The Tooth, The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth

Jocelyn had a really unfortunate turn of events this week.  She had injured one of her front two teeth (well both of them, but one was really bad) last October in a bike crash.  On the initial trip to the dentist after the accident she told us it was definitely loose and probably dead so we needed to watch for certain signs that would let us know if she needed to pull the tooth.  Me, being the hopeful mom that I am, started to get really excited because the tooth seemed to almost look less brown lately and she wasn’t complaining of it being as sensitive when we brushed her teeth.  Well, on Monday when I went to brush her teeth I jumped almost a mile because right above the dead tooth was an abscess about the size of the diamond in my wedding ring!  Yuck!  It came out of nowhere!  

We scheduled with the dentist to have it looked at the next day and sure enough, they pulled it right there and then.  Jocelyn was amazingly brave and only lost composure after the procedure when she was forced to bite down on gauze for 20 minutes and taste the blood, so we brought her straight home.  Before I even had time to borrow her requested movie from the next door neighbors, Jocelyn had sacked out on the couch.  I’m afraid I was the one that was really mourning the loss of her tooth. 

Now she is without one of her front teeth and, don’t you worry, apparently it doesn’t grow in for another 3-4 years!!   The doctor was prepping me for the procedure and when I asked her about the length of time for the new tooth to come in.  She replied: “Oh, 7 or 8.”  To which I replied “months?”   No, the dentist said, “age 7 or 8.”  Apparently a bone will grow in place of the missing tooth and the new tooth will have to push through the bone to come down so it will be a long process.  We discussed several options about a false temporary tooth whether removable or semi-permanent and, for valid reasons, the dentist advised against both for her age and situation.  I’m pretty bummed about the whole thing because I don’t want her to have a stigma attached to the whole thing but we'll work through it.  Of course, as my sister reminded me, I need to keep it in perspective because this is just a baby tooth and if we lived in the 1800s she could have died from the infection SO I guess I am grateful she is in good overall health, right?

 Before

 During

After (Lilly wanted to show off her teeth as well)

 Lillian has regressed big time lately with her potty training.  She has done well for about 6 months and even through the birth of the baby, etc.  However, in the last week I have had to clean up accident after accident.  And not just little “I didn’t make it to the toilet in time” situations, but multiple poops in the panties, peeing all over the floor at friends’ houses, puddles all over my carpet, etc.  What is up with that?  I should probably keep things in perspective since Jocelyn was barely potty training at this age, and I didn’t have two kids in diapers like last time, but seriously??  I think we might have to go back to our “beans in the jar” routine so she can earn something if she can keep her panties dry all day.  But it seems as if she doesn’t even care or get disappointed about it like she used to.  I’m at a loss…

Twirly Skirts, Mission Calls & Wedding Plans

My sister Kelsey received her mission call yesterday and will be going to the Brazil Belo Horizonte mission for 18 mos. for our church.  She reports September 21^st directly to the Brazil missionary training center.  The girls will miss their aunt Kelsey desperately so we are hoping we can get her out here for a visit before she leaves.  We are all very excited for her and I’m super jealous that she, Brian, Nate, Tausha and mom will be leaving so soon to visit my cousin in London and my sister and her family in Russia.  I did this exact trip 10 years ago, so part of me says “that’s so great that they can go have a fun trip” while part of me just wants to jump on the plane with them! 

 My girls have definitely benefited from Nana living in rainy Washington, away from her usual social life.  She has been so good at sending packages, sewing them darling skirts, and finding other cute items for their summer wardrobes!  My mom has been asking for pictures to make sure the skirts fit the girls so I thought I would showcase my mom’s amazing talent with recent pictures of the girls! They both have skirts of each color/design and they usually insist on wearing them the same days, but looking through my pictures I realized I don't have any of them together wearing the same skirt, so here they are separate.

We are also excited to head to Utah this summer for Greg (Jared's brother) and Maren's wedding!!  We were able to have them come visit during their spring break and we loved getting to know Maren.  The girls immediately adopted Maren as an "aunt" and are so excited to officially welcome her as part of the family.  Here is a picture of them on their visit during spring break. 

 And, of course I couldn't resist posting a recent picture of Jonas eating some carrots.  Jonas continues to grow up before our eyes and is now 6 months old.  He is getting awfully close to sitting up on his own, but for the moment he needs assistance from several pillows or his mother!  He is blowing raspberries like a pro and thinks he is especially funny when he does this while I’m trying to feed him rice cereal.  That stuff is like paste and he gets it all over the place…Another little trick he has pulled lately is to fall asleep wherever he might be playing.  He has fallen asleep in his jumper two times and in his little high chair one time.  It is such a sad and comical little sight to turn around to check on why he is being so quiet, only to see him sacked out in the middle of playing.  I’m not sure if it is my negligence since I am occupied with his two older siblings and just don’t cue into the fact that he is tired, but I swear he gives me no warning sometimes.  The girls would definitely let me know with a meltdown or crying so I would put them down for naps at this age, but all three times with Jonas I was just waiting for him to start a meltdown or show signs of being tired for a morning nap and he just crashed!

Easter

Easter weekend was a lot of fun.  Friday night the girls set out their baskets along with notes and carrots for the Easter Bunny.  We have a tradition to hide each Easter basket in a different location but the girls don’t really remember that since they are so young.  Well, the girls woke up super early and attempted to get us out of bed to which Jared responded “just go downstairs and see if the Easter Bunny ate your carrots” knowing very well that they would freak out when they saw their baskets missing.  They indeed had a freak out and came upstairs reporting “The Easter bunny took a bite out of each of our carrots and stole our baskets!!”   

