Next Stages

It was an incredible early fall day today, with cool temps in the morning and brilliant blue skies and sun in the afternoon.  We started the day with week one of U6 Micro soccer, an activity that was completely Bea's idea.  (I think it came from a Justin Time episode).  Anyway, considering that we have exposed her to virtually none of this sport or any other team competitive one, it was amazing how well she did.  Here she is before practice started, checking out the field and the "competition:"

Not sure she has the fire, competitive spirit, or killer instinct quite yet....

This afternoon after naps for all of us, I took her outside. Within the past week or so, Beatrice figured out how to pump herself and keep herself swinging.  Huge accomplishment!

Can't quite get herself going from completely still, but just one push from someone, and she's off!

Thanks to her cousins, she's also learned how to walk around the clubhouse section to get to the slide from the outside:

Still working on going across the top on the monkey bars without help, and kicking her legs up onto the horizontal bar.  Probably next summer!

"Help Mama!"

                                                    

Meanwhile, I don't know which of the following three pictures from my yard this afternoon is the most beautiful.  

This naturally blue-haired, pink-lipped girl playing peek-a-boo- between the slats?

One of the many blossoms on my peach rose bush which has been very non-productive of late, but is having a fall surge?

Or the classic red beauty?

I was lucky to bear witness to each of them today.  Tonight we're heading to Family Day in the park which will be capped by the final Riverfire, one of our favorite events when they light up wood-filled cauldrons in the middle of the river downtown and play music to accompany it.  Kind of like a fancy campfire minus s'mores.  These great events of summer are coming to an end.  Another clue that fall is here is that I ordered a Halloween costume last night.  Mermaid beat out cheerleader. 

Random Catch-Up

There have been lots of little things that I've wanted to blog about, so I'll list them all in this random post:
-Beatrice loves school.  Loves it like she never loved preschool.  Loves her teacher, repeats everything she says and believes it to the nth degree,  wants to make her presents every day.  She simply can't wait to learn to read, and separates from me much easier in the morning than ever before. She groans when she hears its a no-school day.
-She loves learning patriotic songs at school, and belted out "Grand 'Ol Flag" at breakfast yesterday with a good old Ethel Merman, heavy-vibrato ending.
-She also proudly boasts her knowledge about God and the new prayers she's learning in Kindergarten, one of which she taught me at bedtime the other night goes like this:  "I pledge allegiance to the flag...."
-Only four days into the school year, she has her first cold.  It's not a bad one, but it's on top of a pretty bad case of hives that landed us at the doctor's yesterday.  If I didn't feel so bad for her, I'd have gotten a picture of her broken out forehead and eyebrow.  She looked so pathetic.  We're assuming she ate something over the weekend that triggered this, but have no idea what it could be.  We're treating it with antihistamines and allergy medicine while it runs it course. Must've been Fair food...
-as in the Woodstock Fair where Bea took home two blue ribbons, three reds, and one white (my bad on that one, didn't know kits weren't allowed in the "birdhouse" category).  Go figure her two art entries were the first prizes. She also had her first corn dog and caramel apple. The fair was fun and Beatrice enjoyed all the kiddie rides, particularly the "Crazy Bus" which she reacted to as if she were a teenager at Space Mountain.  You can't quite see it here, but she sat in the last row with her head peeked over the edge and beamed at us down below.

-She learned a pretty good joke: "Why did the cookie go to the doctor?  Because he felt crummy!"
-She started dance this week and starts U6 Micro soccer tomorrow,which she is so excited about.  She tells people she "has soccer class" or is "taking soccer lessons."  We bought cleats last weekend at the sporting goods store and she immediately went on pointe and struck a ballet pose, so we'll see how this goes.
-Talk of Halloween and Christmas have begun. As of now she wants to be a mermaid and, gulp, a cheerleader.  Don't know where that came from, but we're leaning toward mermaid. I showed her a few costumes online but she told me she wants "a homemade one."  I think I ruined her with that dang homemade Joe's O's cereal box costume when she was two. For Christmas she wants more Lego friends kits, and the sticker book that I obviously broke her heart by denying her in the gift shop of the mansion we visited while in Newport in August.  Oh yeah, she also wants to go to Disney World.  Her wishes are not all simple anymore...
-Beatrice is talking a whole lot again about "wanting more people to live with us."  It's mostly girls, her cousins Linden and Raina, her friends Rachel and Rowan, Lucy, and Lily. Yesterday she said 'I wish we lived in a castle so I could live with all my favorite people in the whole wide world!"  Guess the only child thing wears thin sometimes.   Sorry Bea.
-Here a couple of sketches I found recently that I loved.  The first is of "someone trying on clothes in a store.  They have numbers to give the lady in the changing room." The second, one of my all-time favorites, is of "2-headed Daddy playing the saxophone."  Picasso strikes again!

Kindergartener

and that's all I got to say about that......

Paparazzi, end of summer, and fair time

Beatrice has been in the newspaper twice this month, once while chalk drawing with her friend Lily at First Friday in Putnam at the beginning of August,

 and then the whole family was photographed at a back-to-school Family Night  in Woodstock Sunday:

The paper read "Beatrice Foronda was getting ready to head to kindergarten at St. Joseph's School in North Grosvenordale. She ate a snow cone and admitted to being a little nervous about starting the new year."

Today I came home from school and it was quite hot, so Bea and I quickly changed into swim stuff and headed to the lake on her last swim of her summer vacation.  Beatrice shocked me by jumping off the dock by herself (with armbands) for the first time.  Over and over she did this, and swam with her face in and under the water.  I'm so bummed summer is ending because I think she's so very, very close to really swimming. I recently got her a pair of swim goggles and this has changed everything.  Now that her eyes are more comfortable she's much more willing to get her face wet.  Hopefully we'll get a couple more swims in before the season completely ends.  

Tomorrow is her first day of school, and when I pick her up at the end of the day we have to head to the Woodstock Fairgrounds to bring her entries for the fair this weekend.  She entered HERBS, DRAWING, PAINTING, BIRDHOUSE, PHOTOS, and RECYCLED CREATION.  Here are the photos she took from around our yard.  I tried really hard to get her to focus on flowers, or trees, or plants, or some beautiful theme, but these are the four she insists on as her "favorites."

(that's actually a pretty cool shot!)

Good to know our bulkhead, in desperate need of a paint job oviously, is near and dear to her heart!

And good old Buddha made the cut.  No surprise.

More photos of the entries tomorrow, along with back-to-school of course. 

Dwindling Days of Vacation

Our last hurrah of summer was highlighted with a visit from our dear friends from State College, PA.  J, C, B, and T came for a few days and we had a great time and lots of laughs as always.  We spent time around town, at the lake, and headed back to Newport with them.  The only regret is that I didn't pull my camera out except for once to capture this frog and dragon post-bath:

Meanwhile, as I headed back to school today, Bea had a "Daddy day" which featured Target, the park, the library, and Subway, a la these matching shirts.  People guess the designs are of a constellation or lightning, but it's actually subway maps!

See?  Anthony's is of DC, and Bea's is of NYC.  My city kid and hubbie....

There are two more of these Daddy days next week before this girl becomes an official kindergartener on next Wednesday.  Can't believe it.