pictures of the kids this year, so there are A LOT in this movie, but it goes fast and you get to see the Bean in all her butterfly glory. Mom came down with strep right after this, so I will not be trick or treating this evening, but will be sure to post pictures of our butterfly and her dragon fly big sister after Dad takes them out!

Random Pictures of the Girls

These are from Molly's first LCDS swim meet of the year -- she finished first in freestyle, second in breaststroke, fourth in backstroke, and cut her butterfly time in half. Yay Moo!! Grandma and Grandpa were here to see it as well, and then we had a wonderful but short visit before they left to attend Aunt L's wedding. CONGRATS to Aunt L and new uncle F!!

Taylor Mali

Busy Weekend!

We are on the tail end of a VERY busy weekend, the most important part of which is Daddy's 48th birthday!!! Happy birthday daddy!!!! The Moo and Bean each painted a canvas for Daddy to hang in his office, both of which turned out very nicely. This morning we made him his favorite sausage and egg casserole for breakfast in bed. As we were making it, the Moo asked if we should sing him the "Mom, it's your birthday" song from Phineas and Ferb (with "Mom" being substituted with "Dad," naturally). We were going over the words to the song, and got to the line "when I'm climbing up the walls, you're the one who stays calm" when the Bean said "Wait a minute! We can't sing this song for Dad." We asked her why not, and she said "If I was climbing up the wall, Daddy would not stay calm, he would say, "Come down here before you fall and break your head off!!"" So, that was the end of that idea.

Right now we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa from their flight out of Paris. Poor Grandma and Grandpa will have to go straight from the airport to the pool, though, to watch the Moo compete in the first LCDS swim meet of the season. We had a SNOW swim meet last weekend and the Moo swam a personal best 25.15 25-meter free and a much improved 29 25-meter back. This meet she is competing in all four strokes, and we are excited that Grandma and Grandpa will be there to see her!

We spent yesterday at the LCDS Fall Fun Fair which was a great time, despite the fact that the rain forced the organizers to move it inside. The highlight for Mom was watching the girls compete in the pie eating contest. The Moo took one bite, made a face, removed her napkin and came off stage, saying "I don't like it." The Bean planted her face, devoured the whole thing, and took first place among the PreK participants. And that, in a nutshell, illustrates perfectly the differences between my two children! :)

Right now I have to sign off to get to the airport and collect our visitors! We are concerned about poor Fidel today, who has done nothing but shake and vomit since he woke up this morning, but are waiting to see how he is tomorrow before freaking out entirely. He seems a little better right now, and I know a visit from Grandma and Grandpa is going to perk him right up. Hope everyone had a great weekend, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!! We love you!!

Happy Birthday Grandma L!

Bean: I love you Grandma Linda I hope you have a very good time, Love Hannah. I hope you slide on the windowsill and do a chartwheel.

Moo: Hi Grandma Linda I am waiting and I really miss you, see you for Christmas when we come to you. And I am excited for you when you come for our Dad's birthday. I love you, Happy Birthday!

Mom: How old is Grandma Linda?

Bean: Sixteen!

Moo: Eighty seven!

Bean: Twenty-four!

We love you Mom and we hope you had a great one!

Happy Birthday Grandpa D!

Grandpa is turning 60! We love him very much and hope he had a great birthday in Africa. The girls sent him the following birthday greeting via email:

Hannah says: "Grandpa D I hope you have a wonderful time at your birthday and I hope you come to out house and bring back wonderful presents for me and Molly from your birthday. I hope you have a very wonderful time! Love Hannah"

Molly says: "Hi Grandpa D. I love you so much"

Hannah says: "I love you so much too from me"

Molly continues: "I hope that you have a great time til you see us next time. And Happy birthday to you!!"

Molly is now signing the birthday song :)

We love you Daddy and hope you have a GREAT birthday!