Jared and I had a good laugh and finally at 7:00 after I had fed the baby and we could wake up a little we went downstairs to help them find their baskets.  Jared had to work after that, but the kids and I went to the community Earth Day celebration which was a lot of fun between the “binocular making booth” (oh the fun that two toilet paper tubes can create),the “rescued animal display” with live animals, a home depot kids craft to make an herb garden and all kinds of stickers, samples, etc.  

 

Sunday the kids looked darling in their Easter best, if I do say so myself!  After church we went over to The Bedell’s house where we had a fabulous feast with everyone’s contributions, Easter egg dying , and an Easter egg hunt.  The Bedells had everything set up and organized so cute by age for all the activities and a beautiful house to boot.  For the hunt, each of the families brought 15 plastic filled eggs per kid so they had plenty to collect.  (Lilly wasn't being very photogenic that day, apparently :)  You can't win them all!

 

Lilly Girl

Lillian has been working on a couple tasks lately that she is very proud of accomplishing.  One is learning how to sign “I love you” and the other is making a “taco” tongue (which isn't working very well in the picture below because she was trying to do too many things at once, I'm afraid).  She walks around showing off her new abilities and it is pretty cute.

  I also decided her theme song is the chumba wumba song from the 90s, but modified: “I get put down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down!” because ever since Jocelyn grew out of taking naps, Lilly thinks she has as well.  This is bad news for everyone because she’s completely not ready for this.  And, since Jocelyn is so tired at night and falls asleep as her head hits the pillow, Lillian gets bored and won’t stay in bed then either!  She stood at the top of the stairs the other night as Jared and I were downstairs watching a show and in one sentence tried to cover all her bases and avoid bedtime by saying “I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, my stomach hurts, I need to use the potty, I’m hot, I’m cold and I can’t hear the music!”  It was amazing and we had to start laughing out loud!  Now that’s distraction at its finest!

  She also colored on the wall inside a friend’s house with sidewalk chalk last week and we helped her apologize and offer to clean the wall (since I only heard about it through Jocelyn the next day during dinner).  She also attempted to color on the back of our leather office chair with pen this week so she is definitely testing limits!!

While Jared's sister was in town we thought it would be fun to have Jocelyn, Lillian and their cousin Stella (a little older than Lilly) get their ears pierced together.  We took all the girls to Claire’s after talking with them about what it meant to get their ears pierced and showing them a you tube video of a little girl getting her ears pierced.  Everyone was on board until Jocelyn witnessed Lillian and Stella bravely get their ears pierced and she backed out!  I told her that was fine, it was her choice.  I reminded her of aunt Kelsey who still doesn’t have her ears pierced and aunt Emily who waited until she was much older to pierce hers.   Jocelyn shows off Lilly’s ears to everyone and tells Lilly stories to keep her happy while I put the antiseptic on every day, but it appears she is not regretting her choice at all, which doesn't surprise me.  Once Jocelyn has her mind set on something it's not easily changed! 

Lilly seems to like having her ears pierced and wanted to put her little collection of earrings up with my jewelry and tells me “Mom, I like your earrings.” I saw her talking to Jonas in his jumper one day saying, while she pointed at her ears, “Look at my pretty ears, baby.”  I’m actually kind of glad Lilly has something that is all hers and a scenario where she’s not walking in Jocelyn’s shadow.

Busy Boy

Jonas has been a VERY busy boy.  He is now bathing in our “big” bath instead of his baby bath.  Watch out, he splashes like a maniac!  He is eating rice cereal and some baby food, swinging in the little kid swing out back, and rolling over.  He is almost completely “sleep trained” which has been amazing!  My Sister in law Kristina told me about the method that she used on her twins (advocated by her pediatrician) and I swore after all of our company was gone and Jonas could have his own room again that we would implement it.  I’ve had to occupy my mind with my audio book while he’s cried it out, but overall he is doing amazing and I am feeling amazing getting more regular sleep!  He is in his crib at 9:00 pm after his bedtime routine and stays in there until 7:00 am.  I wish I would have had the guts to do this with Lillian at this age because it makes him a better eater during the day, he responds really well to the routine and we are all happier!


Spring finally came last week.  It had been raining like crazy the previous two weeks and last week it was sunshine and blue skies.  We made sure to eat lunch outside a couple times, and set up the easel for them to paint in the backyard and even baby boy was outside in his walker enjoying the fun in the shade while we planted some flowers in our little dirt pile out front.  Jonas LOVED his aunt Kristina and I don’t think I’ve heard him laugh so much or so hard in his life!  We caught some of it on our video camera and even when he just watches the video he lights up and loves it.

Cinderella's Glass Slippers

I wonder if Cinderella got this much use out of her glass slippers???

This is the second pair of princess shoes that Jocelyn has completely worn through.  Both are completely broken in half and are being held together by duct tape and scotch tape.  She seems to think they are just fine and can't bear the thought of throwing them out.  Jocelyn is very much into the Magic School Bus series lately. Every time we go to the library that's what she picks for her video and often as one of her books.  Jared is excited because it's science based, but she seems to talk more about the characters and quote the funny lines rather than focus on the scientific concepts they are studying.  Maybe it is seeping in some how...

She had a talent show at Joy School last week and after talking through several different options she decided to sing “Bringing Home my baby bumblebee” with actions and all.  It sounded like it went well except a short time where she forgot the words, but then pulled it back together at the end.  

 She taught a family home evening lesson last week about “Daniel & The Lion’s Den” complete with costumes and all.  She assigned each of us to be a character and, with only a little assistance, told the story and helped us act it out.  She and Lilly are excited to be signed up for swim lessons in June and we are still figuring out another sport or dance class for her to do that fits in our time frame and budget since we won’t be having Joy School in the summer.