The First Actual "Lost Tooth"

Will has caught up to and surpassed Alex in the realm of lost teeth. Just a few weeks ago, on February 3rd, Will was eating an apple at school and jostled one of his bottom teeth loose. When he showed it to us that Friday evening, it was quite loose. It bothered him a little, so we told him to leave it alone until morning and get some sleep.

Loose Tooth

The next morning, we were having a spirited debate about how long it takes to lose a tooth. We were in the process of making Hillary ask Siri when Will announced that his tooth had come out! So, it took less than 24 hours from loose to out.Lost Tooth

We asked Will if he wanted to keep the tooth or trade it to the Tooth Fairy for money. Unlike Alex, who is still holding on to his tooth that he had extracted last December, Will is all about the exchange for cold-hard-cash. Unfortunately, the exchange was a bit difficult. Will had just been to a sleepover the weekend before and still had his sleeping bag out and up in his bed. I had not actually witnessed him putting the envelope under his pillow. I think he put it under his head, tucked into the head part of the sleeping bag. Plus, he sleeps on the top bunk of the kids' bed. So after he fell asleep, I'm in there standing on Alex's slightly creaky bed, reaching up to Will's bed, looking everywhere among the pillows and animals and blankets and sleeping bags for the green envelope. I did not find it. Fortunately Dan was available to save the day! He boldly went up there, physically moved Will around, found the envelope and completed the exchange. Will was very excited to find the $2 bill in his envelope the next morning. However, during the time where the boys get their 'job commissions' for the week, he traded it and three other dollars for a five dollar bill. He's just too young to understand that a $2 bill is unique.

All we heard about for the next two weeks was how awesome it was that he could trade teeth for money. He was very excited last Friday when he realized that another tooth was loose.

This one was a little slower to come out. Tonight, I examined the tooth, finding it not very well connected, but not loose enough that I could get a good grip and pull it by hand. So, I asked Will if I could tie a string to it. He agreed. I tied some floss to the tooth and left it, hoping that he would tug on it and pull it out.

String Attached to Tooth

He did pull a little on the string, just enough to disconnect the root and cause a little blood to get on the string. I told him not to freak out, but there was a little blood on the string. He kind of freaked out just a little. He strongly suggested that I take the string out. Given that I had tied a slip knot on the tooth, it really wasn't coming out any other way, so I pulled to remove both string and tooth very easily. This caused Will to freak out just a little more so we placated him with a popsicle. All is well and the tooth is safely in an envelope. I'll send Dan up for the exchange from the beginning tonight.

Bottom tooth Gap

I have realized a few things through this experience.

1. Having two parents comes in handy for many things, this included.
2. If your child hasn't lost any teeth yet, I recommend the construction of a "tooth pillow" that will making the tooth easier to find for the Tooth Fairy.
3. When you get special money for the Tooth Fairy to deliver, remember to get more than one. It seems the tooth losing process really takes off after the first one, especially if your child is getting super close to age six like Will. I had Dan get three $2 bills back on that first Friday when tooth number one was loose. One for the first tooth, one for a second future tooth, and one if Alex changed his mind about his tooth and the Tooth Fairy monetary exchange.
4. The reason my parents wanted to pull my teeth out using strings and doorknobs and other crazy methods...

It stops the whining.

The Secret to Kids and Writing Thank You Notes

Learning to express gratitude is something that kids will eventually learn after much observation on their part of others expressing gratitude. Practicing the act of expressing gratitude can also help them to learn. A part of the learning process can be writing thank you notes when they receive a gift or card.

Of course, this is easier said than done sometimes. Kids would much rather tear through opening a stack of presents. Sitting around writing Thank You notes while the newly opened gifts sit there, not being played with, is no contest if you let the kids decide what to do.

Fortunately, we have discovered the secret to getting kids to write thank you notes. We haven't quite figured out how to apply it to the Christmas frenzy of gifts, for those of you wondering when the Christmas thank you notes will come to you. Don't worry, we are working on it. But, in the case of birthday presents, we have it down.

