Tales Of A Loose Tooth

At Liam’s last dental check-up, I overheard the dentist saying something about one of Liam’s teeth to the hygienist. I didn’t pay much attention. The next day we were talking about teeth and when Liam would start losing his teeth, etc. I went feeling around in his mouth and noticed a slightly loose tooth and then the comment the dentist made clicked in my mind – he must have been talking about that loose bottom front tooth. Anyway, Liam and I got really excited. I know that’s hard to imagine because neither one of us is excitable at all (heavy sarcasm here).

I immediately thought the tooth would be out within a couple of weeks. I had no idea how long teeth stay loose before falling out. It’s been over 30 years since I lost a tooth and they don’t write books on What to Expect With Your Six Year Old (although I think they should, it might be a small book but I’d buy it – but I digress as usual).

A couple of weeks later, Liam is complaining about his mouth hurting, so I take a look. You all know how fascinated with the human body I am, right? I notice a small white line on his gum behind the lower front teeth. I press on it. He screams and runs off. The next day I take another look and sure enough it’s the adult tooth coming in right behind the baby loose tooth that doesn’t look like it wants to come out.

Crap, what do you do then? You call the dentists office, that’s what you do. After holding and going through my story that was probably too long, the receptionist tells me that I probably don’t need an appointment because the dentist is going to tell me not to worry about it until the adult tooth is halfway up the baby tooth and just keep wiggling that baby tooth. I apologize and again state that this is my first loose tooth and thank you so much (for putting up with the crazy, drama mama).

I tell Liam we have to keep wiggling that tooth. He doesn’t like to wiggle it because it hurts (from the adult tooth cutting through the gum I suspect). He only lets me wiggle it and sometimes I have to bribe him to do it. I’m watching that adult tooth every day. Greg and I are trying to get Liam to eat lots of apples and carrots – anything crunchy. A month goes by.

I’m starting to get worried again. The adult tooth is halfway up the baby tooth and the baby tooth is still just a little wiggly. We’re getting ready to go on vacation to Legoland. What if something horrible happens to Liam’s mouth while we’re on vacation. What if? What should I do? I call the dentists office again. This time I get an appointment for the week before we leave for vacation. I take time off of work to take Liam to see the dentist, absolutely positive that the tooth is going to have to be pulled out of his head. The dentist puts Liam in the X-ray room (it’s a separate area with just one exam chair). He leans Liam back and pokes around a bit. He is very patient and kind and explains that he doesn’t like to pull teeth unless absolutely necessary. So unless the adult tooth is completely in place and the baby tooth has stopped moving altogether, then we don’t need to worry and it could take a couple of months (MONTHS?! – Really? Who knew?). He also said that the adult tooth would move up into place once the baby tooth was gone because the tongue and stuff (I wasn’t listening all that well at this point as I was flooded with relief) would naturally push it forward. He then explained to Liam that he needed to wiggle that tooth all the time.

Liam now started wiggling his tooth on his own, so the visit wasn’t a total waste. He even let Greg wiggle it on occasion. Now it really started getting loose. We all thought it was ready to come out. I agonized over how much money the tooth fairy would bring (you may have seen that on Facebook). I was so sure it was going to come out within the week, that I had a friend at work, who can write really small, write a note from the tooth fairy to Liam. The note basically laid out the details (Liam is going to grow up to be a lawyer, so I like to lay everything out for him so he doesn’t come out with his standard, “You lied. You said …”). The jest of it was, you get $5 for the first tooth and then $1 for each additional tooth and you better keep brushing and flossing because I only take clean teeth. I got a $5 bill and made sure not to spend it (that’s no small feat for me). Liam was in a great mood, so Greg was wiggling his tooth and then the two of them thought (I’m not sure who came up with the idea) – hey let’s tie dental floss around that tooth and then tie the other end to a door and slam it shut. Personally, I couldn’t watch, but they had a great time (and did it again a few days later). The tooth got looser and it bled a little. But that tooth stayed put.

