Loose Tooth

Abby has a loose tooth. It's not very loose (although in true Abby style, she had a dramatic breakdown about how scary it was and how MUCH IT HURTS even though it just barely wiggles) but it is definitely going to fall out sooner than later. To be honest, my eyes filled up just a tiny little bit when she told me. I don't want her to lose a tooth because that will confirm what I already know: she is not at all, in any way, a baby anymore. Since she is going to be the last child (Probably. I think. Almost for sure.) each of these little milestones just reminds how fast she is growing up! When that tooth does fall out, I'll be excited and exclaim what a big kid she has become with a big smile on my face, but inside, I'll be crying. Just a little bit.

Adventure

Some friends of ours have just come home from the most amazing adventure. They returned a little more than a week ago from Ethiopia where they met and fell in love with the newest addition to their family. They lived there for seven weeks, and experienced their lovely daughter's birth culture. I'm pretty jealous about the whole thing (not the having to boil water part. Or the cockroaches part.) Jealous isn't actually the right word for it because that sounds negative. I'm so, so, SO thrilled for them, and I have enjoyed getting to hear about the whole adventure, and I'm pretty much in love with their new girl (along with everyone else who lays eyes on that little sweetheart.) I'd kind of like to just take her home with me, but they, for some reason, just won't let me!

When they got word that they were free to leave Ethiopia, having been granted travel documents for Baby Rebeka, they started making plans for their homecoming. And their friends and family started planning too. The playgroup moms planned things to leave at the house and a trip to the airport to welcome them home. Originally, I wasn't going to bring the kids; our friends would be exhausted, and I knew we'd just see them for a few minutes. But, I was certain it would be a "moment." And it was. It really, really was.

The kids and I drove up with some other friends and arrived to find a huge group, waiting to welcome them home. It was so exciting to wait for the flight with other people who love them. The kids had a blast, being up late and playing with their friends while we waited. We had been reading updates and looking at pictures of their whole family for weeks and weeks. Their kids just happen to be the exact ages of our kids, and they have grown up together, so they were excited to see their friends and the new addition.

The plane was delayed a little (that it wasn't delayed a lot is miracle since there had been cancelled and delayed flights all over the place) so the anticipation was high. There were welcome signs and welcome balloons and we got a lot of stares (as well as a stern reprimand for blocking the "fire lane.") But pretty soon, someone shouted "That's them!" And there they were! A newly formed family of six! They were both completely different and completely the same as the friends we said goodbye to weeks before. We all got to have a minute to meet Rebeka (I used my minute to stroke her soft, soft hair and touch her sweet squishy arm) and James spent his time ignoring the baby and alternately hugging and wrestling with his three best buddies, who were so happy to be a foursome once again. Josh and Abby never took their eyes off that sweet girl (and I saw a gleam in Abby's eyes that could have only been a plot to take that baby for herself forming in her mind.) I'm so glad that I took the kids to airport. Even when they were super crabby for the next four days straight, I was so glad that I took them. It was a night that they won't forget, and I'm happy we were there to show our friends how much we love all six of them.

Abby fell asleep in the car immediately. Like as the car started rolling immediately. And when we got home and I took her to bed, she woke up enough to talk to me. I asked her what she thought about Rebeka (she is a big fan) and tucked her in. Just as I started to leave, she said, "Mommy? That was a fun adventure." I agree. It might not have been a trip to a foreign country, but it was a pretty great night.

(This will not shock you, but I didn't take pictures. There are a lot of pictures out there, but none that I can post. If someone else blogs out about it with pictures, I'll link to their blog here.)

Sweet Brothers

(From Christmas Break)

Here were the rules: Don't bug me while I'm cleaning up, be nice to each other, and NO screens or any kind.

I cleaned for a while, and then realized that it was entirely too quiet. That is not usually a good sign, so I went to investigate. This is what I found....

The queen of the house was getting a spa pedicure. They rubbed her feet, filed her nails and let her chose whatever colors she wanted. And then they had so much fun that they decided to keep at it!

Those are some pretty sweet boys! (But they probably don't have a career in doing pedicures. Yikes!)

Sunshine!

As a native Oregonian, I am very used to Oregon winters. Pretty much, it starts raining in October and keeps raining until April or May. Sometimes June on a bad year. I like the rain, and the endless gray days never really bother me much. But that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate those sunny days when they come! I don't ever remember to take many pictures, but blue sky always makes me get out the camera! We had a nice ice-cold sunny stretch in December, and we've had a few sunny days off and on this month (in between the torrential flood causing rains we've had.) There really is no point to this post except that my kids are just super cute, and they look even better with blue sky in the background!

