Decemeber Odds and Ends

This is an odds and ends post. Stuff that doesn't warrant it's own topic but still good to write down for some reason or another.

-Greta was the first in her kindergarten class to lose a tooth. Then a week later she lost another. We knew tooth pulling would be a far different story than it was for her brother. You see Wesley lets us lasso them with a loop of floss. He's so used to this painless method that it doesn't phase him anymore. I mentioned this method to Greta and she fell into a crumpled mess of sobs on the floor. The mere mention of pulling a tooth and she turns white and runs from the room. She gets the dramatic flare from her mother. I got my ears pierced when I was in 5th grade. Every time I tried to put an earring in I would nearly pass out. I let them close up and 28 years later got them pierced again. This time it "took". Once you get an epidural your fear of needle like objects goes out the window.

Anyways, back to Greta. Those two teeth were loose for a month before she pulled them out on her own in the bathtub. She was so proud of herself. You have to let that one do things on her own.

My Dad took this picture and I love it. I hope you don't mind me using it Pops.

-I got to do something I've never done before. I wrote out a police report. While driving home from picking up the kids from school I witnessed my neighbor, who was preparing to turn left, get rear ended. She's a sweet elderly woman who (thankfully) was in a tank....also known as a Buick. A little Kia driven by a young mother with several children in the back seat plowed into her. The mother was distracted by her kids and didn't notice the Buick had stopped to turn in front of her.

It was quite the accident with air bags being blown and the Buick being slammed forward about 30 feet. The elderly woman wasn't hurt but rather shaken up. She didn't want to get out of the car so I stayed with her until the police showed up. The young mom was very shaken up and had cuts all over. Her kids appeared ok although they were screaming so it's hard to know. She told me she was distracted by the kids before the accident. It was scary and could have easily been far worse. Thank goodness for airbags!

-I've been busy working on sculpture orders for customers. I just finished up the last big batch and got them shipped out on Friday. I do enjoy my "office". It consists of a reclining sofa, Netflix and a warm blanket. I pull  up a TV tray and even paint the sculptures from the couch. But don't you have a work room to do all that in? Why yes I do, but it's currently housing three large desert tortoises and three cockatiels. The latter being extremely loud and obnoxious. No, I'll take the comfy couch. I like my work from home gig. It's a keeper.

My coworkers are pretty nice too. They keep me company and occasionally warm my lap.

Here is the finished batch of yorkies. The guy that ordered them is giving them to his grown kids as gifts. All the kids and their dogs will be together for Christmas so I hope it goes over well. They were fun to make.

First Day

Today is a big day. Probably the biggest day in the last eight years. Today is the day that both of my children start school. It's crazy to think that I have a third grader and a kindergartener.

It's a big day for them and a big day for me. I've officially graduated as a stay-at-home mom. No more tiny ones at home. Sniff sniff.

That's so strange to write. I've stayed at home raising two small people for the last eight years and now the house is quiet and it's very strange. Not strange in a bad way, just different. I will be going back to sculpting full time like I was doing before kids came along. I'm looking forward to it.

I was slightly worried about how Greta would do with her anxiety and starting school but she did awesome! She was excited to see her friend from preschool again (who is thankfully in her same class). I think she'll do great.

Wesley is happy to see his friends again. Happy first day of school kiddos!

 

 

We are replacing the siding in their normal picture spot.

Next Stop Kindergarten

My youngest child graduated from preschool last night. She wore a cute little hat and walked across the stage to get her certificate. Crazy how time flies by! There was a little program that went along with the graduation that included some songs and pictures. Her teacher wanted to put all the girls on the front row of the risers but had the delima of Greta being super tall and overshadowing the little boys behind her. So she did this:

She had my super tall girl stand off of the risers. Hehehe. She's a foot taller than the rest of the girls (and boys!). I suppose being the oldest in the bunch and being 93rd percentile for height (meaning out of 100 kids, she's taller than 93 of them) will do that.

She did great singing the songs and doing the actions with each song. Miss Cindy said she did testing on each child and Greta's results were off the charts. She can spell each kids name in her class, which surprised me. Go Greta! Next stop Kindergarten.

Catch Up

This is a catch up blog. A moment to catch up on all the little day to day items that I don't want to forget about. And lets face it, this blog is created so that I don't forget about all the cute everyday things that happen around here. First things first. Halloween. I like Halloween. The kids are still young enough to get a real kick out of trick or treating. This is the first year when Sean and I were able to stand back by the road and watch them scamper up to the door to ring the bell all by themselves. This year Wesley was a ninja and Greta was a fairy. Fun times were had by all.

