The Incredible Edible...Tooth?

After Lindsey lost her last tooth so quickly we've been waiting for more to pop out. I noticed that one tooth seemed to have moved over, as they've done in the past, to make room for the permanent teeth that would be coming in.

Finally I asked to see where her tooth had moved only to find that the tooth had been lost at some point in the prior week! She couldn't tell me exactly when, but that she had been eating a bun at lunch, then suddenly that tooth had hurt and then it didn't, and she kept eating her bun. She didn't realize it was gone until I discovered it.

She thinks that perhaps the tooth stuck in her bun and she may have eaten it. I can't believe she lost her tooth and didn't even notice.

The tooth fairy did not visit our house for this one.

When Did You Last Walk in the Rain?

Have I mentioned how much I love my city?

Tonight I had plans to meet friends at a nearby restaurant for some after-bedtime drinks and conversation. It was only three blocks from our house, and, despite the rain, I decided to talk. I donned my raincoat and my umbrella and set out.

I am still breathing deeply from the smells I took in during that walk.. The air had a damp, worms-on-the-sidewalk kind of smell, but with an autumnal hint of the changing seasons. The air was warm so it was comfortable walking, and I was protected from the elements. The sound of the rain was peaceful; even the woosh of tires of the cars going by me had a calming effect. I think I enjoyed the walk there and back as much as I enjoyed the social outing.

When was the last time you walked in the rain?

I need to do this more often.

An observation by Marissa

The scene: Mom and 5-year-old daughter walking back from a local festival, where above photo of horseback riding was taken. They pass the local high school on the way home.

Marissa: Mommy, is that the school I'm going to go to when I get older?

Mom: Yes, sweetie it is.

Marissa: I don't want to get bigger. I want to stay 5 forever.

Mom: Me too, Marissa, me too.

Phineas Lives Here

My girls are stuck on a Disney show called "Phineas and Ferb." For those who don't know it, every episode follows the shenanigans of two brothers who are constantly making inventions and whose older sister, Candace, is always trying to "bust" them making these things. And they don't just make things: they will make forts that are 10 stories tall, rockets that go to the moon, submarines that they can shrink to explore the microscopic world, and so on and so forth.

One morning Lindsey decided she wanted to make a time machine. So she asked for some cardboard boxes, got some fuzzy pipe cleaners and tape and went to work.

When she explained what her machine did, it's actually more of a transmogrifier (to use a Calvin and Hobbes term) than a time machine. You push a button telling it what you want to transform into, enter the machine (the pink and green playtent), and come out acting like whatever button you pushed. Your options are cat, dog, baby or teenager. She had all of us get in and test it out -- it worked pretty well, although for a while she had two teenagers for parents and nobody knew who was really in charge.

Here she's demonstrating how you push the button to choose what you want to transform into.

She also had a clipboard made of a piece of cardboard in which she recorded who had used the time machine and what they transformed into. We all had to re-enter the time machine to transform back, especially me since I had to become responsible enough to make dinner. Otherwise it might've been Mountain Dew and Pringles for dinner.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider

A new neighbor moved into our flower box last week.

We've decided that she's a girl - she was pretty big as far as spiders go. We were fascinated watching her make her home. It was incredible watching how she used her back legs to put the silk where she needed it as she threaded her way around and around the web. Once it was done, she planted herself right in the middle, waiting for her prey.

She was there several days, but it rained one night and she moved out. It was fun having her while it lasted.

Adult Supervision Recommended

Saturday morning I left the house for an hour to run a few errands. I left the girls at home with their daddy. They had already spent hours in the morning watching cartoons, so the tv was turned off and screen time (i.e. tv, computer, ipod games) were off limits.

I came home an hour later to find this:

After a fun session of moonsand sculpturing in the dining room, Marissa had moved on to painting in the kitchen. Well, at least ONE craft got done at the correct table. But the craft accidentally moved to the floor when two of the paint bottles spilled over.

I arrived home in time to find Marissa hauling the mop and bucket up from the basement to clean it up. I actually couldn't be mad at her, she knew she'd made a mess and was trying to clean it up.

And then there was this:

And where was daddy? Taking a bath, getting his pulled hamstring a much-needed soak. Though I'm not sure the timing of this soak was much-needed.

His answer? Well, they weren't doing those things when he got into the bath 20 minutes ago.

Yes honey, that's why they call it adult supervision. If you supervise the activities, you can predict what may happen next and prevent it by, say, recommending that opening all four bottles of paint at once is not a good idea.

And in case we forget, this is not the first time. Remember the infamous green paint incident? Why is it that the paint is always green?

The Fastest Tooth in the West, subtitled The Inverted Vampire Look

Thursday night Lindsey informed us that one of her teeth was quite wiggly, and demonstrated how much she could move it back and forth.

