August 18, 2015 ~ The Tooth Fairy Came!

New Smile

Teagan’s tooth came out last night. After over a week of wiggling, of anxiety and worry and questions.  It didn’t just fall out, Teagan decided she was brave enough to pull it out.  It was so loose, it was barely hanging on and the new tooth had broken the surface, you could see it waiting.  We were surprised that it didn’t fall out with the gentle brushing or her “swish and spit” fluoride rinse. She was terrified of the suggestion – Stu offered to do it – ten minutes before actually doing it herself.  She had a tooth when we put Ashlin to bed, and as we were closing her sister’s door, she didn’t.

It was good that it was finally out, she had been so worried it would just fall out and she’d loose it – in the pool, while eating, while coloring, while swinging, in her sleep – and then the tooth fairy wouldn’t come.  She worried that the tooth fairy wouldn’t believe us if we left a picture, or if she used an orange pip instead of the lost tooth, or if we/she wrote a note to the tooth fairy.  No amount of explaining would make her feel at ease.

She did swim a little, though spent most of the time at the pool yesterday coloring.  It was hard seeing her worried and not having fun.

Another worry of hers was that people would laugh at her once her tooth was out, that they would think her smile was funny.  We tried to explain that her friends weren’t laughed at, they were envied, when they lost teeth.  Maybe the big teeth looked funny as they grew in, surrounded by baby teeth that were smaller, but it wasn’t a funny ha-ha thing at all.

Having the tooth out stopped many of the worries and anxieties.  Tooth Fairy treats helped.

And seeing her smile when she told me the tooth fairy came, and gave her treats was priceless.  There was a set of legos, with a pirate and a toothy shark, a dollar and two of each coin – quarter, dime, nickel and penny.

What if we can’t find it?

Toothy Shark

August 6, 2015 ~ Wiggle Wiggle!

This one wiggles

Teagan now has a loose tooth. A wiggly one.  She was so excited today at her last day of day camp that she told almost everyone there about it.  As Ashlin (in her twirly-twirly princess dress) and I crossed the parking lot to pick her up, we were told by at least two people that Teagan had big news.  Nice.

She couldn’t wait to show me which tooth, she bounced across the parking lot and into the car.  Sometimes she has such joy about life. Once she was strapped in, I had her show me which tooth – her lower left front.  Exciting!

As we drove to the pool, some of her anxiety started to leak out.  She asked what would happen if she swallowed it by accident.  (One of her friends had a loose tooth that he must have swallowed when eating a strawberry, so fair enough of her to worry).  I told her that I had a picture to prove that she had a loose tooth, and would take one once it fell out that we would be sure to show the Tooth Fairy.  She could also write a note explaining what happened.  I assured her that this would be enough for the Tooth Fairy to come.  If she wanted, we could use a tic tac as a replacement, but I didn’t think it would be necessary. I reminded her that the purple and green Tooth Fairy from the Jack Frost movie knew every tooth and the story behind them, she also could find teeth, they never got lost.  This seemed to help.  A bit.  But she still had those wrinkly eyebrows she gets when she’s worried about something.  Telling her that the tooth probably wasn’t going to fall out today, more likely Saturday or Sunday.  This made her face melt into sadness.  She really wanted it to fall out today.  Today!!

At least she stopped worrying about it falling into the pool.  I guess that’s something.

Eventually, the lure of the pool helped distract her for a while. Splashing is a good distraction.

When Stu got home, she couldn’t wait to tell him about her wiggly tooth.  And she asked if she could not finish her dinner, she was worried it would fall out.  Again, we explained things would be ok.  That she comes from a line of people not swallowing teeth when they fell out, so she should be just fine.

She needed a bit of hand-holding.

I guess this explains why she complained about her teeth hurting when she ate her banana for breakfast this morning.

Ashlin can’t wait for her teeth to start wiggling.  She’s got a few years to go…

Twirly-twirly princess dress

Fancy Handstand

May 18, 2015 ~ Dancing, Dancing, Done

Tap Costume

Finally.  Yesterday was the girls dance recital.  Actually, all weekend was the dance recital.  Saturday was the full dress rehearsal, Sunday the actual recital.  (The theme was LOVE).