The secret? One present at a time. Fortunately, the custom of opening presents during the birthday party is not very common right now. So, we wait until after the party to start on the stack of presents. Of course, I include in all party invitations, that I would prefer that guests simply bring a card and no present, that presents are optional since the boys really don't need more stuff. But, we still end up with some presents. The procedure worked this way for Alex's recent birthday:

• Alex picks a present, tells me who it is from.
• I start writing on the card, Dear... and address the envelope
• Alex opens the present
• I ask Alex for his thoughts or feedback on said present and add them to the note
• Alex signs the thank you note
• Signing of Thank you note is rewarded with ability to open an additional present
• Repeat
  

Of course, he has figured out that the last card has no incentive. So, we get to talk about why we are actually writing the cards, gratitude, being thankful for what we have, what we actually need, etc.

Thank you cards written, in the mail the same day of the party, social mission accomplished, grattitude lesson, check.

One other exercise that I want to try with the boys is, perhaps on my birthday, I'll overtly go through the process of writing them a Thank You note and post it in the mail (or just do pretend mail where it ends up in the mail box the next day) to let them know how much I appreciate their gift. This would also work with perhaps writing them a note out of the blue to let them know how much I enjoy having them as my boys, one for each of them talking about their specific individual traits that I appreciate. I hope that would get them thinking about what they appreciate about others. Who knows, maybe we will write some notes to Dan. Alex is all about how awesome Dan is right now. :)

The First "Lost" Tooth

It has finally happened, a boy has lost a tooth in our household. Although "lost" is more like "extracted" and "safely kept in a tooth-shaped box."



Alex the Loser of a Tooth
Alas, it was not Will, the oldest, who had the honor of losing the first tooth. Poor little Alex had an encounter with the corner of a counter back in October 2010. He was too short to see over the counter, so he grabbed the top of it and used his feet to climb up to see over. Unfortunately, he slipped and hit his mouth on the counter, splitting his chin open, cutting the inside of his mouth, and killing his top tooth.

The Injury
I took him to the urgent care, we got him examined and patched up with some of that purple super glue and thought all was well. However, at his next dentist appointment, the dentist asked about the "gray tooth" and if it bothered him. I had not noticed the slight discoloration of the tooth. The X-Ray confirmed that Alex did indeed have a dead tooth. Further examination revealed an abscess. He received antibiotics for the abscess which receded. At his next dentist appointment, the diagnosis was still the same and even though the abscess was not bothering him, it was a possibility that, if left untreated, it could damage the enamel of the permanent tooth. We got a referral to an oral surgeon since the tooth was firmly fixed in place and not coming out with our efforts.

Alex, by this point, was fairly aware of the fact that his tooth needed to come out. We had been talking about it and trying to wiggle it for months. We had discussed the possibility of going to a special dentist who could maybe wiggle it better with some nifty grabbers. I even tried to sweeten the deal with the lure of the tooth fairy bringing money.

Rejection of the Tooth Fairy
Alex would have none of it. He didn't want the tooth fairy to take his tooth away, even with the promise of financial gain. He wanted to keep it. So we got the super cute tooth box.

Show and Tell
It turns out that the Friday before the Monday of the scheduled extraction, Alex was due for show and tell at school. So we sent him in with the tooth box and a copy of his x-ray showing the dead root. He was a little tentative during show and tell, but glad he was able to bring his tooth box in. He was also reassured by his teacher who had a similar injury when she was small.

Commence Extraction
We explained the whole process of getting a tooth extracted, how there was laughing gas and the grabbers. Alex seemed cool with this. We always brought it back to how he would get to put his tooth in his special tooth box and how our efforts of wiggling it just weren't working to get the tooth out. When the day of the extraction came, he was excited to leave school early for his appointment, and went to the oral surgeon without complaint. He was totally fine at the discussion part of the appointment. The oral surgeon asked about how he might do during the extraction and I confirmed that Alex would be fine with only laughing gas. (If it would have been Will, we would have completely knocked him out.) During the extraction, Alex was calm, helpful, responded well to direction and it didn't phase him a bit. He was as excited as he could be, having just come off laughing gas, to put his tooth in the tooth box.

