I was right! For once...

Well, I said on Monday that I thought Fellan would lose his tooth that night and I was actually right. My husband had a meeting that night, so he missed the actual - only slightly bloody - event. (lucky him)

Mondays are very busy for us - the kids have tennis lessons and then swimming lessons and by the time we drive through Wendy's for some nuggets, get home and take a bath, it's well past their bedtime.

After his nuggets, Fellan decided to eat some animal crackers. As he was sitting there eating them, I could see that his tooth was moving. It was really grossing me out but it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest!

I headed upstairs to get the bath started while he finished his animal crackers and a few minutes later, he came running in saying, "I think my tooth fell out!" And he pulled it out of his mouth to show me. Sure enough, there was his first tooth, sitting in my hand. (It kind of gave me the willies.)

I expected him to be a little freaked out because it was bleeding a little, but Fellan was soooo excited. He just couldn't wait to get to school and tell his little girlfriend that he lost his tooth.

A little while later, he said, "I was eating my animal crackers and then I thought, 'Hey, animal crackers don't have seeds!'" I laughed out loud - I love to hear his thought process.

We, of course, put the tooth under his pillow and the toothfairy replace it later in the night with a Sacagewea dollar. What a momentous occasion.

Too much for one post

Well, it was another great weekend and I have almost too much to write for one post! The weather was amazing all weekend (except for that wind!) and we spent nearly the entire weekend outside. It's now the short time of the year that we get to enjoy the outdoors here in Houston before it becomes unbearably muggy and generally an annoying place to live, unless you love air conditioning. Set at 65ºF. Everywhere. Sigh... I'm never happy.

Except for this past weekend! It made me very happy! After dropping off the kids at school on Friday morning, my husband and I went for a bike ride and then stopped by the bagel shop on the way home for some brunch. It was a nice and relaxing morning.

That evening was our elementary school's fundraising auction. We signed up for several "events", which was kind of a nice change from having to actually buy something that we would then have to garage sale next year.

On Saturday morning, we had a tee ball game and then we generally relaxed for the rest of the day. We ended up going to the grocery store a couple of times and we're still out of milk this morning because both times, I forgot to get milk. We also went to Home Depot while we were out and about so that we could get a weed eater to do some yard work over at the husband's office on Sunday. And I finally convinced the husband to break down and get a new doorknob for the door that opens to our back deck. He ripped the original one off the door right after Hurricane Ike (the door jam was swollen) and he kept thinking he would somehow figure out how to fix it without buying a new one. Considering the fact that we still haven't gotten the tiles replaced around our fireplace three years after they fell off, I think this is a major victory - it only took us eight months to get a new doorknob! Yippee!

Yesterday, we went for a family bike ride and spent the rest of the day doing yard work at my husband's office. There's a little section of ground cover in front of his office between the sidewalk and the street, which is slowly being killed by all the dogs who like to pee in it. We got a "no pooping dogs" sign for the dead spot a couple of months ago, but it hasn't deterred them. So, as a last-ditch effort, we bought three azalea bushes at the neighborhood plant sale on Saturday (forgot about that when I was mentioning Saturday's events), which we planted in the area to try to further discourage them. We figure they'll either be killed by the dogs as well, or they'll be killed by the City of Houston when they begin construction on our street in the next year or so. Good thing we got to the plant sale just when they put the plants on sale for half price!

And we topped off the day by having dinner at Chuy's last night. Yum!!!

So, today, I'm again recovering from our weekend. My butt is sore from going on two bike rides this weekend (we haven't done that in so long!), my hands are sore from using the trimmers to trim all the vines and bushes, and my back is sore from attempting to bend at the same angle while trimming the bushes so that they would all be even.

Another great weekend, if you ask me. And now I'd better go down to the post office here in the building to see if they have stamp machines. Gotta get those Sacagewea's - I think tonight could be the night!

Still loose, getting looser

Remember Fellan's tooth that was loose? Well, it's still hanging in there, but it's gotten to the point that it's really just hanging there by a thread. I'm afraid that it's going to fall out before the tooth fairy makes sure to stock up on Sacagawea's.

