Keeping the Tooth Fairy in Business

Kylee came to my side of the bed early one recent Saturday morning with an urgent report....her tooth was hurting.  Being the morning person that I am, I mumbled something about getting a drink and then seeing if it felt better.  She disappeared for approximately 2 seconds and was back at my bedside again.

"Mom!  My tooth fell OUT!"  She stood next to me.  And then, being Kylee, she followed that with "I tried to carry it in here but I dropped it!".  She has her Daddy's grace.  I love it.

I took a moment and then rolled over and poked Brandon (who would remain asleep in the presence of a brass band).  "Honey, our baby lost her tooth!".  I later realized that maybe those weren't the best words as my husband woke up and tried to understand why in the heck Hadley would have lost a tooth.

As I said those words, I realized that I was in no way, shape, or form prepared for this.  With Connor, the tooth had dangled precariously for days as we eagerly anticipated his first visit from the tooth fairy.   I hadn't thought it through with Kylee.  Our second child is at the stage of life where her baby teeth will fall out.  Whoa.

I crawled out of bed and thankfully, was able to find the tooth right next to our bed.  I invited Kylee to crawl into bed and cuddle with us for awhile, which she did, quite happily.  It was great.

That night, Kylee placed her tooth under her pillow.  The tooth fairy came and went.

Mission accomplished.

Just one week later, Kylee came home from school reporting that her other bottom front tooth was hurting.  I looked at it and it was hanging by a thread.

I will tell you that even though I'm a nurse, there are some things that totally gross me out.  Toenails and teeth fall into that category.  The neighbor girls we walk home from the bus stop with told us in great detail what the best way to pull out a tooth is.  My stomach turned, but I could tell that Kylee's mouth really was hurting, so I took the plunge and asked her if I could pull it out.  It must have really been hurting, because she said yes.  I was sweating at the prospect of yanking on a tooth.  Two twists later (I followed the neighbor girls' instructions), I had the tooth out of Kylee's mouth.  I felt quite triumphant and she was happy.

About two hours after pulling her tooth, Kylee was at work in the bathroom, furiously scrubbing the tooth with her toothbrush.  As I saw her, I thought "it isn't going to be long until she loses that tooth down the drain".  Sure enough, a second later, she yelled "Mom!  My tooth is LOST in my toothbrush!".  I inspected the toothbrush.  No tooth.  I recovered the tooth on the bathroom rug.  Whew.

I asked her why she was scrubbing her tooth.  She replied that the neighbor girl had told her that if she brushed the tooth, the tooth fairy would leave her $20 instead of just $1.  I quickly squashed that dream by suggesting to her that it was better to leave a dirty tooth than to risk washing a clean tooth down the drain in the process of brushing it.

It's always an adventure.

All Kylee wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. :)

And an American Girl doll.

Happy Haunting

And now, coming to your screen...pictures of the Carlson goblins...Halloween 2010:

Connor chose to dress up as Snake Eyes from GI Joe.  When he selected his costume (not at ALL influenced by the fact that it came with a sword and a set of two little daggers, I am sure), I suggested that maybe people wouldn't know who Snake Eyes was, both he and my husband looked at me like I had sprouted two heads right there in the aisle at Target.  Silly me.

Kylee wanted to be Padme Amidala from Star Wars.  I was a bit surprised when she chose this over a pink, glittery costume...but the minute she laid eyes on it, she knew exactly what she wanted (not unusual for our girl).  I suspect the reason she chose this was because she knew it would be exciting for her Daddy, a huge Star Wars fan.

Hadley gave our Winnie the Pooh costume one last Halloween romp.  Connor wore this same costume on his 2nd Halloween:

Photo opportunities with all of our kids looking decent are hard to come by (mostly due to the wandering tendencies of the littlest one).  This is the best pic of the three of them that we captured:

It has become a Halloween tradition to trick or treat with our friends the Chases and the Blakemores.  Here are Connor and Kylee and the Chase kiddos gathered up ready to go trick-or-treating around the Liberty Square:

Hadley was quite a riot this Halloween.  She was insistent that she be let out of the stroller to join in the fun with the older kids.  It didn't take her long to figure out that if she brought her bucket up to people, they would throw candy in it.  It took her just one time of seeing candy land in her pumpkin to make this magical connection.  She was off like a shot after that:

As I post, we anticipate the celebration of Thanksgiving this week.  Enjoy your holiday...we are thankful for your love, support, and friendship!

Apparently, I Have No Schema

...Cross-posted at BJC's Blog...


First, let's explore what 'schema' actually means:

–noun, plural sche·ma·ta
[skee-muh-tuh or, sometimes, skee-mah-tuh, ski-] sche·mas.
1. a diagram, plan, or scheme.
2. an underlying organizational pattern or structure; conceptual framework.
3. (in Kantian epistemology) a concept, similar to a universal but limited to phenomenal knowledge, by which an object of knowledge or an idea of pure reason may be apprehended.

Or, in Kindergarten terms, it's your ability to understand or remember something.

