"Sledding"

Who says you need more than an inch of snow to go sledding?

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The Final Visit

We had W's 4th and final visit to the Dentist this morning. WOO HOO!!! Well, actually he goes back in a month for an adjustment and cleaning but that will seem like small potatoes compared to what this kid's been through!

I've been prepping him for a couple days for this visit where they would be working on the upper left two molars ( a filling and a sealant) and applying the tongue crib appliance to the roof of his mouth. He's always been fascinated by the permanent retainer I have behind my bottom front teeth so I tried to hype up the excitement that he gets to have one of his very own! And his is even more special because his is on the TOP of his mouth.

He fell nicely into my trap and after the initial reaction of "No, I don't want to go to the Dentist again because it might hurt," he was excited to get his own "retainer." "I'm going to be brave mom, even though I might cry."

We arrived to a nice surprise when we got to the office and found that the new wing they've been adding on to the building was complete and we got to experience a whole new, larger, more professional looking office. Thankfully, the toys were still the same and the staff was as sweet as always so he wasn't thrown off by going to a "new dentist" again.

He did as great as always and greeted us afterwards with the same loopy grin he always does. He wanted to show us his tongue crib right away and asked to see my retainer again so we could compare. It's not as noticeable as I feared but it's certainly visible when he talks, laughs, etc.

He's had a little rougher time adjusting to having a large metal football in his mouth and complained a little during lunch that he was having trouble eating. He seems satisfied by our encouragements that it will just take some time to get used to though and I think he thought it was fun and special that I cut up his sandwich for him so he could eat it.

I caught him after lunch trying to take it out and asking when he could take it out and why he couldn't take it out now. I told him when it starts getting warm outside again after winter is when he'll be able to take it off.

His biggest disappointment so far is that he can't make tooting noises with his mouth as easily as he used to. Ah, the mind of a four year old.

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W Thanksgiving preschool program

Most of the time I had no idea what they were saying, but man, weren't they cute?!

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Just playing

I've been inspired by my friend and started playing around on picasa today. (As if I needed something else to suck away my time!) Here's a sample of what I came up with...

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Visit 3

Today was the big day. And he was such a champ! They worked on his upper right two molars, took impressions for the tongue crib that will be inserted in December, and pulled his front top two teeth.

I was so nervous about today's visit but once again I was amazed at how smoothly it all went. It's not even as noticeable as I thought it would be that he is missing his front two teeth. So far he hasn't complained of any pain so hopefully that will be the case even after the novocaine wears off.

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Visit 2

Our second visit at the Dentist went smoothly. I was a little concerned last night because when I told W we were going to the Dentist today he said, "But he might use a screwdriver again and that hurts a little bit." But he didn't resist going today so I was relieved.

They worked on the bottom right two molars today filling cavities and applying sealants. Everything was pretty straight forward although I thought they were going to do the impressions for his tongue crib today and they didn't. So our next visit on November 11 will be a biggie: fillings and sealants on the upper left two molars, impressions made for the tongue crib and the front two teeth extracted.

We used our newly acquired Dave Ramsey skills at our last visit and asked if they would consider a discount for cash payment. To our surprise they offered a 7% discount if we paid the whole bill up front with a check. So although writing that check hurt a little we feel good about getting at least a little discount. Acquiring Dental Insurance is definitely on our to-do list!

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Visit 1

W is such a champ. I was so proud of how he handled his first Dentist appointment yesterday. If you are visiting my blog for the first time in a while read this post below to catch up on what's been new in our lives.

Everything went REALLY well yesterday and we were amazed at how quick the appointment was. When we pulled into the dentist parking lot, W excitedly said, "We get to go to this dentist AGAIN?!" We've been to three dentists in the past two months and never the same one twice until now so I think he was surprised to be back at the same one we saw Wednesday!

We arrived 10 minutes early and they were waiting for us so W got to go right back all by himself. This office doesn't allow parents back in the exam room. At first this bothered me but I've come to realize just how smart they are in not allowing mama bear back there.

Less than 30 minutes later he walked out into the waiting room with a smile on his face and they said he was all done! They worked on the lower left quadrant this time, filling cavities on the two back molars. They said he did great, that one of the cavities was pretty deep so they'll need to keep an eye on it. They may eventually need to extract the tooth or put a crown on it but for now we're just going to try the filling and hope it holds.

He was pretty quiet for a while afterwards but never once complained of pain the rest of the day. I even got a personal phone call later that day from the Dentist himself who just wanted to check in on him and make sure he did ok after his first time having dental work done. It's such a relief to know we found such a great place for all this!

I asked W if he wants to come back in a few weeks (our next appointment will be Oct. 19) and he enthusiastically said, "YEAH!"

