Ring-ring-ring? You ready to come back tonight?

We rarely have visitors to our house. We are definitely not the house that "everyone hangs out at."

But we've had one constant visitor in the last couple of weeks. Yup. You guessed it. The Tooth Fairy!

She came last week on Monday and Friday night. She came by again on Tuesday of this week. Three visits! And here it is Thursday. And the Tooth Fairy will again be by our house.

I am NOT kidding.

I'm totally serious.

The kidlings and I went out to eat a "special" early lunch today after dropping by the school and meeting up with the Princess' 4th grade teacher. And as we sat in my car eating (no I'm not naming the place we ate) lunch, the Princess was acting strange. She kept on touching the inside of her mouth.

Me: What's wrong?

Princess: My tooth feels weird.

Me: Well, have your Dad look at it tonight and he'll pull it.

Princess: NO! He'll get out the pliers to pull it.

Me: Princess? Your Daddy was just joking about that. [laughing as I replied]

We ate for a bit longer. Then she suddenly stops.

Princess: I've gotta look at it.

She gets up and moves forward to look at the rear-view mirror.

Princess: It's gone!

Me: Did you swallow it?

She looks down.

Princess: THERE it is!

Her darn tooth had popped out and was on the floor mat in front our her seat.

[sigh]

I seriously should to leave a glass of wine for the Tooth Fairy. Don't you think?

Relief is in sight

You see the time up there? 11:33 am

You see the temperature there? 109

Yes. It's been hot here in the desert. I know that other places on the West Coast have been unusually hot as of late. Cities like San Diego and Seattle have been dealing with smoking hot weather. Thankfully those places are close to the coast. Since these places are near the coast, there are a lot of homes that aren't equipped to handle hot weather. Yup. Lots of homes (mostly older ones) don't have air conditioning. So people have been having to spend there times trying to stay cool. Going to the pool. Going to the movies. Going to the mall. I totally feel for you all!

For me? This hot weather is typical. Normal. For about 6 months of the year. Yes. We have 90+ degree days for about half the year. Then we have about 2 1/2 to 3 months of 100+ degree days. But it's normal for us. We know how to get out in the mornings to do errands and then stay in during the afternoons.

Strangely enough? The point of this isn't that we'll be getting a break to cooler weather now. The relief I'm talking about? Is that I'll only have to deal with the hot weather on my own. My own? Yes. On my own because....the kids start school on Monday. MONDAY!

Yesterday, the Bear got to meet his new 1st grade teacher. He got to see his desk. He was able to select his cubby. Today, the Princess gets to hook up with her 4th grade teacher that he already knows. Yes. We're going back. We want to see who else will be in her class this year. She wants to see where she'll be sitting and where her cubby will be located. I find that getting the kids oriented to their classes helps alleviate the stress and chaos of the first days of school.

The kids are excited about starting the new school year. I'm excited to have them back in school. We'll be back on a regular schedule. I won't have to figure out how to keep these two kidlings busy and how to keep them entertained. YEAH!

And for those of you who were curious about what the Bear's mouth looks like now without 3 teeth? Here's what he looks like now.

Boom! Thwack! Ka-POW!

The Bear sleeps hard. Why? Because he plays HARD.

Around 10am when I came walking out of my bedroom to find the Bear running past me with his hands up in the air. Normally he stops and smiles and hugs me. This time? He kept running past me.

Me: What happened?

After he spits into the sink, he turns to me with his mouth open.

Bear: My TOOF fell out!

WTF? What tooth? Didn't two teeth already fall out within the last week?

I look into the kid's mouth. Yes indeed. Another tooth had fallen out. The top right tooth. The one he'd just started working on this weekend.

Turns out that he was playing with the Princess on the couch. He was pretending to slide down the couch. With the front part of his body facing the pillows. With his mouth open. And his tooth caught on the raised trim on the edge of the seat cushion. And POPPED out of his mouth.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

I'm sorry. I can't help but laugh. He's got a HUGE-mungeous gap in the front of his mouth.

A sad loss

As most of you know, I'm registered on the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Registry.

I joined the list because of one person. Michelle. I've posted about her a few times.

I am sad to announce that Michelle lost her battle early Saturday morning.

Here is the initial YouTube that got me motivated to register.


Here is a slide show one of her friends put together of Michelle's last vacation with her friends and loved ones.


Michelle was an inspiration. You could just see that she loved living. She loved her family. She loved her husband. There was a strength behind her laughing eyes. Such love behind her smile. The light that she was will not extinguish but continue on in those that she inspired. Those that she knew in person. And those (like me) who were moved by her courage.

Are you out of money yet?

Lordy-bee!

The tooth-fairy has been to our house twice this week. Yes. TWICE!

Earlier last week, the Bear and I were playing Wii. He suddenly stopped what he was doing. He looked down on the carpet and bent over. He felt the carpet with the hand that didn't have the Wii remote attached. Then he looked over at me with a perplexed look on his face.

Me: What's up?

Bear: I think I knocked my tooth out.

Me: What?

Bear: See? [opening his mouth]

Sure enough. The kid had a gap where a tooth used to be.

I felt on the carpet and found the tooth.

The tooth! The tooth! [Do you know what movie this line is from?]

What's funny is this was NOT the tooth the Bear has been working on. Granted, it was a loose tooth. But this was the SECOND loose tooth in his mouth. His first loose tooth was the top right front tooth. The tooth that he knocked out with the Wii remote was the second right lower tooth.

