Afternoon with the Appledorns

This afternoon we had a wonderful visit from the Appledorn family.  Little Brynn is so sweet and Miles is a totally fun and happy little dude.  I did manage to snap a few pictures in between our catching up.  So nice to see them!

Smiley Brynn

So happy to see Mommy

Big blue eyes peeking at me

Teah and Dan being silly!

Rock a Bye Carter

At almost 5 years old, I still sometimes get to rock Carter to sleep and it warms my heart. Tonight it was almost necessary because I kept him up late and he was sooooo overtired that he was melting down and was having a hard time falling asleep on his own. He wanted to rock and I figured I owed him as much after pushing his bedtime, so he grabbed his taggie blanket, silly the whale, and his fuzzy comforter and he hopped into the rocking chair with me :) I rocked him to sleep most nights until he was 14 months old and anywhere from once a week to once a month since then. I know the practice is looked down upon by many, but thankfully after a short stint with crying it out at 9 months old it never affected him being able to fall asleep on his own most nights nor sleeping through the night without waking. I think the closeness of it helps both of us and our bond with each other. It also gives me a very convenient method of putting him down for an occasional nap when needed (he would never fall asleep during the day by just lying in his bed) and putting him to sleep at friends houses when we want to stay a little bit later. What a lucky Mom I am to have such a sweet little boy. I took this picture of Carter tonight after he fell asleep in my arms with my iPhone while holding it up in the air, in the dark, with the iPhone flash on the first try. It was a picture miracle :)

My little readers

Well, I officially have two children who are readers! Within the past few months Carter has started reading his first books at school - mainly "see Jane run" type readers. He is so excited about it and always tells us enthusiastically when he brings a book home from school to read to us. He has also started to read everything in sight, for example the words "cocktails" and "beer" that were written on the restaurant windows today. Teah enjoys reading and can basically read any word within her vocabulary, which puts her into chapter books. She seems most interested in science type non-fiction books, like our National Geographic books on subjects like sharks or tornadoes. She has also taking a liking to Amelia Bedelia, The Berenstein Bears, and children's mysteries. I took a picture of Teah reading a book to Carter last week totally unprompted. Stay tuned for the full length 2 minute video coming soon! You can also clearly see the spot on our kitchen table where I accidentally set a cotton ball soaked with nail polish remover. Ahhhhh... Memories.

Anatomy

Robert tells me that this is exactly how he felt when studying anatomy.  Future surgeon?

The Dentist

Teah had her regular checkup with the dentist today.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to write an update on her lost teeth.  At some point losing them became not such a big deal anymore and I even stopped snapping pictures immediately after the loss.  At just over 7 years old she has now lost 9 teeth!  The dentist told us that she's ahead of the game because of some crowding going on right now and that the future might bring the need for braces.  Braces seem pretty standard anymore, so it's not really something that's too concerning at the moment.  Something of major note in the losing tooth game, though, is that with her last tooth Teah actually pulled it out herself!  It was bothering her and hanging by a thread, so she went into the bathroom and twisted and pulled for a few minutes and out it came.  If you read my previous blogs on her loose teeth you would know that the previous eight she lost came with a lot of crying and general unhappiness, so this was a good turning point.  She sees a wonderful pediatric dentist with very colorful chairs and cool sunglasses.  I couldn't help but snap a picture with my phone when I saw her pink dental experience today!  After her appointment she had to admire how clean her teeth were in the mirror in the waiting room.  So cute :)

Teah's MyTwinn - Pearl

For her seventh birthday in December Teah received a MyTwinn doll from Mommy and Daddy. For those who are unfamiliar, the MyTwinn company creates a custom doll from your preferences of skin color, eye color, hair color and length and cut, and also from a picture of your child - they use the picture to choose face shape, hand paint the doll, and give each doll it's own haircut.  Although I may have chosen too dark of a hair color, I think that the doll looks a lot like Teah!  It's pretty awesome and I love the fact that the doll that Teah loves and sees as beautiful looks so much like her! She named her new doll Pearl, which is also her own middle name.  I thought it was very appropriate.  Since then Pearl has gone on family trips, read books, slept with Teah occasionally (although not recently, since Teah tells me that she is "not comfortable" to sleep with), dressed up, had her hair brushed, and of course seen Dr. Teah Hilliard our local doll pediatrician. So much fun!  Blogger was giving me some problems, so the pictures below are not necessarily in chronological order.

Titled "Bunny and the Bride by Teah".  Teah thought that the mittens and scarf made from tights looked great with the dress. :)

Driving home from her birthday party at Nana's

Bedtime Stories

Just after opening Pearl for her birthday.  I chose the non-smiling picture because it shows the resemblance more.