Moving On

This post is a little bit more about the Mom than the girls. After 12 years with the same office (minus one post-9/11 year helping out on something a little bit different) I have taken an instructor position and am off to try something different. Mom is highly resistant to change, so this is a pretty big step. The new job is in an out building much closer to home though, and I can keep my part time status, allowing me to pick up the girls right after school. Now that they are in the same location, this will a much easier process. I have been asked to make this type of move before and was interested, but passed on the opportunity. The timing just seemed right when I asked this time, however, and I love the idea of working with new officers and helping get them to where they need to be in order to succeed. The job does also involve daily, anonymous feedback from the students, however, so it looks like I will have to very quickly grow a thicker skin and process criticism in a constructive way regardless of how it is given.

The hours will also be much more predictable and more flexible, which will be enormously helpful since Mom has signed up to be a room rep for BOTH of the girls' rooms this school year: Hannah's I volunteered for because I was a room rep for Molly in PreK, and Molly's I volunteered for because nobody else did, and I did not want her room to suffer. We are also in the midst of cheerleading which involves two practices a week and games on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Hannah has swimming on Mondays and Molly has LCDS swim team on Fridays, and SNOW swimming Fridays after LCDS and Sundays, PLUS MOlly will start having swim meets on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays as well. Molly also has math club on Thursdays before cheering practice. We are, to put it mildly, a little bit overbooked.

So, lot of changes and lots of things to keep us too occupied to think too much about it. I am only hoping that I am able to transition to my job as well as the Bean has transitioned to her new school and Molly to her new grade. I am not sure it it is due to the excitement of the new campus or the wonderful teachers (both, probably) but neither the Moo nor the Bean has missed a beat this school year. The Bean has not once expressed a desire to go back to familiar surroundings at Beantree, and the Moo has shown none of the signs of stress that accompanied the start of the last two school years. We are so proud of them!!

How was your day at school?

Bean: It was great!
Mom: What did you do?
Bean: We had playdough! And we had snack and it was goldfish and apple juice and I really loved the apple juice that they have. And I went to the library and I got a book.
Mom: What kind of book did you get?
Bean: Pokemon!
Mom: Did you read a story?
Bean: Yes we read a story and it was about a hen and she went inside the school but she didn't know where the school was but she went inside the classroom and she thought the teacher was cow and there was things for the kids to sit on and she saw a pig and she thought that the trash can was the chicken food and she thought that the cubbies were the homes.
Mom: What else did you do?
Bean: Mom, can you please just talk to Dad now??

Moo: It was awesome, a-e-i-o-awesome.
Mom: What did you do?
Moo: We went to classes, gym, Spanish, music. We were the first class ever to use the new gym. We did exercises and played games. Coach Ross was good. In music, we listened to songs and learned different ways to say hello. In Spanish we learned some Spanish, we reviewed over what we did in Kindergarten so we could learn even more and we did some exercises. My favorite thing was math, we did easy patterns and hard patterns. We read a little bit, she called on people but I didn't raise my hand because I didn't know part of the words. The best thing about first grade so far is that we have this frog chart and if your frog is on yellow you were not listening and if it is on red you were not listening but if it's on pink you did a super-duper-ooper job and then it it's on grey you did even better, and if you do even better you go off the chart.

First Day of School!

Today was our first day back at LCDS, a wonderful school that the Moo has attended for the past three years. This was an especially banner day as the Bean started at LCDS in PreK this year, with Molly's former teacher whom we LOVE. Mom very crazily has promised to be a room mom again this year, as though starting a new job was not stressful enough. However, Mom did it when the Moo was in PreK, and if nothing else I strive for parity in all things with the girls. Not sure the Moo is going to see it that way when she sees me spending all kinds of time in the Bean's room, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. The Moo is excited about being a first grader and anxious to be graded on a traditional A-F scale, for some reason. She says she wants to get straight As, like iCarly. The Bean, apparently, just wants to tell everyone about Fidel: she said she told the librarian, her teachers, and all her new classmates about her dog and that was pretty much the sum total of what I got out of her today.

