Make That Two

Remember when I posted about Curtis getting his first tooth? Well, make that two. Right after that, the other bottom one started pushing through the gums. It quickly cut through part of the way and was all the way through the gums by the next Monday after his first tooth (May 14th).

I went through a bunch of pictures, and this is probably the only one where you can see his little teeth.

And remember when I posted about Eleanor losing her first tooth? Well, make that two. The other one had been a little wiggly, and I had been encouraging her to wiggle it often since we need it out of the way for that grown up tooth to move forward. Well, one of the times Eleanor had her finger on her tooth, Phaedra bumped her, making the tooth much more wiggly (and Eleanor much more whiney because her sister had caused her pain). The tooth mostly wiggled side to side because it was pretty cramped by the new tooth coming in behind.

It looked like such a snaggletooth, tilting to one side. She has a little Oragel on her chin. We were prepping her for Daddy’s tooth removal services.

Eleanor has been so brave, and I think she gets sick of having the wiggly teeth because they make it pretty hard to eat. She asked her daddy last Thursday (May 24th) to pull it out. He tried to pull it with his fingers, but he couldn’t get a very good grip on it. Luckily, I read a friend’s blog who is married to a dentist, and I have cringed my way through a few of her posts about removing her kids’ teeth. So we tried one of their methods (I figure if it’s good enough for a dentist, it’s good enough for us) and got out the floss. Grant was able to slip the floss under the really loose side of the tooth and pop it right out.

Our happy, toothless girl. I couldn’t help but notice and snicker at how she said her Ses during family prayer that night. When the prayer was over, she announced, “My Ses sizzle!” We had to use our paper tooth fairy envelope again because Mommy hasn’t had time for sewing. Hopefully she’ll hold off on losing teeth for a while so I can get something made. For the first tooth, Eleanor got a $5 bill, and for the second, she got coins to equal $1. This tooth fairy makes a big deal out of the first tooth. Also, this tooth fairy needs to remember to have cash readily available .

Somebody is really having a hard time being left out of all the tooth excitement. She is just sure her teeth are wiggly, and she wanted me to take a picture of her mouth, too.

It Was the Best of Times . . .

Grant and I pointed out over the weekend that we have so much to celebrate right now, and yet there are also some major frustrations in our life at the same time.

I don’t want to dwell on the frustrations. They mostly have to do with Grant’s work. It seems to me like every time Grant has a great leader who actually encourages him and becomes a mentor, they don’t last long in that department with all of its drama and backstabbing. We just said goodbye to another good one.

On the brighter side, Grant is graduating from his MPA program this June (he completed the courses by the end of December, but he’s going to walk in June). He has been asked to speak at the hooding ceremony for the Public Administration department, and right after that ceremony, he will receive a special honor for having a GPA above 3.9. Last Thursday, we found out that Grant was accepted into the OSU Community College Leadership PhD program. I knew he would get in all along, but it was nice to have that confirmed. I’m happy for him now; I’m hoping that happiness will last these next few years while he attends the classes. But at least (when that’s over) he’ll finally be done.

I think I’ll put my foot down and tell him he can’t get any more degrees for a while after that .

I might be crazy, but I registered for the triathlon put on by our stake Relief Society this year. I’m hoping to participate in all 3 events, but we’ll see how much training I’ll be able to do. So far, I’m working on running. I’ve been able to go running after the kids are in bed a few times a week, and I’m slowly increasing my distance. I’m borrowing a bike. We’ve been trying to figure out what would be the best fit for me, and of course, the size I need is between the two sizes I have available to borrow. I’ll probably end up using my mom’s bike, which is a little big, but it should work. Then I have to figure out if it’s easier to get a gym membership or to pay once a visit to go swim somewhere, and I have to figure out when I can do it since not many places are open after my kids are in bed. Whew! So that’s what I have ahead of me, but it feels good to be working toward a goal.

Grant and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. The time has gone by so quickly, and every day I am grateful that I married my best friend. We did several things to celebrate. Our getaway as a family to the beach a couple weeks ago was anniversary inspired. The kids and I also tagged along on a work trip Grant took to Bend during the week last week.