Ducks!

Every winter at Carter's preschool, the ducks come out to visit the birdfeeder. The feeder is right in front of the window to their classroom and the kids love looking out at the ducks. I love them too!

23 in a row at The Joe

A few weekends ago Robert and I made a last minute decision to go to a Detroit Redwings professional hockey game. The Wings had won the last 22 home games, tying the league record for the number of home games won in a row. The Friday night game was so exciting that we woke up Saturday and decided to try to buy tickets for the Sunday game! We are very fortunate to have Robert's parents living in metro Detroit and willing to watch our kids on such short notice, which meant that we were headed to The JOE (what us insiders call Joe Louis Arena). We drove over to Troy Saturday and decided to stay at a hotel and make a little mini-vacation of the weekend.

The kids were very happy to be able to swim in the pool Saturday night and I was also happy to be able to work with Carter in a pool instead of the bathtub to try to prepare him a little more for starting swim lessons in the spring. Carter did a great job putting his head under the water without plugging his nose and jumping in and letting his face go in before I pulled him up. If you've ever seen him in the water before, you know this was a huge accomplishment for us. He wasn't really excited to do those things, but he didn't shed any tears, so that was a win in my book.

We dropped the kids off with Robert's parents and headed to the afternoon game the next day. I have to say that although I don't watch too many games on TV, I love watching the Redwings in person. I love the chill of the stadium, the sounds of the game (stick hitting puck, stick hitting ice, checking), the excitement of the crowd, the fighting, the octopi. It all makes for a great time. This particular game was a good one. The Wings were up by one most of the game and into the third period, making the end of the game more exciting when the other team pulled the goalie to try to tie it up and go into overtime. Thankfully, the Wings held their lead and won the game, which also meant their 23rd win in a row at the Joe! Definitely a great game to attend.

After the game we all went out to The Melting Pot for dinner - yummy! One of my favorites and a special treat for all of us :) Definitely a great mini-vacation weekend. Here are some phone pics from the game.

Arriving at The Joe

Ready for the next period to start!

It was a pretty full house at The Joe

I had to get a picture of Robert after the game to commemorate his shirt - I know, it would've been even more perfect had we been on the other side of the rink, but it's still pretty cool.  He loves this shirt!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's time to get caught up on some old posts. Valentine's this year was a lot of fun now that both of the kids are old enough to get involved. I learned a few lessons from last year and instead of letting the kids come with me to choose their Valentine's I asked for some general ideas of what they wanted and went to the store by myself. This was a great way to avoid their indecision and distractions while standing in the Valentine's aisle! Teah's requirement for a Valentine was that they were shaped like hearts and since I found none of those in the regular aisle, I decided to buy some card stock in pastels colors and print/cut the cards at home. They turned out great! This year Teah was able to write the name of each of her classmates on all of her Valentine's and she actually had a great time the night before writing each child's name and signing her own, plus picking out very specific stickers for each child. Carter's told me simply that he wanted Valentine's from the Movie Cars2, so I bought him your standard back of Valentine's cards at Target. He signed his name to all 30 cards this year - I was so proud of him for his determination and patience with the task!

The kids both had school parties on Valentine's day and were very excited to bring their Valentine's in for all of their friends. I was able to volunteer in Teah's classroom that day and witness her party firsthand. The kids broke up into groups and rotated through 4 stations - Valentine's bingo, creating a Valentine's themed craft, snack, and handing out their Valentine's. I was assigned to bingo and had a great time with the kids. I come in to listen to them read every Tuesday, so it was helpful that I already knew most of their names. After the stations the kids had free time to look through their Valentine's and talk to their friends about them, which was probably their favorite part of the morning. Teah's teacher gave all of the kids one of those "fortune tellers" that we played with when we were kids, where you fold them the right way and are able to put your fingers in and open up the contraption until your friend picks a number and you read to them what was underneath it. The kids had a great time with that as well.

Carter signing all of his Valentine's cards

Teah was very into making her Valentine's from scratch for each of her classmates

Teah's Valentine's party

Looking through her Valentine's

Playing with the "fortune teller"

Let it Snow!

This winter has been the warmest that I have ever seen in Michigan. I can count the number of times we've had a substantial amount of snow on one hand, which means the kids haven't been enjoying the season as much as they usually do. Thankfully a big snow storm hit at the end of last week and the snow stuck for a few days.  The kids were out for a few hours each day this weekend playing.

