Off the rails

We took the training wheels off Margaret's bike a couple of weeks ago. And she's actually riding without them. I believe I am the most shocked. With Andy, I made the training wheels higher and higher until they were really just for show. And then we rode around the block about 100 times before he finally consented to let me remove them. Not so for this one. I just took them off. And she tried it. Sure, she fell a few times. And, sure, she made me stop every five feet for the first two weeks, but tonight I followed on foot and she rode with help down the block. Stopped. Started again. And rode home. 

Spring?

It's finally starting to warm up here. Thank God. Because it's been a long miserable winter and I actually like winter. Most years, anyway. I generally like cold weather and snow, but this year, it seems the hits just keep coming. 

Andy has started taking fencing. He sort of likes it. He says the face mask smells. It probably does. 

Hello there, daffodils! Glad to see you! I hope the latest sleet storm doesn't kill you. 

The kids had Jump Rope for Heart. It was hilarious. I remember loving to jump rope so it was fun to see them get excited about it. I prompted ordered a jump rope. And they've used it twice. 

Margaret's Jump Rope for Heart included loads of jumping games. 

Another snow day, another snow angel. 

In honor of the winter Olympics, we went ice skating. Damn, it's hard. I was sore for days afterwards. 

And Blitzen. Because she's just cute. 

Baby girl turns 6

I spent a few minutes today re-reading Margaret's birth story back from 2008. I

am so glad I wrote it down because my recollection of the details is fuzzy. As they say, I have slept since then. Or as the case may me, have not slept. http://diaryofamadnewmother.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html?m=0

So 3:09 am on January 26, 2008. Kind of amazing. 

In other news, I was in Virginia for work most of last week. It snowed about eight inches on Tuesday and it was gorgeous. Fortunately my flight wasn't affected. It was packed though - abnormal for a 6:30 am anything. I heard from people on the plane that several folks were trying to get into DC before the storm. Turns out it did cause a lot of flights to be cancelled so I got lucky. Getting up at 4:30 am isn't my favorite. I prefer to be going to bed then rather than waking up. 

This picture is from the Mosiac district near my office. Funny, when I moved they had just town down a bunch of cranky fast food joints like KFC and Boston Markwt. Now they have all been replaced by awesome restaurants and stores. Well done, Fairfax. Well done. 

The one where she cried and cried and cried, and then loved it

I took the kids horseback riding at the end of a really awesome New Year's Eve trip to San Antonio. Margaret really loves horses and had been talking about wanting to ride. It's been on my list to do and one of my new year's resolutions is to do more seizing of the day. So I did research and we stopped in Boerne, Texas, for some riding. It was an hour long trail ride. Andy hopped right up and did great. His horse was named Bubba, a girl. Margaret was the most excited and perked right up once she was on the horse. Then, for the next 30 minutes, she not so quietly sobbed on her horse on the trail ride. The leader stopped to check on her and she was fine so he just kept on going. While she cried on the horse in front of me. For 30 minutes. I tried every distraction I could think of, I pointed out stuff on the side of the trail, talked about horses, talked about anything and she still sobbed. At one point, she claimed she had to go to the bathroom just to get off the horse. But then, at about minute 31, she stopped crying and started loving it. By the end, she didn't want to get off. Now I need to find her some lessons. 

Andy and Bubba. And once again, he ruins the picture for me. 

Margaret on her horse at the beginning. She was very excited at this point. 

And then there was the sobbing. 

Andy's horse was slow so he was behind us a lot. At age, we always held our horses back to be able to trot to catch up. Andy did like that so much. 

After the ride, Andy was a champ. He just jumped up there and handled it. I was proud of him