Last Friday (the actual day of our anniversary), Eleanor was so excited about celebrating our special day. In the morning, she told me, “Mommy, you just rest right there on the couch today, and I’ll take care of everything. I’ll even make us lunch. And Daddy, when you get home from work, you just relax in that chair.” When I picked up Eleanor from school, her teacher even told me happy anniversary.

Eleanor was so excited to make lunch for us, so I let her, even though she doesn’t have a lot of sandwich making experience. I even let Phae get in on the fun by making her own sandwich, with just a little help. Eleanor made her “special anniversary recipe” peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She was so excited about them that she made a half sandwich for Daddy when he came home to go with his dinner:

Her recipe calls for a little dab of peanut butter on top (she had wanted to spread the whole top with peanut butter when she made mine, but I had seen how much peanut butter went inside it and insisted that not much was needed on top).

Grant came home from work with these (so much for not getting each other anything):The kids were pretty excited about the flowers, too.

Grant and I put the kids to bed that night and took some sleeping bags (and a baby monitor) out to the backyard so we could lay and watch the stars and talk about our lives. We have fond memories of spending time talking and looking at the stars during our courtship and even pre-courtship, if you could call our “just friends” time pre-courtship. Those times don’t really seem that long ago, and yet so much has happened in between.

I’m amazed to have been married 10 years to Grant and not to have had more bumps along the way. I think I always looked at my parents’ marriage (which ended in divorce), with all the struggles they had, and I thought all marriages would be like that. In fact, the first few fights we had as newlyweds, I thought we were doomed and already on the pathway to divorce (because healthy couples never fight, right?). Everyone always says marriage is hard work. I can see the perspective, but for me, my marriage has been a vacation from the hard work of life. If there is any challenge or struggle that I have faced, I have been blessed to have a loving, supportive partner to help me through it. Sure, we’ve had disagreements along the way, but I guess I never thought I would make it through 10 years of marriage without scars or dents, if you will, in our relationship. I am so grateful that Grant and I have always been able to tell each other anything, and we can always talk through things. We may have bruises here and there, but I don’t feel like anything remains unhealed. I think we have only gotten better with time as we have learned how each other tick. I will happily spend another 10, 20, 50, 100+ years with my sweetie!

On Saturday, my mom came over to watch the kids so Grant and I could go out for a little day date. Grant and I had tossed around all sorts of ideas about what we should do for our anniversary, and we decided we just wanted to wander around downtown, unencumbered and spontaneous. We wandered into some bike shops and checked out bikes for me or him. We happened upon the one running store in Salem, which I wouldn’t have known about if it hadn’t been for the fact that someone from that store gave a seminar (which I missed) on running for the triathlon. So we wandered in to find out what kind of shoes were best for me. The sales guy spent a ton of time with me, explaining everything and finding just the right fit. When we were done, I expected us to say, “Thank you,” and leave, but Grant told him to box up the shoes we determined were best for me.

So I got new running shoes .

We went to lunch at The Wild Pear and then headed home to grab our kids so we could say goodbye to Grant’s boss who was packing up to leave.

I went running in my new shoes Saturday evening. It felt great! I had been using some old cross trainers (made for walking and running) with a set of 11ish-year-old orthotics inside. I never realized how heavy they were until I was using those running shoes! It was almost like I had been resistance training, and when I ran with my new shoes, I was lighter than air. I ran 2 and 3/4 miles that night, so I’m getting closer to the 3.1 I’ll do at the triathlon. Then I just need to train for biking and swimming while maintaining my running. Ha! No problem, right? We’ll see!

Guess What . . .

Tonight, with a little help from Daddy, Eleanor lost her very first tooth.

It was really loose. Grant tried pulling it last night, but I guess it didn’t work. He told her to keep wiggling it. It was so wiggly that she could close her mouth with it in front of her top tooth. Tonight, I suggested Grant put a little Oragel around it before he tried to pull it (man, I wish they had that stuff back when I was losing teeth!). That seemed to do the trick. They went into the bathroom while I made myself busy. I put on a brave face, but I’m so squeamish about teeth. In fact, pictures of other people’s kids like the above one of Eleanor usually make me cringe. Maybe I’m getting tougher now that my own daughter is going through it.

