Malia Moore

June 15th 2013
The morning started off lovely, there were no thunder clouds in the sky and the sun was shining. We are celebrating my birthday on my daddy’s special day! He is sweet enough to share his day with me! Since my birthday falls on a Monday and Uncle Donald is going back to Texas tomorrow we decided to do a joint celebration down at the beach!

All the preparations and planning had been done the day before. Tia Luisa had a complete tortilla factory going on in our kitchen. Dad, Uncle Don, and Tia Maria were all helping chop and cook. Mom was of course making my cake and Maria Jose was making the crepe decorations. The house was buzzing!

Our party started at 12:30. Today is going to be so much fun. We are having our party at Aunt Karen’s and Uncle George’s house. Her house is right in front of the beach. It is beautiful and has a nice swimming pool and a great outdoor area. Karen was so kind to offer her home to us! She has the perfect place for a party!!! She not only gave us a most incredible place to have a party but she was my professional photographer for the day. She took over 700 pictures of the party! She is incredible at making everyone look good! We love you Karen!

I had my breakfast early so that I could have lunch finished up so all I had to do was show up and have a good time. Mom and Tia Maria, headed down an hour before to begin decorating. Me and MJ and dad stayed behind with Uncle Bismark. We were coming down just as soon as I finished lunch!

The big attraction to my party is Conejo! Dona Ida and her grandson Choo will be taking Conejo down. Ida called my mom this morning and told her Papillo could not come as he had work he had to do but that she and her grandson would bring the horse down together. I heard my mom ask how was she going to do that? Ida said Choo would ride the horse down and she would walk along side of him. Mom could not believe it, that is a 45 minute walk down and a grueling hike back up the mountain! She said she was used to the walk not to worry that they were bringing Conejo down for me! This is the best birthday present a girl could ever ask for!! I am so excited!! MJ and I are going to be riding my Conejito down the beach!! How cool! My other friends are going to get to go on rides too!!!

Everyone showed up a little late, even me. I unbelievably got the hiccups right before it was time for me to come down, but they did not last too long.The first thing I did when I got to Karen’s was take a nap. Everyone was having lunch anyway and I had already had mine so I needed my siesta before my big ride!
After I woke up, it was showtime!!!!

MJ got me dressed with my neoprene body suit and tutu! She had patiently done my hair that day and had made me look like a fairytale princess. I was ready to go. Out to the beach we went were MJ and I mounted Conejo. He was looking as handsome as ever. Tia Maria, had made a collar of flowers to go around his neck. He looked beautiful! We were ready. At first I was pretty loosey goosey but after a while the safety of MJ’s hands and the comfort of being on top of Conejo, made me relax and I started paying attention to what Maria Jose was asking of me. At first we stretched, and then we trotted. The wind blowing through my hair and the crashing of the waves on the beach and all my friends watching was pretty amazing for me! I feel like the luckiest girl alive! Dad was leading Conejo, Tio Donaldo was filming, and Mommy was running alongside cheering me on and occasionally tapping Conejo on the behind to get him to pick up the pace!

After we finished trotting MJ began to work with me on my head control. There I was head resting on MJ when all of a sudden she pushes me forward and the next thing you know I am pulling my head down to center and am looking in front of me and I am doing it by myself! Everyone went with crazy with applausal!! I was sitting on my own for a few seconds! It felt so incredible. I am thinking to myself I can do this one day I am going to sit on my own. I just did for a few seconds. Anything is possible you see, they told me I would not live to be 2 years old, or recognize my parents or laugh or smile. They were wrong and I am all about proving doctors wrong!! MJ and I are going to show them and Conejo too, because he gives me confidence. Before you know it I feel like I am getting rained on but it is not rain it is MJ’s tears falling on my head…. She was sooooooooooooooooo proud of me as everyone was. In my world I make mini milestones. Mini in your eyes, but they are Mountain size in my parent’s and MJ’s eyes. All the hard work that Maria Jose has been doing with me for these last six months has paid off and Equine Therapy has been the best thing we could have ever done!

After everyone had their turn at riding we went in and it was time for presents and cake. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and dad! Today I had so much stimulation that I was on stimulation overload. And for some reason I got all congested and needed O2. We had brought my machine and I was easily hooked up to some air! After the cake and presents it was time to go.