The other very exciting thing about today was that the school has moved to their new campus, which is huge and state of the art. They did an amazing job putting the new school together, and it is going to be a wonderful place for the girls to go to school--assuming that the cost of the new school does not drive tuition up to the point where we get priced out. Mom is keeping her fingers crossed that the 10 percent increases we have seen over the past two years are over and done with. In the meantime, I am thrilled to have them both at the same great school and so excited to be starting another year at LCDS!!

Cheerleading

So, as you can tell from the last post, we have been started cheerleading this fall. The Moo really wanted to do it as many of her friends participated last year, and since the Moo wanted to do it, the Bean wanted to do it too! They seem to be enjoying themselves and they have wonderful coaches. True to their respective personalities--I call the Moo my OCD baby and the Bean my ADD baby--the Moo is very focused and reads over her cheers in her spare time, and the Bean will stop mid cheer and say things like "Look, a butterfly!" or get suddenly fascinated by a blade of grass.

Here is what the Moo thinks about cheerleading: "It's good. It's great for footballplaying. The pep rally was great and a great education. It made you think more about getting ready for games and more things. I like practicing because you learn more cheers."

I would tell you what the Bean thinks about cheerleading but she is sounds asleep right now. She had a terrible accident last week after her practice had finished up but before the Moo's had ended. Dad took over to play on the playground while Mom watched the Moo working on the pep rally dance all of the C league squads were performing together. Mom would periodically glance over to see how the Bean was doing, and the last time she did this she saw Dad yelling for her and the Bean lying on the ground crying. It turned out that Dad had been holding the Bean on the monkey bars, but she had suddenly let go when his grip had relaxed a little. The Bean fell about four feet, landing on her feet and then back. Dad picked her up to comfort him and the Bean started freaking out, saying "I can't feel my legs and I can't move my legs." That is when Dad started freaking out.

The Bean was a trooper, laying perfectly still on the grass while we called the paramedics and she was so brave as the put on the C collar and boarded her up to stabilize her. She was scared but excited to go in an ambulance! By the time we got underway to the hopsital feeling had returned to her legs and she had calmed down, but the ER doctor (whose son goes to the girls'school!) was concerned about possible kidney damage, so we had a CAT scan. In the end, all was fine, but it was a scary night!!

When she returned to practice two nights later, on the way to the field, the Bean asked me "When do I get to ride an ambulance again??!!!"

I told her never. Never never never never!!!

Pep Rally!

Posting so that Dad can see since he is on a business trip. Will write more about the Pep Rally later, as I have two tired cheerleaders (a Longhorn and a Dolphin) that need to go to bed!

Ferocious Fowl

The Bean asked me tonight if I was a tough chick. I said, sometimes, if someone is mean to my little ones, I can be a tough chick. She thought about it and then asked, "Is Daddy a tough chick?" The Moo immediately said, "Bean, chick is another word for girl, so Daddy can't be a tough chick." The Bean mulled that over and asked, "Is Daddy a tough chicken?"

All Star Meet!

We were up bright and early today for the All Star meet! The Moo did an AWESOME job, finishing second in her heat. Yay Moo (and yay for summer swim season being over - no more waking up at 530 am on a Saturday!!). Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Update on Bean's Swim Meet

So, as it turns out, the Bean won first place for four year old girls in both freestyle and backstroke at her meet! We didn't realize because they had combined ages in the heats, but today she was presented with two blue ribbons for her first place finishes! Way to go, Bean! She also helped entertain Ruby while Mom cleaned Ruby's cage today, as you can tell from the pictures above (they were just too funny not to find some excuse to include them on the blog!).

The Bean Goes for a Swim!

Today was the second mini meet for the littlest swimmers in t he summer league. As previously mentioned, the Bean's performance at the last mini-meet (or rather non-performance) was extremely distressing for us all. We went back and forth about whether to even take her at all today, but ultimately she decided she wanted to try so we decided that Dad would take her, and maybe have more luck. Of course, Mom could not stay away, and she and the Moo ultimately tagged along, but we stayed far away from the staging area so the Bean would not focus on us being there.