Wesley had his very first lose tooth a few weeks back. The new tooth was coming in quickly and the baby tooth just wouldn't come out. He was very open to people trying to get it out (everyone except both grandpa's who kept trying to use pliers, he wasn't going for that). I kept using the dental floss method where you make a loop of floss, slip it down over the tooth and then yank. It would get it further out but never completely out. So last week before school I asked him if he'd let me try one more time. He agreed and sat on the couch. I placed the dental floss around the tooth and gave a good pull. Out came the tooth and then it promptly disappeared. I looked everywhere. We assumed he swallowed it. Poor kid was more than a little worried the tooth fairy wouldn't come so he wrote a note to her that he placed under his pillow. She visited that night and left a nice note and a couple bucks. He was excited.

Wesley has decided that he needs money. We've addressed the whole allowance issue and think it's about time he starts earning an allowance. The problem is he's not keeping up on his weekly chores to earn his allowance. He has to do simple chores to earn the money. Things like picking up his dirty clothes and placing them in the laundry bin, picking up toys in the evening and so forth. The other day he proudly declared that he had come up with a new idea to earn money. I come into the kitchen to find this:

He had taken a mixing bowl and measuring cup and taped them to the pantry door and the door leading out to the garage. He said every time Dad and I came in we had to pay a toll. That's how he'll earn more money. I had to give him credit for his ingenious idea. Funny kid.

We spent the weekend at my sister's house celebrating my nephews fourth birthday. We had a nice time catching up with family and feeding our faces on good food. Happy Birthday Emery!

Small Victory

Today was a big day for Greta. She's officially gone seven days without having any accidents (we don't count night at this point). For a three year old this is quite an accomplishment....at least for my three year old. I told her several months ago that if she can go seven days without peeing in her underwear we would drive into Target and buy her a Tangled doll that she's been wanting for like ever. She was downright giddy this morning. Every day she would ask how many more days and today finally arrived. She's a big girl in big girl undies now and I couldn't be more proud of her. We made a day of it. First to Target:

Then lunch at Panera Bread. I gotta say they have some wonderful Broccoli Cheese soup that's not all that calorie dense (200 calories). Paired with their Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich made for a lovely filling meal.  I'm thrilled a Panera opened up fairly close to us. Greta was thrilled they sell giant M&M cookies.

After that we stopped by the Goodwill store to see if there were any treasures that needed to come home with us. I'm a thrift store junkie and love finding a bargain. Today we didn't find much, a new princess puzzle and the Cootie game (I LOVED that game as a kid, blast from the past).
We came home and played the game. I think the kids enjoyed themselves. That was my day, I hope you had a nice day too!

Greta at 15 months

My little girl is growing up at super speed now that she turned one. I can't believe she's 15 months already. It dawned on me that she hasn't been into the doctors for a well baby exam in quite some time. I really think those visits are worthless but she was due for her second flu shot so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. The doctor was going through the list of questions "Can she stack two blocks?", "Can she say three words?", I was saying yes to all of them. Then she gets to "Is she walking well?". I answered "Nope, not yet". The doc was shocked. I had to explain that Greta's older brother wasn't walking until 15-16 months and that I wasn't worried at all. The doctor then did a bunch of typing on her little lap top and I then remembered why I dislike well baby visits so much. The unneeded worrying. I know my child is right on track for her development, I don't need them telling me any different. I'll get off my soapbox now.

As if Greta knew something was up, she took three steps yesterday on her own. I'm so proud of her! Go Greta!

 

 Greta 15 month percentiles:

Weight: 24 lbs 4 oz (66%)

Height: 30.25 in (39%)

Head Circumference:  48.5 cm (97%)

Firsts

This weekend was a weekend of firsts. We discovered that Miss Greta has her first tooth coming in. The spoon scraped something during dinner and sure enough she has a little tiny tooth popping through. Yeah Greta! She's going to need that tooth now that she's started feeding herself. I just spread little things like Cheerios and diced banana on her high chair tray and she goes to town getting it all in her mouth. It's made mealtimes much more enjoyable since I can now feed myself instead of the baby.

Another first: we have vegetables in the garden ready to eat! We were outside poking around the garden when I looked at the massive zucchini plants only to discover some ready to pluck. It was silly how excited I was to see them there. I gave them to Wesley to bring inside and he immediately asked if he could eat them. I told him we'd eat them for dinner. And eat them we did, I drizzled them with olive oil and salt and pepper and sauteed them up. They were so good. There were so many little tiny ones out there that I'm going to be swimming in zucchini. It's going to be a zucchini bread summer! Mmmmm.....zucchini bread.....drool.



The garden is getting big!


So is the little boy in the garden!