I started to think that tooth was never going to come out. It had been about two months at this point. The tooth was getting a little more wiggly every day. Typically once I picked him up from the Youth Center and buckled him in the car, I would take a look at the tooth and give it a little wiggle and ask him how much he wiggled it that day. Well, he opens his mouth on Monday to show me and that tooth was lying horizontally instead of vertically. I told him the tooth was going to come out that night. He was excited. I was excited. We got home, did homework, I wiggled the tooth a little more, but it was still hanging on in one spot. I made dinner. Greg got home. We were sitting down to eat and Liam starts eating his carrot. I look at Greg and Greg looked at me. We got worried that he’d eat that tooth. So Greg pops up in the middle of dinner and get’s Liam to let him try to pull it. The next thing I know, Liam has run from the table screaming (not unusual mind you). Greg is laughing and I’m thinking “He’s mean” about the time Greg opens his hand to me to show me the tooth. I jump up, which causes Brianna to jump up. We all go looking for Liam to tell him the tooth is out. Then we all get excited and he runs to the bathroom to look at his mouth. Finally we all get back to eating dinner.

After dinner, Liam finds his Tooth Pirate (you may have seen the pictures on Facebook) and we put the tooth in the treasure chest the pirate carries. I’m amazed at how small the tooth looks outside of his mouth. In his mouth, his teeth seem a normal size and out of his mouth they suddenly get tiny. Anyway, after taking pictures and putting them on Facebook, he’s ready to go to bed and thinks everyone else needs to go to bed too, so the tooth fairy will come (must be like Santa right?!). I stay up late (10:00 pm) to make sure he’s asleep when I do the switch-a-roo. Greg decides he’s going to come with me.

We tip toe in the room and I reach ever so carefully under Liam’s pillow for the pirate. I look over my left should at Greg. Greg then in a single motion begins to laugh and runs out of the room with his hand over his mouth. I run out after him and ask what he thought he was doing. He said something like, “That was so funny, sorry.” I make the exchange out in the kitchen and decide to put the tooth in a ziplock and take it over to my mom’s for her to hide/keep. I then put the pirate back under the pillow and he’s now holding the $5 and the note from the tooth fairy.

The next morning, Greg and I get ready for work as usual. I’m ready to go and Liam is still sleeping. I ask Greg if we should wake him up. So we both go in his room and I wake him up gently.

He does the usual growl, “I don’t want to go to school! I’m tired.”

So I say, “I guess you don’t want to see if the tooth fairy came last night.”

He literally shot straight up and in one fluid motion reaches under the pillow and pulls out the pirate. As he’s taking out the money wrapped in the note and throwing it on the bed, he says, “The tooth fairy left me a note.”

He then sees nothing else in the treasure chest and exclaims, “And my tooth is GONE!!”

I ask him if he wants me to read the note. He nods and I take the note off the money. Before I can hand him the money, he says, “It’s five dollars! She gave me FIVE dollars!”

Needless to say he was excited to go to school and tell all his friends and teacher that he lost that tooth. When I picked him up, as we were leaving the youth center, he was telling the front office staff that he lost his first tooth and got $5 but that he’d only get $1 for each additional tooth cuz that’s what the tooth fairy said in the note. He then repeated the same story at the child development center when we picked up Brianna.

And now I know that a tooth can be loose for a very, very, very long time before the tooth fairy actually has to show up.

Girls vs Boys

Brianna has not had any accidents at 'school' for well over a week and has been doing great at home going potty as well. On Saturday, I walked by the bathroom to find Greg asking Brianna about the puddle on the bathroom floor and saying that everyone has accidents sometimes. Later that afternoon, I walk into the bathroom while Brianna is standing in front of the toilet with her underwear around her ankles and pushing her . . . ah . . . 'mid-section' toward the potty. I quickly ask her what she's doing as I go over to pick her up and put her on the potty.

She said, "I pee standing up like Liam."

Then I asked if she had tried that earlier that day and when she said yes, I had to explain that only boys can pee standing up and she needs to pee sitting down just like mommy. We then got into a lengthy discussion about the difference between boys and girls and pee and poop - which I won't bore/gross you out with.

Oh and she also doesn't have any accidents during nap time. Now to get her to stay dry through the night and we're done with this phase.

The Best Kids in the World

Quick update on the latest antics and accomplishments of the two best kids in the world.

1. On the drive home, while stopped at a red light, Liam started making letter sounds. tttt iiii rrrr ssss. Then he said, "Twist. Mommy I just read that sign." I looked around and saw a sign that read "TIRES". I said, "Good job, Liam. It says tires and you did a very good job sounding it out." He's finally trying to read stuff by sounding it out and then putting the sounds together. This is a big accomplishment considering that before Christmas he 'hated' reading. I'm on the look out for comic books for early readers because he loves comic books.

