Bye Bye Baby Teeth!

Last summer Claire had her first lost tooth and lost another one shortly after, but she hadn't had any more loose teeth until last week.  Last Monday night (June 21st), she told me one was loose, so we'd started keeping an eye on it.  When I picked her up from summer program on Tuesday, she told me it was really loose.  I said "Do you want me to try to pull it for you?"  She said "I'll try it.  Oh!  There it is!"


The matching one on the other side came out a few days later.

Robert and I had been talking about setting up a consultation with another dentist to check her two front top teeth.  They've always been small, and since her bottom two permanent teeth came in last year, they'd really worn down the two top ones.  Then yesterday she got a funny look on her face and told me she had another loose tooth.  I checked, and both of her front teeth were wiggling.  Finally!

Today she couldn't stop wiggling one of them.  I checked this morning, and it wasn't budging easily, so I suggested leaving it alone for awhile.  That advice was ignored.  :)  The kids went over to my parents house for a couple of hours this afternoon while I took care of some volunteer stuff, and on our way home, she told me she was going to pull it.  I was driving and couldn't stop her - I heard "Ow! Ow! Ow!  There it is!"  She may be little, but she is tough and brave!


Three teeth gone in 8 days.  I love her little Jack O Lantern grin!

Reunion at the Flying L: Cowboy Dancing!

As I mentioned in the previous post, Will really loved the live music.  Really, really loved it.  He's recently starting dancing more and created a special silly dance for the theme to the Magic School Bus.  It's always fun to watch.  Will is not afraid to be the center of attention, but we'd never seen anything quite like the performance he put on at the chuckwagon dinner.



I've probably watched this video at least 20 times and still laugh every time!



My favorite thing about this picture is how you can see strangers laughing and some random guy making his own video.




Jacob getting in on the fun.


It was awesome - my favorite memory from the weekend!

Summer Projects

At the beginning of the summer, my friend Lindsay posted a link to the Christian Mama's Guide Pin-Tastic Summer - a collection of activities posted each week using things that you can easily find around your house or at Target/grocery store.  Using that blog and Pinterest, I've been able to find several activities that were age appropriate and that I knew would be fun for the kids, and we've enjoyed having some different experiences while trying to avoid the Texas heat.

Fizzy Color Art

Sparkly Monster Goo

Shake-It-Up Sorbet

Rainbow Rice (this was a favorite - they played with it for so long and have asked for it a few times since)

Celery & food coloring experiment

Homemade bath paints (from my MOPS group)

(Will was more interested in splashing around than painting)

Easter 2013: Part 1

We had a wonderful, packed Easter this year!

To lead up to the actual day, my MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers) hosted a craft night to make "Resurrection Eggs" - basically like an Advent calendar, but for Easter.  We each brought a dozen plastic eggs, and they provided scriptures and items to put in each egg to teach children the Easter story - Jesus' sacrifice to free us from our sins.  The ones we made were pretty similar to this post.  The kids were excited to open an egg each day, and it helped us make sure that the focus was not just on candy and egg hunts.  :)

Our completed resurrection egg tree


On Friday, we attended an egg hunt at the kids' school.  Although they don't go on Fridays, they were welcome to come.  The weather was beautiful, so we loaded the kids, baskets, eggs, & backpack in the wagon and walked the 1 1/4 miles (up a BIG hill!) to their school.  Will got to hunt with Claire's class - he was excited to play with "the big kids".







We stopped for lunch on our way home and all enjoyed naps that afternoon.

Claire-isms

From today...

Asking me to peel a hard-boiled egg for her:  "Mommy, would you hatch that egg for me?"

Deleting a photo she just took on my iPhone:  "I'm going to trash can that one."

Love her!

To the Top!

Last Friday we spent the morning at the Children's Museum, and the kids were excited to try out the new outdoor exhibits.  Will was enthralled with the music exhibit - not surprisingly, he had a blast banging on everything.







