Happy Birthday to Doo

In honor of Doodles' 10th birthday on 10/10, Genevieve insisted that we have a party for her. We made one "cake" for Doodles out of canned cat food, treats and catnip, and another for the human guests that was more traditional... Genevieve had to help blow out the candles. I think the cat was more confused than anything, and she got away from there as quickly as possible.

Prince was also invited, although he's not in the photo. We offered him some cake crumbs, but he seemed more interested in running around sniffing at everything. Lately Genevieve has been "teaching" him tricks like a miniature gymnast. A couple of nights ago he came up with his own trick--he figured out how to escape the cage! Smart little rodent.

Also, as long as I'm in my Pictures Folder, here's one of Genevieve on the carousel at the Strong Museum a couple of weeks ago.

Baby Pictures

I had my 20 week ultrasound today! Here's a profile shot of Baby Boy Wright (yeah, we need to work on the name). Isn't he cute?





Here are his little feet and hands.

And here's one of those spooky alien/skull shots from face on.

To spare him future embarrassment I won't post the picture of his "boy parts"!

First Grade!

Well, my little girl is officially a first grader now.

There was a little confusion about the bus this morning. It came on the wrong side of the street. But that means she gets to wait with the girl from across the street, so that will be fun. Also, it turns out that many of her old friends are on the same bus.
Genevieve seemed very happy when I picked her up. The Y after-school program seemed good. She said "everyone is so friendly here!" I asked her what they did in school today. "So many things I can't even remember them... We had free choice time! And snack!" During "star time" she found a book with a picture of a hamster who looks "just like" Prince. Music was apparently her favorite activity. That's not surprising considering she loved it last year, and these days she goes around singing constantly. I am hopeful that it's going to be a good year!

Starting to look like a room

We're in the process of converting our laundry room into an office. Last year we removed the old ugly drop ceiling and put in a drywall ceiling. This was tough, especially because the new ceiling is not flat, there were lots of wires and cables to deal with, and there isn't a true right angle anywhere in the room, but it looks so much better now.

Then we had the whole room insulated. It had been a porch at one time, so it was never properly insulated, and we've been having the whole house redone anyway.

Sorry I don't have a true "before" picture, but here you can see the ceiling in progress. Also the old steel cabinets above the old washer and dryer.

Next we had the sink, washer and dryer moved to the other side of the room, where they can be hidden behind doors, pulled off the old pressboard walls and patched up the paneling. Turns out the paneling is quality vintage stuff, so we decided to keep it for the character.

Then we got a new, stackable washer and dryer set. Yay!

Next put up drywall and installed a new floor.
It really is starting to look like a real room, isn't it?

The Great New York State Fair

My parents took Genevieve to The Fair yesterday and sent these pictures.

Future Olympian

Genevieve is part monkey. She's always loved climbing, swinging and jumping and has practically no fear about anything on a playground. Years ago when John and I would walk with her, one on each hand, she figured out how to do a backflip between us. She also has the perfect gymnast's build. So when Miss Karen recommended I sign her up at the Gymnastics Training Center, it seemed like a no-brainer.



I have never seen her so happy. The classes are 90 minutes long, but afterward she's not tired, she's just pumped up and can't wait for the next one. The first day she jumped into a pit of foam blocks from about 10 feet up and thought it was hilarious. I doubt that I would have had the guts to do such a thing in my life. I showed her some of the Olympics gymnastics, and she loved it. Shawn Johnson is now her idol.



I'm generally not allowed to watch, but yesterday was the last class of the summer, which is parent observation day. She spent the entire time bouncing around. I noticed that she wasn't so great at following the instructions--she was too excited. She seemed to be unable to keep off the other equipment when she was supposed to be standing patiently in line. Her favorite is definitely the bars. Sara Jane, the owner of the school, says that's because she's "strong like a bull." Definitely. She's got incredible muscles for a kid her size. She also loves the balance beam. And a real treat is when they put them in a harness and hoist them up in the air to do flips. How could this be my kid?

I'm so glad she's found something that she enjoys so much, though. I don't see much difference between her ability and the other kids her age, but apparently Sara Jane sees potential. She wants her to train up to get on the team. We're going to take it slowly for now, but we'll see...

Creepy

Someone was in our house while we were at work. We had been working on our laundry room to office renovation and had removed the interior door frame which meant that it couldn't be locked, although no one would have been able to tell from the outside. It's strange that this happened on the one day that the back door was unlocked.

The TV was moved, although the burglar apparently couldn't figure out how to get it entirely off the wall. Upstairs a small chest that looks like a jewelry box but actually contains batteries and other junk was moved, and papers were scatterred on the floor. Nothing appears to be missing, even though several items were around that could have been taken, like our camera. So for a long time we tried to figure out if it really was a break-in, or if it could all be explained some other way. Then John found a footprint on our front door, like someone tried to kick it in. All we can think is that the burglar must have gotten spooked and ran off before he found anything worth taking.

So now it looks like we're getting an alarm system. Ugh, I hate them. But it's better than feeling unsafe in your own home.