One for the Money

My little guy lost his first tooth!

I could hardly believe last Friday when he told me it was loose. It took me completely off guard. Aren't they supposed to be big kids when teeth fall out? He must be bigger than I want to admit. The little tooth has been hanging on for days. So, of course, it fell out outside and is somewhere in an half-acre of grass. Good luck to the tooth fairy! Little Guy dictated a note to me for the tooth fairy in hopes of getting paid for the missing tooth. Here's his letter: "Dear Tooth fairy, I lost my tooth today, but I can't find it because it fell out when I was jumping on the trampoline and eating a Popsicle. My fallen out tooth should be worth some money, but I don't have it because it's in the yard. Will you still give me money? I had a clean tooth, and my dad is happy it fell out. I have a big boy tooth that I can already see. Thank you for the dollars." Notice the "s" at the end of "dollars" I think the tooth fairy has a high bar to meet at this house!

My Crystal Ball is Fuzzy

I've had several people ask when and where our little family will be moving to. The answer is some time soon, and I don't know where. I know, you are all jealous that you can't have such spontaneous and unpredictable lives. It's quite exciting, you know...I promise. The truth is that Jon is still at ARUP, but looking into other opportunities. We have agreed that it is not in our financial best interest to get into a house that we may not be in for any extended period of time. We have had a very successful stint at my parent's house, and have been able to pay off all our consumer debt, plus two small(er) student loans that could not be consolidated. We still have a monster student loan that I'm sure many of you can relate with. When we agreed to move in with my parents I told them we would only stay with them until June. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we extended our stay, but I only see that happening if Jon got a job offer that started 2 or 3 months out from now. If that doesn't happen, we will be leaving by the end of June. So we will once again be renters.
I'm so excited to live an apartment lifestyle. There is nothing quite like it. I am excited for lovely neighbors who want to share their music, aromatic cooking and familial conversations with us. It's also fun to discover clues of the previous tenets lurking in mysterious corners.
Seriously though, it has been a tremendous blessing to be able to stay with my parents. They have been really great to us and I am so grateful that they offered, and allowed, us to stay. We are leaps and bounds ahead of where we would be if we hadn't taken this opportunity. Renting isn't as terrible as it seems, and I know that we too will eventually find a dream job and correlating home. Before long my crystal ball will clear up and we'll see a path that leads to...well...something.

Books Fall Open, You Fall In

I love those moments when you catch your kids doing something you want them to do! My little guy has really loved learning to read and is so excited to start Kindergarten. When I told him his last day of preschool was this Thursday he was really sad. Then I told him after summer vacation he would be starting Kindergarten. He threw both his hands up in the air and said, "What?! I have to tell Mrs. Flack!" Mrs. Flack is, of course, his preschool teacher. He absolutely loves her. She has done a fantastic job fostering this desire to read. I love that he always seems so engaged with his books and will even sometimes ask if he can read me a book, instead of the other way around. There is this fantastic book called The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. It's a great resource for reading to your kids, if anyone in interested.

Up and Running

My little pip-squeak will be 16-months-old on Friday. I am pleased to finally announce that she is up and running, or at least toddling around. It's been a long time coming, but I'm glad I've been able to hold on to my little baby for just a little bit longer. Lucky for me, she still resorts to her crazy straight-legged crawl when walking seems to daunting. She's gaining confidence every day and I know crawling will be non-existent before long. Our little bi-ped loves to walk to little guy and will always clap and laugh once she's made the trek from one side of the room to the other. So congrats to the pip-squeak who is now upright and loving it!

What A Trip!

We had a great trip to not-so-sunny California last week! The weather was a little overcast but that didn't stop my little guy and our pip-squeak from having a blast! We set out last Sunday for an all-day road trip to Anaheim. When we got there we cooled off in the pool, which the pip-squeak LOVED! Then with great disappointment from the little guy we had an early night so we could start out bright-and-early the next morning.

We spent three great days at the park. The pip-squeak was surprisingly well behaved and loved going on the tea cups and Dumbo. My little guy decided Star Tours and Thunder Mountain were his favorite rides, which we rode about 4 times each. He also got a chance to meet Captain Jack Sparrow. He was pretty much dumbstruck and could only jabber nonsense while Captain Jack tried to get some sort of comprehensible response out of the little pirate. After we left, however, the little guy couldn't stop talking about how awesome Jack Sparrow was and how lucky he was to meet a real live pirate. He was also impressed that Captain Jack had white teeth, because, he explained, pirates don't usually have toothbrushes on their ships.

My little guy started pin trading and by the time we left he was walking up to everyone asking if they wanted to trade pins. It was so cute watching him that I think I went over-board. He now has 7 pins, and he can't wait to go again so he can start trading.

We also spent a day at the beach. It was definitely too cold to go in, but we managed to find some cool little creatures in the tide pools in Dana Point. Jon was wary of touching dirty sea creatures but little guy stepped up to the plate and stuck his finger right in the middle of a sea anemone! The pip-squeak loved everything about the ocean except for the feeling of the sand between her toes...go figure.

I keep waiting to grow out of this love for Disneyland, but it just isn't happening. Everything from the rides, to the popcorn, to the ears just make me smile. We had a great trip and can't wait until we can plan another one.

Life Stinks..sometimes

Here's a little shout out to all you good dads who happily change all your little stinkers!

The little pipsqueak is now 15-months-old and is just starting to walk from here to there. My little guy calls her Miss Stinky and has taken it upon himself to teach her all about the potty. He has volunteered to potty train her as long as he "doesn't have to wipe off all that stinky poo!"