Her Gift (and Baby Teeth)

With family that lives so near, it is nice to recognize the many special things we have to offer one another. For my design questions, I turn to my sister. (If I had an inkling to be more stylish, I would probably turn to her more...). For legal counsel and sound judgement we turn to Brett's father. We go to Brett's mom for our sewing needs: mending, hemming, making a wallet (see, anything goes!). For any of the following: questions about cars, borrowing a tool, removing a splinter, computer problems, strong muscles to lift and move, building a kitchen, identifying snakes, understanding the situation with the Deepwater Horizon, local geography, tying a rope, cutting down a tree, fixing...ANYTHING--we go to Brett.

And for wiggly teeth, we turn to Donna. After years of being a kindergarten teacher's assistant before moving here, Donna became quite the expert in baby teeth. Fortunately, she moved in two doors down from us right before Todd started losing his.

I don't really have a problem dealing with the messiness of children or with the blood that comes because of accidents that are bound to happen. But, as one who has a slight phobia of losing her own teeth (read: my nightmare), pulling my children's teeth is not something I am prepared to do. Ryan injured one of his top baby teeth sometime last year. All seemed fine, but a recent bump caused the tooth to become loose before he lost any of his lower baby teeth. The dentist said that she could see his adult teeth coming in on the x-ray, so there was nothing to worry about.

The tooth had been a little loose for almost two weeks, but a little bump yesterday (during my piano lessons) caused the tooth to loosen more and bleed (quite a bit--and my poor student had to witness!). Blood? No worries. Super-loose tooth? Time to call in reinforcements. We went ahead and started dinner before Donna arrived, but Ryan was struggling and was clearly uncomfortable. A few minutes into dinner, Donna arrived and - *pop* - that tooth was out and ready for the tooth fairy. [Todd, in a quiet aside, asked if Ryan could get $2.00 instead of just $1.00. They are saving to buy a cool Lego set, after all. No secret about the tooth fairy in this house.]

What's great about Donna is that she knows when a tooth is ready to come, and won't pull it before then. And when it's ready, the tooth is out before the kids even know what happened. My boys trust her as the tooth-pulling expert, and I am grateful to have one of those in the family!

I told Ryan that he was officially a big boy. He replied, "So, I'm six now" (even though he knows that his birthday isn't until September). It will take me a little time getting used to seeing my baby with his missing tooth. I was talking to a woman at a chorus rehearsal last week. She talked about her twenty-something year old son who was still her cuddly boy. I told her that my little Ryan would always be my cuddly baby as well. Rat-tail, gap-toothed smile and all.

[We couldn't figure out what my special gift was, though one of the boys offered, "maybe for cooking something." Thanks for the effort.]

What Will I Do With My Time?

"Summer" ends in four weeks. Only four more weeks until school starts back up.

I am not looking forward to getting rid of my kids the way some parents do after having them around all day/every day. I like having them around. And they play so well with each other and with their next door neighbor, that it's not hard for them to stay busy. My problem is organizing my time so that we have a chance to do some of the activities and outings that I want to do with them before summer ends. We have done a few things like going to Big Kahuna's, playing Mexican Train Dominoes, making popsicles, water skiing, picking ripe red tomatoes from the garden, going to the library, hiking a trail at Rocky Bayou State Park, swim lessons, and just lounging with the family, among other things.

However, I would also like to do some of the following before the summer:
Go to a summer movie
Pick blueberries
Go canoeing
See the manatees in Wakulla River
Hit a state park or two
Go scalloping
Make more popsicles
Do a craft or two or three

And while I want to enjoy my time with the boys while I have it, I find that I am already looking ahead to what I might be able to accomplish when I have a full day of my own time. Of course, as I look forward to this time I do it in an attitude of procrastination. Like, why bother organizing my paperwork and balancing my checkbook now? Better to just wait until school starts.

Other projects I dream of finishing:
Sorting through and getting rid of seldom-used clothes, movies, and stuff
Ironing
Organizing all my photos
Sewing a dress-up cape and Ben10 costume (just in time for Halloween!)
Sewing my Christmas advent calendar
Cleaning the ceiling fans/general dusting (...nah!)
Detail vacuuming around the baseboards (...maybe)
Organizing my recipes and making weekly menu plans
Hanging pictures in dining room and family room
Painting exterior wall of the former screened porch
Catching up on blogging (is that even possible?)
Learning German (now I'm really dreaming...)

We'll see how successfully I organize my life come August. In the meantime, I am determined to put those big projects aside and use my last month to have fun with the boys. In fact, I think I'll attempt "Make more popsicles" right now.

Hope you're having fun with your summer.

Look!

Todd: Hey, Mom. Look under there!
Mom: Under-where?
Todd: Ha ha! You said underwear!!
Mom: Doh! You got me!

Another popular joke at our house:
Todd: Mom, how do you eat a granola bar?
Mom: One bite at a time.
I've heard this one before. . . . In fact, I heard it this morning.

[Todd is the one who really got me with the first joke this morning. However, both Todd and Ryan are enjoying both of these joke this week.]