tooth fairy strikes again

Callie unexpectedly lost her 2nd tooth Saturday morning while chewing on something. She acted a little put out with me since I'd recently told her it wasn't loose enough yet to pull out with dental floss again!



Can I just say, thank you SOOO much to all you parents (and you know who you are), who's tooth fairies give your children obscene amounts of money for their teeth! It would be fantastic if there could be a nation-wide standard (same goes for our winter friend), instead of this tooth fairy giving a $10 bill b/c that's all they had in their wallet, or this one giving a 5 b/c they think that's what a tooth is worth. COME ON! Our tooth fairy gives $1. My friend Wendy's gives $2. I could possibly entertain the idea of 2 (although I still think that 1 is plenty), but not 5!

Because Callie is old enough (which most tooth-losing children are) to think rational thoughts, she is upset about the variance & feels like her teeth are worth more than what she was previously given. So then her Aunt Chelsea eggs her on & promises to write a letter to the tooth fairy in Callie's behalf:



So at that point I'm damned if I do & damned if I don't. How rude if the tooth fairy completely ignores the letter, but how the heck should the tooth fairy diplomatically reply? (The little print is: "Aunt Chelsea- Please tell Callie that I would love to give her $30, but teeth are only worth so much! I will put in a good word to my friend Santa Clause, although he may feel she is too young still for that toy. Best of luck to Callie, and thanks for the tooth! - The Tooth Fairy")

BTW, the Easy-Bake Oven issue is this. I'm a fairly big supporter of age suggestions on toys. There are some exceptions, but for the most part I think the recommendations are pretty accurate. Easy-Bake Ovens are 8+, but we see our friends the Taylors at Walmart one day birthday shopping for their little girl's 4th birthday & Callie sees that they're getting said girl the Easy Bake Oven. So now she is totally annoyed that I won't let her have one (as if I let my kids just have a toy simply b/c they want it anyway) because she's not 8, even though Tatum is only 4 & she gets to have one. I told Tatum's mom about it & she said that one of her older boys is the one who really enjoys it the most. Too bad for Callie not having an older brother who would love to spend all afternoon supervising and easy-baking.

Back to the tooth. Callie woke up at 6am Sunday morning and checked under her pillow right away and then promptly started crying (I know, ungrateful little girl) about only getting a dollar since so & so got $5 or $2 or $10. What's a mom to do?

First Soccer Game

This year Jackson is old enough to play soccer so he was very excited for us to sign him up. Last week he loved trying on new cleats & shin guards at home & kicking around his new size 3 (very small) soccer ball!

I went to his first practice last Wednesday and was able to see that our little guy has a long way to go to soccer stardom, but prior to this his only exposure to soccer has been kicking a Diego bouncy ball around the backyard. Oh, & he can identify a soccer ball! :) (I think we used to have a tiny one)

When Jeremiah was helping Jack get all ready for his game he was talking to him about all the goals he was going to score. I mouthed for Jeremiah to stop over Jack's head, and then when Jack was getting in the car told Jeremiah about the soccer practice & told him Jack probably wouldn't score a goal so don't pump him up too much. Is that bad of me? I'm a generally positive person, but I'm a realist. Of course when I told Jeremiah that he said, "Oh great!" and was immediately bummed. I told him give me a break. Jack's 4 and he's been to 1 practice, so his dreams of an all-star kid don't have to be dashed yet!

Before the game started Jack was blowing grass off his hands. I was thinking, awesome, I've got a dandelion picker. But once the game started he kept up with all the other kids & even scored TWO GOALS! Yay Jack! He was pumped about scoring twice & had a great time playing!



Scoring his first goal!

After he scored he just turned around as if nothing cool had happened & walked over to his team. His coach gave him a high-5. We're gonna have to work on a goal dance or something! lol

Enjoying a little half-time snack

Look at that hot assistant coach! That's right, my very own Mr. Divis!

Most of the kids (at least on Jack's team) didn't really know how to do the whole high-5 lineup. I'm sure they'll get the hang of it soon (since there's a game like every weekend for the next couple months).

Goooo team!

