Top 5 Saturday Laughs

It's hard to believe it's been a week since I last did this.  So many things have happened, yet it hardly feels like there has been much time in between.  Isn't that strange how time moves on?!  This week I was attempting to be a little more prepared for this post, actually writing down things that happened through the week so I wouldn't forget.  I had my five laughs all ready and grabbed my laptop to get writing, a couple minutes later I realized that I would have to change it already!

#5:  I was beginning to log onto the internet and blogger when Claire noticed the laptop.  She runs over to me and exclaims, "MOM!  I will get my pu-uter and work with you."  "Whatcha think mom?"  "Does that sound like a good idea to you?"  She runs to her toybox and digs her play laptop out and proceeds to sit down next to my feet and work.  A few minutes later, she exclaims, "This won't work for me, let's switch pu-uters!"  So I proceeded to show her photos from the blog and a few minutes later she was bored with the whole idea and was off to play.  I did tell her she could write a sentence, so here you go, straight from Claire: "tsssxzzdghgrrtt56vbbjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj;;;;;;;;;;;;;pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppkik7ujjjjjjjjjjjjjjyteeee"

#4  Natalie does the normal baby chatter, "ma-ma", "da-da", "ga-ga" but this week she started making this very strange sound, the only way to describe it is like a velociraptor (or at least how Jurassic Park made a velociraptor sound).  She gets excited when Claire comes around and will kick her legs and wiggle all while making this squeal/squawking sound.  It is the strangest sound, but so funny to watch all the animation that goes with it.


#3 The other night the girls and I were hanging out in Natalie's room, where we currently have our extra toddler bed (currently on loan from the in-laws house).  Claire is a jumpy kid.  It started when she was about five months old, she would jump in the jumperoo for hours on end.  She jumps to get places, she jumps to dance, she jumps when she gets excited, jumps when she's angry - ok I've proved my point, she's always jumping!  So she was jumping on the bed trying to teach Natalie to jump like her.  Natalie found it hysterical that Claire was jumping which only egged her on further.  Then I made Natalie jump on the bed which caused Claire laugh even harder too.  We were all cracking up laughing, what fun it is to have two girls!

#2 Claire is currently obsessed with gender.  There are certain colored plates that are girl plates, cups, suckers (her potty reward) that are designated for girls and boys (purple are girls and green are boys) and my car is a girl car and Ryan's jeep is a boy car.  Ryan and I had switched vehicles one morning.  Claire was all sorts of upset because we had to drive the 'boy car'.  I don't know what started this, but she is stuck on it for the time being.  She was about to go to bed, so I asked her to give Natalie and Daddy hugs and kisses.  She said, "I will give Sissy a kiss, but not Daddy."  When we questioned why, she replied, "I don't want to kiss boys EVER!"  She was so sincere and serious, but I couldn't help crack up over it!

#1  Natalie is such a sweet girl, pretty mild mannered as long as she's in the action.  If you leave her in a room by herself, she is more than likely going to get ANGRY.  However, she is not able to smile without giggling.  it is so precious and just makes my day.  Her whole face smiles and then the giggle follows. I love baby giggles, so genuine and joyful!

Wordless Wednesday :: The 9th Annual Backyard Bash

For 9 years my in-laws have had a HUGE party in September.  The fire is started by burning something that my Father-in-law has made.  There is a band, fireworks, tons of food and people.  It's always a riot!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

I'm stealing this idea from my twitter friend (@dentistmel - if you're on twitter follow her!) who does it every week.  What a wonderful way to celebrate the best moments of the week.  So often, I am left thinking, 'what was that funny thing Claire said last week?' this will help me remember these moments and cherish them always.  I hope they also leave a smile on your face too!

5.  Claire is obsessed with the Christmas story.  She pretends that we are all part of the story.  Natalie is baby Jesus, Ryan is Joseph, I'm Mary and she of course, is the angel.  She then talks about what each of us is doing, calling us by our character names.  I love her imagination.

4.  Natalie has started the good ol' baby belly laugh.  I love that laugh!  However, we have to be careful how much we make her laugh since she will get the hiccups if we push the laugh limit too long.  What is it about hiccups that last WAY too long?

3.  Since the weather has been so awesome this week, we have been able to spend lots of time outside.  We go out after dinner and run in the front yard.  Claire cracks up whenever we run after her, she is always asking us to chase her.  We taught her tag tonight and it was such a wonderful time!  We also play lots of hide and seek, chase/kick the ball and somersaults in the grass (her not me).