The Bean did awesome!! She swam freestyle and backstroke and is so proud of herself. The picture of her above is with Coach Z -- he has been her coach all summer swim season and has been awesome! He was in the lane with her when she swam today just in case and helped to make sure she got in the water. Coach Z's mom was also awesome; she took charge of the Bean and made sure that she was in Coach Z's lane for each of her heats.

We are so proud of you, Bean! And the Bean is super proud of herself. She says: "I was happy that Mommy was so proud of me and Coach Z and me got a picture and then I was very proud of myself and I was happy and I shared with Molly and I hope she has ribbons everyday."

All Star Swimmer!

We are very proud to announce that the Moo swam a 27.75 free at her swim meet today, which officially qualifies her as an All Star! She will be participating in the all star meet next week, so we will be sitting out Divisionals. She has shaved 6 seconds off her free time since beginning summer swim team in June. When they told her that she was an All Star she got very excited, jumping up and down and saying "I can't believe it! I made All Stars." Then, on the car ride home, she asked me, "Mom, what's am All Star?"

You are Moo!! Congratulations!!

To My Little Ones

Welcome to the human race
With it's wars, disease and brutality
You with your innocence and grace
Restore some pride and dignity
To a world in decline

Welcome to a special place
In a heart of stone that's cold and grey
You with your angel face
Keep the despair at bay
Send it away, and

Show me the meaning of the word
'cause I've heard so much about it
I don't want to live without it

Failures in Parenting

Today was not a great day. Mom took the day off of work in order to able to cheer the Bean on at her very first swim meet ever. We were so excited, especially since for the first time this meet would be all about the Bean and cheering for her; she has in the past expressed some resentment over the fact that Molly gets all the cheering. We got to the pool early, and the Bean got to swim around a little to warm up and was super excited. As more and more people started to arrive, however, she got more and more distressed. I will make a long story short here and simply state that the Bean has yet to participate in her first swim, there was much shedding of tears and screaming, and that Mom probably should have stopped trying to get to just try a lot earlier than she did, which would have saved us all some tears and embarrassment. Sigh - there is another mini-meet coming up next week, but we are not going to sign her up. I think the Bean is better off waiting for next year. The sad thing is that she is actually the one who loves swimming the most.

So, today was another not so great Mom day, and I probably should have handled it much better than I did. Nonetheless, here are some pictures from today's disaster and the Moo's meet last night, where she did an awesome job. Hope you enjoy.

Growing Up

The Moo and Bean have reached the ripe old ages of six and four, and the signs that they are getting older are impossible to ignore:

• When Mom dropped the Moo off at her camp classroom on Wednesday and Thursday, she refused to let me kiss or hug her in front of her friends.
• She has also requested that we not call her "Moo" in front of her friends. She informs me that it is an OK nickname to use at home, but an embarrassing one to use around others in her age cohort.
• I can no longer spell things out in front of her or let her look over my shoulder when I am typing; she reads everything.
• She is making value judgments on her own, rather than soliciting my opinion. We were listening to "Evangeline" in the car on the way to camp, and she asked me "Mom, what is this song about?" As I often do the 546 times a day I am asked this question, I way oversimplified and said "It's about a boy who wants a girl to spend time with him, but she wants to spend her time with God." The Moo thought about it and said "Well, isn't that more important?" Hopefully she keeps that mindset, as it will make it so much easier when Dad tries to stick her in the convent at age 13. :)
• The Bean makes her own lunch now. Peanut butter and jelly tacos, and she gets all the ingredients and puts the who thing together herself, leaving half on the counter.
• She doubts everything I say. All I hear is "Mom, are you sure you know what you're talking about it?" or "That's not right Mom."
• I kind of like that she questions everything, and there is a definite thought process behind it. The Moo told her the other day that people are animals and the Bean did her best Charlton Heston:" I am not an animal!!" I told her that yes, in fact, the Moo was right, and we are animals, and she thought about it and retorted, "But I can talk. Animals don't talk." A spurious argument, but a logical one, so I was proud of her.
• When I admit I do not know the answer to her questions, she tells me "Well, Mom, you will have to Google it up."
• She makes me books out of newspaper clippings. When I asked her what the latest one she gave me was about, she told me "It is about food, waterfalls, the tri-state area, and love." Sounds like a potential best seller to me. :)

They are also being AWESOME with me this week. I have been down for the count with fever and chills, congestion, and sinus pressure, and they have been so good about letting me rest. Thanks little bugs. In the words of the Bean, "You rock, dude."