Recovery
The only time Alex had trouble during the whole thing was on the way home after the extraction. His numbing shots were wearing off and he started feeling a little sore. After a bit of ibuprofen and about 2 hours of watching a movie on the TV, he was better. I tried to give him ibuprofen the next morning and he refused, completely fine with life.

As part of the whole process, I promised Alex that he could have ice cream after the extraction. We had read in the book, "What People Do All Day" that after tonsil extraction, you get ice cream. He was very excited to tell the oral surgeon that he would be going out for Superman Ice Cream. And that was the day that I learned that Superman Ice Cream doesn't exist in California, it is purely a Michigan thing. Fortunately Alex was placated by some rainbow sherbert posing as Superman ice cream.

Not Superman Ice Cream!

As it is typically a pain to treat the boys' injuries, I was relieved to get off easy on this one. I'm so glad that Alex didn't have a bad dentist experience and came out of it smiling. He does have a slight whistle when he says words with "S" in them sometimes, but it's more cute than annoying. :)

Can Still Eat Bread, Even Without Tooth

Who will lose the next tooth? I really hope it's Will. Silly 5-and-a-half-year-old doesn't seem to have a loose tooth on him. As long as they don't knock them out, I'm a happy mom.

I wonder if Will is interested in the monetary gain of trading teeth to the Tooth Fairy...

Will as the Grammar Police

It seems that in addition to reading, Will has taken it upon himself to correct grammar. One day, after I picked him up from school early, we went back to my office so that I could wrap up some work. I gave him my calendar and my markers. He did some normal things, such as drawing a picture of him and Alex celebrating Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving and he wrote the month numbers on the little months at the bottom of the calendar. I'm not sure why it looks like July and August are exploding with blue suns, but I'm sure there is a reason. He also wrote "Dec" in green after the last day of November on the calendar grid. So I think it's safe to say he understands calendars and dates.

The remaining question is, "What are all of those orange lines?"

If you look closely, you will see that they all originate from the text "with 's"

The original one points to the 29th where I had written "Read Will Class" My intention was basically "Read - Will's Class" I also had "Read Alex Class." Will decided that it should be, "Read with Will's Class" and "Read with Alex's Class" so he wrote the "with 's" and drew lines to every calendar event where the reading events were mis-labeled.

The end result - when I look at my calendar and realize it is the day to go listen to Will and his classmates or Alex and his classmates read to me, I get the message grammatically.

Happy Pottery Anniversary to Us!

November 16 marked our 9th anniversary. According to the list of traditional anniversary gifts, this one requires a gift of pottery. According to the fact that we have children, out time is not usually our own. (We did get away to Chicago back in July while leaving the kids camping in Michigan with Grandpa and Grandma, don't worry, we have some time to our selves.)

Given the pottery and children combination, the natural conclusion is that we should go to an overpriced pottery 'studio' and paint some pottery. Also, as we just implemented an allowance system, we convinced the boys that their overpriced pottery should be practical piggy banks.

Will, being Will, took this interpretation literally. He got a pig-shaped piggy bank. Alex, on the other hand, got a penguin bank. Will was thoughtful about his choice, and picked the more expensive overpriced piggy bank because, "it will hold more coins!"

Will the Serious Artist

Painting the Penguin Bank

Unfired Painted Pottery

The boys wanted to take the banks home that day, but had to wait a week so that they could be fired. This is how they turned out...

Will's Japanese Picture Pose Required due to presence of cute piggy bank
Alex is taking the stance, I've got a penguin bank, can you dig it?

So next anniversary is the "tin/aluminum" anniversary? Any suggestions? I've already told Dan that he can abandon the traditional gift theme for the modern one. :)

The Spoiled Little Bookworm

For all of your bookworms out there, do you remember bedtime? The time of the day where you would sneak a book into your bed, hidden out of sight until your parents left the room? For those of you who were super sneaky, perhaps a flashlight would accompany this book to assist with the reading under the covers? As a kid, I didn't think my parents knew that I would read when I was supposed to be sleeping. As a parent, I'm just relieved at night when the kids are quiet and in bed. They could be plotting to paint the outside of the house purple with yellow polka dots for all I care, as long as they are quiet! Perhaps my parents were aware of nighttime reading, but just glad for some peace and quiet. In any case, Will learned to read, and read well, during 2011. And since Alex has given up naps, needs to get in bed early-ish, and refuses to stay in bed unless Will is in the room with him, we have developed a compromise. Will is required to be in bed at the same time as Alex. Once Alex is asleep, he gets his brand-new-early-Christmas-present booklight.