Biting into an eggroll at dinner made the tooth get even looser; it was literally lying prone out of her mouth, like a plank on a pirate ship.

While reading stories at bedtime the tooth came out in her hands.

It happened so fast, as a matter of fact, that the tooth fairy wasn't ready to make a stop that night -- Lindsey had to wait until the following night when the tooth fairy took her little tiny tooth and brought her a dollar.

Perhaps it was Lindsey's new look that kept the tooth fairy away for a day. It's not every day you see only the "vampire" teeth missing from a young girl's smile; perhaps the tooth fairy was afraid that some fangs were going to grow in their place.

Or perhaps Lindsey's mommy had a mom's night out and didn't get back home until 11:00 and hadn't notified the tooth fairy that she needed to make a stop before the fairy had already passed by the neighborhood.

Whatever the reason, Lindsey was happy to get her dollar on Saturday morning!

So Marissa...How Was Your First Day of Kindergarten?

-- She loves Minneapolis KIDS and playing with Lindsey with all the toys.
-- The zhu zhu pets at Minneapolis KIDS are the BEST.
-- The boringest part was the "bee" rules, which they reviewed in Mr. Carlson's class. "Bee" responsible, "bee" respectful, "bee" your best, etc. I hope she doesn't find following those rules "boring."
-- She doesn't like Mr. Carlson's class because she doesn't know anybody in it. (Keep in mind Mr. Carlson's class is her actual kindergarten curriculum -- if she didn't have working parents that's the only classroom she would be seeing right now.) But...she does like Mr. Carlson himself, so that's good.
-- She LOVED the media center (today's term for the library) and loved it when Mrs. Knight read the class a book.

Her one area of worry on her first day was the PIN system that they use for breakfasts and lunches. Each child has a PIN that they have to enter when they buy their lunch, and she was worried that she wouldn't know it. She used it twice her first day, at breakfast and at lunch (to buy a milk, she brought a lunch from home). One of the staff let me know that by lunch on her first day she had already memorized the PIN They asked if anyone knew their PIN and she, along with some 1st and 2nd graders, raised her hand. She got to go to the front of the line and used it with ease.

That's my girl!

On the other hand, she sat at the allergy table at lunch with her peanut butter sandwich. She understood that some kids at the table were allergic to peanuts, but she didn't think that included peanut butter, so she thought it was okay that she ate her peanut butter sandwich there. We tried to explain but the concept didn't really get through. We'll have to let the teachers know so they help her know where to sit. We certainly don't want her endangering other kids because she doesn't think that a peanut allergy and a peanut butter allergy are the same thing.

The really great news from my perspective is that throughout our long Labor Day weekend she is counting down the days until she goes back to Mr. Carlson's classroom. I'm thrilled that she's so excited.

You Know How Those Refrigerator Manuals Are...

...always telling you to do stuff to make sure your frig runs at optimal efficiency.

One of their tips for optimal energy efficiency is to always keep your refrigerator full.

No worries here!

After a trip to Costco, a trip to the grocery store, and a full meal for which we've got leftovers, I'm pretty sure this is as full as we can make it.

First Day of Kindergarten

How can you resist those pigtails?

That smile?

Those kisses?

Marissa was so excited for kindergarten this morning it was thrilling to see. She expressed a little fear the night before about whether or not she would know how to use the number machine in the cafeteria (where the students have to enter their PIN to buy lunch). But Lindsey reassured her that the staff would help her out and Lindsey would be there to help. What a good big sister!

Marissa helped make her lunch and couldn't wait to get going. We dropped the girls off at Minneapolis KIDS as we would normally do, to keep the routine as close to normal as it will be. It helped in that Marissa and Lindsey got to be together for the first hour or so before having to go to their separate classrooms.

It was also wonderful to meet up with friends there -- Ava S, Lindsey's good friend and classmate, and another new kindergartener but an old friend, Maria L! She gave us one last hug and kiss and she was off playing, while Lindsey and Ava pulled out all the new toys they had already spent two days discovering to show Marissa and Maria.

 

At the end of the day I couldn't get her to settle on one thing that was her favorite thing, but she did tell me what the "boring-est" part was -- the bee rules! These are Lake Harriet's behavior rules: "bee" respectful, "bee" kind, "bee" your best, etc. I hope she doesn't find it "boring" to follow those rules.

We are so proud of our littlest peanut and are excited for the new discoveries she'll be making this year. In the meantime, she was a little pooped out from the day, and so here she is as of a couple of hours ago. I swear, I'm going to take photos of my kids sleeping all the way through high school, it's just so adorable.

The Day Between First Days

Lindsey's first day of second grade was yesterday.

