Loose Tooth!

Ever since we read a book a number of years ago about a kid who lost his tooth, Calleigh has been dreaming of the day that she would have a loose tooth.  There have been a number of false alarms where she will swear she has one loose and begs me to wiggle it and see.  Of course, it's always been just wishful thinking on her part and her teeth have stayed steadfastly in her mouth. (Much to my relief.  Seriously, one of my biggest nightmares is something happening to my kids' baby teeth and them having to go toothless for years while we wait for the adult one to grow in.  What can I say..am a teeth freak.)  I'm not sure what the appeal of losing a tooth is.  Growing up?  The money?  Clearly it's not something she gets from me as my mother has recounted my first loose tooth experience in which I hid in a bathroom crying (apparently from some kind of embarrassment) upon it's exit from my mouth.  Anyway, this all leads up to Monday when Calleigh, yet again, tells me that one of her front upper teeth is loose.  Despite my obsession with them, I'm no tooth expert but I believe I've heard that you lose the bottom front two before the top so I was pretty certain it was another bogus story.  I tried wiggling it to no avail and then imparted my upper/lower teeth wisdom to Calleigh who promptly started wiggling the bottom tooth instead.  And it was loose!  What a coincidence. The one next to it was slightly loose too.  Naturally, she was beside herself with excitement and quickly informed me that when it came out, she would like a gift card under her pillow (she knows the parents are the "tooth fairy") because "that's what a girl in my Sabbath School class got."  Why thank you very much, girl in her Sabbath School class.  There will certainly be no gift cards forthcoming but I will have to strive to remember to have cash on hand since I'm guessing a check won't be nearly as exciting.  Who knows how long it will be from here until it actually comes out but I'm sure the day will be one of the highlights of her young life.

We had a pretty busy week this week.  It all started on Sunday when we headed to Aquatica (a water park owned by Sea World) to use our $5 tickets.  I think I mentioned that we were supposed to use them the previous Sunday but with the cold weather, it was out of the question so they said to come back on the 10th.   This was our first time ever going so we were pretty excited.  Since the time change was that previous night, we didn't end up rolling into the park until around 11:00.  They have some really nice kid sections at the park where Aubree and Brady pretty much hung out in the shallow water for the majority of the time playing with the bucket and various little toys we brought.  Meanwhile, Calleigh was very much into going down all the slides that she was able for her size and enjoyed every minute of it.  I have no doubt that she could have kept going for the rest of the day doing just that but at around 3:00 o'clock we decided to call it a day.  It was in the upper 70's but there was a pretty strong breeze and Brady and Aubree would often sit there shivering and we would have to wrap them up in towels to warm up periodically.  Oh, I also wanted to mention that the park was really not very crowded much to our relief.

Brady going down the slide.

Calleigh going down although this was quickly deemed a "baby slide."

Aubree was contented to swim around in her life jacket.

Brrr, it was cold!

Pretty nifty kids' area!

Monday and Tuesday are pretty much a blur of what went on although I can say that on Tuesday evening, Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry arrived.  Uncle Terry had a conference on the west coast so they made a week of it and popped up here for a few days.  We joked that they come to Florida once a month.  Too bad it wasn't true!  The kids were very excited with their arrival, waiting at the window to watch for their car to pull up and then they all ran outside screaming when it did.

Wednesday morning I had a doctor's appointment so I dropped the troops off at Ron and Elaine's first.  Although it's a bit of a pain to be like a 35/40 minute drive from my doctor now (which is back in Winter Park), I guess it doesn't really make that much difference because I would need to take the kids to Ron and Elaine's anyway. Everything was good with the baby which is always a relief to one's mind.  When you aren't to the time yet when you can feel the baby moving around, you have no way of knowing if the baby is still alive in there until you hear that heartbeat...a very happy sound, indeed.  Because of my advanced child-bearing age, I have to take the glucose test to test for gestational diabetes at 16 and 28 weeks instead of the usual 28 weeks.  So I did that and await the results.  The big thing, besides the heartbeat, was getting to schedule the ultrasound for my next appointment to find out the sex.  April 10 is the big day!  As I'm now in the second trimester, the nausea has gotten a lot better where I'm only taking the Zofran every third or fourth day and I'm hoping I'm even at the end of that.  

Wednesday evening Calleigh had Adventurers and because Duncan had a late meeting, we all headed over there.  The girls had been using chalk on the patio and when we got there, I noticed that Calleigh had a little on the back of her pants.  I quickly wiped it off but when she asked what it was and when I told her, she completely freaked out and didn't want to go in.  She pulled her shirt down as far as it would go.  She was so paranoid that some was still on there and that people would see it. I finally had to take a picture of her behind and show it to her so that she could see nothing was there.  Geesh!  This was all after she said I could do a braid in her hair and then complained the whole ride there that it was too messy.  I fear this is a foretaste of the teenage years.

