Teasing O

O turned 7!!! We gave her two presents as soon as she got up in the morning.

Here are the videos.

The Joke

The Response

The Real Gift

I'm so glad we've been teasing O since she was very young. When I'm around other children I tease them and they just get confused because they take me seriously. Our teasing isn't malicious or degrading we call that mean teasing. Our teasing is silly and meant to make you laugh. I think any other child would probably break down in tears if this had happened to them. She's used to us. I love how she tries to look excited. What a great sport. 

Catching up with O

One day I was away from home and called to talk to LT. O answered and told me he was outside. I called again because he hadn't called me back. When I asked her if dad was still outside she responded, "Si amigo". Hum, that was uncommon.

I was telling LT about something and I said, "It was a nightmare". O then tells me, "Just pinch yourself and wake up if it's a nightmare."

some ping  = something

respectable me = despicable me

pack pack = back pack

man-a-aniacs  = animaniacs

O is in high gear with her super hero fascination. The other day we were getting ready for a play date. She came into my room as I was getting dressed and I had my back to her. She said, "You can't see black people." My eyes bugged out and turned around to respond. She was wearing her black superman shirt and black tights that are 2 sizes too small. Once I took it in I said, "Oh, like a ninja?" 

On our way to the play date, she told me all about being Rope Girl, that's her. She insisted that she wear her glasses to play so no one would recognize her. 

O makes waffles all by herself. LT used to make them for her every saturday, and I got so sick of them. Now she wants them on sundays and I refuse to make them, I'm a mean mom, I know. Anyway, she's been practicing and is getting really good. The other day she asked me to try one. I did, and then I looked into her mixing bowl and saw a HUGE chunk of eggshell. I just grinned knowing she's learning skills that will help her throughout her life. She has also tried her hand with eggs.

On the way home from the farmers market I asked O to hold a small watermelon. I didn't want it to roll around on the floor. She cradled it, started stroking it and singing to it. I asked if the baby was okay and she shushed me because it was sleeping. 

One of the things that has occupied a lot of our time this summer is 6 Flags. We bought season passes and have had a lot of fun taking friends and meeting them there. O is a lover of rides and the water park. I have a lover of an active girl who is tired at night and ready for bed at a decent hour.

Here are some the pictures of our trips there.

Funny lips

O on the kiddie roller coaster. She's pointing to the ascent. 

Getting excited to go for a ride.

Boss of the airplane. She's also awesome driving the cars too. 

TWEETY

DAFFY

BUGS

Near the end of the summer, LTs command had a picnic. They had a lot of fun things for the kids to do and the one O wanted to do the most was the dunk tank. AND, she dunked this guy. The smile on her face was awesome. I love it when she succeeds at things.

One unfun thing we had to deal with this August was an ugly cyst on her arm. We went to the dermatologist for another reason, but once we were there I had him look at this bump she's had on her arm for years. I thought it was a wart, but when he checked it, which was gross, it turned out to be a cyst. WELL, that opened it up and aggravated it. The next day I showed LT the gross stuff inside. Unfortunately, she ended up getting an infection and it came on fast. It was an angry infection too. It was swollen and hard and HOT. When we went back for antibiotics they swabbed it to see what kind of infection she was dealing with. At our follow up appointment, I asked the intake nurse what the lab results were and she hesitated and said the doctor would tell me. SO, when the doctor came in she asked if O had been at any swimming pools or around stagnant water. (Um, yes, we go swimming 2 or 3 times a week) She then proceeded to tell me she's never heard of the bacteria so she had to look it up. It was one that is found in poop. WHAT?!?!!? Gross.  I'm relieved the infection is gone and now we are waiting for it to heal before we have it removed.

Once a year, the Orioles have a mormon night. I went with O and some friends. 

We didn't really like our seats or the view, or the crowed feeling, so we went to another spot.

This one was much better. We were at the top of the stadium, there was a breeze, you could see the city and we weren't crowded at all. 

One day, O was checking out my converse and she asked for a pair. I told she'd had a pair when she was younger, but that wasn't good enough. So, I told her once she could tie her shoes, I would buy her a pair. So, she sat down and worked on tying her and my shoes. She's done it a couple of times since. 

O wanted to  make face paint for FHE one night. This was only the beginning. By the end of the evening, LTs face was entirely blue. 

O had her first dance recital. It was a nightmare getting her to dance a few months before the recital. In retrospect, I think she didn't like her teacher. Her teacher is used to teaching older girls and wasn't really that engaging with Os class. Anyway, here she is backstage playing with the other sugar plum fairies.

O and L after the show. Ya, O towers over all of her friends.

I can't believe she is going to be 7 in a few short days. She's in 1st grade and loves math. LT is reading Harry Potter with her at night. She loves super heros and My Little Pony. She is an off the chart extrovert and at times, wears us out. Okay, who am I kidding, on days she doesn't have a play date, she completely wears us out. She is the sweetest of sweet girl with a huge heart. She loves to help younger kids, in her mind, she's all ready to be a babysitter. She's smart, sometimes a bit too much for us. When we give her excuses of why we don't want her to do something or why we can't do something, she has a creative way to solve the problem/over come the obstacle. We trained her well with being teased and she can tease back. 