The only screams that came from the bathroom came from Phaedra. She’s very disappointed she doesn’t have a loose tooth and can’t wait until she is Eleanor’s age so she can have loose teeth.

Eleanor was so excited! She loves the new hole in her mouth, and she told me she can’t wait until she gets to tell her teachers at school.

I’ve been meaning to make something to hang on her door for the tooth fairy ever since her teeth started wiggling, but I haven’t gotten around to it. So in a moment of inspiration, we fashioned an envelope with some pipe cleaner to hang on her door so the tooth fairy won’t have to worry about going in and waking anyone up or the tooth getting lost under her pillow.

I don’t know if you can see it in this picture, but she already has her adult tooth growing in on the bottom behind the one that didn’t fall out. I was so freaked out when I first saw it, but apparently, it’s more common than I thought. The baby tooth in front of it is a little loose. I hope it gets wiggling better soon so we can get it out of there!

My baby just keeps growing up!

Do you/did you save your kids’ teeth? My mom saved mine, and I think she offered them to me once I was older. I was totally grossed out and said I would pass. I’m not very tempted to save teeth unless there would be a very good reason. It seems kind of like saving the part of the belly button that falls off. I saved Eleanor’s, but then I came across it a year or so later, got grossed out, and threw it away. I threw away Phae’s and Curtis’ stumps, too.

Our Little Getaway

We were able to get away as a family for an early anniversary celebration at the coast last weekend. The photo from the last post was taken in the beach house. I love the light in that beach house. The light reflecting off the water on (usually) cloudy days just makes for such perfect photos. I could sit in that beach house and take pictures of my kids all day.

It was so nice to go and just spend time as a family and relax. There’s something so renewing about the ocean. Whenever we go walking on the beach, I feel so tempted to trail behind my family and just watch them, let it soak in, save that moment in my mind so I can keep that feeling with me always. I feel so overcome with love for them. Even when they’re unhappy. Grant and I came to the conclusion that 3 is the age for crying on the beach (especially when they do a face-plant running from the waves)—Eleanor certainly went through it, but now she loves the beach. Now it’s Phaedra’s turn to go through this phase.

Grant is mean.

I have tons more pictures I want to post if I ever get the time, but I wanted to at least make a start.

First Tooth

Curtis cut his first tooth today. He’s exactly 7 and 1/2 months old. I think he’s spot on with when Phaedra got her first tooth, too. I didn’t get a picture of it yet. It’s barely peeking through the gums anyway.

I just included this picture because I love it. Seriously, can you handle the cuteness of this boy? I can’t.

There are two things that Curtis was doing that were just cracking me up about a week ago. I was trying to get a video, but he doesn’t do it as much anymore. If he does either of them again (when Grant is home since he has our only form of a video recorder—his phone—sigh), I’ll try really hard to get a video. The first is his doorstop fascination. You know those doorstops that are attached to the baseboards, the ones that are like a tight spring with a knob on the end? He was fascinated with the one we have in our family room, except he was also terrified of it. Whenever he noticed it, he had to go over and investigate it. He inevitably ended up bumping it or batting at it so it made its “sproinggg” sound, which frightened him. He would cry and start crawling as fast as he could to get to me. Every. Single. Time. It made me laugh so hard. Now, he’s getting a little more used to it; he still races to me once in a while after bumping it.

The other funny is his crawl growl. As soon as he started army crawling, he realized he could get into everything. With each scootch he did, he would let out a little growl-grunt, and he did it even more when he knew he was heading for something he shouldn’t have. It was like having a little dinosaur exploring my floors or a baby Tasmanian devil or something. It was so adorable. I tried really hard to capture that on video, but of course, he crawled silently every time I got the chance to take a video of him. He still does it once in a while. I’ll try to catch it.