Teagan had two dances, Ashlin just the one.  In the days before, Teagan seemed fine, a few nerves, but she remembered last year, so wasn’t too concerned.  Ashlin on the other hand, I think was a bit anxious.  She told me in the car on Friday that she was “a little nervous and a little scared, mama.” Oh, my sweet little girl.  I tried to reassure her, tell her that it was normal and that she’d be just fine.  Excellent, even.  She knew her dance.

Waiting is so hard when you are four

Saturday, Stu and I got the girls all dressed, with their dance hair and headed out for a long afternoon.  There was an issue with the sound, so the first few dances and the start of Teagan’s tap sounded like they were underwater.  After a minute of the girls not being sure what to do when they couldn’t hear the lyrics to their song, it got fixed.  Bad cable or something.  They had the girls restart their number, from the stage.  The girls danced well, but were a bit off.  I think it would have been better to have had them walk out again, a full reset.

Since the sound was fine by the time Ashlin went out, one song after Teagan, (which made for a bit of a frantic dressing schedule for me,) the preschoolers didn’t have any sound issues.  However, they had never been on a stage before, and seemed a bit overwhelmed by it.  One girl crowded the teacher, leaving a gap between the girls where she should have been.  But all seven of them did a fantastic job, even though some were scared of it being so dark backstage.

Silly Girls

Teagan seemed to carry over some of the uncertainty from her first number, and danced more tentatively than usual. She kept watching the girl to her right for cues.  We spoke with her afterwards, trying to bulk up her confidence, because she knew her dance, she didn’t need to follow, she could lead.  I think it worked, because Sunday she was much better, more sure of herself.

We ended up watching quite a few of the acts after the girls were done, Ashlin came out and saw her sister’s ballet number (Jesse’s song from Toy Story II, and the girls danced with a doll – so adorable!).  Teagan joined once I got her changed out of her costume.

Sunday was easier, in a way, but harder.  It’s so long, and the girls have to stay in the cafeteria for the rest of the show.  I suppose we could have left early, if they didn’t want to be in the finale.  But both did, so we stayed, while the girls colored and fed and hugged and were generally distracted for two hours.  Most of the other preschoolers left, Ashlin and one other peep were on stage for the finale.  (Although we called them the sunflowers, I overheard one of the other mom’s called them the peeps, so cute!)

Ashlin was so proud of herself, dancing on stage.  All the girls stayed in line and did their act, although one little girl ran off during the number, she was so scared.  Ash noticed partway through, and said to the teacher “we’re missing one!”  Everyone in the audience heard.  I think they were the hit of the show.  I could be biased.

Teagan’s ballet number also got big cheers from the audience, and I think her tap number looked better than the girls a level up.  They worked so hard to get the steps right.  I’m so proud of both of them!

At dinner, Teagan asked if she could use the knife.  We let her, and after a few failed attempts, she was able to actually cut her chicken.  She’s so big.

She has a knife!

We’ll work on holding the fork.  Eventually.

August 26, 2014 ~ The Day Before

First Day of School Outfit

This is the outfit Teagan wants to wear tomorrow.  I was going to give her a choice of a few outfits, have her pick from them, but I needn’t have worried.  She wanted the first outfit I showed her, saying “Mama, that’s exactly what I wanted to wear!”

I ironed it for her.  That is not a wrinkle on the left side.  Really.  It’s just a shadow.  From the pleat.

I can’t believe summer is over already.  It flew by.  We spent most of it at Lake Compounce, with occasional trips to Bounce U or a playground.  Towards the end, we also played a bit of Just Dance on the Wii.  Ashlin often scored higher than Teagan, but neither girl really paid attention to the scores.

Lunch for Teagan is packed, snacks for Ashlin. Back packs are labeled and ready. Well, I need a spare outfit for Ashin – just in case!  Both girls are excited for school, and Ashlin is jealous of Teagan being able to take the bus.  She has to be driven, special, to her pre-K class.  She’s also upset that she doesn’t have a fuzzy blanket for nap time, even though she doesn’t have nap time.

I think they’ll both do great tomorrow.  I hope they do.  I’m sure they will.  Hopefully, I’ll do just as well.

Teagan’s new fuzzy blanket

October 30, 2013 ~ Halloween Preview

Teagan’s pumpkin!