2. Brianna was finally moved to the pre-school room at day care at the beginning of February. Unfortunately, Greg went on a business trip the first week of Feb and then I went on a business trip the next week. Brianna had many set backs in the potty area. One day she had four accidents. Because of this they were thinking about moving her back to the toddler room. Over the holiday weekend, she did perfectly at home. Going potty by herself and also going poop by herself. She's a darn good wiper too. This week there have been no accidents at 'school' and things are really (finally) looking up in the potty department.

3. Now that Brianna is potty trained, I've told her she can start doing gymnastics. She's very excited.

4. Liam cleaned his room this weekend all by himself and is 'enjoying' doing chores for an allowance. I know it won't last but I'm enjoying his joy of working for $3 a week. And he's quite the little saver. He's got a nice little stash of money that he's saving for something "really big".

5. Yesterday, the kids were asking why it was so light out on the way home. I said it's because winter is almost over. Liam immediately got excited and started talking about how that means it's going to be summer and we'll get to go to Kansas City and we'll see Kolby (and Brianna said, "And baby Jaxon") and we'll swim and mom, I want to do the big jump and the plunge and when are we going to do more swim lessons. As he took a breath, Brianna started . . I want to swim with baby Jaxon . . I like to swim . . I love my baby Jaxon . . where's baby Jaxon . . why he not here . . I want a baby . . I want to marry Liam and smooch him. It was one of those conversations where I just listen because I can't get a word in edgewise. I was also thankful it didn't turn into a screaming match (as sometimes happens) with them yelling at each other "No, I talking to mommy, no talking" "I was talking first. I'm not done talking to mommy. It's my turn." You get the idea. So while it was hard to keep up with all that was being said without taking a breath, it was pleasant.

6. It's that time of year, where I start freaking out about whether to put Liam in a private school. We tried to get into a charter school, but they use a lottery system and Liam is number 71 on the waiting list. Now I'm looking at Catholic schools, which I'm having an internal debate about. I just really want Liam to have art, music, computer, and P.E. classes which you can't get in public school anymore (at least in CA). I've also serious thought about moving to a state with a better education system, but I haven't talked to Greg about that and it's not a serious option considering we can't get jobs that pay as well and that we like as much as what we have here. It's so stressful. Maybe if I felt like I could supplement his public education, but I don't think I can. Urg!

7. We got an organizational system from IKEA for Brianna's room and it looks great. I need to take pictures and post them.

8. I love catching the kids say thank you and your welcome to each other when they don't know we're around. All that drilling I've done is paying off.

9. Brianna was a holy terror the first day after Greg got home from his trip and then she did the same thing when I got back from my trip. She was making us pay for leaving her. One day Greg had enough and put her to bed without dinner. The next day was much better, but man are those hell days hard. It completely exhausts you both physically and mentally. Luckily those days are few and far between anymore. Before Christmas she was that way all the time and I constantly felt like a bad mom because I just didn't want to be around her. We've turned the corner and now the two of us have a lot of fun together. Yes, miracles do happen.

10. Not entirely kid related, but since coming home from Christmas vacation my life seems to be running so smoothly. Things appear to be balanced and I'm not letting stress get to me as much or as often. This means that I'm also enjoying my family much more and I'm more fun to be around (although you'd have to ask Greg to be sure on that last part).

Looks like 2010 is going to be a fabulous year!

So much to do so little time

I realized today that I haven't blogged in awhile and I really wanted to be better about blogging. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to write about so this is just going to be free form Erin thoughts. I won't feel bad if you stop reading now. . .

OK, still here?!

Why is it that at Christmas time there is so much to do and so little time? Like take the lights on the house - you have to put them up when it's light outside and by the time you get home from work it's dark, so you have to take a weekend day to do it. Then there's the tree. You have to go pick one out, trim it and get it in the stand and keep it watered. This is normally the domain of the man of the house. After a couple of days of relaxing you can put on the lights (again the man's domain) and decorate it. Of course you have to decorate the house too. And the kids are old enough to want to help, which creates it's own stress (broken glass ornaments anyone?). Well, we've got all that done and then there's the Christmas shopping. I tried to do as much online this year as possible. I also took a day off of work because it's easier to shop in the middle of the week than during the crowded weekends. After you buy the presents then you have to wrap them all. Before kids I took a great deal of time picking the perfect gift for everyone and wrapping in the most beautiful way possible. Now I grab the first thing I see and if you're lucky you might get a press on bow. Time management is a bitch.