What We've Been Up To

I started this post intending to update everyone on everything that we have been doing that impeded me posting before, but now it is all blurring together. We had an incredibly busy end of the school year for the Moo, who is now proudly announcing to all who ask (and some who don't) that she is a rising first grader. Her last report card was all Cs (for "consistently") the highest grade on the LCDS Kindergarten report card. She was momentarily dismayed when I told her ("But Mom, I wanted all As") until I explained the grading system. LCDS does not have a graduation ceremony for outgoing Kindergarten students, but Beantree does, so last week we attended her finacee C's graduation. We decided to sit in the back in order to allow the families with children who were actually in the ceremony to be closer to the stage, but the Moo apparently felt that the back row was not befitting a future daughter-in-law, so she deserted us to sit with C's mother and father.

The Bean remains the Bean, absolutely crazy and determined to meet life head on. She is proud that she moved up to Ms. Annie's class, and is really enjoying trying out her new writing skills but making Mom tell her how to right words like "bug," "invitation," and (the most popular) "Fidel." She conned me into a fudgesicle earlier this afternoon when we got home, and right now is trying to talk me into giving her some dessert from supper. I told her "no way, you already had a fudgesicle" and she looked at me like I was crazy and said "Mom, that wasn't dessert. That was an appetizer."

Don't even get me started on the *@$#$^ dog.

Summer!

We are in full summer swing in the Moo Bean house, and I think we are going to survive (but will let you know for sure in September). Mom does not deal well with changes to routine, so it may be that everyone does great with it but her. The Moo started summer camp at the Potomac School today where is one of the Panther Prowlers. Her day will include cooking, art, music, computers, swimming, nature hikes, and French (as an aside, what is with the continual teaching of French? I would rather they offer something useful, like Spanish, or Mandarin). She is going into work with Mom early in the morning, then getting dropped off at camp at nine and picked up at three. She was excited to get up this morning because she knows the cafeteria at Mom's work has oatmeal, but I am sure it will not be long before I am either dragging her out of bed or taking her to work asleep and in her pajamas.

The Bean has moved up to the next level in her classroom and is dealing fine with being in school an extra hour and a half while Mom picks up Moo. She is a trouper! She is also loving that we have started summer swim team and that she gets to be part of it! She is on the mini-dolphins so she will only have one meet this summer, which will only be the minis and will allow them to use the kick boards if they need them. However, last week she swam the 25 on her own! Her form was a little lacking, but she made it across the pool and we were very proud of her! She is also over the moon about starting at LCDS this fall -- she can't wait to go to "the Moo's school."

Mom will also be making some changes in the fall as she takes a brief career diversion to be an instructor for new officers for two years. It was a great opportunity for Mom to do something a little different for awhile and work closer to home, so she is excited and nervous at the same time. Will keep you all posted on how that progresses as well -if I don't chicken out, my start date will be 14 September.

That's it for now! Hope everyone is well and had a great Father's Day! Also hope that new baby Brinleigh is settling in well, and that little baby Emmerson is letting his mom rest up before his arrival.

Happy Father's Day!

A few pictures from our Father's Day Brunch in Annapolis! Hope you enjoy and sorry we have not been posting much lately! Mom plans to be better about it in the future, and will leave you with these thoughts from the Moo and Bean on fathers:

Bean: Fathers are important because they need love by them and, well, they look after you every every day and they take care of you and they sing songs and they also come and play with you.

Moo: Fathers are important because they love you and that's all I have to say.