I’ve been quite negligent lately.  I’m behind on writing about projects, about the kids and all the things they – we – have done lately.  Well, let’s just do a quick catch up.

Last weekend we went into the city.  We took the train instead of driving.  And for the most part it was good.  The girls were very excited to be on a train, pretty well behaved and fun.  Until our train was held between stations for almost 50 minutes by some police action.  Not sure exactly what happened, the lady sitting next to us said that maybe they were looking for someone who did something bad.  Great.

That’s when the train ride stopped being fun and became an endless stream of us trying to make the kids sit, behave, be quiet, not lick the windows, not go into other people’s bags.

Thanks to the delay, we were a bit late to the dinner with family, but made it before the main course was served.  Dinner was awesome.

Train!

The ride home was a bit less crazy, but only minutely so.  They couldn’t settle, sit still.  They also did not sleep at all.  Even after we got into our car, they didn’t fall asleep.  We got back home around 10:30.  I think that was the longest Ashlin has ever been awake without a nap.

This past weekend the town held a Trunk or Treat at the school parking lot.  We were supposed to meet up with one of Teagan’s friends from day care.  But earlier in the day we had been at a party – for a lovely now two-year-old – and they both napped.  Neither Stu nor I wanted to wake them up.  So, we got there a bit late and had to park off to the side, where there were no trunks giving out candy.

It took a bit to find our friends, but we did, and Teagan – and Ashlin too! – was happy!  Big hugs and giggles.  Even a few shrieks.

The girls came home with half-full pumpkins.  More than enough candy for them!  We were probably giving them Halloween candy through Easter last year.  Most of their take was dum-dum lollipops, not enough chocolate.  Shucks.

Buzz-Buzz!

Snow White

Somewhere Teagan learned a new Halloween song:

Trick or Treat!

Smell my feet!

Give me something good to eat!

If you don’t,

I don’t care!

I’ll pull down your underwear!

Lovely.  The things I blame day care for teaching her.  Though it is funny when she gets the order wrong.

Also, both girls have taken to being “blanket ghosts” in the car to and from day care.  They snuggle under the blankets I made, then pull them over their heads and yell “boo!”  Silly girls!

Oh, and shampoo buns are the best thing since trick or treating! At least until tomorrow.

Shampoo bun! Me too!

September 27, 2013 ~ Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Too excited to stand still

We took Teagan to see “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” today.  Her first movie in a movie theater! As young as 13 months or so, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” was able to pull her in.  She would stop dead and watch the movie every time it came on TV.  She would sit in Stu’s lap and watch the entire thing.  We decided to wait for this release to take her. Needless to say, she was a little excited, as you can see, and also a bit nervous.  She had no idea what to expect.

Stu and I picked her up after lunch at day care and told her we had a treat.  As we drove to the theater she asked all sorts of questions, why Ashlin wasn’t coming, what were we going to see, was she allowed to talk, dance, would there be a princess? She was excited as we walked in, barely able to stand still while we waited to buy the tickets.

She was so good.  We got her a popcorn – only a medium! – even though she wanted a large.  We joked that the bag would have been as tall as she was, a large is just too big!  Walking into the theater, she was a bit nervous, not really scared, as the sound was so loud.  She was speechless when she saw how big the screen was.  During the movie, there were times it was so loud, she’d put her hands over (or in) her ears.  And coming from a kid who rushes the stage for bagpipes, it says something to the volume in the theater.

Tickets! To a movie!

The movie was pretty good, especially for a sequel, and mostly appropriate for little kids.  It lagged a few times, and could have been trimed down a little.  And there were a few times that Teagan was scared by what was happening on the food island, but mostly, she loved the movie.  We all laughed at the foodimals – flamangos, eggplanatee, shrimpanzee, watermelophant.  Although at first Teagan was scared of both the tacodile and the cheespider.  I don’t like spiders much, and all the red eyes were a bit creepy, and french fries shouldn’t move like that.  I think Stu’s favorites were the butter frogs and the mosquitoasts.  So wonderful.  The berries and fruit cockatiels were sweet.

All in all, the movie was fun, surprising Teagan with a treat was fun.  She’s looking forward to seeing another one soon, maybe with her sister, maybe not..

popcorn almost as tall as she is

She wanted to bring the rest of the popcorn – just crumbs and kernels – into day care! Silly goose! There wasn’t enough to share :o

July 10, 2013

Happy. Sad

So, this happened today.