Marissa's first day of kindergarten is tomorrow.

Here are the "first day" photos from yesterday -- it was actually Lindsey's first day, but Marissa's second to last day of KinderCare.

The photos were taken in the evening, as Lindsey was a bit too scared and tearful in the morning for photos. She was very nervous about her first day, and informed me that NEXT year she should only have one first day at a time -- a first day at school and a first day back to Minneapolis Kids. Doing both of those on the same day is apparently very difficult. Unfortunately we will always be on vacation the week before school starts, as their summer program is closed that week, which only makes it harder because she's also very sad that vacation is over. What can I say, the girl takes after her mother. We will probably try to work it out so that on her first day of school we can take her directly to school when the day begins, then have her start the before and after school program the following day. She was much better by day two and back to her usual excitement at being at school with all her friends, and was liking her new teacher very much.

Marissa informed me tonight that I should NOT make her lunch tonight, she wants to help make it tomorrow morning. And she is very VERY excited to be in Mrs. Carlson's class (her teacher is actually Derek Carlson, a man. I am sure this is not the first time he will be called "Mrs," though).

More first day photos to come tomorrow!

Reading this blog is less painful than a slideshow of the trip

Oh, why thanks for asking, yes, I DID have a nice vacation. What were the higlights, you ask?

From a parents point of view, one highlight was taking a little "test drive" of leaving our kids at the grandparents while Wayne and I went to Genesee Creek to visit Michelle, Steve and family. The girls enjoyed the time with just their grandparents, and we enjoyed a night out of just the adults. It was great to finally see Michelle and Steve's house -- we'd heard so much about it, an original farmhouse with lots of charm and lots of places to spend money if you so chose. It was great to finally see their place in person -- what a great place for kids to grow up, with lots of nooks and hidden crannies to play in. Kristi drove up from Indiana to join us for dinner, and her arrival at the grandparents' the following day was a great surprise for our girls.

For the family, another highlight of the trip was a visit to the newly opened Storybook Gardens in Sheboygan. It's a great outdoor space with landscaping and buildings inspired by children's stories. My mom checked it out ahead of our trip and was somewhat disappointed by it, since much of it is still under construction, and it seemed like a quick tour from an adult's perspective. But through a child's eyes, the place was full of wonder and thrills. After all, what could be more exciting than opening and closing the crazy door and windows of the Dr. Seuss house?

If you asked our kids, the other highlight of the trip was seeing friends from the Twin Cities. I know, we see them often (Lindsey sees her friend Ava 5 days a week at school), but still, it was something special to see them out of the normal environment, especially when the *new* environment was the lakeshore of Lake Michigan.

We visited them at their rented condo in Sheboygan -- when you opened the door of their rental, you walked over a small sand dune and then could sink your feet up to your ankles in the softest sand as you overlooked the lake. Wow. We brought a take-out dinner with us, ate, and then walked along the lakeshore. The resort had a bonfire at 7:30 and we stayed to roast marshmallows and the kids rolled down a grassy knoll in the dark, laughing all the way. 

While we enjoyed this visit as well, the other highlight of this for us was the view and the sound. I love the sound of waves crashing on a shore. The moon was unbelievable as it rose in the distance, shedding its light on the water. It was so peaceful.

When we returned to our home on Thursday, I felt like we'd been away for several weeks, not just four days. What...school? Work? What's that?

A Vacation to Remember

It's hard to believe that our week-before-school vacation has already come and gone.

We spent most of the week in Wisconsin with my mom and stepdad, visiting family and making new memories.

My favorite part? Not sure I can narrow it down to one, but the sweetest had to be watching the cousins playing. Now that Marissa and Paulie are both 5, they are playing together more. Lindsey seemed content with letting them have their playtime, while Maddie was otherwise occupied with more toddler-like things.

Some quiet sandbox time under the shade umbrella.

Chase me chase me!

I was surprised that this one was Marissa's idea -- swords!

More photos and stories to come of the whole week -- soon to be followed by first-day-of-school stories.

What...I have a job??

I do? Really? Because, you know, after two day's worth of driving, loads of time in Wisconsin having fun with dear family members and having ample time with the kids, I forgot.

You mean...Monday isn't just the first day back to school for my kids??? I have someplace to go to??

What do I do? I forget. I hope someone fills me in when I get there.

Santa Finally Granted Lindsey's Wish

Around Christmas Lindsey kept asking for a swing in the backyard, along with a host of other things. Swings are hard to come by in December and we really couldn't see ourselves setting one up with a couple of feet of snow on the ground. Wayne and I were both thinking of a swing in a traditional sense -- two pieces of rope, a rectangular seat, and a back and forth motion.