2.  This is the appropriate number for this one.  While Claire was going potty, we had a conversation about the said #2, it went something like this:
C: "Mom, animals go poop.  Cows, horses and pigs all poop"
M: "Yes Claire everyone poops"
C: "Do you poop mommy?"
M: "Yes"
C: "Do I poop?"
M: "Yes"
C: "Does Natalie poop?"
M: "Yes"
C: "Daddy has stinky poop"
M: *Laugh*

1.  My favorite laugh of the week has happened nearly every morning this week.  The second Claire hears Natalie on the monitor waking up, she has to run in the room to see her sister.  She likes to talk to Natalie and then yell back to me what is happening.  "Mom, Natalie is smiling at me.  Her likes me."  "Oh, do you have big smiles for me Natalie?"  "She's smiling again Mommy!" While this makes me laugh to hear her talking in a high pitched voice to her sister, the funniest thing came when she climbed in the crib with Natalie so her sister could see her better.  I was shocked to see these big legs come over top of the rails on the monitor.  After my initial reaction, of "Don't step on your sister!"  I couldn't help but laugh at it.  She loves her sister so very much!!

I will quote my friends' blog that I stole this idea from "The things kids say.  Now, tell me your funnies from this week.  I know you have some..."

A visit from the tooth fairy

When Claire was just over 18 months old she had a fall off an elevated stage and jammed one of her two front teeth way up into her gums.  After an emergency trip to the dentist (my dentist since it was at night and you must be a patient of record to be seen by a pediatric dentist) and lots of tears from both her and mommy, we made an appointment to see a pediatric dentist.  Initial x-rays revealed no immediate danger to her tooth so we began visiting the dentist every 6 months to check and have her teeth cleaned.  Claire does great at the dentist, a real pro at this point.  She has a very crooked smile, partly because of the direction both teeth were pushed, partly because she still has that stinking pacifer and partly because she got her mamma's big teeth and small mouth.  So needless to say, the orthodontist envisions lots of dollar signs and I've pretty much settled on the fact that she'll need extensive work.

This was a picture taken a couple days after the accident.

About a month ago, I noticed what looked like the start to an abscess on the gum above the 'trauma tooth'.  As a general rule, nothing medical happens in our family during normal business hours.  I discovered this on a weekend, at night and Claire's dentist was closed the following Monday.  We couldn't get in for 2.5 weeks, but they called an antibiotic in to control the infection so it didn't spread.

Claire got examined and had a set of x-rays.  When we sat down to go over the results, my stomach dropped...she was going to lose that tooth after all.  I really, really, really didn't want this to happen for a variety of reasons, but a few were:
1.  It can't be an easy process to take out a tooth that isn't loose.  This would probably be extremely painful and scary
2.  I don't want her to have a fear of the dentist as she grows up
and I'm totally ashamed to admit the third reason, because I sound so concerned with appearance but here it goes
3.  I really didn't want her to be without her front tooth for 4+ years!!

However, I knew that it had to come out and I only had a week to mentally prepare her (and me) for it.  Claire is the kid that needs to be told everything ahead of time.  She doesn't like surprises, so we started talking that night.  We told her that the next time we went to the dentist, that she was going to have her tooth taken out, she would put the tooth under her pillow and the tooth fairy would come and give her money.  She was excited about the tooth fairy thing and I was coming to terms with her losing her tooth.

This was taken minutes before they started at the dentist.  Crooked, but cute is how I referred to her smile!

We went to the dentist, who is wonderful, but it is something that I hope none of my children have to go through again.  EVER.  She got sick of the mask being on her face.  Then the shots started and I felt like they weren't ever going to end, so I can only imagine how she felt.  It was heartbreaking to listen to her cry and scream.  I was getting emotional about it (and whoosy thinking about what was happening) so I actually had to leave the room.  Thankfully, both Grandma's joined me at the dentist (they just knew that I would need the reinforcements).  So, Maggie Grandma (my mom, named after her dog Maggie) went in to be with Claire while Riley Grandma (Ryan's mom, named after her dog Riley) took care of Natalie.  I don't know what I would have done without them there.

This is when they just had started, the camera went away after this.

Finally, the tooth was out and she got lots of mommy hugs.  Then she got to get a few prizes out of the token machines.  She selected three bouncy balls and an ice cream ring.  By this point, she was back to her normal self; jumping around and wanting to play with the cupcakes in the waiting room.  She has done wonderfully since, no issues eating, drinking or talking.

Here are some pictures of Claire after the extraction, I am still not thrilled with the toothless look but she's cute regardless.  I know I will always think so, I'm her mom ;-)

This is the tooth, no wonder the hole in her gum is so big!

So we put the tooth in the cute hot pink tooth box that the dentist gave us and put it under her pillow that night.  After some discussion that the tooth fairy wouldn't take any teeth from her mouth, she was good with the tooth fairy leaving her money.  She went right to sleep that night and woke up the next morning as her typical self.  She did have a brand new 50 cent piece under her pillow, but she was more excited to play with the prizes that she got from the dentist.

The next morning with her money from the tooth fairy.

She doesn't seem scared to go back to the dentist in a couple months, so I hope she's forgotten the trauma.  I wouldn't mind if we didn't ever have to go to the dentist for anything other than cleanings in the future!

She said "MaMa"!

The first year is full of milestones, but none is sweeter (in my opinion) than when they say "Ma Ma" for the first time and mean it!

Natalie had fallen asleep on the way home from daycare this afternoon and I put her in her room while still in her car carrier.  I proceeded to start dinner and play with Claire.  Soon we heard Natalie complaining; she was awake and not in the same room as us.  I went into get her and she looked at me and exclaimed "Ma Ma!" in a high pitched happy to see you tone.  I was so excited!!  