Now, let's roll back a few days. Kylee wasn't in a particularly supper-friendly mood. We let her get up from the table with the understanding that when she got hungry later, she had to come back and eat some more of her main course before she can have anything else (including dessert). That sort of agreement is never a problem when it is made, but later, well, it doesn't usually go so well.

Anyway, the bargain was struck and she left the table. Sure enough, an hour or so later, Kylee told me that she was hungry. The conversation went something like this:

     "Dad, I'm huuuuuungry!"
     "Okay, go grab your plate from the fridge and help yourself."
She busied herself with a nibble or two.
     "I ate my dinner. Can I have something else now?"
     "How many bites did you eat?"
She thought for a second, adding up the nibbles. "Two."
     "Eat a couple more bites -- BIG bites -- and then you can get something else."
     "But you said I only needed to eat two bites!"
     "No, I never said how many bites you needed to eat. I just said you'd have to have more of your supper before eating something else."

Now the volume ratcheted up. "But Daaaaaaad, you said I only had to eat two bites!"
     "I don't recall every saying that."
     "Yes, you diiiiiid!"
     "No, I did not. I just said you had to eat more of your supper. I never said how many bites you had to eat."
Then she dropped the bomb. "Daaaaaaad, you don't have any schema!"

It was at this point that I impressed even myself. If you know Kylee, you know that she hates it when people laugh at her (unless she's telling a joke, which is a topic for a whole different blog post). I mean really, really hates it. Even if it's a genuine amused/approving chuckle, she feels embarrassed and scolds the offending chuckler in no uncertain terms about how IT'S NOT FUNNY, and usually storms off in a huff to underscore just how UNFUNNY it is.

So, there I was, arguing with her about how many bites of supper she needed to finish, and she whips out this new word, schema. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn't even crack a smile...

     "What?"
     "You don't have any schema!"
     "What do you mean by that?"
     "You said two bites, you don't have any schema!"

...don't smile...not even a little bit...keep face studiously neutral...

     "Kylee, I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean by schema. Can you explain it to me?"
     ***SIGH*** "It means you don't remember what you already said."

Ah-hah! I hadn't forgotten what I had said earlier, of course, but that's irrelevant. We finally resolved the issue and went on with the evening, but it made for a good story to Mommy later that night. A day or two after that, Lindsey overheard Kylee accusing Connor of not having any schema, either, because he apparently didn't remember the *ahem* rules of the game they were playing (which she was making up on the fly, I'm sure). Lindsey commented that it was really no surprise that it was all the males of the family who didn't have any schema. I couldn't really argue.

Anyway, Kylee's teacher, Miss Mac, would be proud to know that at least one of her pupils has firmly grasped the concept of schema, and is applying it regularly to daily life.

Also, if I ever forget anything from now on, my excuse will be that it's not my fault, I simply don't have any schema.

The world would be so much more dull if it wasn't for six year old girls.

Fall Festivities

The kids had a great time getting ready for Halloween.  They were chanting at me the minute we flipped the calendar to October about getting the Halloween decorations up.  I love their enthusiasm for the seasons.

The fun continued with Fall Parties for Connor and Kylee at school.  The kids get to bring their costumes to school (Connor was Snake Eyes from GI Joe and Kylee was Padme Amidala from Star Wars) and participate in a costume parade followed by fun activities in their classrooms.  This was the first year that I had to split my time between two classrooms, so it was a crazy 20 minutes, but I was able to spend some time with both kids during their parties.

At the craft station

Sorting through the loot!

Our two school kids in the hallway

Playing "fill the bucket with candy corn"

Friends!

We love Miss Mac!

We also got to carve and decorate pumpkins as a family.  The kids had fun digging out all the "gooey stuff":

Hadley LOVES puppies....and Kit Kats, as you can tell by the chocolate on her face.

It Isn't Fall Without Football

My husband starts anticipating the start of football season just after the Super Bowl each year.  In his opinion, basketball and baseball are mere filler until the REAL MEN start playing the REAL SPORT.  Football fever runs rampant amongst the men in this house (and, I, too, admittedly enjoy catching the occasional game).  Connor has been looking forward to playing football someday.  This year, we signed him up for a Liberty Parks and Rec flag football team.  He had a BLAST!

When signing up for the first time, you go potluck in terms of a team.  Boys are assigned to teams based on their age and grade in school.  We struck GOLD when we landed on the Green Bay Packers, coached by two Dads who worked throughout the season to teach the team basics of the sport.  Coach Jason had even created playbooks for each player and taught the boys how to follow plays throughout the game.  With practices on Thursday evenings and games each Saturday throughout September and October, we all really enjoyed cheering our favorite player on from the sidelines.

Connor did very well.  He quickly emerged as one of the faster players on the team and scored several touchdowns throughout the season.  Each week, players were given the opportunity to try a different position on the field on both offense and defense.  He was eventually placed at wide receiver and cornerback.  The team learned some valuable lessons and while the overall record had more losses than wins, the season ended with a sound victory.  We are already looking forward to next season!