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Dentist

I have procrastinated in making this public but now that we have a plan in place I feel a little more comfortable talking about it. The past few months have been a bit of a nightmare for us and as much as I hoped I'd wake up someday and realize it was all just a bad dream, I've finally accepted reality that this is not going away.

Two months ago I took W to the Dentist for the first time. They found several cavities, referred us to a pediatric dentist who wanted to do all the dental work necessary while he was under general anesthesia in the hospital. Because of how many cavities he had, he would probably need fillings or crowns on 7 of his 8 back molars.

We were shocked and disappointed, especially when we found out that because we do not have dental insurance and we have a high medical deductible the cost would be at least $7000 out of pocket.

We decided we needed to explore other options and chose to get a second opinion from a pediatric dentist in Decatur who does most of his work in office using nitrous oxide. We had our first appointment with him yesterday and received good news and bad news.

The good news:
He will not need any crowns on his back molars after all. After doing xrays the decay on his molars was not as bad as we initially were told and Dr. says he should only need fillings and sealants on them. The only cavities were on the top surface so crowns would be unnecessary. We'll be taking care of that in office over 4 separate visits using nitrous oxide.

The bad news:
Due to a combination of 3 factors, his front two teeth will need to be extracted.
1st factor-Genetically, he inherited my overbite
2nd factor-thumb-sucking habit (even though he doesn't anymore, the damage has been done)
3rd factor-He has bumped his front teeth in various falls (they stick out more than average because of factor 1 and 2)

All those things combined has damaged the root of those two teeth so badly that the root is dead, infection has set in and they need to be removed before the infection reaches the permanent teeth. After those teeth are removed he will insert a tongue crib across the roof of his mouth for 6 months that will help to naturally push his top teeth back somewhat and at least partially correct the damage that has been done by the thumb-sucking.

Dr. has him on an antibiotic now for the infection and we'll have our first appointment tomorrow to begin with the lower left quadrant work. The front two teeth will come out at visit three in November.

There are several parts of this that have been hard: worry about finances, worry about how W will handle it and if he will cooperate, experience pain, etc. Of course I don't want my baby to have to go through all this.

But, perhaps the hardest part for me has been the self-doubt and shame I have felt about all of this. As a friend of mine said, "It's not like you let him suck on sugar-pops all day." But I instinctively accept full responsibility for allowing his teeth to get to this point and all too quickly allow myself to believe that I'm a bad mom because of it.

Thank goodness my God reminds me how untrue that is. He reminds me that W is his child too. That we aren't in this alone. That really in the great scheme of life this is going to be a small distant blip on a glorious eternal line. Thank goodness He reminds me of his Grace.

So, we ask for your prayers, your support and your encouragement. We've agonized over these decisions and feel good about the direction we are going. I'll try to update this blog after each visit.

I can already hear W singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..." Lucky him, he'll get to sing it for two years or more!

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Don't Buy Stuff

Hubby is team teaching a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class this semester at our church. We've become pretty hard core Dave fans the past year or two and think he would probably LOVE this video.

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Like Father, Like Son

We've been doing a lot of what hubby would call "cushy camping" lately. Camping in a pop-up camper, staying in a lodge at Discovery Ministries, visiting his parent's camper where they camp on the weekends. I think he was starting to get worried that W would grow up thinking that's what camping is.

He wants him to experience the wild, get dirty, sleep in a tent or better yet, under the stars. The last time we took W camping he was only about a year and a half old and it was not an enjoyable experience. I swore after that sleepless, cold, night that I would not sleep in a tent with him again until he was old enough to go alone with Daddy and have a good experience so I would know it could in fact be done.

Well, last night was the big test. Hubby took him to Weldon Springs for the night and they did have a great bonding time together.

Here's the pup tent big enough for just the two of them:


Developing a fascination for campfires:


Making friends with some beavers:


And of course, pretending they are biting his finger:

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Spontaneous

I am not a spontaneous person. I like to plan, organize, and calculate. The thought of spontaneity makes me break out in hives. Well, maybe it's not that bad but I really do like a plan.

So you can imagine my distress when a friend of mine from college called me at 3:30 pm yesterday and said, "Hey, wanna come to a Point of Grace/Mark Schultz concert tonight in Decatur at 6:15?" She had won 6 tickets just that day.

Ordinarily I would have said no, thank you. In fact I almost did tell her no right away. But I told her I would call her back in ten minutes, thinking to myself, "I'll be calling you back in ten minutes after I think of some good reason not to come."

The strangest thing happened though. I couldn't think of a good reason. The best I could come up with is, "My husband needs to mow the yard." Wow. That would be a really lame reason to miss a concert.

Now, if it was just any old concert, I probably would have used that excuse. (Yikes, that's pretty sad, huh?) But this was not just a concert. She not only had to tickets to the concert, she had V.I.P. passes to MEET the artists backstage before the concert.

