First Trip to the Dentist

On yet another wet and dreary day, the mini had her first official trip to the dentist. She performed wonderfully - she let both the hygenist and the dentist look at her teeth (she has all 20 that she's supposed to have) and never cried once. They counted them, brushed them, flossed them and she was a perfect angel throughout the entire process. The dentist complimented both her and me on how good her teeth looked. Then, of course, since she was such a good girl, she got to pick a prize out of the prize box. What do you think she chose? That's right, the bright pink rubber frog. And she got to choose her very own tooth brush - purple. Then, as a special treat, she and I went to Einstein Brothers Bagels where she chose a blueberry bagel and orange juice. It was definitely a great first experience with the dentist.

A smile before the big moment.








Checking herself out in the dental mirror - what else should I have expected? She also checked out her shirt, her rain boots and the dental chair just to make sure that everything could be reflected.






She seemed mildly reluctant at first, but after very little prompting, she was more than happy to let the hygenist clean her teeth.







Open up and say aaahhhh.....












The purple toothbrush.











Woo Hoo! Nothing like a bright pink frog to make a girl happy!



Licking juice off the lid of the orange juice container at the bagel shop. Now that's an action to make any mother proud....

Another Rainy Day

It rained again last night. I taught 5th grade Sunday school this morning. It was good - we did a Bible verse find game that the kids really seemed to enjoy. After church, DH, the mini and I went out for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. We actually ate only a reasonable amount of food and then stopped. I'm so proud of us! Then we went to the mall to buy the mini some new crocs for the summer. No go. She's between sizes right now and all of the crocs are either too small or too big for her. Oh, well. Maybe her feet will grow in the next couple of weeks or something. On the way home we stopped by a local grocery store where I ran in to pick up the makings for soup. Since it's a cold, wet day, we thought soup would be great for dinner. When we got home, we ALL laid down for a nap. We slept for two whole hours, all three of us. What bliss! Then I woke up both DH and the mini and she was thrilled to help make the soup. Of course, that means that she supervised more than anything else since most of my soup-making technique (did I spell that correctly?) involes chopping veggies and opening cans, but she was thrilled nonetheless. And it was decent soup. Now we're getting ready for bed again. I think we all need a lot of sleep today.

Where Have All the Naps Gone?

The mini has been napping less and less frequently. Even though she still totally needs them. By 6:30 or 7:00 every night she's a complete roller coaster of emotion. And she can't control her urges. Her smiles get wobbly. Her voice careens between high-pitched whining and rock-concert speaker volume. Her laughter turns from sweet and gleeful to hysterical and tear-filled in less than a heartbeat. There are tears and tantrums and the inability to turn it off. She starts throwing things and hitting us. And she's so tired that she actually has trouble sitting still. She starts walking into walls and tripping over her own feet. It is one of those situations that sort of breaks your heart but at the same time you can't help but laugh at her - and then feel slightly guilty about it. But if I try to let her sleep late in the afternoon, by the time she wakes up it will completely ruin her nighttime ritual. I've been trying to get her to do some quiet activities, like coloring or reading to herself, but her attention span gets so short that it doesn't keep her for long. I even turn everything off in the afternoons (even though I don't usually have radios or tv on during the day) and take her to her room to rest. She hops out of bed within 5 or 10 minutes, totally ready to do more - even though I can see the red rimming her eyes and know that we're headed down that road again. And since she only sleeps about 9 or maybe 10 hours a night (if I'm lucky), I really can't put her in bed before 7:30 at the earliest or she'll be up before dawn the next day. It is a struggle to stay sane (for all of us). By the time DH and I can get her calmed down and in bed, we're too exhausted to even try to have a "date" or anything. Anything beyond "how was your day, dear?" is often beyond our abilities. I hope she stops resisting naptime soon and just goes back into it. Or rallies to the point where she doesn't really need a nap and starts sleeping longer at night. That would be good, too.

Movie Date

This past Monday was a totally wet, dreary day. And since we couldn't go outside for an activity, I decided to take the mini to the movies for the very first time. With "Dr. Suess' Horton Hears A Who" out in theatres, it was the perfect opportunity. And since DH was working from home that day, he decided to knock off early that afternoon and join us - totally fun! And the best part was that there were only 3 other families in the whole theatre, so we didn't have to fight any crowds.

The mini was absolutely enthralled with the movie, towards the end, when the last scene was panning out and the music was going, she got up and started dancing in the aisle. DH and I almost fell over laughing. She's asked several times since then if we could go to the "fun place" to watch another movie. Too cute!

Before the movie even started, she was totally captured by all of the commercials on the giant screen. I just loved the look of stupefied wonder on her face.