I swallowed my first loose tooth. I was in kindergarten, too, and I refused to let anyone touch it. I woke up in the middle of the night in the process of swallowing my tooth. This caused my mother much concern and consternation. I remember her taking me to the doctor to make sure that was OK and it wasn't going to somehow hurt me. Of course, I was fine, but we never got that first tooth back. (the tooth fairy did visit me, though - luckily, my parents informed her of the situation)

Speaking of Fellan, lately he has been saying things that are just really cute. For instance, he was sitting on the couch just now, playing with his cars and he turned to my husband and said, "I just pulled out one of my eyebrow hairs. It was bothering me, so I pulled it out! ...pause... Daddy, can I have a Nutella hot dog? It's been hours since I ate anything!" I find this funny because not only does he feel the need to narrate his life to us, he also still has no idea of the concept of time, so saying that it's been hours since he ate is just funny to me.

The other day at breakfast, Marxo asked for some water. Here's the exchange that took place between my husband, Marxo, and Fellan-
M: Daddy, would you get me some water, please?
H: Certainly
M: Daddy... it's all wet
H: It's just water, it'll dry
M: (eye roll) Daddy, I want it dry right now!
H: (laughing, laughing, drying - placed it back on table with a sigh)
F: Your wish is my command, princess. (with perfect "servant" inflection)

I was happy to hear that Fellan is learning some sarcasm after living with me for so many years. :)

Recovering from the weekend

I love weekends from which we have to recover. Saturday wasn't super-exciting, but yesterday was a day full of fun activities.

We got a text message from a friend on Saturday night asking if we wanted to join them at the Zoo Sunday morning. We didn't have anything planned, so we said, "Sure!" Turned out to be a great decision.

This weekend we had some beautiful weather here in Houston. While everyone else was digging out from the snow (including A-Basin, whom I thought wouldn't be able to stay open until June), we had what I think will be our last blast of cool weather before the heat of summer fully descends upon us.

Saturday morning was down-right chilly for Fellan's tee-ball game and Sunday morning was also a little chilly, but it warmed up nicely. We hung out at the Zoo and had lunch there before heading out to try out the Hermann Park paddle boats for the very first time. Even though the lake there is only about a maximum of 3 feet deep, we were always afraid to try them until the kids were fully sea-worthy (a.k.a. able to swim on their own). Then we took a ride on the Hermann Park train.

{Side note: they've been re-constructing the area in front of the zoo for the past few months and it's finally open and nearly complete, including a non-creepy, non-carnivally train depot (if you ever rode the train there before, you know what I mean!). Every time I've gone to Hermann Park in the last couple of years, I always find myself saying how much it has changed and how nice it has become in the 10 years that we've lived in our current location. I think they're in the home stretch of the revival process. Check out these before and after pictures on the conservancy website. It's really become a beautiful oasis in the center of Houston.}

We were just ahead of the lines at each of our destinations for the day - while we were riding the train, we looked at the line for the paddle boats and there must have been 10 families waiting there. (and we had walked right up and gotten on a boat!) And when the train arrived back at the depot, the line was four times longer than it had been when we got on the train! Excellent luck!

By this point, it was only 2pm, so we went home, rested a little bit and went out for a bike ride. And we even managed to find a tiny patch of bluebonnets so we could fulfill a Texas tradition by taking a picture of the kids sitting in the bluebonnets. Days like this make me almost happy to live in Houston. :)

Spring Break in Colorado

We spent spring break in Colorado last week. We drove. That wasn't all that fun. But, at least we got to go and get in some skiing!

We got there on Saturday evening and spent Sunday just hanging out. On Monday and Tuesday, we put the kids in ski school for the morning and skied together in the afternoon. And on Wednesday and Thursday it was just family ski-time. It's been very dry in Colorado, so I can't imagine that Arapahoe Basin (the place where we take the kids to ski school) will be able to stay open until June, like they usually do. That was the one strange thing about this vacation - lack of snow.

However, there was still a lot of good snow on which to ski! And we took advantage of it. We tried out Ski Cooper on Wednesday - I think it's going to be a great place to ski with the kids. Probably next year. They have some really nice LOOONNGGG runs which were just a little bit too long for us this year. I think we only got in about 4 runs all day long. But the following day, we made up for it by skiing at Loveland. Both the kids were on fire all day long and as we were going down the last run of the day - a Blue (which is an "intermediate" slope for those uninitiated to skiing) - Marxo turned to me and said, "Mommy, I'm glad we came down the easy way." That's my girl.