ER visit

Due to the update overload & the extremely long Hawaii post, it's likely that most of you missed the cryptic message about Jeremiah & I adding to our family. That's right, baby #4 - Due Feb 3!

So last Wednesday morning Jack went to play at Tyler's & I took advantage of the time with just one child & spent the morning shopping. Around lunchtime my stomach was having some sharp pains that I attributed to hunger, although I noticed as I was eating that my stomach was still having the same pains. By the time I picked Callie up from school at 2 I was feeling pretty uncomfortable. After we were home I ended up calling Jeremiah in tears because my stomach was hurting so badly. I called the Dr.'s office & left a message. As many of you have had babies & have had to call & leave a message, you can relate to what a wonderful experience that can be. Yes, that is sarcasm. I see a Dr. who's part of a group so it was one of the other Dr.'s assistants who returned my call. She told me that I must be having round ligament pain. I told her this was my 4th baby & I realize that every pregnancy is different (which this one really has been for me), but I just couldn't believe that this much pain was round ligament pain. She insisted that it was & told me I could go to the ER to get checked out if it would make me more comfortable. Thanks a lot. I was pretty ticked because that Dr. has never heard of me before, but I've had 2 babies with my other Dr., and he's in my ward! He would realize that I wouldn't have called the office unless I really was concerned.

I was in pain just being perfectly still, but it really hurt to walk or move in any way at all. And then my stomach would clench up and hurt even more. But I wasn't sure what to do because it seemed kind of drastic to go to the ER and what if I just had super bad gas or the stomach flu or something? Jeremiah had already come home by this point because he was really worried. He reminded me that I'd already met our deductible for the year with my hernia surgery in January, so if that's what was holding me back from finding out that I might have the stomach flu to not worry about it. But to me it wasn't just the cost of an ER visit - it's the time that it takes to be in the ER & like I mentioned it seemed a little extreme to have to go to the ER. But at 5:00 we got to the hospital to begin our very long night.

It took almost 2 hours to get a bed. After I was in a curtained area in a hospital gown with an IV in my arm a woman on a rotation or maybe she was a resident came in to find the baby's heartbeat. She said as she was getting out the little machine that this was probably her third time doing this & she hadn't ever had success so we shouldn't be alarmed if she couldn't find the heartbeat. She didn't find it. Then another guy (he might have said he was a Dr., but if I had to guess I would say first day as a resident) tried to find the heartbeat. He kept putting his ear closer to the little machine that projects the heartbeat & someone pointed out to him that there was a volume dial on the side. So we're feeling like we're in pretty good hands at this point. Oh, sarcasm again. Then my nurse tries & she can't find the heartbeat either. I'm still not really worried because it seemed like when the first woman was trying the baby squirmed from the prodding. But Jeremiah's freaking out inside I think. Finally another nurse came in who knew what to do & found the heartbeat in 2 seconds. Every resident, nurse, or person who was coming into my little curtained area at that point seemed dubious about my pain until they found out it was baby #4, not #1. So maybe I was legit.

After this I called my Dr. I knew if by chance he was on call up in OB he'd come down. No such luck but he talked to me for a little bit & assured me that I was NOT having round ligament pain. I'm only 16 weeks & he said that doesn't even happen to people who are less than 20 weeks or more than 28 weeks, and besides, the type of pain I was in wouldn't be round ligament pain (by this point the pain was just like almost constant labor contractions). We talked about the possibility of miscarriage, but he didn't say it definitely sounded like that. He didn't know what was going on but assured me there were great Dr.'s in the ER. So then I deduced it was either stomach flu or maybe I actually was miscarrying. Jeremiah dismissed stomach flu since I wasn't nauseaous, I hadn't thrown up, & I was in fact starving. So of course we thought that I must be losing the baby & Jeremiah started calling our family to say that the Dr. said I most likely was (which is actually not what the Dr. said!).

After 5 hours they finally did an ultrasound & found that I had a cyst on one of my ovaries that had ruptured. An ER Dr. said that usually if people are in pain from that, the pain is really intense until the rupture and then if the pain isn't relieved immediately it would be within a few hours. An hour before I left the ER they gave me some morphine (which didn't help the pain much at all), and just before midnight I hobbled out of the ER.