And my favorite thing to do and the most dreaded is the christmas cookie extravaganza. I've discovered this year that I must do this with my mom. I can't do it alone and no one else can work with me when I'm in the cookie zone. This year I set up all the ingredients on one half of the island. Mom measured the dry stuff, I measured the wet stuff. I then had the mixer on the counter next to the island. We'd get one dough done and put it in a ziploc bag with the cooking instructions on it (so I didn't have to break out the cookbook again) and move on to the next dough. I figured I'd cook the cookies during the week, but then it would take every night, so I decided to start cooking them after we finished cleaning up from dough making. We made chocolate crinkles, snickerdoodles, gingersnaps, hazelnut rounds, peanut blossoms, and gingerbread cutouts. The kids helped with decorating the gingerbread cutouts and it actually was fun and I didn't stress about it. So from noon on Sunday until 7:00 that night I made Christmas cookies. And it was the least stressful year ever. Go figure.

Wow, it looks like I did have something to say after all. Now all I have to do is finish the laundry and start packing the kids for the trip to KC for Christmas. Oh and I want to give a shout out to President Obama for giving me four hours of leave on Christmas Eve. I was scraping leave days together to have enough for our vacation. Now there are no worries. Can't wait for vacation to start so I can sit back and relax and not be responsible and have a ton of babysitters and see my nephew Jaxon for the first time and hang out with my in-laws whom I love and hopefully play in the snow and I could keep going but I'll stop now so you can take a breath from this super long run on sentence.

Oh I also noticed that I haven't uploaded photos in a while, so here's some Christmas photos of the kids. Most were taken after visiting Santa. Santa gave them the candy canes and the deer antlers. Enjoy!

I hope your holiday season is as stressLESS as possible!!!!

Brianna

I think Brianna skipped the terrible twos and is now in the torturous threes. She is a pistol, a handful, spirited, um . . . a pain in the behind. Here are just a few examples:

We were at Bed, Bath, and Beyond today. Liam was walking along minding his own business when Brianna just goes up to him and pinches his arm.

That afternoon she had hit me with a plastic golf club. When I told her to stop, she just smiled and hit me again.

Her favorite object to torture is her brother. She hits, pushes, kicks, and pinches him.

We do time outs, which work while she's in the time out and lasts about an hour after she gets out. We take things away and she throws a temper tantrum - typically throwing herself on the ground and crying and screaming (occasionally she throws things during these tantrums too).

No means do it again to her. And she'll scream at the top of her lungs if you tell her anything she doesn't want to hear. She's always been a bit of a spit fire, but now she has moments of complete unruliness.

The worst part is that when she knows she's doing something wrong, she looks up at you with her beautiful big eyes and just smiles the sweetest smile ever.

Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. She's not like this all the time, actually most of the time she's very sweet. It's just those times when she's not sweet, she's down right sour.

Some of the sweet things she does:

She loves to run her fingers through Liam's hair while they are watching cartoons.

She loves to help out in the kitchen

She is a very good back rubber/scratcher

She loves to take care of Liam and pretend he is a baby

She sings and dances in the cutest/sweetest way

She grabs the sides of your face when she wants to give you a big smooch

Random Updates

Just some random thoughts/things that have happened recently.

1. Liam has added to his alien story. As usual in the car on the way home I received the following information: On Liam's planet the aliens are born in eggs, but they don't call them eggs. They call them meggs because on his home planet they really like to rhyme. He was talking about leaving when he went back to being an alien. I asked if he would leave me and if he wouldn't love me anymore. He said he'd always love me and I'd always be his people mommy even if I wasn't an alien.

2. Greg took Brianna to one of his favorite Japanese places. They had a kids menu, so he ordered Brianna a beef teriyaki bento box. He also got a bento box. Evidently the only difference was that the kids don't get wasbi and pickled ginger, instead they get a lollipop - otherwise it was the same amount of food just less expensive. Brianna ate all her soup, her salad, most of the rice, and the beef. She also has my habit of making yum and mmmmm sounds when she eats something she really likes. Oh and did I mention she used kiddy chopsticks for the whole meal. The waitress commented to Greg that Brianna did really well considering it was her first time using them. She also gave Greg two sets to bring home, so Brianna could continue to practice.