My children are not the outdoorsy type, so I had to convince them to go out by allowing a few snow appropriate toys to go out with them, including a foam sword, dinosaurs, strainers, and our two barbeque spatulas - which the kids called their "Ninja choppers".  With these trusty toys in their laundry basket they headed out and didn't want to come back in until they were soaking wet and happily tired from playing in the snow!  Instead of a snowman, they decided to build a dinosaur cave.  Yes, I did help them with it and I am still sore from shoveling the snow into a pile :)  Here are some pictures that I snapped with my phone before I went back inside.

The Bucket of Toys!

All three dinosaurs in the cave.  Those plant eaters better watch out for that T-Rex!

One friendly dinosaur hiding out in his cave :)

The kids best attempt at posing for the picture

This one is for my friend Kerry who lives in the South and had no idea what a snow blower looked like!

Carter was exhausted that afternoon and fell asleep on the couch!

Our first Playground Injury

Well, Teah got her first playground injury today. She face planted while running on the sidewalk and came out with a bloody lip and scraped up face - just in time for her birthday party :). The school called and asked if I could come in and help calm her down and because lunch directly follows recess I ended up bringing her home for lunch. Living within a stones throw of the school was nice in this situation. I brought her back to school for the afternoon with ice pack in hand and she did fine. Here are a few pics:

A Girl and her Dog

Teah LOVES Vegas.  Now, that doesn't mean that she's always nice to him, but she loves to pet him and tell him how cute he is and have him try to give her kisses and follow her commands, and on, and on.  Mostly I don't let Vegas in her room at bedtime because he just distracts her from sleeping, but every now and again as a special treat he snuggles with her for a bit before bedtime.  He sleeps on his dog bed outside of our room every night, but he loves to lay on Teah's bed when I let him.  Also, he doesn't at all mind when we cover him up.  I took a few quick pictures with my phone because they both looked so darn cute the other night.

Vegas' Haircut

We took our crazy mutt in to get a professional cut for the first time last week. Because of his major muttness, his hair is pretty crazy. The hair on his back is more like a shedding dog, but the hair on his face, belly , and legs is more like a dog that you groom. I have cut the hair on his face myself a few times, but otherwise he goes au natural. He was looking pretty scraggly and had a few little mats in his fur, so I took him on down to The Posh Puppy. This event would not necessarily be blog worthy, but he looked so funny after his haircut that I had to post a before and after pic. I didn't anticipate how much whiter his face would be and I barely recognized him when I picked him up! Also, because they cut his face a lot more than his chest, his head looked way too small for his body! It was rather hilarious :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Michigan's Adventure

When Marj was visiting over the summer we also went to Michigan's Adventure for the day.  Michigan's Adventure is a small amusement park about an hour and a half north of us.  They have an amusement park with lots of kiddie rides and a few roller coasters along with a pretty great water park.  The day started off pretty chilly, but thankfully the sun came out and it warmed up enough to enjoy the water park for a few hours.  I decided not to lug around my camera and took a few phone pictures in the amusement park.  My phone went into the locker at the water park, so I took the liberty of borrowing some photos from their website of a few water attractions.  http://www.michigansadventure.com.

The kids had a blast!  They rode on lots of the slow spin in circle rides - cars, elephants, etc.  Teah wanted to go on the Frog Hopper, but Carter refused in the morning.  Watching Teah on the Frog Hopper was absolutely hilarious.  She wanted to go and hopped right on, but I don't think she knew exactly what to expect.  The first time it went up she started screaming and crying and I think everyone was concerned that they would have to stop the ride.  She screamed for two cycles of going up and down - then all of the sudden she just put her head down on her hands and looked like she was sleeping!  At this point we were all pretty confused.  She stayed that way for another two cycles and then all of the sudden started laughing and having a great time for the last part of the ride.  It was hilarious to watch!  After we hit the waterpark in the afternoon, we convinced Carter to ride the frog hopper in the evening.  Robert, Carter, and I rode the log ride (Teah stayed with Aunt Marj since she doesn't like how fast it goes down the hill at the end) and Robert and I rode their newest roller coaster as well.

The waterpark was really the highlight of the trip.  They have a new water slide called The Funnel of Fear and it really is a huge funnel that your raft goes through!  Here's a picture from their website:

The adults took turns with 2 people going on the ride and the other watching the kids.  The waterpark was awesome for the kids as well because they had just opened a new area called "beach party".  It is basically a huge kid-sized water area with 4 levels and 9 different water slides just the right size for the little ones.  As soon as we left the park the kids were asking when we were going back again!

Sidewalk Painting

More summer activities that I never blogged about.  I made these sidewalk paints with water, cornstarch, and food coloring.  I grabbed a few paintbrushes we had lying around and the kids put on some old clothes and went to town!