The next morning I was still in a ton of pain. Not as much as the night before, but I was not okay. I got in to see my Dr. that afternoon & he said he didn't think all of my pain was from the ruptured cyst or the low-lying placenta the radiologist had noticed in the ultrasound. He just didn't know what was wrong with me. I asked him if that was his official diagnosis. Yes it was. He said I should take it easy until I felt better or until I was far enough along to do anything more (b/c at 16 weeks the baby isn't really considered viable). So I was a little frustrated when I went home. Oh & he said I can't run any more. Boo!

Fortunately by the time I went to bed that night (Thursday) I was feeling better than I had been in the morning, and when I woke up the next day (Friday) I was 80% better. I wasn't in pain at all if I was motionless, and it was only a little uncomfortable to walk and a little more uncomfortable to bend or twist or get up/down. And by Saturday I felt pretty much normal again. And now it's all just a bad memory.

First Day of School!

Thursday, August 12, was Callie's first day of school. First grade! The afternoon before we went to meet her teacher. When I asked Callie what she thought of her teacher she said that she looked different than what she was expecting - her face, her hair, everything. Callie's new teacher is an older Asian woman & I think Callie was probably expecting a young Caucasian woman :)

We were worried about Callie crying about going to school on the first day & not getting out of the car since she was so apprehensive about being at school all day & eating lunch in the cafeteria. But everything was fine (the crying & not getting out of the car didn't happen until the 2nd day of school!). After school I asked if she had a great day & she said yes, but when I probed a little more it didn't sound to me like her day was very great. She said her teacher was kind of grumpy. She also said she mostly walked around (by herself - to check things out) at recess.

Then there was lunch. Like I said she was really nervous about lunch & guess how it goes down? She had to sit in between 2 boys she doesn't know & she says she tried talking to them but they didn't want to talk, so my poor little 6 year old is basically all alone eating her lunch with no friends & no socializing. She barely even nibbled her lunch. After talking to another mom that evening who has older kids, she told me that whoever the kids are in line next to when they walk into the cafeteria is who they have to sit by to eat lunch. An adult is standing directing them to places. That ticks me off that they can't choose to sit by their friends! As it's turned out for the past week + the first 2 days, Callie has been in charge of taking the basket that the kids deposit their lunch boxes into down to the cafeteria so she has to be at the back of the line, meaning she's not been able to line up to go to the cafeteria next to her friends. Hopefully her turn's over & this week will be different b/c she comes home most days with almost all of her lunch in her lunchbox. She says she's too embarrassed to eat it at school. I'm almost positive it would be different if she was sitting by friends! So frustrating!

Jack's first day of preschool school was great!



He loves doing what he thinks are rock star poses. I asked him a million times to just stand normal & give me a nice smile, but this is what I mostly got:

Jack is going to the same preschool that he went to last year. He LOVES his teacher and her 3 year old son who participates in class. Also his best buddy Tyler goes to preschool with him. There are only 6 kids in his class, not including the teacher's son, & this year they are all boys. One of the other boys is also in our ward so Jack knows him a little. He was totally stoked to go to school last Tuesday morning and was going to just hop out of the car & go in since that's what he did the last part of last year. Since it was the first day I went in with him though & he walked right in & made himself at home while I said hi to his teacher & some other moms. After school he said he'd loved it.

I asked him what he'd had for snack that day. The teacher's son is assigned to bring snack the first week of school so when Jack told me he had ice cream for a snack I thought how lucky/fun for a first-day-of-school snack! I asked him what kind & he said vanilla. And chocolate. And blueberry. I asked him what kind he chose & he said he had them all. I doubted that! A minute later after we'd moved onto other topics he said, "I was just kidding about having ice cream for a snack today mom. We had carrots & celery." LOL My 4 year old is a little trickster! Then we had a little discussion on tricking vs. lying. This time it was tricking & it was fine (and funny). I told him to make sure & tell the truth when we ask him things like, "Did you make your bed? Have you picked up your toys?" etc. You know, the important stuff. Good times.