She and Daddy got to share some popcorn (shhh - don't tell the theatre that I brought our own in - have to make sure hers doesn't have any butter on it).







Still excited from her first movie-going experience, she continued dancing and twirling at the small video arcade in the lobby of the theatre.






And what first trip to the movies would be complete without the requisite photo next to the movie's poster? My scrapbook is getting so many great additions this year!

Spinach and Smiles

At dinner last night the mini surprised us by actually eating spinach - both raw and sauteed. And she says she really liked it. Hooray! Another green veggie to add to the menu! Popeye would be so proud!

Home At Last....

So we're finally home for awhile. After a whirlwind two weeks of being on the road for various family events (a death, a birth, a memorial dedication) and my surgery, etc., we're finally coming back to the roost to wind down and get back in the groove. Our latest little jaunt was to honor DH's grandfather in Tennessee, followed by a quick trip up to KY to see my new nephew. He is too cute! Then we decided yesterday that instead of staying one more night on the road, we'd just make the whole trip in one day to get home. And I have to say, the mini was an absolute gem in the car for the whole trip. Not the first meltdown. She had a nice 2+-hour nap, followed by self-entertainment, then dinner and a movie for the last part of the trip. And then when the movie was over, she promptly laid her head to the side in her car seat and went to sleep for the night. This was possibly the easiest car trip we've had since her birth! Today, since it is such a rainy day, I think she might get to go to her very first in-theatre movie as a reward for her awesomeness. "Horton Hears a Who" is still playing at the theatre down the street and I've been wanting to take her. I think today may be the day. Anyway, we got in just before midnight last night and we're planning to stay put for awhile. Can I just comment on how wonderful it is to sleep in your own bed?

Down A Size and Loving It

Other than the LASIK yesterday - which is still so totally cool, by the way, my other big news lately is that I have been steadily losing weight over the past few weeks. In fact, I have lost 14.2 pounds since March 2 and I've had to "retire" some of my more recent clothing purchases. While that may sound a little sad - I really liked some of those clothes! - the better news is that I'm now wearing clothes that I haven't comfortably worn in a year or more. And they are some totally cute clothes, too! Hopefully in the coming weeks, I'll lose a few more pounds and get into my wardrobe from three years ago - I was totally skinny right after I gave birth to the mini (I've decided to try to adopt a more circumspect form of referencing the other people in my life and over the next couple of weeks I'm going to go back through all my blogs and try to edit out our names) and really happy with the way I looked, so I'm trying to get back there again. In case you were wondering, no, I was not able to do this on my own. I completely give kudos to Weight Watchers for helping to teach me how to eat well. Now if only they can get my butt in the gym....

LASIK Rocks!

WooHoo! Today I went in for my lasik eye surgery. It was a total success. Everything you've ever heard (in a good way) about LASIK is totally true. The procedure took about 10 minutes (for both eyes) and as soon as I sat up in the operating chair, I could see the numbers on the clock on the wall, and I also was able to see DH's eyes - through a glass door with him standing probably 15-20 feet away from me! I actually teared up a bit, it was that much of an emotional charge. Before the surgery, without my glasses, all I would have seen was a Brent-shaped blur through the glass. Then they gave me Tylenol PM so that I could sleep through the worst of the discomfort for the afternoon, and boy, did that stuff knock me on my keister! It was wonderful! The next time I go on a trans-ocean flight, I am soooo taking Tylenol PM with me. DH said that I was asleep within just a couple of minutes of laying down. Actually, it was a struggle to stay awake through the car ride home!

Anyway, it is now approximately 12 hours post-op and I am in absolute heaven. Most of the discomfort has worn off and I'm ready to get back to my life. I do have some halo-ing with lights in the dark (we went out for dinner tonight and seeing the haloing around other cars' headlights was interesting), but that's pretty typical for the next couple of weeks, I'm told. I can totally deal with that. I go in tomorrow morning (at 8:00 a.m. - what was I thinking!?!) for my first post-op check-up. The doctor's office even called me at around 5:30 this afternoon to check and make sure that everything was okay with me. Talk about great customer service! If anyone else is interested, I had my surgery performed at TLC laser eye center by Dr. Whitten (he operated on Tiger Woods' eyes, too) and I am happy to give them a stellar recommendation! I know it seems like there are a lot of exclamation points in this post, but I am just so excited that I can't seem to contain myself!



Happy girls before mommy's surgery!



The mini was not too sure she liked my fabulous blue hairnet - she wanted one of her own, but then she refused to wear it.




Here we are sitting in one of the optometry chairs where I had my pre-op pep talk with the doctor.

Death in the Family

I haven't blogged lately because I had to go out of town unexpectedly last Monday. My grandmother passed away rather suddenly and we were all in a state of shock. Hopefully we'll get back to the norm soon.