I want to thank everyone who helped to make my day so special…. I love all of you. Thanks to Conejo for giving me such a great ride, to Dona Ida and Choo for being so sweet and bringing him for me. I feel like a very privileged little girl. I am 5 years old…… Here is to next year’s party!!! It will be hard to top this one!! 
Mucho amor como siempre
Malia 🙂

June 6th

My uncle Donald (Tio Donaldo is his Spanish name) is coming to visit us! My mom went to San Jose to pick him up at the airport. She stayed the night with our good friend Krystal and of course went shopping for my upcoming Birthday and my Dad’s! My Tio is having a birthday too on Saturday June 8th so we will all get to celebrate together. Mom left me, my dad, and Mari Jose in charge while she left to go pick up my uncle. I am happy to report we did a fine job without her on our own!

Tio Donaldo and mom came home the next day and thankfully my uncle was able to bring me down a suitcase packed full of all kind of goodies for me. Anyone ever coming down usually has to be a “mule” as my Uncle would say. We had him packed pretty full! We were all very grateful that he brought us down that extra suitcase!

Uncle Don was so sweet to me and learned how to feed me in no time! He is a tad bit of a perfectionist like my grandpa Curtis so he did a very good job and fed me almost every night! We read plenty of books together. We would all hang out together in the kitchen and mom and dad would cook up some really yummy smelling meals! He read Skippy Jon Jones in his funny Spanish accent. Skippy Jon Jones is a favorite so was fun to hear his rendition of reading me one of my favorite books. Before you knew it, he too was singing Buffalo Bear to me! It is such a catchy tune!

One day when I was riding it began to slightly rain and Don held the umbrella for Maria and me! Come rain or shine we will ride on!!! Soon it will be my birthday. We are planning a big party at Auntie Karen’s house down at the beach. The weather has been stormy but I know that it will be okay on mine and my dad’s day together!
Tio Donaldo, just want to say a big thank you for making the effort to come and see us. We loved spending time with you and I especially loved bonding with you some more.. Your a super sweet Tio. Come back and see me soon!!! I love you mucho!
Malia

I have a new friend. His name is Krishnan. He is a new/old friend of my parents. They met him 13 years ago at a wedding of a mutual friend. Krishnan decided to come to Costa Rica. It was his first time and he sent my dad a message to say that he was coming they had not talked in 13 years! It turned out that our old house was available and Krishnan rented it for a few days while he was here. We had a most wonderful time with him. Krishnan loves to cook, play music, read and write books, tell funny stories and sing to me. We hit it off right away.

Krishnan wrote a book called Babu The Three Legged Dog. It is a story about his dog Babu who was hit by a car and lost his leg. Everyone felt sorry for Babu but Krishnan told them not to feel sorry for him. Babu could still walk and run we was just going to be a little different than the rest of the dogs. I would like to meet Babu one day, I bet we would be great friends. Babu inspired Krishnan to write a book about Babu. Krishnan wrote a children’s book with the help of elementary school students. The students did the illustrations in the book and also helped sing Krishnan’s song Buffalo Bear. Krishnan is a great musician as well and included the famous Buffalo Bear song in his book. You see the lyrics go like this….. Buffalo Bear, doesn’t have a care, Buffalo Bear he does not have a care,,,, he has the eyes of a Buffalo and the back of a bear!! We must have sang that song a million times while he was here.

I have a funny story to share. One day when I was riding Conejo, Krish was filming. We were trotting down the green grass and Krish was looking my way rooting me on as I was doing so well! Here we all were running but Krish had his backed turned when all of a sudden CRASH, SMACK, OUCH!!!!! Krish ran into a palm tree. They must have watched the video 20 times.. All you see is me on Conejo then my mom scream and a loud smack of the tree…. THANK GOODNESS he was alright! Once we all knew he was okay it was time for a good laugh! Silly Krish, you better be more careful next time! 🙂

Some mornings instead of doing physical therapy we did music therapy. We sang so many songs together. He played background music to Skippy John Jones, he made up funny little songs and would sing to me at dinner.. He pretty much sang and played guitar and anything he could beat on the whole time he was here and well, you all know how much I love music!!!! He and my parents sang together too and one night we had a jam session and Maria Jose came over as well and helped me play percussion. My dad videoed mom and Krishnan singing my song Three Little Birds. In the end, Krishnan has decided to fly from Canada to my benefit in September and he and my mom are going to go up on stage and sing my song!!! Thanks for coming to visit me Krishnan. You are a good friend with a beautiful smile and beautiful heart…… Hope you come back soon……. PVOL Malia