beginning of the school year surveys {2010}

Callie

Age: 6
Height: 45 1/2 "
Weight: 41 lbs
Hair color: light brown

Favorites:
Animal: Baby penguins. And peacocks. And dogs & fish. Pretty much all animals.
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Bear Trap with Daddy
Toy: Baby Doll
Thing to do: spend time with my Mom doing crafts
Book: Quite Enough Hot Dogs (Rookie Reader book by Wil Mara)
Color: Pink. And all the colors.
Movie: Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses
Song: Bella Note (from Lady & the Tramp)
Primary Song: Come, Follow Me

My best friend is: Corinne, Kenadee & Kaelene
Other friends I like to play with: Alexis
Things I like to do with my friends: "I like to play with them & do crafts & stuff"
If I had a pet it would be a: dog (she actually has a fish)
named: Kaelene (named Kaelene)
What people like about me: "That I help and care and share, and I'm nice. And that I'm so cute."
Things I can do really well: "I'm really good at making people feel better. And I'm really good at helping. I'm good at doing crafts, playing the piano, singing, listening (not), following, being brave, math, baby-sitting, and pretty much everything."

Jack

Age: 4 1/2
Height: 40 1/2"
Weight: 36 lbs
Hair color: dark blonde

Favorites:
Animal: shark
Food: Pasta Carbonara
Game: Piranah Panic
Toy: "Imaginext dinosaurs. Or Legos. Or dragon castle stuff (also Imaginext). All my toys!"
Thing to do: Play Mario Bros (which he's been grounded from for 6 months and rarely gets to play anyway)
Book: Dinosaur Book (Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs [and Other Prehistoric Creatures] by John Malam)
Color: blue
Movie: Peter Pan
Song: Apples & Bananas
Primary Song: I Am a Child of God

My best friend is: Tyler
Other friends I like to play with: Isaac, Kenadee, Kiera, Collin
Things I like to do with my friends: Play Mario Bros (he's only ever played w/Tyler a few times)
If I had a pet it would be a: sea turtle
named: Jack-in-the-box
What people like about me: "I'm always nice. I don't know what else they like about me."
Things I can do really well: "I'm good at playing Mario Bros & I always smoke aunt Kayleigh on playing. And I'm good at playing with my toys & writing."

whoops!

Callie ran in the kitchen today after spending some time exploring my medicine cabinet and proudly held up her baby tooth that she lost 3 weeks ago! She was really really excited about finding it & said something like, "Look what I have! My very first tooth that I lost! Now I can put it under my pillow again & the Tooth Fairy can bring me another dollar!"

I was on the phone with my mom when she made the discovery so I paused for a moment (for effect) & let Callie know that Grandma had just told me that the Tooth Fairy always gives the first tooth back to the parents so that they can keep it forever to remember their child's first baby tooth that was lost. I told Callie the Tooth Fairy must have just forgotten to tell us about that & where she'd hidden it!

She still wanted to try for another dollar but I told her the Tooth Fairy can't be tricked so it would never work & for her to go put it back in the medicine cabinet.

Not really sure why I kept it anyway.

Visiting the Condies

The kids & I headed all dirty from the sand dunes up to Highland to stay with the Condies for a week! Even though Wendy & are are just great friends, our kids are like cousins & sometimes we'll say Aunt Wendy or Aunt Hillary. We're just one big happy family together!

The kids all played really well together the whole time. We had the best, laid back week just hanging out. Usually when I visit Wendy I have a whole list of places I want to shop. I didn't have a single place this time that I was dying to go to. That helped things not be chaotic. It's insane trying to take 7 kids (between us) into a store!

On Monday we got ready at a super leisurely pace, took the kids to Costco for a late lunch, and did some shopping/meal planning for the week. We got home from Costco & let the kids play while we threw a quick dinner together. My sister Kayleigh came over all but one of the nights we were there. It was awesome to spend time with her. Plus she was super awesome & kept doing dishes while we tried to get kids to bed. She's great!

