Queen P turns seven

Phoebe started out her birthday by getting her front tooth pulled. It has been wiggling for weeks and Phoebe said it was going to fall out on her birthday. I think when one of her teeth fell out last Christmas Day, she thought it was pretty awesome. So the tooth came out - with a little help from Scott.

 Gross. Phoebe was so proud of her bloody nasty mouth. I don't think I looked when I took this picture. Ewww.

Phoebe had her birthday all planned out (for a long time). We started out with cheap-o Lucky Charms for breakfast. And milk sipped through a straw that fit nicely into her newly gapped teeth.

We had crepes for lunch. Phoebe's had about a gallon of Nutella on it and a bunch of powdered sugar and coconut flakes and raspberries. So sugar for breakfast and sugar for lunch. Thankfully, Phoebe requested mexicali chopped salad for a healthier dinner. After a good serving of veggies and fruit, it was back to sugar though...

Ginger chocolate cake and an ice cream cake that Grandma Raymond sent! Yummmm. Phoebe got a few presents, but the biggest gift was two pet hermit crabs. She named them Digger and Maxi. They were so traumatized from the ride home from the pet store (or something?) that they dug holes and stayed in them for a few days, so she didn't actually see them on her birthday. Several days later they made an appearance before digging themselves underground again. She put a picture of herself next to their cage and talks to them in hopes they'll warm up to her someday.

I had a parent-teacher conference with her first-grade teacher last week. The teacher said Phoebe is strong academically, but is so overly enthusiastic that it can be a disruption. Yep, no surprises there. She also said Phoebe is particularly good at helping out some of the tougher kids in class. Her kindergarten teacher made this same comment last year: Phoebe is inclusive and knows how to talk to kids with behavioral problems. Proud mom moment there. Maybe she will turn out ok after all.

Another tooth down

Bruce lost another tooth today. He refrained from wiggling his tooth while on the toilet to avoid that last disaster. His first tooth fell out while I was running, the second tooth fell out in the bathroom, and the third took its exit while at school. I still haven't had to deal with any bloody teeth (a weird fear of mine).
Bruce said he was at recess, talking to his best friend about Lego Star Wars, when he tripped and fell on his friend's foot. He said he looked down and saw his tooth on the ground. He brought it home in an empty Tums container and tucked it under his pillow. When I got out the camera to take a few pictures of Bruce's new smile, Phoebe was not about to be left out.

The Ides of March

To celebrate the ability to calculate the circumference of a circle, we had our annual Pi Day Pie on 3.14. We've done this every year, but I don't think I have posted a picture until now.Above, Phoebe is painting a picture of a rainbow. She has officially entered little-girl-hood: she loves pink, babies, princesses, kitty cats, rainbows, horses....
Bubbles too. She is quite good at blowing them.It's a little more challenging to blow bubbles with a Darth Vader mask on, but the heavy Vader breathing sounds right on.Bruce has about a dozen loose teeth. I told him when they fall out he is going to have to eat applesauce and baby food for months until he grows new ones. He is also going to make the tooth fairy very poor. This morning Bruce was eating his breakfast and one of his front teeth started bleeding. I refuse to yank teeth or even look at them (especially while trying to eat my breakfast), so I sent him to school with a dangling tooth and I'm hoping it falls out there where I don't have to deal with it. Speaking of stuff we don't have to deal with anymore, we're done with this debacle. Finally; no more ranting.

Tooth No. 2

Bruce's second tooth fell out yesterday. He was wiggling it while doing his business on the toilet and it came out right then, falling into the toilet.

I was in the kitchen when it happened and all I heard was uncontrollable sobbing coming from the bathroom.

"Bruce, what's wrong?" I asked.

No response. Just sobbing.

I asked again.

More sobbing. Words can't seem to come out. I was worried that he was dying or something in there, so I picked the lock and entered the bathroom. He finally made out "My tooth fell into the toilet" and sobbed some more.

The tooth itself was pinned under a big piece o' poo, so I tell him a note to the tooth fairy will be just fine and that flushing one tiny tooth is okay. He calms down, finishes his business solo, and made the above note to stick under his pillow.

Goodbye Tooth No. 1

Bruce lost his tooth on April Fools Day too. When I came home from my morning run, Bruce had his tooth dried off and neatly tucked in a plastic bag (whew, I didn't have to deal with it!). He was so proud he took it to school and showed everyone in his class. He stuck it under his pillow that night and the Tooth Fairy brought a dollar. In the morning he said he wanted a hundred-dollar bill. I told him the Tooth Fairy is not that rich. He already has an adult tooth rapidly growing in; it seems awfully large for that little space. He doesn't have the classic toothless grin, but he may soon: the tooth next to it is very loose and will probably fall out within a week or two. When I took Bruce's picture, Phoebe nuzzled up next to him and then pushed him out of the way. She does not want to be left out of anything!

The Tooth Fairy lingers near

At the very beginning of the school-year, Bruce decided he had a loose tooth. All of his friends were losing teeth and he didn't want to be left out, so he told me he had a wiggly tooth. It wasn't that wiggly - until last week. It's been getting looser and even has a new tooth growing in behind it. It's coming out any day, and I'm hoping it falls out at school so I don't have to deal with it. I'm not a fan of blood and it grosses me out to look at the above photo, so I would be perfectly fine if his first tooth came home in his book bag wrapped neatly in tissues. We'll see though - we're about to the weekend.
In other random news, Phoebe and I spent the day on one of our epic shopping trips to Aldi. It's almost an hour away, so we go every few months (last time I went was early December) and stock up on non-perishables. It took awhile to check out and the cashier started chatting with me, asking where I was from. I told her and she said a new Aldi is being built in the Boston area. Hallelujah for cheapo groceries!