The theme for this year's ski trip, since we are now forced to abide by the school schedule, meaning that we had to go skiing during the time when the rest of the US also has to go skiing, was "Ski at Non-popular Spring Break Destinations." It worked out very well. We've now become no-frills skiers. All we need is a parking lot at the base (where we can keep our lunch in the car within walking distance of the base), a bathroom, and a ski mountain. It's different than in previous years when we sought out the best snow and the best places to ski, but avoiding lift lines is so worth it!

We own a tiny portion of a condo with some friends who also have kids about our kids' ages and we got to see them on Monday afternoon. I always knew that our friends called the condo "the Happy Place", but when I heard one of their daughters refer to it as the happy place, I had to chuckle because I thought it was so cute.

I told the kids later on in the week that our friends refer to the condo as "the Happy Place" and I asked them if they thought it was a happy place. They both agreed that it was, but Fellan immediately added, "And our house in Houston is a Happy Place, too."

So, we're now back in our other Happy Place. It's true. Pretty much anywhere we're all together is a Happy Place. :)

Two Wheels

I'm at work this afternoon, but accomplishing nothing. Mostly because I'm not getting paid for being here, so that puts a damper on my motivation.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a picture of Marxo up on two wheels. Now, I must tell you that we have never before let one of our children ride his bike without a helmet on. And we only let her ride her bike on the baseball diamond with no possibility of a car running her over. After seeing this picture, however, it makes me want to let her ride without a helmet all the time. I mean, look at her hair blowing free in the wind. It looked even better than this most of the time. :)

First kiss

So, what counts as a first kiss? Is it the kiss on the lips at the playground during recess? Or is it the french kiss that seems so weird and gross the first time?

Well, if it's kissing on the lips "like grownups" then Fellan had his first kiss last week. (that we know of) My husband picked him up at school one day and his little girlfriend from down the street was being retrieved at the same time. So my husband and the girl's mother were walking to their cars together, talking.

The way the husband tells the story, Fellan and his little girlfriend were running up ahead of the adults and intentionally ran past the cars. Then they stopped and kissed on the lips and ran back to the adults saying, "We kissed on the lips like grownups!"

This little girl that lives down the street from us is exactly 2 days younger than Fellan - both birthdays at the end of April - which makes them both Taurus'. One of the trademarks of being a Taurus is that you're supposed to be very stubborn. And they both live up to that one.

I laugh a lot whenever I see them play together because they continuously butt heads and ask for intervention from the adults. I generally don't give in because I think that's something they need to figure out on their own and it just makes them even more mad.

They have both, individually, told their parents that they intend to get married someday. I predict it will be quite a dynamic and passionate union. :)

Another one doesn't bite the dust

Well, we have another child now who has abandoned her training wheels! A little neighbor friend of ours gave Marxo her old two-wheeled bike and that prompted her to decide that she needs to learn once and for all to ride without training wheels.

We took them off about a week ago and just like Fellan, she basically took off and didn't look back. Much...

She actually still requires that someone run along with her, which is good exercise, but she can keep her balance and ride pretty much by herself! Very cool.

Motherly

Marxo has become very "motherly" over the last month or so. She used to always sleep with Lamby (formerly called Lambs - I had forgotten that!) and Fellan had his Baby Tarah.

Last year, however, Fellan adopted Baby Maya Sara and Baby Tarah kind of went by the wayside. (poor Baby Tarah) But lately, Marxo has adopted Baby Tarah and will not let her out of her sight. I don't know where this mothering instinct suddenly came from; she's never been interested in baby dolls before. I guess maybe she sensed she was needed. :)

Yesterday, when I got home, my husband told me that Marxo had been "resting" him all afternoon. She apparently told him yesterday morning that she was going to "rest" him that afternoon and she made good on her word. She told him he had to go lay on the couch and she brought him a blanket and a snack of grapes.

I really need to try to take advantage of this. I think this weekend I'll try to reorganize the kitchen so that everything is low and accessible to her. Then she can take care of all of us. She has way more energy than I do anyway...

Thankful

Lately it seems that there have been a lot of stories in the news about incomprehensibly horrible things happening to children (most of the time by their parents). I read these stories and feel myself on the verge of tears just trying to imagine how someone could do such horrible things.

So every night, I go home and see our beautiful kids and kiss and hug them and love on them until they push me away.

I don't ever want them to think that they are not loved.