Jack LOVED playing with the boys! The order of the kids in age are Spencer (almost 7), Callie (6), Preston (5), Tanner (almost 4), Ellie & Emily (both 2 - just a couple weeks apart). It was interesting that Jack & Spencer especially played well together, & Callie & Preston played a lot together.

One day we took the kids to a little dinosaur museum at BYU. They thought it was awesome!

The Condies have lots of scooters & space to ride. Callie loved playing on the boys' scooters!

We had a hard time keeping the kids out of the sandbox!

After the first couple meals we decided to move the kids outside! There's seriously a lot of cleanup when you're feeding 7 kids!

Besides Costco & the dinosaur museum, we took the kids to a splash park one day, a cool regular park & also a water park another day. Wendy & I got a babysitter one night since her husband, Mike, was spending time with his brother who was moving across the country. We went out to eat, saw a movie & got yogurt afterwards. Another night after the kids went to bed we went to the dollar theater with Kayleigh. And the last night I was there Mike babysat all the kids while Wendy, Kayleigh & I went out to eat, did a little shopping, and got yogurt again.

Thanks for such a fun week Wendy! I wish we could see each other more often!!!

Our drive home was great except for the 2 1/2 hours we were in St. George! I'm a really slow person by myself but throw kids in the mix and it's just pathetic! I took a half hour nap when we got to St. George since Wendy & I had stayed up too late the night before watching a movie & I was feeling really sleepy. I gassed up & then took the kids into Costco because Jack had to poop. Have I mentioned how that just kills me?! The kid takes like 20 minutes average to poop. Sometimes longer! When we're at home doing nothing it's all good. Take your time. But when we're in a public bathroom I just want to bang my head on the wall. Except that public bathroom walls are generally filthy! And because of public bathrooms & their lack of cleanliness I usually hold Ellie while we're in there since she isn't really old enough to just chill in one place without touching everything. After holding a 25+ lb kid for almost 20 minutes I was having to really work at staying calm & nice. So this was Jack in the bathroom. Just making himself at home!

By the time he finished we'd been at Costco nearly an hour & the kids wanted to eat hot dogs. We sat & ate them & there went another 45 minutes. Next time we're going through a drive through. I ran up to a redbox & made one other 20 minute stop & that was how we spent 2 1/2 hours in St. George. Aughhh! It was great to get home!

Family Dune Trip

Over Pioneer Day weekend (which also happens to be Jeremiah's birthday {July 24th}) we went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes near Kanab, UT with family & friends. It was hot & dirty (thank goodness for luxury camping = air conditioning & showers), but we all had a really good time!

Jeremiah



Playing travel Kerplunk - worst travel game ever! I wish I had the receipt to take it back! lol

It wasn't very crowded so it was great. We didn't worry as much about our kids being run down by quadders. See that little black speck in the middle? That's Nixon Westbrook (he's 1). Don't worry - he was being closely watched! When he walked far enough away from camp my sisters took the Rhino out to pick him up. LOL

The birthday king!

Homemade german chocolate cake. I forgot to bring candles so I improvised :)

Jonny & Ann (recently engaged - yay!)

Part of the "fleet" at our campsite

Ellie refused to put pants back on. What do I care? We're camping & dirty anyway.

Jack kept asking me to take pictures of him being a rock star! LOL

This little boy is a pyro! He sat by the fire most of one of the days!

Is it called camping if you don't roast marshmallows?

It really was a good weekend. Thanks to everyone who went to add to the fun!

Callie's first visit from the Tooth Fairy!

At the beginning of July I showed Callie this post from my friend Janelle's blog about tying floss around her little girls tooth to yank it out. Callie loved the idea since she'd had a loose tooth for MONTHS so we got all geared up to do it when Jeremiah got home from work that night. When Jeremiah got home he wiggled her tooth and told her it really wasn't ready yet & that it would bleed a lot if we did it so he convinced her to wait. Then a week later Callie & I were telling Callie's friend's mom about it & the mom told Callie about her niece who's tooth hadn't seemed that loose, but when she bit into an apple one day the tooth just came right out & stuck to the apple. It didn't hurt & was unexpected. Callie loved that idea so we got an apple from a friend the next day & tried it out.