I didn't want to dawdle around the church for the next hour and a half so Aubree, Brady, and I skipped over to Costco (since we would miss our Thursday trip) to pick up a few things.  It was duly noted that they do not have samples out at 7:00 pm like they do at 12:00 pm.  That was disappointing but at least we did get a few from a Vita Mix demonstration.  On the way back to the church we stopped at Little Diary Manor, a little ice cream joint, that I've been carrying around a gift card for since winning it at Trunk or Treat a year and a half ago.  They were thrilled to get a cup of ice cream with sprinkles and we were sure to bring one back for Calleigh.  I thought Brady in his car seat eating an ice cream was sure to be disaster but it amazingly went pretty well.

Waiting for their ice cream.

One of his usual expressions.  I think he must have told me something very serious like,  "Mine!"

Thursday morning was a trip to Sea World with Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry, Uncle Terry's parents, and his mother's sister.  I had gotten a recent email from Sea World saying that if the kids had the free pass last year, which they did, we could get 50% of an annual pass this year for them if we brought in the old passes.  Well, I had cleaned out my wallet a few weeks back and seeing those passes which had expired on 12/31/12, I had tossed them.  I sent an email to Sea World questioning if they really had to have those passes (since we had registered with names, addresses, birthdates, etc to get the free ones) to get the discount.  While waiting for an email, I had also called which was a whole ordeal just trying to get through to someone.  After 15 minutes, I finally reached a lady who said "Yes, I"m sorry but "they" (which was odd, wasn't I talking to Sea World?  Why did she say "they") require the passes.  I got her to admit that seemed silly since they expired several months ago and our data is all in the system but that was the rule, she insisted.  It left me feeling quite ticked off.  Nonetheless, there we were at the park.  Then, exactly at the time I was waiting in line to get their tickets, I get an email from them saying that I actually didn't need those passes and could in fact, even just show my driver's license.  Finally, something that made sense.  When I got to the window, the guy didn't even ask for that...just my phone number.  Obviously there is a disconnect somewhere! Anyway, it all worked out so I can quit bad mouthing Sea World.

We did a few of the shows which turned out rather nicely as far as seating.  Uncle Terry's dad rented a motorized scooter which made him eligible for the wheelchair seating so we were able to just go right up to the front for the shows.  We've never been that close, for sure.  We did have a little incident though when we got out of the Pets Ahoy show.  I had sneaked four sandwiches in and when we got out of the show, I saw a bird with a sandwich baggy in front of him next to our stroller.  Sure enough, a bird or birds had stolen two of the four sandwiches. Those little pests!      

This is how close we were in the front row.  There were two older Canadian ladies behind us who were ogling this guy.  "He is some tall, ehhh?" one of them says.

Strolling around with Aunt Toni.  Notice the sweatshirt and jacket.  Another chilly morning in Florida.

Our smaller lunch than we had planned.  I had to get some fries to supplement it.

The rest of the gang.

Taking a picture with the lower half of Shamu.

We only did a few of the rides because it was a little more crowded than usual in the kid's section (mainly because the Shamu show had just gotten out).  One of the problems was that I, of course, couldn't go any of the rides so we had to rely on Aunt Toni to take Aubree on.  We eventually separated from them because they went on to another show while we stayed in the kid's section and then we're going to leave.  This meant that Aubree couldn't go on any more rides, as we discovered, which left her feeling very dejected.  Calleigh did get to go on the roller coaster, however, since she can go on by herself.  I noticed she ended up sitting next to some random lady.  When Calleigh got off, she said the lady had screamed in her ear the whole ride and it was SO loud that she didn't even have fun on the ride.  What are you gonna do?

Friday morning we were off to yard sales and once again, found ourselves in our old neighborhoods.  Despite having to travel farther than I would have liked, we did find some good sales and we got a Little Tikes picnic table for the patio and also, most exciting for me, a Pottery Barn Kids chair.  I had been eyeing them when we got the girls' bedspreads but at at like $100/each, we quickly discarded the idea. Well, I found a red one at a sale in perfect condition that goes perfectly in our play room and I got it for $18. Very happy!  Around 12:15, I had spent my last quarter at a sale so as I got into the car, I said, "Well, that's it.  We're done.  I have no money left."  Calleigh pipes up in a panicked voice, "All of it?"  I quickly deduced what she had assumed and assured her that I only meant the money for yard sales was gone but I did have more money at home and at the bank.  

New picnic table, $10.

New chair.

Last night was the food trucks and it was nice to gather there again and enjoy a beautiful March evening.  The kids had a fantastic time running around with their friends.  Even though I did not run around, apparently I was worn out because I took a bath last night and went into bed at 9:15 for a quick nap only to never rise out of it again.  Oh well!

Duncan had to go in the lake to save a ball.  Watch out for the gators!

A few other pictures...

Duncan drove like 10 minutes down the highway, got to his destination, and found the keys to the van sitting on the back of the truck.  A miracle they did not fly off.  "It was Jesus!" as Aubree said.

No caption needed.

Brady's "I help you" also extends to the laundry room where he likes to sit on the washing machine and press the buttons for me.

Our latest work on the play room....decorating with decals.

Have a happy rest of the Sabbath and weekend.