The Umstead Update: Dancing McQueen

Okay, so this isn't a story about Lexa, but it has to be told. Hopefully you are familiar with both the movie Cars and with the sound track for Mama Mia, or this story might be lost on you. Anyway, Darcy was riding in the car with both Lexa and Riley, heading home from the last dance class. We were talking about what movie we might watch when we get home and Lexa mentioned the Cars movie. Riley stated that she had not seen the movie Cars so Darcy reminded her that we did see some of the characters from Cars at Disney on Ice this past summer. Riley then stated "Oh, like Lightning McQueen? I sing the song all the time on Mama Mia". Darcy just agreed with Riley but had no idea what she was talking about. Then, as we were all singing to the Mama Mia soundtrack, (which, by the way, is both the girls favorite CD, thanks to Grandma) the Dancing Queen song came on and Riley yelled "This is it, this is it, this is the Lightning McQueen Song!". Kids really say and think the cutest things. Apparently, Riley has thought all along that the Dancing Queen was a song about Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars. Too Cute!

On to the Umstead update. This has been a busy couple of weeks for us since all of the Easter Festivities have begun. Lexa had her last dance class this past Saturday and also started Gymnastics class two weeks ago. She is a ball of energy and loves going to any and all classes we offer to her. Two weekends ago, Lexa spent the night at Riley's so we could go to Dave and Caitlin's wedding. We had a great time at the wedding but are pretty sure Lexa had more fun at Riley's. This past weekend Lexa also participated in two different Easter Egg Hunts. The first one was on Saturday and was put on by the Hanover Parks and Recreation Department right around the corner from us. Parks and Rec sponsors several egg hunts throughout the county but this was the first year they held one at the new Montpelier facility, which is less than 5 min. away. The Surratt family joined us and the kids raked in the candy and prizes. They also participated in coloring and had a picture taken with the Easter Bunny. On Sunday, we joined the Surratt family for another Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by their church. Tracy actually coordinated the entire thing and it was a huge success. There were Easter crafts, an egg hunt which resulted in lots of treats and toys, great food and snacks, face painting, tattooing, and a big playground for the kids to play on.

Today Lexa had her 6 month dental checkup and passed with flying colors, except for the thumb sucking thing. She handles the dental cleaning better than either of her parents too. Yes, Lexa still sucks her thumb at night when sleeping, but has been able to pretty much control her thumb sucking habit when awake. The dentist suggested wearing a sock on her hand at night to deter the sucking. When Darcy mentioned this to Lexa, she said "EWW! I don't want a dirty sock on my hand". Darcy explained that it would be a clean sock but after some discussion she decided that she would rather wear a glove on her hand. She really seems motivated to try to stop and we think that the big bag of treats that the dental hygienist promised is her motivation.

This past week Lexa also had her school pictures taken (for the first time). The night before we tried on some outfits and settled on her Easter dress for the pictures. The morning of the pictures, Darcy wet down Lexa's hair and made sure the curls were very curly and told Lexa to let them dry and that we would put some clips in later. Anyone familiar with curly hair knows that you just need to wet down messy curls to tame them, that it is best to let them air dry, and you do not brush curly hair. Darcy went back to finish getting ready for work and left Lexa in the playroom with instructions not to touch her hair or put any blankets over her hair so as not to mess up the curls. Well, when Darcy came back about 10 min later to put some clips in Lexa's hair, Lexa was standing in the middle of the room with a brush and had brushed out all her curls. Do you know what dry curls look like when they are brushed? Can you say big bush friz-head? Since Darcy is an expert at curly hair, it was actually no problem to fix, but this is a perfect example of Lexa's inability to control her impulses. Pretty much anytime you give her some instruction not to do, touch, or say something, she just has to try it at least once. You can see it in her mischievous little eyes that she just can't help it. So far none of this has gotten her in too much trouble but for now we are going to avoid mentioning things to her like don't pull fire alarms, don't run out in front of traffic, don't poke a sleeping bear, and so on (just kidding, really).