Saturday, there was an accident in Ashlin’s seat, that might not have been as bad if we hadn’t been stuck in post-firework traffic.  We had to wash the seat cover, and so pulled her chair out of my car.  Unfortunately, we only remembered late Sunday, and the cover wasn’t dry Monday morning.  Stu took them in his car.

Tuesday we took his car.  We hadn’t put the cover back on the seat.  It was kinda nice, I was able to knit on the way to work!

Today, Stu dropped them off in his car on his way to work.  Around 4:30, it looked like he’d be stuck at the office a bit late, so I dug up the manual and switched the straps to be front facing.  It was already out and in pieces.  I had been putting it off, she’s still such a peanut with a gigantic noggin.  But every time I take her in my car she begs to be in Teagan’s front-facing seat.  I guess she is tired of not seeing where she’s going, and sitting criss-cross apple sauce.

We’ll flip Stu’s seat soon, I’m sure.

Teagan was happy for her sister, for this achievement, but she was also very tearful.  I’m not sure why, it could be the rain, the fact that they used green pen on her day sheet and not blue, that the squirrel didn’t stay to chatter at her…  It was a fun evening, though pre-bed snuggles were still happy and good.

Oh, and I got one strap done for Teagan’s car blanket…  Seed stitch with a button hole!

Strap

January 23, 2013

The pictures tell it all.

Sigh.

She’s a big girl.

Sigh.

December 4, 2012 ~ Wiggly Box

The Wicked Witch of The West, melting after being doused by Dorothy. From the first edition of The Wizard of Oz. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Somehow Teagan has fallen in love with the Wizard of Oz – or as she says, “Wiggly Box”.  I’m  not sure how, we haven’t pulled out my Anniversary Edition DVD, nor have we started reading chapter books to her at bedtime.  (I really want to start soon, though!  Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte’s Web, Velveteen Rabbit are calling…)  She’s come home from day care talking about the mean witch who melts.  And about little people, but not like her, she’s a big girl.  She would start singing “Ding dong the witch is melted” or something along those lines.

After a bit of prodding and some pointed questions, we found out that one of her day care teachers shows them clips on her phone.  Not sure if I’m happy about this or not.  They should be teaching her about the difference between J and K, and that L, M, N and O are actually different letters, not one big mumble.  Maybe that there’s a number 15 and 16 and you don’t just go from 14 to 17 :)

Teagan has some very definite ideas about this movie.  The mean people (Witches Guard?) are the ones that poured the water on the Wicked Witch, and made her melted.  It wasn’t Dorothy! And the Statue Man cried, but threw fire.  Also, the witch in the beginning, Jenna, could melt, but she has a protective coat on him eyes and hands so she doesn’t melted.  Her pretty dress is armor against melting.  Oh, and she’s taller than the munchkins, because she’s a big girl, not a baby.

Well, there you have it.

We may try to watch the movie with her next weekend, if there’s time…  She was completely enthralled with the Grinch the other day.  According to her, him heart grew because him cried, and watered it.  When the Grinch makes his grumpy face in the beginning, she would get scared.  But not enough to not watch the rest, and not enough to not ask to see it again.  And again.  And again.

 

Ashlin could care less, though she will dance when the Whos sing. Also, she can say her name!  She proudly points to herself and says “Ahhhh-lin!”  My big girl.

November 17, 2012 ~ Teagan Swims!

Today, at the last swim lesson of the fall, Teagan finally swam! Look at her go!!

No, she wasn’t happy at first, and yes, she had a float, but she finally did it!  So proud of her.

I got a few pictures, and then remembered to switch to video for the first time.  Stu came over with Ashlin and got to see Teagan do it again.

She was more comfortable in the water today, kicking, playing along, almost happy.  She’s not always happy to be in the water.  She would creep up and down the side of the pool while the other little kids were practicing, taking their turns.  And when the instructor asked her to hold on to the duck and let go of her other hand, she did it!

She still wasn’t happy about doing it, while she was floating on her own.  She definitely didn’t like when her mouth went under water.  But when she got to the wall, she was beaming.  She looked up at us, and saw us beaming.  All the other moms cheered for her too :)