Fig. A - pre-apple

Fig. B - biting the apple


It didn't work. But it did loosen her tooth up quite a bit! About a week after that Callie had been really begging to try the floss thing & her tooth seemed pretty wiggly. I said we could do it & she was too excited to wait for Daddy to come home from work.

Fig. A - pre-floss (just ignore the breakfast around her mouth)

Fig. B - floss attached to tooth

Fig. C - floss attached to door

Well that didn't work either. Jack pulled the door open & the floss slipped right off her tooth! I got a chair for her to sit on & a flosser pick while I worked on the loop. It was pretty difficult to get that teeny loop around the base of her tooth so it wouldn't slip off again. That's where the flosser came in handy so I could push it down under the gum. While this was going on she was sitting on the chair close to the door with the door partially open. My hands were halfway in her mouth trying to get that loop around the tooth when Ellie hung on the door & swung it all the way open & the tooth popped out. Callie was very surprised and then a big grin spread across her face & she hopped down to look for the tooth.

Fig. D - proud toothless girl!

I made this little tooth pocket (there's a flap in the back) so the tooth could be safely slipped under her pillow without worry of it getting lost. When the tooth fairy takes the tooth out of the pocket she can slip the money in. Callie was super excited to use it!

Jack, the bug guy

Jack is fearless - and quick! - when it comes to insects & creepy things! He can catch flies, moths, lizards, you name it. We've had to show him pictures of scorpions, spiders & snakes so that he hopefully won't attempt to touch those guys! He loves insects!

One day Callie ran in to tell us we had to come see the insect that Jack had caught! The kids loved passing this guy around. Unfortunately for him it probably is what led to his death!

Before I knew what he was doing one day Jack had this lizard in the house! It wriggled away too, but luckily Jack caught him again right away & I promptly sent them both outside!

Chair Spinning

Don't judge me. I went to pick up my kids from my mom's one day & walked in to this going on. Check out Ellie's eyes at the end! I got onto my mom at first cause I thought she was damaging my poor baby's brain, but then she said that everyone's eyes do that & proved it by showing me with Callie & Jack. They weren't as bad since they're older, but I did lots of chair spinning as a kid & I turned out okay so then I had to record it because it really was funny. I thought so anyway. Jeremiah didn't like it! Oh Ellie's tongue out at the end isn't due to spinning - it's just her thing. That girl sticks her tongue out all the time! And you can't hardly hear her because she's very softspoken a lot of the time, but Ellie's saying wee at the beginning.

Swim Lessons Summer '10

We did 2 2-week sessions of swim lessons this year at the public pool. The classes were small & the kids had their 30-minute lessons at the same time. They also got to take them with friends!

Jack & his best buddy Tyler had Jose & Tiffany for their first session, & Annie for the second. Jack does NOT like getting his face/head wet so swim lessons didn't go too well for him. Usually by the end of class he didn't want to get out of the pool, but I would by no means consider him a water-baby & he squealed like a pig when I gave his instructors permission to dunk him (almost every day). He didn't pass level 1 preschool aquatics after 4 weeks! lol

Callie on the other hand loved swim lessons! During the first session she & her friend Emily (Tyler's older sister) had Evelyn for their instructor. Callie repeated level 1 (non-preschool) with instructor Amanda this time around & passed to level 2 after the session. Since we don't do a lot of swimming during the year between summers I wonder how she'll do next year. She thinks she can swim though (even though I wouldn't say that) so I would have to watch her closely & constantly remind her to stay in the shallow part of our friend's pool when we'd go swimming. She loves the water though!

Ellie & I hung out together in the sweltering heat & watched the kids with my friend Cindi (Tyler & Emily's mom). I should have done Mom & Tot with Ellie but when I signed the kids up I chose not too since it was miserable last year with Jack. Silly me - I would have LOVED to be in that water every day & poor Ellie was sad many times that she wasn't getting in her swimsuit with the big kids. Plus Ellie's not afraid to get wet like Jack is. Next year I'll know.