I do love Mark Schultz but the big draw for me was Point of Grace. I have this nostalgic link to them because they were so big during my college years. I'm embarrassed to share this story but my first memory of Point of Grace is riding in my now husband's '72 chevelle on the way to the Christian Campus House Barn Dance somewhere out in the country. We were really just friends then so I was in the back seat with another girl-friend of mine and his buddy was in the front seat.

We had the Point of Grace tape in (yes, TAPE, that's how long ago this was) and had "Keep the Candle Burning" cranked up. I remember seeing my hubby and his buddy rockin' out to the music, thinking, "Wow, I'm so impressed that they are secure enough in their masculinity to do a little head bobbin' to Point of Grace!" So impressed in fact that I married him!

Anyway, the concert was awesome and I felt totally cool (and yet totally immature that I felt totally cool) wearing my V.I.P pass. We got to meet them and they signed our passes and got our pictures taken with them. They seemed like they felt just about as awkward as we did about the whole thing.

But it was a great night of entertainment and just goes to show you that sometimes, just maybe, there are legitimate reasons for being spontaneous.

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Rite of Passage

Today was the big day. First day of Pre-school. W is in the Bumblebee class and has been so excited about going for a very long time. We have been telling him, "when you get a little bigger you can go, buddy." So this morning when he woke up and we told him today was the day, he said, "I grew big enough, now!"

He did great and didn't seem phased at all that I was just dropping him off and not staying with him. He did ask when we came out after pre-school if I had stayed at the school though and seemed surprised that I had ventured off "school-grounds."

I thought we might have a bit of a problem when we walked into his classroom and there were no trains in sight. At the open house a few months ago, he'd gotten to play in a different classroom with a train table and has been talking about it all summer. He pointed out to me right away when we went into his room that there were no trains in this room. But he was sure to reassure me afterwards that they did indeed go to another room where he did get to play with trains.

He told me all about what they did, what they ate, what they played with. His favorite part was the fish and said he might get to feed the fish if he goes back to preschool again.

It seems very strange to me that we have moved from having a toddler and baby to having a pre-schooler and toddler! What was even more strange was having 2 1/2 hours with just L. We went to Wal-mart and came home to play for a bit. Of course she spent most of the morning playing in W's room with all the things that he never lets her play with. We took a walk before going to pick up W and she's obviously not used to such a peaceful morning because I don't think this has EVER happened before:

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Protector

Ever hear those stories about how somebody decides at the last minute not to get on a plane for one reason or another only to find out later the plane crashed or something horrible happened? Well, here's one to add to the list.

S is camping/canoeing with some guys this weekend. He's been planning the trip for a couple weeks now, finding the best place to camp, the cheapest canoe rental place, and so on. He finally settled with S.V. canoe rentals and made reservations for today at 10 to do a 15 mile canoe float.

Before he left he gave me the names of the place they were staying and the name of this canoe place just in case I would need it for any reason. Last night I guess he decided to call one more canoe rental place and discovered they had some availability and although they charged $1 more per person he decided to change his reservation and go with this other place.

Now, if you know my husband at all, you know where he can save even one dollar, he will. So for him to go with a "more expensive" canoe rental place is quite unusual especially since he really didn't have any reason to change his reservations.

The float went well and other than having to hide under rock during a thunderstorm they made it back to camp with no problem. When they were returning the canoe he discovered from one of the women who worked at the canoe rental place that the S.V. canoe rental business had a serious bus accident that day.

If you know anything about canoeing you know that usually they load a bus up with people at the start of the day, transport all the canoes upstream and drop off the people to begin their float. Apparently this particular bus had lost it's brakes, careened into the forest and flipped over. The woman telling my husband this said it took every ambulance in the area to respond to the scene of the accident.

Now I don't know if my hubby and crew would have ended up on this particular bus had they stuck with their reservation at S.V. canoes. I don't even know the specifics of the severity of the accident. (I tried finding a newslink but I'm assuming news doesn't travel real fast in this neck of the woods.)

But I do know that these words keep echoing in my mind..."The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge." Psalm 18:2

After today's events, I think I can buy into that.

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Guess who that is...

I never knew I married such a celebrity...check it out...

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L somersaults 2009

Every once in a while she gets in one of these moods and we were FINALLY able to get the camera out in time to capture it.

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w reading 2009

We have developed quite the bedtime ritual as of late. Clearly this is his FAVORITE book right now and we have read it so many times that he has memorized almost the whole book.

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Neglected

I don't really know why I never blog anymore. It's definitely not like life is any more boring than ever before, in fact it is probably more the opposite. As W and L get older and nap less I find myself with less and less time to reflect, write and actually finish a project I start. I have about half a dozen blogs entries started in the cue and by the time I get back to finishing them, I think, "Why was I writing about this? What else was I going to say?" Anyway, maybe the key is to keep blog entries short and sweet.