SAVAGE RACE

Last spring I bought tickets for the "Run For Your Lives" race for the fall, zombie race. At the time, I didn't know who I would run with and as the race approached, I was ready to back out since I hadn't been training. THEN, one of my friends told me she was a part of a group that was going and told me to go with them. I told her I wasn't quite prepared and I was relieved to hear her say, "Oh, we don't run. I have asthma, T has a gimpy hip and J has a hurt ankle." PERFECT, that was the group for me. I had such a great time doing the course with them, it didn't take any convincing to sign up for the Savage Race and go with some of them again. Truthfully, I think I'm a bit addicted to these obstacle course racy thingys. I love them.

It turns out Savage Race has the reputation for having the most challenging obstacles and I would agree they were much harder than the zombie race. We did each obstacle a time or two just for fun. I set the women's record for one of the challenges.  I don't know the name of it, but we had to carry 4x4 planks of wood quite a distance through mud, and a pond. I did six all at once, no one beat it. Several tied it, but I set the record. (I have to brag a little bit about that to make me feel better about not making it up the first part of the Gauntlet.)

One thing that made this race a lot of fun was LT was able to come. He didn't make it to the one last fall.

Alright, picture time.

LT at the end of the race all muddy and sunburned. 

BUT, how did he get this way? 

Let's review.

Keeping your shoes on your feet is tough when 

you're trudging through mud.

V has mastered the art of duct tape for 

securing your footwear.

V showing off her mohawk tape. 

It's a good thing she didn't keep it there. 

That would have made for a funny burn. 

AND, we all got burned.

LT doing his own tape and showing his enthusiasm for the race.

V, ME and S.

This is what happens when you ask V and S to watch your 

camera while you go to the bathroom to change.

Aw, aren't we cute. 

Here we are, all clean and neat. 

V was going for a different look for our team, 

but we ended up looking business casual.

 A lot of other runners commented on it. It was a hit.

On a side note, I really liked my tie and it's sad 

we couldn't resurrect it from the grime of the race.

Here is the first obstacle, The Shriveled Richard. 

(Most of the names were a bit raunchy)

It was a large container of ice and water. You couldn't just wade through it, there was a huge beam in the middle and you had to go under the water. That's right, you had to be completely submerged. This picture captures the point where I started to panic. The cold was no joke. I almost plowed through S ahead of me to get out. I was yelling, "Get me out of here, get me out of here." I seriously almost crawled over her and knocked her off the ladder to get out. Panic will do that I tell ya. The only other time I've felt that panic was the last time I was scuba diving and couldn't descend. 

Here we are, partway through the race. We'd crawled through

 and swam under several trenches of mud and water. Surprisingly, this picture was taken just after we had a nice dip in the water.

Yep, some of the hills were steep and muddy. 

S and I opted for the safer way down.

This obstacle kicked my butt at first. 

Here V is making it look easy.

Me, take 1

Me, take 2

FINALLY!! 

There was a lovely little mote of mud and water that made your feet 

slick before you hit the wood to climb and it was kicking my butt. 

However, once I figured out the trick, it was no big deal. 

Okay, the rest of the pictures are out of order.

T trying to set the record for the guys.

Me and S going through ANOTHER pond.

Me celebrating being at the top of the cargo net. 

That was an easy one.

Here we are, fresh out of the Shriveled Richard.

I was the first to draw blood. 

The course was also a shooting range, 

so there were shattered clay pigeons everywhere. 

I crawled on one. 

 Here I am setting the record.

So, the boards were a bit wobbly. 

V laughing right after she kicked me off of the ladder. 

Fresh and clean.

The course right after the Shriveled Richard.

LT managed to keep his shirt white on the back 

and around the collar nearly the entire race.

And, down I go. 

For all of my Oakcrest buddies out there,

BUMSLIDING!!

V doing the duck face and me doing the shriveled prune.

V going up the Colossus. 

That was steep and by the time you got there, 

your arms are so tired it's even harder.

Here I am setting the record.

All of the logs I cleared from our 

yard this spring prepared me for this one.

Here I am, just before V kicked me off. 

She literally kicked me off.

Climbing up hay bales, yawn.

BEHOLD

Ya, V and I are the only ones being "tough" in this pic.

Stopping for a breather.

Who am I kidding, we didn't run.

Judging by the look on my face, 

this must have been the first mud obstacle we faced. 

After awhile, we became accustomed 

to sand and grit in our teeth

V is the boss.

 Look, look, we're having so much fun.

S getting some mud out of her ear, or was it a leech?

This was an official race photo posted on their FB page.

He's so hot.

S took a lot of fun pictures too, but, unfortunately, 

her camera was lost in a pond while we were rinsing off.

(It fell out of her bra. Ha ha ha ha)