Wesley loves going through my box of seeds out in the shop. They are just left overs from the garden so I don't mind if he plays with them. He asked if he could plant them so I took a tray and filled it with compost and dirt and made little rows for him. He took the seeds and did the rest with a little instruction from me. That was a week ago and now he's got this cool little garden that he waters every day. Sometimes throughout the day I'll look over at him and he'll be crouched down in front of it just looking at it. He seems fascinated with growing things, that makes me happy. He planted sunflowers, beans, okra and cilantro. We'll transplant it all out of his tray soon.

Inner Monkey

Yesterday morning I had just sat down at the computer with my breakfast when I heard a "THUD" followed by Wesley's door opening and his little voice saying "Is anyone down there?!"

This might not seem like anything special, but it is. Yesterday was the first time Wesley has ever climbed out of his crib. In almost three years of sleeping in his crib this was the first time he's brought out his inner monkey and climbed out of it. I was so proud. I actually gave him a high five. Seriously.

His toddler bed has been parked up in his room ever since I found it at a garage sale back in April but he's not been interested in sleeping in it. He LOVES his crib. I told myself that he'd move into his toddler bed by his third birthday or when he started climbing out of his crib. Whatever came first.

So last night he ventured into the world of the "Big Boys" and slept in his toddler bed. I was expecting problems, you know the constant waking and getting out of his bed. Exploring his new cribless freedom. Well he didn't wake up once, slept the whole night without getting out even once. In fact in the morning I heard him awake up there so I snuck up there and peered into his room to find him sitting on his bed playing with his toys. He did so well, we're so proud of him. It's nice to now be a one crib family.

Bring on the spoon

Miss Greta was served her first solid food this evening. It was time. She watches every bite I place in my mouth at dinner time and won't let my fork out of her sight. She sucked down her watery rice cereal like a champ and thus starts her love affair with real food.

Giggle Girl

Month Five

Miss Greta turns five months old today!

I'm happy to report that Greta is officially weaned out of the swaddling blanket. After the doctors appointment I felt it was time to release her from her "baby straight jacket". I was so afraid that she'd somehow not sleep well without it but she did fine the first night. Never used it again after that. I think her being dependent on it was all in my head.

This month she also decided that sleeping rocks! Something clicked and she'll now go long stretches of the night without waking. Usually she gets up once or twice in a 12 hour span. I'm totally fine with once or twice. It's usually 2 am and 7 am and then she sleeps until 11 am. It's so nice to get some sleep again. I feel like a whole new person.

She's sitting up now, with support of course. She'll even put her little hands out between he chubby thighs and form a little "tripod". She's just growing so fast, it's crazy!

She officially rolled over this past week on Tuesday from belly to back. She's rolled several more times since then. It seems like she's really trying for back to belly as well but it's much harder for her.

I'm excited to start her on solids in the next couple of weeks. Rice cereal to start and I hope by the time she's six months old we'll be starting veggies. I'm really looking forward to starting the baby food again. It will be nice for her to sit with us at dinner time and eat as well.

Furniture Movers

First off, Greta hit one of her first milestones on Sunday. She had her first laugh. Sean had her sitting on his lap and she leaned back and looked at him over her shoulder and let out a giggle. It was kind of like she was thinking "who is this goofy guy holding me?". I popped my head out from in the kitchen and asked if that was a laugh and sure enough she let out another giggle. It was precious.

My folks came over on Sunday evening for some enchiladas and brownies (yea not exactly diet food I know). We got to show them what we accomplished over the weekend. We moved a lot of furniture around on Saturday. We removed furniture from the whole middle of the house so we can start the floor project that so badly needs to be started. Sean is going to start chipping up the terra cotta tile that was torn up when we had foundation work done on the house three years ago (three years! Seems like yesterday). We plan to replace it with a floating wood floor. I can't wait! Getting rid of all that tile will take some time but now, in the dead of winter, is the perfect time for indoor projects. I know, easy for me to say when I won't be chipping up tiles.

Grandpa and Greta



The basement has progressively become quite a nice little playroom for Wesley. After this weekend, it now contains pretty much all of his toys. I was tired of his play kitchen and tiny table and chairs being in the living room so down they went to join every other toy in the house. He likes it down there and I just love having an area that he can play and be as destructive as he needs to be. It's nice to have a "grown-up" living room again, I almost forgot what it was like. Now, just two-to-three short years before I can move a coffee table up in front of the couch again (the coffee table was removed after several bonks and bruises when Wesley was learning to crawl and walk....now we just have to let Greta get past that stage for it to return). Anyways, that's all we've been up to, just moving on to the newest house project.

Playing in the basement

Eating with the big kids

The transition out of the high chair has officially started. Wesley has been showing an interest in eating at the table with us so today I got the booster chair, that was kindly loaned to us, and strapped it to the chair. Then for dinner tonight he sat there looking like a big kid, eating his dinner with us. It was kind of sad not to see him in his high chair, but I suppose the next little one will be in it soon enough.