Taking a walk while Josh was at piano.

She looks about 12 in this picture. She wishes!

Wouldn't you think this monkey would have the first broken bone??

Sadly, the play structure is feeling pretty childish for this sweet boy. He never complains though, just sits and watches the others until someone offers to play catch with him.

Broken Finger

I can't believe that it took this long, but we had our first sports related trip to the ER on Thursday night. While playing in the last basketball game of the season, Josh took a tumble and fell onto his hand. He got right up, didn't cry and kept playing. He did keep grimacing and shaking his hand, but let's be real here. He is not exactly a stoic child. He makes a great soccer player because he can react to injury with the best of them.

Pretty soon, his coach pulled him off, and I (like the oh-so-nice person I am) said something along of the lines of "Geez. It's not like it's broken or something." Ha-ha. Joke's on me. His coach took a look and sent him over to us. It was swollen and turning color, but we weren't sure what to think. Since it was the last game of the season, his coach gave out awards at the end, and as we were leaving, the assistant coach told me that he really thought he should have it looked at. By this point, Josh was looking a little pale. Of course, the urgent care in town had closed 45 minutes earlier, so Josh and I headed over to the ER.

We got right in, got x-rays, and were informed that it was in fact broken all within 45 minutes. It did take another hour to get his pain meds, splint and discharge papers, but all in all, not too bad. The pain has taken him by surprise, but it should heal well. He doesn't have to have it set or casted, and since it was just a clean break, in a few weeks, he'll be as good as new. He isn't allowed to play any sports for at least two weeks, which is driving him crazy already, but luckily this happened right at the beginning of the three week break between basketball and soccer seasons.

He's being a little dramatic about it, but not too bad. We have some nice codeine for him, and the pain is pretty manageable. Even today, it is starting to feel noticeable better. It will just be an inconvenience (one handed piano playing, for sure!) and a good story for later.

The Accident

We bought our Kia van when James was a toddler, before we even had Abby. All that we cared about was that it had a super long warranty, it was cheap enough that we could buy it new, and it could hold our soon to be family of five. We were pretty hard on it...spills, muddy feet, bumps into the curb. But I really liked it. It was nearly paid off, and we planned to drive it until it died, not having to worry all that much what happened to it. It wasn't worth much, but we had NO problems with it. I figured we could make it quite a few years without a car payment at all.

Until this** happened.......

Although I have repeated the story to enough insurance agents and adjustors and estimators to be able to explain the story without even thinking, the details don't really matter. I was not at fault, and there was nothing I could have done differently to avoid it. And the injustice of being hit by an uninsured driver when I was doing NOTHING WRONG was compounded when my broken-in, comfy van was declared a total loss by the insurance company. So. Even better, we had to get a new car fast. Once the car is declared a total loss, you have four days of rental left. And since we were already paying out of pocket for part of the rental (a long story that has everything to do with being hit by an uninsured driver) we wanted to get it returned ASAP!

While trying to figure out just what to do (and FAST), we discussed a new car versus a used car. We haven't had the best luck with used cars, but a new car is expensive. We were looking at a new Kia (extending car payments for quite a few years and a higher one than we had before!) when my mom suggested looking for a certified used Honda Odyssey. I pulled up the website, put in the money we'd feel comfortable spending on a used car, and one single van within 50 miles of our house popped up. In our town. I guess it was meant to be. We went the next evening to look and came home with our new-to-us grayish, bluish, greenish new van.

The entire experience has been a big pain, and it's not even close to over yet. But. It is slowly but surely getting resolved, and within the next few weeks, we'll probably be done for good. Fingers crossed!

**Answers to the mostly FAQ.....Yes, we are all fine. A little sore for a couple days, but nothing major. No, no one was riding in the third row back seat. John was at a wrestling tournament with James, which was actually where we were heading at the time. Yes, the police and ambulance came. They were AMAZING. Yes, I should have had to pay my deductible since the other driver had lapsed coverage, but one day when I nearly lost my marbles on the phone, the adjustor waived it. And finally, yes, it was really scary and no, I didn't cry. I verged on hysteria when I finally got a hold of John, but I pulled it together. Also, "finally" in the previous sentence refers to the approximately 45 seconds it took me to call three times, text once and and call one more time. It felt like a really, REALLY long time. PS I might possibly have said "Damn it!" in front of my children. Just once though.