Reading in Bed with his 34 animals
(that's what happens when you avoid attachment to any one item)

No more squinting in the dark trying to read by the hall light! Now he just needs a little pocket to attach to his bed to store the booklight. That way, he won't have to bother us when he is done reading, thus maintaining our peace and quite into the night.

Alex the Fashion-ista

Alex is a California boy. A California boy with specific fashion demands. For example, he will only wear shorts. And he is very specific about his shirts. This started about a year ago when we had his dresser drawers organized into:

Top: Socks, Underwear, Pajamas
Middle: Shirts
Bottom: Pants

We noticed that Alex would complain about specific shirts. "That is a bad shirt!" After a while, we asked him to help us separate the good shirts from the bad shirts. This helped with the process of getting dressed in the morning as we didn't have to search through a drawer to find one of the "good shirts." It turns out that "good shirts" are defined as t-shirts, short sleeves, no collar, no buttons. So we created two different shirt drawers, one for good shirts and one for bad shirts. We were hoping that it was a phase and that he would go back to wearing all of his shirts, not just specific ones. But it was not. Come to think of it, I should probably empty out the bad shirt drawer and use it for something else.

So normally, you find Alex wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Although, sometimes, he gets a little creative and goes aqua-steam-punk on us.

Huntington Appropriate Attire?

What?

Now that Alex has given up napping during the day, getting dressed in the morning has become a bit more challenging because he just doesn't wake up quickly from his deep nighttime sleep. So, we have solved the dressing issue in another way. We dress him for the next day the evening before. Yeah, so we don't really need a place for jammies anymore either.

Back to the shorts versus pants issue... we just took a short vacation to Colorado a couple of weeks ago. I was genuinely worried that we wouldn't be able to convince Alex to wear anything other than shorts. However, by combining the fact that we didn't pack very many shorts with the practice of dressing him the night before, we managed to get him into pants for his trek at higher altitudes. He probably didn't realize how much more fun wearing pants made the throwing of snow balls on Pike's peak. And, thankfully, he wore the coat we brought along too.

Crossing the Stream with Dad

Timely moral of the story: Should you decided that you need to get Alex clothes for Christmas or his Birthday or anytime in the near future... It's going to have to be shorts and t-shirts for now. We tried, we really tried, to get him to wear the long-sleeved t-shirts that Grandma and Grandpa sent to him (since they don't sell short sleeves in the winter in Michigan). He made an effort, pushed the sleeves as close to his shoulders as he could, but they just didn't stay.

Perhaps it's a phase...

Building a Dam

When I was a kid, we had quite the area to play. At mom's house, our yard was at least an acre. We had a large pond stocked with fish over in the side yard. We had a field behind our house and could hike back to a stream in the woods. At dad's house, we had hills in the yard, a huge field behind the house where we could hike back to the "rock stop" on the way to the stream back there.

My kids? They aren't exposed to quite enough nature, in my opinion. This is ok as we love our house and love Southern California weather and love our jobs here. So, when it comes to building dams to stop streams of water, they make do in our backyard. Our backyard has some grass, but is mostly concrete as it is the result of the driveway coming from the street, past the east side of our house, then around the back to the garage which is on the west side of our property. This is a great space for our merry-go-round, more recently our little pool, and creating dams where the water runs down from the higher part of the concrete yard down the drain that ultimately ends up in the street.


The scraps of wood are leftovers from the re-build of the merry-go-round. I gave them to the kids after hearing myself repeat for the 100th time, "Leave the sand in the sandbox!" However, they still don't leave the sand in the sandbox, because the wooden pieces seem to need sand mortar to help stop the water.

Disadvantage: We have to buy more sand, yet again, for the sandbox.

Advantage: If I need to get something done in the house, all I have to do is turn on the hose for a couple of minutes, and they are entertained for quite a while.