Sheep Girl

Today was Meg's big day to show a lamb at the fair. She's been looking forward to this and talking about it for quite some time. We found a very nice lamb, Snowmist, to show and she put on her jeans and hit the arena. She had big hopes of repeating her win from last year, but no such luck. As the demonstration was taking place, I noticed Meg looking around at the other lambs and checking everything else out. She had no clue what she was supposed to do and I didn't do any coaching before hand. She made up her own little pattern, that was very well executed, but just not what she was supposed to do! Oh well....I told her ahead of time that I wanted her to have fun and do her best. She wasn't upset about the green ribbon, until she asked my why she didn't get a number place ribbon like her cousin. I then explained (because no one else had had the heart to tell her) what she'd done wrong. Then the tears started to come. Heaven forbid, Ms. Perfect would've made a mistake! I then reminded her of the two things she was really supposed to do and she decided that she had accomplished that. I reassured her that I was very proud of her and her green ribbon. Then she ended up losing the green ribbon and had to get a replacement from the judge's stand. LOL

I will admit a deep, dark secret (well not that deep or dark for those that know me!) I hate to lose and I can tell you that I hate for my kid to lose now too. I said all the right things, Winning isn't everything, and held back the words "It's the only thing!" to her and will continue to encourage her, but by golly, she better get that fire in her belly to win too! I know when she starts showing her sheep for real, she'll be expected to have that attitude. =)