Claire made a beeline for the new climber.  It took her a few minutes to get up the nerve to try it.  She went up a couple of steps, and then got a little nervous.  I talked her through how to get back down and just kept encouraging her to try to go, and soon she was all over it like a little monkey.  She would make her way up, come down, go up another way, come down, repeat, repeat, repeat.  :)  Will was going back and forth between the music makers and the water table, so it was easy to keep up with both of them.  Eventually Claire made it all the way to her top, and she was so excited.  "Mommy, look!  I went all the way to the top, all by myself!  Mommy, I so happy!"  I was really proud of her, mainly just for sticking with it and not giving up when she wasn't sure she could do it.

Claire's Creations

Claire loves to organize and make patterns, and she is getting pretty creative.

A little over a year ago, her creations usually looked something like this:



Then a few months later, she graduated to things like this:


And this:


She really liked sorting my shoes:


In the last couple of weeks, I've realized that I need to start recording these.  This was a little over a week ago. She started changing this one, but shortly before I took the photo, she had made lots of little pyramids out of her legos and arranged them in a circle.


In the playroom, books lined up on the window sill, each with a piece of her letter puzzle on top.


She put this one together with things she gathered from our bedroom and her toys.  It may be her most creative yet.


I think someday I'll have to make a photo book comprised of her special projects!

Claire-isms

It's funny now to think that I used to be worried about whether Claire would talk - she is such a little chatterbox now, and her speech has just continued to improve.

Today Will slept in (hallelujah!) and we had a little more time together with just the two of us than usual.  She takes a computer class at her school and gets to play games sometimes during free play and has gotten pretty knowledgeable about computers (especially for a not quite 4 year old!).  She doesn't get much time on our computer at home, usually because Will is underfoot, but today was a good chance for her to play.  I was already getting ready to type in the site she likes when she said very matter-of-factly said "Mommy - go to PBS Kids dot org."  Her enunciation was so precise, and I loved that she got the "dot org" in there - it was all I could do not to crack up.

Boys already?

Claire's teachers always write down a comment about her day on her Daily Activity Reports, and I love getting this little insight into how things went for her that day. Yesterday, her note said:

"Claire has a 'boyfriend' from the Parrot Room! On the playground she wouldn't let anyone else play with Brayden. They were sitting in the tree house and she would push away anyone who tried to come in. It was so funny. I said 'Claire, I know you love Brayden, but he has other friends too!!' So funny!!!"

It makes me laugh to picture my shy little girl being so possessive over a toddler boy. She's such a mess - love that kid!

Our Little Comedian

From Claire's activity report today:

"Claire entertained her whole table during snack this afternoon. She splashed her spilled milk and they all thought it was hilarious!"

I can totally picture it. She's figured out how to get milk/water out of her sippy cup by turning it upside down and holding it against the table, and there have been several times I've caught her making a little puddle and then splashing it with her fingers. It is clearly time for us to switch to the cups with sturdier spouts.

Memorable Moments #2

Here are some of my favorite "Memorable Moments" from Claire's teachers last week:

Tuesday
"Claire sat down and listened very well during circle time today!"

Wednesday
"Claire and Addison had a great time playing peek-a-boo together. They sat at opposite ends of the tunnel and just laughed and laughed - very sweet."
-Claire and Addison have become buddies. Addison a few months older - I guess she can show Claire the ropes!

Thursday
"Claire loved playing on the ballet bar today. Every time she pulled up on the bar she saw her reflection and just laughed."

Memorable Moments

At Claire's new school, the teacher write down a "Memorable Moment" each day on her activity report. I love reading little tidbits about her day and thought I'd use the blog to keep a record:

Monday
"Claire loved playing on the ballet bar today. She had a fantastic first day! :)"

Tuesday
"Claire really enjoyed playing with the blocks today. She walked all around the block bin."

Wednesday
"Claire was amazed at finger painting. She touched the paint, looked at her hand and wanted the paint off her hand - too funny!"
- This was her first experience with finger painting. Her paper has very few little blue raindrops on it (this week's theme is "weather") - I'm sure she wondered why her hands were turning colors!

Thursday
None (sick)

Friday
"Claire has learned to stand up for herself. If another child takes something from her, she takes it back - go girl!"
- That's my baby. She's tiny, but watch out!