Then a few weekends ago the girls spent a night at a friends house, and got to see a disc swing. Theirs was strung from a sturdy branch of an incredibly large tree -- you could get a running start and swing back and forth, round and round, in any direction you wanted. If you could convince an adult to give you an underdog, you could fly through the air! They fell in love with this swing and wanted to play on it all the time.

We couldn't find one in stores but Wayne found one on the internet, so he bought one and last weekend he put it up. This has become the highlight of our girls' time at our house. They cannot wait to get outside, get pushed around or push each other on it. Definitely a hit!

The only drawback is that our tree isn't quite as huge as our friend's, so usually someone has to stand by the tree and push the rider away from the tree if she gets too close. But that's become a game too, and so far only Marissa has scraped a little bit of her leg on the bark.

We've always held off on getting a playset or playhouse for the backyard because of the space. It's a postage-stamp sized lot; there's not a lot of room to have a playset without it taking over the whole yard. I'm glad we finally found an outdoor activity that they can do that takes up so little space and was easy to install (if you don't mind 12-foot ladders).

A Case of the Giggles

I love listening to my girls giggle uncontrollably at the littlest things. It reminds me to laugh...every day.

Ever feel like you just can't leave work?

Me too.

Loving the Lakes

I will continue to get up and hit the skating trails before work every now and then, even though my "big event" is done. And here are some reasons why.

Ducks.

Boats.

Stillness.

Colors.

Peace.

Happy Birthday Doggy

I'm a week late in posting it but we did celebrate on the actual birthday (August 1st).

Happy 12th birthday, Dax! We're so glad you're a part of our family.

15 years of Rollerblading Tested

Today I participated in my first-ever inline skating competitive event. I signed up for this months ago, and have been diligently waking up at 5 am every day  now and then to skate the lakes and put some miles on.

I love inline skating because there's a little bit of speed involved which means a little bit of risk, but not a huge amount of risk. It's not like I'm flying on a bike at 40 mph, I'm just going 8 mph, maybe 10, and having a good time. I've been skating since the summer of 1995, when I bought my first pair of Rollerblades when I was between jobs and had no health insurance, which I remember my mother being very concerned about.

Some months ago Wayne found a half marathon that had a skating element to it and encouraged me to sign up. I was already skating 7 miles on my normal skating routine, I was sure I could train up to a half-marathon distance.

Like I said, I've been getting up and doing my routes, going on some longer trails and completed a couple of 10-milers. I was able to finish those 10-milers in about an hour, so both Wayne and I figured that I would complete the half-marathon in about 1 hr 20 minutes.

I had registered as an advanced skater but ended up being lined up with the open skaters. This was mostly by accident, as they didn't put the wave signs up until literally a couple of minutes before the start, and prior to that people were milling about wondering if they were in the right place. I was near the front of the pack of the open skate and didn't make a move to get up to the advanced skaters. Those women looked like they knew what they were doing -- they were all suited up in professional suits and had the nice, NICE skates, the ones that look like little sneakers with 100mm wheels on them. Yep, I was pretty sure they were going to leave me in the dust so I didn't try to move up to that group. I was completely intimidated and wondered what the hell I was thinking registering as an advanced skater.

The course was pretty hilly; I heard from some skaters after that it was "brutal." I had been concerned beforehand about the hills because I'd heard it wasn't very flat and had a couple of hairpin turns, but it turns out that the hill that I take both up and down between Lakes Harriet and Calhoun was actually steeper than any hills we skated today, and I've done hairpins before, it wasn't that big a deal.

At mile three I saw a huge pack of people pass me up while we were climbing a hill. It was a little disheartening and I was tempted to push myself to pass them, but I already felt like my legs were burning so I decided to hold out and save my energy for later in the race.

Later on I passed that entire pack.

I also had skaters with those sweet $1,000 skates pass me by on the down hills -- their wheels were so fast that they ate up the pavement and flew by me.

I passed them on the inclines.

I finished the half-marathon in 56 mins 51 seconds. I had no intention of breaking the 1-hour mark, didn't even know I could.

I was 92nd overall out of 375 skaters (top 25%), and had 6 advanced skaters finish AFTER me, despite the fact that I had lined up with the open skaters. I definitely could have done better had I actually started with the advanced skaters  -- there were only 10 women who self-identified as advanced, so the road would've been clear at the start had I had the confidence to start with them.

Now I know.

Half-marathon skates are apparently few and far between, but I'm going to be on the lookout for them, and who knows, I'll probably move up to the full marathon skate next season.

I was incredibly proud of myself and of this accomplishment. But just to keep myself humble, I had to check out the top finishers. They completed the race in 36 minutes, or a little over a half an hour. That's an average speed of 21 mph...on skates. (My average speed was 14 mph, in case you're wondering.)

Crazy.