The tooth-fairy didn't care though. She left him some cash. The Bear was ecstatic to get some dinero and placed his money into his piggybank.

A few days went by. My kids still eat snacks. They definitely eat their meals but they have a little something between meals. On Friday, I was putting on some make-up while the Bear munched on rice cakes for his morning snack. He came into my bathroom with his hands in the air.

Bear: I los my toof!

Me: What? You did?

I looked into his mouth. Sure enough! The front top right tooth was gone.

Me: Where is it?

Bear: Ze tavle.

Me: The table?

I walked out to the breakfast nook. There it was. The tooth was sitting on the Bear's red mat. And again, the tooth-fairy came by and dropped off some cash under the Bear's pillow.

My son now has an ever so slight lisp to go along with he gappy smile. It's too cute. And guess what? That top left front tooth is loose too. His face looks so different all of a sudden.

The Bear is gonna look like something else for his 1st grade photos!

I got a thumbs-up

On Friday, I actually got acquainted with a little boy named Lo-lo. I met Lo-lo when he was born but with his parents (Dentist & Lawyer) being so busy we rarely got to see them. Lo-lo is now two years old. He's rough and tumble. He howls at the moon when he doesn't get something he wants. I knew he was a highly-spirited little guy, but I didn't realize the extent of the mischief he could get into.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had dinner at Tri-athlete/BizExec's house on Friday. Of course, Lo-lo and his parents were there since Lawyer is Tri-athlete's sister. Since there was so much family at this gathering, I figured that Lo-lo would be particular about who he interacted with. I mean, there were his aunts, his uncles, and all his cousins. You'd think that too, right?

I was wrong. I was sitting near a table on the patio and Lo-lo came up to me at least half a dozen times to "touch base" with me. He came and stood next to me. He came and wanted a hug. He came and held my hand. He even came over and sat on my lap. These encounters weren't long (maybe a few seconds each), but it surprised me. He'd just met me earlier in the day and he was doing that thing that my kids do with me when we're at parties. They'll just come over and check on me and then leave.

It was nice that Lo-lo felt comfortable enough with me to just hang out with me -- even for a little bit.

Unusually busy day

Remember yesterday when we had some neighborhood kids over? They actually did end up staying until a little after 4pm. They were here for FOUR hours! Do your kids playdates normally last that long? It would have lasted longer if I'd waited until one of their parents showed up.

Around 4pm the girls came downstairs and started rummaging for a snack. They each claimed a yogurt. The ones that the Princess had selected for the week. It made the Princess a little distressed tut she was a great hostess and let them have the yogurt.

Me: Okay girls. It's 4 o'clock. I think it's time to go home.

Sister#1: But I'm hungry!

Me: Princess, is it okay for them to take the yogurts?

Princess: Yes. They can. [sadness in her eyes]

Sister#2: Can't we eat it here?

Me: Naw. Let's have you bring it home. OK?

So the girls carried the yogurts with them for the walk home. The little sister? She actually opned up the yogurt a little and started to slurp the yogurt out as we walked. Yes. She consumed it like a drinking yogurt.

Anyway, as I mentioned before we were invited over today to Pump It Up. The kids were SO excited about going to the jump-castle place. I was too because it's a big indoor play area. The kids could burn some energy and get some exercise. It was actually a reunion for our neighbors.
* the yogurt girls, Tri-athlete (their dad), and BizExec (their mom)
* Grandma & Grandpa (Tri-athlete's parents)
* Lawyer (Tri-athlete's younger sister), Dentist (her husband), and Lo-lo (their son)
* Countrygirl (Tri-athlete's older sister), OregonFan(her husband), and their sons

Grandma and Grandpa had just flown in late last night. Lawyer/Dentist/Lo-lo actually live in our neighborhood. Countrygirl/OregonFan/2 sons just arrived this morning. A couple other kids that we'd never met were also in attendance. But no matter. ALL the kids played for about 1.5 hours and then we all went into the party room to eat pizza. Fun was had by all.

What's nice is that I was chatting with BizExec and she invited our family over for a BBQ tonight.

BizExec: We're going to have steaks for us adults and burgers for the kids, so come by around 6.

Me: That sounds good.

BizExec: We're going ot have the kids swim so make sure the Princess and the Bear bring their suits. It'll just be our girls and their cousins.

Me: Are you sure? Sounds like its family.

BizExec: We haven't had a chance to catch up with you and the Hubs, so we'd love to have you over.

Me: Okay. We'll be there.

Of course, I couldn't show up without bringing something. I ended up buying a bunch of fruit and brought over a container full of grapes, nectarine and strawberry slices. I must say that it was a good idea too. Because the container was almost empty when we went home.

BizExec let me know that their doorbell rang unexpected an hour before. NATS kids showed up on their doorstep with their bathing suits on with NATS close behind. Huh? NATS son had overheard BizExec talking to me about coming over so the kids could swim. The kid "ass-umed" that he and his sister were also invited. Ha! BizExec wasn't even talking to the kid!

Grandma: I only met NATS for a couple minutes and I wanted to show him out the door.

While all the kids swam, I had a blast catching up with BizExec and Tri-athlete. It was also fun getting to know the rest of the family. But I must say that spending time with this entire family group makes me yearn a bit for my own family. [sigh]

Late night findings

What do YOU do when you're up late at night and can't sleep.

Me?

I surf the internet. Looking. Searching for interesting articles. News. Tidbits of information.

I found this little gem of a video tonight.


Seriously...didn't you crack a smile when you watched it?

How about this little video?