Football Season

As always, we were super excited to gear up for football season. Maryland has a new coach and new uniforms that have garnered an impressive amount of media coverage, so we were looking forward to seeing what the Terps could do in their first game against Miami.

Since the first game, against Miami, started at 8:00 pm, Orlando and I left little girl at home with Myney while we enjoyed ourselves tailgating and cheering on the Terps to their first win of the season. It was fun in spite of the rain that drenched us for most of the second half.

Game 2 started at 12:00, so the three of us loaded up the car with breakfast supplies and headed out early. Our little girl was super excited.



It didn't take us long to get the party started with egg sandwiches, mimosas, and bloody marys. We have a standard crew that we tailgate with, and Anastasia helped us to document the fun by serving as the group photographer.



In addition to photos of the people at the party, Annie took more than a few still lifes.



Soon enough, it was time to head into the game. The game started off pretty poorly, but the Terps came back to make an interesting game of it. Meanwhile, Anastasia continued to serve as photographer for us. Taking short of the game, our friends, and the balloon turtle bracelet that we got from "Terp Town".



We had a great chance to get a picture with Testudo before the game was over, which was pretty exciting. Anastasia hasn't really liked people in character costumes in the past, so getting this picture was pretty fun.



When the game is early like this one, we end the day with some continued tailgating before heading home. We had a visit by former Maryland basketball forward, Dave Neal, who posed for photo with Annie and Orlando before we headed home for the evening.



It was a great day, a fun start to football season, even though the Terps didn't win. Looking forward to 6 more between now and mid-November.

The Pick-Up Fairy

Anastasia is a very well behaved little girl who generally follows the rules. As you might expect, as she's gotten older, and more independent, our expectations of what she can do herself have increased. Around her fourth birthday, we began to expect that she would straighten her room regularly. This involves putting the stuffed animals in their corner, the kitchen stuff in its corner and generally shoving the rest of the toys in the vicinity of the toybox. We're not talking major cleaning here, just making it possible to walk in her room.

Initially this was a challenge. Orlando and I ended up doing most of it ourselves, which Anastasia was happy to take advantage of. Then I remembered reading a story in Parents Magazine describing the Pick-Up Fairy, and how she could change the nature of this process. Our Pick-Up Fairy can be nice, leaving a dollar for a particularly good job of cleaning up, or taking toys left behind for a whole week. (That hasn't actually happened yet.)

We introduced her pretty casually as a less nice contrast to the Tooth Fairy who's super nice and only gives presents. Anastasia quickly made the logical leap that not all fairies are really nice, and that some might even be a little mean. She was immediately eager to do the work necessary to ensure that the Pick-Up Fairy didn't take her toys.

Now, our little girl very readily tidies her room before bedtime, well aware that if she doesn't some of her favorite toys, the ones she plays with every day, will go away for a week (not that she has a particularly strong grasp of how long a week is.) It now just requires a gentle reminder to get the ball rolling, and the room is picked up in no time.

The Pick-Up Fairy is even interested in bath toys, so Anastasia does a pretty good job of putting her toys back into the baskets where they belong.

I don't know how long the magical wonder of the Pick-Up Fairy will last, she's growing up and gaining interest in so many different things each day. But for now, her things find their way back home at the end of each day, and I consider that a victory.