Pictures from last Sunday

Last Sunday was a busy day in the Moo Bean household. First, Dad acquired a water testing kit from his company, ITT, which is a global leader in clean water technology. We took the girls to one of their favorite places and Mom's least favorite, the Frog Pond, to test the water there. The girls performed on site testing to measure turbidity and dissolved oxygen, and then took their sample home to measure Ph balance. We had a great time and learned A LOT!!

After that, we were off to the Moo's second swim meet of the weekend, where she competed in butterfly, freestyle, backstroke, and breast stroke. The Moo finished last in all of her heats, but she swam her best times yet and she never gave up, even though on the butterfly you could tell she really really really wanted to. :) On Monday, during the lower school assembly, the Moo's coach had her stand up and recognized her effort in front of all of her schoolmates, which mom and dad thought was pretty special. The Moo said it made her feel "GREAT!"

As always, click on the image below and then click on Slideshow in the upper left hand corner to view the pictures embedded below. We hope you enjoy them (and don't forget to check out the Bean's cool Beatles t-shirt -- hideously overpriced but I bought them each one. I couldn't help it).

Plays, Swim Meets, and Emergency Room Visits

This Wednesday the Moo was in her very first, on-stage play, an LCDS kindergarten production of Eric Carle's The Very Quiet Cricket. The Moo played a very glamorous luna moth, as evident from the pictures and the slideshow link below! The slide show also include some random shots by the girls of everyday life in the MooBean house with the new puppy, and some shots of the Bean waiting for the performance to begin. We hope you enjoy them!

We have a busy weekend on tap, including two swim meets and dinner tonight with Mom's friend for her high school days in Madrid. Mom has not seen her friend for about 20 years, but they recently reconnected via Facebook, and Mom is VERY excited to get to meet up with her again!

The first swim meet took place last night, and Mom was afraid that the Moo would be too tired to really get into it, since it did not start until 6 pm, and the Moo's bedtime is 630pm, 7 pm at the latest. Mom need not have worried though, as the Moo did GREAT! She did not want to swim butterfly, so Mom did not push it, but she swam her best times ever in freestyle and breast stroke, and in addition to a new best time she finished second in backstroke. We are very very proud of her, and more importantly she is proud of herself.

While Mom and Moo were at the swim meet, the Bean went with Dad to have a bug hunt and meet friends from Dad's work for dinner at Red Robin. They had a great time, but as they were leaving, the Bean was running around and Dad was concerned that she would hurt herself. As he was calling to her to slow down and be careful, she ran into the metal grate surrounding a garbage can; the grate was right at neck level, and she smashed her throat into it. When Mom called with the swim meet results, Dad told her what had happened and noted that although the Bean seemed to breathing with no problems, her voice was raspy. When Mom got home and heard her, Mom was very concerned. The Bean's voice continued to get worse as the night progressed, so around 1030 Dad took her to the emergency room for an x-ray. Everything checked out OK, thank goodness, and the doctor suspected that the raspiness was probably caused by a respiratory infection that had just coincidentally manifested itself at the same time she ran headlong into the trash can. They gave her bronchial treatment and released her - she is sounding much better today. Mom is keeping her fingers crossed for NO MORE HEALTH SCARES from anyone in the family (this means you as well Aunt P and Grandma L) for at least the next month. Please???!!!!!

The Moo's second swim meet is tomorrow at the 3 pm - Dad is coming to this one, so we will hopefully have pictures to post along with the results.

Proof that the Moo has an Unusual Heart

We have learned some new words and phrases this week, as a result of the Moo's annual check up with the pediatrician. The first phrase was "pediatric heart murmur" which unfortunately the Moo has. It should have come as little to surprise to us, given how chatty the Moo is, that her heart also has some extra things to say, but Mom was both shocked and dismayed to hear the news.

The next phrase was "floppy valve" or more technically speaking "mitral valve prolapse" which was a potential cause of the problem. The Moo's doctor immediately referred us to a pediatric cardiologist, and assured us that most likely the murmur would end up not being indicative of a larger, congenital heart defect. Nonetheless, we worried.