The Past Few Weeks

Our past few weeks have been.....long. The days have been full of the January dreary, full of great times and not so great times, and the weeks have felt one day like they are speeding by (can it really be nearly the end of the month??) and then the next day like they will never end (is it seriously still January?!) Since we're all worn out, we are spending the weekend hunkered down at home. We got a bunch of to-go Chinese food last night and ate it for dinner (and lunch today.) We all watched a movie together last night before heading to bed early. We walked to the nearby restaurant (Laughing Bean--YUM!) for breakfast this morning, went to the park to enjoy the sunshine, headed to the toy store for some window shopping and the craft store for some real shopping, and now we're home, working on crafts with the windows wide open (the cool fresh and sunshine are pretty nice....can't wait to see you, Spring!) The kids are so happily occupied that I might be able to finally catch up on some blogging.

Craft #1: Making fleece blankets--penguins for James, flowers for Abby, and dogs for Josh. After paying for the fabric, I can see why sewing is becoming a lost art! Next up, friendship bracelets and "art" projects...also known as glitter glue, markers and foam stickers pretty much all over the kitchen.

Memory

I have a really good memory for little details. I'm not good at spatial memory (I can never remember how to get ANYWHERE) but I am pretty good at remembering things. So, as you can imagine, I actually enjoy the game Memory. (In fact, if I were going to admit that I play on Abby's Webkinz account twenty times more often than her, I would tell you that I frequently win the tournament for the memory game that is on there. And it's totally not little kids that I am beating because I have heard through the grapevine that some other parents play on there more than their kids too. However, I won't admit to any of that because it's super embarrassing.)

Abby's current favorite game is, you guessed it, Memory. We play it ALL. THE. TIME. As in several games a day. And it's this Toy Story version that Santa mistakenly brought to our house where all the cards look EXACTLY the same as each other. The Woody and Jesse card and the Woody and Buzz card are nearly identical. There are seven different cards with a character peeking around the number 3. So. It's super annoying. And as much as I love Memory, Abby's 20+ games a week habit is wearing on my nerves. And the worst part? She wins every time. By a lot. And she always says things like "Oh, good job, Mommy! You almost got as many as me this time!" or "It's OK, Mommy! I like to win!" Such a thoughtful girl. And now? I'm off to lose at Memory.

It's not okay, but I'm still going to do it.....

(Disclaimer: I know that I shouldn't publish embarrassing things about Josh because he is SO. OLD. But, it is a kind of milestone and just so sweet, so hopefully, he will forgive someday when he has a sweet little memory!)

I went out with my mom friends last night (which was, as always, so much fun!) so when I got home, the kids were all fast asleep. When I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, I saw a little folded up piece of paper on the counter. To be honest, it did not even occur to me that it could be someone else's or that it could even be a note. I just figured it was an old receipt or something and wanted to see what was it was before I threw it away. When I opened it, I found this:

Please choose one, from Josh

Friend
Girlfriend
I hate you

There was a big, dark check mark next to Girlfriend. That girl didn't have any doubt apparently. I turned it over and wasn't surprised to see the name of a girl we hear A LOT about at our house.

Now, though, I had a dilemma.....do I say something? Fold it up and leave it exactly where I found it? Show John? Of course, option three had to happen, and I decided that I am a middle school teacher, and I can totally be cool about a girlfriend! So this morning, I casually mentioned that I had seen the note. He was super embarassed, but smiled really big.

Me: So, do you talk to each other at school?
Josh: Yeah, all the time!
Me: Well, that's good. Is she nice to you?
Josh: YES! She's really nice! (pause) And really pretty.
Me: Did you write the note or did someone write it for you?
Josh: I wrote it! (pause) But Diana helped me.

His "girlfriend" is really nice and pretty, and I think it's so sweet that he is starting to be interested in girls. A little scary, too, but sweet all the same. I was very relieved that once he got over his embarassment, he was very candid. We had a longer talk, but I'll spare him by not sharing the details. I'll just say that I am very fine with his version of what it means to be boyfriend and girlfriend. (I'll also say that I had to swallow the lump in my throat when I imagined his oldest, dearest friend helping write the note and find the courage to have it delivered. I love those two so much.)