3. We ran to REI today at lunch to pick up Liam's birthday present - a new bike. He's outgrown his old one. Hopefully he likes it. I can't believe he's going to be six on Sunday. We doing his birthday party at Jump-N-Around again this year because it was such a hit last year and I just can't bring myself to go to Chuck E Cheese ever again, no matter how much he and Brianna want to go.

4. I've been a supervisor for a little over a month and I think I'm finally at the point where I'm not stressing about every little thing. I can't believe how much of my time is now taken up in meetings and in coordinating things. I hardly have time to walk down the hall and talk to my friends anymore. But I have to say, I'm really enjoying the new responsibilities. Let's just hope I don't screw up anything too dramatically. : )

5. Where did this year fly off to? Last thing I remember we were celebrating the 4th of July. Now I'm trying to research charter and private schools. It's hard to trust the public education system in a state that is bankrupt.

6. Des Lynn is spending the night tonight, so that her parents can go out and celebrate Dan's (her daddy) birthday. I put the girls to bed a little after 8:00 - we went potty, brushed our teeth, and read two stories. Last time I went back to check on them, they were still up playing. But at least they are being quite and staying in Brianna's room. Whoops I think I just jinxed things - I can hear giggles and Greg talking to them. So this is going to have to be the end of this post.

I'll try to post on Sunday after Liam's birthday party, if I can get the pictures downloaded that quickly.

A Good Weekend

We had a really good weekend.

Saturday:

1. Had a 9:30 hair appointment, which is always a nice kid free, relaxing time.

2. Got home and got the kids ready to go to the End of Soccer Season Pizza Party. It was a really good time. Took my laptop to show a slide show of the scrapbook that I had made for everyone. I used the Polaroid My Memories Suite software. Unfortunately, I didn't get it together in enough time to be able to hand them out at the party. One of the moms made cupcakes for everyone. And unexpectedly everyone had gotten together to give Greg a gift for being a great coach.

Oh I almost forgot the best part of the party. Brianna was able to get her spiny dress completely off before I was able to get to her. Luckily everyone understood and started telling me their stories of when their kids went through the naked phase. It was still embarrassing though.

3. After the party it was time for the closing ceremony at Porter Youth Center. The coaches sat on the gym floor with their teams. Each coach went up and announced their players. Each player got a medal and a certificate with the team picture on it. Brianna wanted to sit with her brother and at one point almost got her dress off again, in front of everyone. I got to her before she was able to. Liam loves his medal. He slept with it and wouldn't let it go until we left the house today.

4. After the ceremony, my parents took the kids over to their house. Greg and I went to Mission Ranch for our anniversary dinner. It was terrific. The only problem was that I was exhausted from chasing Brianna all day and keeping her clothed. Because Greg was the coach and everyone wanted to talk to him, he didn't really have much time to help out with Brianna. So we didn't stay out too late. We picked the kids up (and neither one had had a nap) and they were both asleep by the time we got home at 8:30. I was asleep soon after.

Sunday:

5. Sunday, Greg had homework to do. He let me sleep in until 8:30 (he got to sleep in on Sat). Then I made cinnamon muffins. Got myself and the kids dressed, then took them out so Greg would have some time to do homework. We went to the Party Store to pick up invites for Liam's birthday (oh I also reserved Jump N Around the day before for Liam's birthday). He wants an Army party, so it's going to be camouflage everything.

6. We still had some time before the movie started, so I took them to Target. And as usual I went a little crazy. We got stuff we didn't need, but I just love that store. Of course it was difficult keeping Brianna in control.

7. Finally it was time to go to the movie. We saw Astro Boy. Brianna had almost fallen asleep on the car ride to the theater. We all went potty (very important because Brianna always sits on my lap at the movies). Got snacks - popcorn, m&m's, water for the kids, and diet soda for me. Then we found our seats. Brianna was a little fussy because she was tired, but stayed awake for the whole movie. It was a good movie.

8. When we got home after the movie (around 3:30), we put in a video in our bedroom and the kids watched it, while I started on dinner. I made homemade fettuccine which took some time. I made Alfredo sauce for the grown ups and cheese sauce for the kids. I made garlic bread too. For dessert, I made chocolate mousse in plastic wine goblets (that I got at the party store earlier). It was a super yummy dinner. But I was exhausted afterwards. Luckily Greg gave the kids a bath and now they are sitting watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, while I blog.

It was a good weekend, lots of fun, but I didn't get a whole lot done. I guess I'll be doing laundry during the week (urg, I hate doing that - the clothes always end up wrinkly).

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!