The cardiologist was able to schedule us for today at 1045, so at least Mom only had to suffer through two days of trying to focus on the best, but fearing the worst. Both Dad and Mom went with the Moo for her EKG and echo cardiogram - she was an amazing trouper through both, especially the echo cardiogram which took quiet awhile and involved large amounts of gel being smeared over her chest (the Dr. laughed when the Moo immediately wanted to get it all off when the exam was over - he said that the boys who come into his office always want to keep it on!).

The Dr (Dr. Robert Escalera, for anyone in the area looking for a pediatric cardiologist) was WONDERFUL and was able to determine that the Moo's condition is an "innocent murmur" (another new phrase!) that should have absolutely no impact on her health, activity, and development, and may even resolve itself with times. He also printed out four pictures of her heart for her to take and show to her class; she is excited about doing that tomorrow!

In the meantime, Dad and Mom are both exuberant and relieved. The only thing we need to worry about now is getting her to he school on time tonight for the Kindergarten play: she is playing a luna moth in "The Very Quiet Cricket." We promise to post pictures of our murmuring Moo moth after the performance. :)

Birthday Wishes!

Happy early birthday to cousin Staci and belated birthday wishes to the Moo - we have had a busy weekend of celebrating her turning six, including dinner at her favorite restaurant and playing with her absolute favorite gift, a rock collection from Grandma and Grandpa. She also has a ton of birthday money from her very generous relatives to spend this coming week -- thanks so much for all who sent cards and well wishes!! She was thrilled to receive all of them! I asked her what the difference between being five and being six is, and she said "nothing," which did not leave me with much blog post material!

Some odds and ends about the Moo and Bean:

• On Monday, the Moo goes to the doctor and I believe will be getting shots. Please pray that we can through it this year with fewer than four nurses having to hold her down.
• The Moo says "suspiciously" when she means "specifically" ("I suspiciously asked her to bring me a fruit bunch and she brought me tomato juice.") and I enjoy it too much to correct her.
• The Bean pronounces "th" as "st." Today, I found her in her room with the door shut. I opened the door and asked her "Why are you all alone? What are you doing in here?" She replied (to quote her phonetically) "Stinking. This is my stinking place."
  

It's the little things . . .

So I was having a pretty bad day, mainly because of some passive aggressive people I work with who do not merit the amount of time and energy it would take me to mention in more detail. Plus, I was tired from getting back into the routine after a wonderful week in Chicago getting to know sweet baby James and visiting with his mom and dad, Aunt B and Uncle J! I picked up the Bean from school we came home to let the dog out before getting the Moo. In the process of doing so, I checked the mail and noticed that we had a card from [Great] Aunt Lolo, and I opened it. As I did so, some green shamrock and gold cauldron confetti spilled out on to the floor - I did not have time to clean it up before I left, so I made a mental note to pick them up when we got back home after getting the Moo.

The minute we walked through the door, the Moo drew in her breath sharply and pointed in wide eyed amazement at the floor. Thinking the worst (another dog accident??) I looked where she was pointing. The Moo screamed, "MOM, the leprechauns came!!" Apparently they read about the little people in class today, and her teachers warned her that the leprechauns like to visit around St Patrick's Day. Aunt Lolo's confetti is proof to her that the leprechauns exist and came to see us - she and the Bean are busy building a leprechaun trap right now. Thanks Aunt Lolo, for cheering me up and adding a little bit of magic and luck o' the Irish to our evening!

Pictures from the Moo's Sixth Birthday Party

Please enjoy these pictures from the Moo's birthday party! A good time was had by all, although in retrospect I should not have opted for the blue icing. :) I am too tired to write too much as it has been a long day, but hope you enjoy the pictures! There is also a slide show attached; just click on the window below to enlarge for better viewing! Am off to Chicago tomorrow to see the Millers and sweet baby James!!

Update on the Moo's Sculpture Contest

The Moo is very proud to announce that her recycled pooch sculpture won SECOND PLACE in the school-wide contest (Pre-K through 8th grade). She could not be more thrilled and neither could we!