Happy girl!

These are the moments I am thankful that God allows me to experience and I don't miss them while at work.  

Miss Natalie is 5 months old!

I can't believe that she's 5 months old.  I truly believe that the second time around goes by WAY faster than the first.  Here are some of the milestones 'little sister' has achieved:

• Tries to sit up in EVERYTHING, and can sit unassisted for very short periods of time

• She insists on being carried facing outward and therefore spends lots of time in the bjourn.

• She's eating rice cereal, not totally grasping the concept that the spoon isn't for sucking though

• She is playing peek-a-boo with either her clothes or burp cloths, taking and putting them over her face then giggling when she takes them down.

• Prefers to stand over anything else (thank goodness for Jumperoo's!)

•  Absolutely must be in the same room with someone, will not tolerate being in a room by herself for very long!

Other milestones:

• She's becoming very mobile, which makes me realize how un-baby-proofed our house has become with a toddler on the loose.  She is rolling and scooting in attempts to get to whatever she wants - thankfully we're all still faster than she is, for the time being!
• Completely obsessed with electronics - cell phones and remotes top the list
• Kisses on her cheeks and forehead are a sure fire way to get her to smile and giggle
• Said "Da Da" when she saw Ryan one day
• Looked at Molly (our dog) and made the "dg" sound
• Squeals in delight when I pick her up from daycare.
• Is often distracted by her surroundings when it is time to eat.

Milestones that I wish she would reach:

• Sleeping through the night.  She's still struggling with getting up at 4 am to eat, but legitimately seems hungry and goes back to sleep right after.

Our Big Girl

We finally did it...we took the crib rail off Claire's bed!

She's 2 1/2 and I always said that we would wait until she climbed out to move her to the toddler bed.  She still has never climbed out, but she's getting so big that we decided to bite the bullet and remove the front crib panel and put the toddler railing up on her bed.  We got all excited and started to gear her up about sleeping in her 'big girl bed'.  We had a flashlight party in her room and had her show us how she could get off and on all by herself.

Claire is the type of kid that needs to be prepared for whatever is happening, so I kept reiterating the fact that she needed to stay in bed until mommy came in her room for the morning.  I honestly didn't believe that was the last time I would be in the room for the night.  We proceeded with our night-time routine; we read books together, had our nightly snuggles and I left her all covered up under the blankets and her 'friends' sleeping in their appropriate places.

I watched the video monitor for about 15 minutes and she was wiggling like crazy (a very common thing for her) but no talking.  I mean, no talking, nothing.  It was a miracle!!  She is quite the talker, talks to everyone and everything whenever she has the chance.  After 15 minutes, this was my monitor view.

I was elated!!  I still honestly cannot believe that it happened that way and I'm still mentally prepared for her to not sleep or stay in her bed in the coming days/months.  However for the first night she stayed in bed ALL NIGHT LONG!!  I will count that as a victory!  Here is what I walked into the next morning.  The second the door opened, she asked, "Mommy, is it morning, can I get out of my bed?"

I cannot believe that my baby is in a big girl bed.  If she knew I just called her a baby, she would tell me, "No, mommy I am a big girl in a big girl bed!"  I suppose she's right.

Next adventure for the big girl is getting rid of that pacifier, but that's for another day ;-)

We're going to the zoo...

I have been feeling rather run down these days.  Between Natalie's lack of sleeping through the night and working full time, I am exhausted!  So far this year, I hadn't used a vacation day for a 'vacation'.  The days have been used when Claire was sick and for some of my maternity leave.  So I decided that the Friday before Labor Day would be the perfect day to use a little of the precious 'vacation' time that I have left.  My sister had the wonderful idea to do a family excursion so we could spend some quality time together.  (She moved back to town right before I went back to work, such a bummer!)  We decided to go to Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park, which conveniently enough, is located about 10 minutes from home.  We made a girls day out of it when our mom joined the fun with us.

Admission is $8 for everyone, 2 and under get in free (thankfully both girls are free!) and well worth every penny.  The park is very clean, you can get so close to the animals, even feeding baby animals and birds (if you're brave enough - which none of us were).  Claire LOVED seeing lots of new species of animals we hadn't encountered before.  The tractor ride around the complex to see the large grazing animals was the perfect length to hold her attention and very educational.  While we were there all the animals were very active - a huge bonus to any zoo-like trip.

Claire, Aunt Andi and baby cousin 'Boots' checking out the ducks swimming in a pond

 Making a new friend :)

 This is one cute little fox!

 The baby zebra loved my mom (not that I blame her)

 I was so proud of her, she actually fed the goats! Partly because Grandma did it first :-)

Natalie's view for the first 15 minutes.  She spent the rest of the trip in the 

baby bjorn so she could see what was going on.

This is not the last time that we will be visiting, we may even go again this fall.  It was such a nice day to have a vacation day!  Too bad, I don't get more during the year ;-)