So following that inspiration here's another short list of some of W's words that make me smile:

-"Peanut-apple"-pineapple. Usually said this way when I encourage him to clean his plate: "But mommy, I can't like peanut-apple!"
-"Michael-cycle"-Motorcycle. Uncle J stopped by one day on his motorcycle and ever since then W talks about his "michael-cycle." I can't tell where this came from because he does have an Uncle Michael but he's not the one who owns the motorcycle. I don't know-it's just too cute.
-"Punk"-said at the top of his lungs while swinging, "MOMMY! LOOK! I PUNK MY LEGS!" (this cute-ness factor is multiplied because he thinks pumping your legs means just holding them out straight in front of you.)

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Spring Choir Concert

W is the one wearing the striped polo. He was a pro at the motions but the only words he opened his mouth for were the "chomp, chomp, chomp" of the gator!

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Swim lessons

TREMENDOUS improvement from the first night!

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She just makes me laugh

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2009 Skiing

Our future olympian...

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Random mementos

I am a person who likes a certain amount of neatness and order in her home. I think God must know I needed to lighten up a little bit on this issue and having kids has definitely helped me do that. Since L has officially entered toddlerhood I find random objects in the most interesting of places. Usually about once or twice a day while she's sleeping I go through the house and try to make sense of where she thought things belonged. I can't help but sigh and smile at what she left in her wake...

Just in case we needed some viewfinder entertainment while getting some relief... (and yes those are tiny pieces of torn up toilet paper on my bathroom floor-they have become a permanent fixture in our bathroom)


Toothbrush on the end table in the living room...


CD in the printer...


Beloved "Lambie" taking a nap in the dog bed...


And finally, I've decided our floor must be growing socks because I can't tell you how many I find each day in various parts of the house...




And that's just from one day! Whew!

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My googled images

So I got tagged to do this and it ended up being pretty fun...

My age


Best friend


Current pet


First job


Favorite food


One of my favorite places


Birthplace


Current place of residence


What I'm doing right now


Favorite animal


Favorite object


Past love


Place I want to go


Place I've been


Nickname (former)


Favorite color


Who I tag

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More of my boy

W seems to be adding new words to his vocabulary everyday. We have to be VERY careful what we say as he "parrots" everything. S often calls me "babe" and the other day W was mousing around performing for me and he said, "Watch this, BABE!"

It makes life easier in a lot of ways now that he can communicate with words. As his speech gets more and more clear there are fewer frustrating times trying to interpret what he's just said. There are still quite a few words though that he gets confused about and although we're working on them, part of me finds them so endearing that I'll be a little sad when he finally gets them right.

Here's a few more W-isms:

"Yester-year"- A period referring to any time in the past, ranging from 3 minutes ago to over a year ago.

"Nose-balls"-Snowballs

"What-not"-spoken as a question, actually meaning "why not?" (We hear this in response to our "no" A LOT)

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Teddy Bear Picnic

I took W on a special mommy-son date to the Teddy Bear Picnic at the library last weekend. It was quite an adventure complete with a bear hunt, bear story, visit from Pooh Bear, and of course W's favorite-bear food (honey sandwich and teddy grahams). He had a great time and here's some pics from our day...





Feeding Teddy...

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One

It's been harder than I thought it would be watching my baby girl turn one. When W turned 1 it felt like it had been a year. A year of learning, growing, watching him develop. But for some reason this past year feels like a blink of an eye! I guess it's because I've been more busy caring for two. Of course I've still done the learning, growing, watching her develop but it's felt like it's all been in fast forward. As excited as I am about watching her grow up a little more each day, part of me is really sad that my baby isn't a baby anymore.

It's been a while since I've done a list here and in honor of her big first birthday I thought I'd list some of my favorites about her/this past year etc...

-She adores her older brother. W has definitely entered the "I'm-a-high-energy-goofy-little-boy-who-thinks-it's-fun-to-be-as-loud-as-possible-and-repeat-silly-behaviors-over-and-over" phase. Thank goodness L laughs hysterically at him because I just can't bring myself to after the 9th time!

-Her sweet little independent spirit. She is so good about playing on her own and I love to watch her determination as she "works" at playing with toys.

-Her dimple.

-The way she nuzzles into me and sucks her thumb when she's tired.

-The growling noise she makes when she's eating like she just can't get the food in her mouth fast enough.

-Her flexibility. She has been so accommodating when her routine has to be changed and I just have been amazed at how easy it's been to postpone mealtimes or naptimes if we have to for one reason or another.

-The way she crawls/toddles (whichever she is choosing at the moment) as fast as she can towards S when he walks in the door after work almost as if she knows she's got to compete with two other people and a gigantic dog for his attention.

-That God is letting me borrow her for a while and revel in every detail He designed in her.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl.

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