New Tooth Report

Luke popped tooth #6 this morning

at 10 months, 2 weeks, 6 days old

And is such a happy little guy you would never guess he had been teething!

He is now the proud owner of four top teeth ~ no more gaps as the middle right one popped through.

His "gappy" grin sure was cute though ;-)

Alli's wish was granted . . .

Toothetina was selected to be Alli's personal Tooth Fairy!!!

She let Alli keep her tooth and left her 3 shiny gold dollars as well as a note.

We had one very excited little gal running into our room early Sunday morning to show us.

Alli was pretty astute in pointing out that Toothetina used some of 

Mommy's pink baker's twine and Mommy's decorative scissors.

OOPS

Luckily, she is convinced that Toothetina snuck in after we were all asleep ~ whew!

Alli was so excited to tell Mrs. Otis this morning and she cannot wait to mark it off on her chart at school!

Alli Lost Her First Tooth!!!

It finally came out this evening!!!

 And we have one very proud and excited little gal!

 Funny thing is that there isn't too much of a gap as the "big" tooth is already in.

But we had to capture the "semi toothless" grin as she was so darn excited ;-)

 She is hope and praying that Toothetina (from Silverlicious) will be her Tooth Fairy.

She even wrote her a note asking if she could keep her tooth, it is her first after all!

Turns out that losing a tooth can be quite bloody . . . 

 She was working on it all afternoon and bled quite a bit.  Before her bath, the tooth was starting to turn black to G decided he would pull it out.  Funniest part was that Alli wanted me to do it but I was too much of a wimp.  She was crying and freaking out a bit and didn't even realize that Daddy had already gotten it out!  Once she realized it was out, the tears were gone and she was down right giddy and giggly!!!

Needless to say, Daddy was forgiven very quickly.

 Alli was so excited to use her new tooth pillow, made by Mommy.

She even prayed for her Tooth Fairy ~ so sweet!

Hopefully, Toothetina will make an appearance this evening . . . 

Tooth Pops

 In honor of all the "teething" activity currently happening in our house,

I thought it would be fun to make some cake pops to celebrate! 

We have not one, but two little fish "teething" right now . . . 

Yep, our oldest and youngest are both working on new teeth!

Alli has three loose teeth and one of those is hanging on by a thread ~ one good yank and it would be out!!!

But her Mommy is far too squeamish to do the yanking.

What's more amazing is her new big tooth is already in ~ and looks so huge in her little mouth.

We just know that tooth will be out any day, and losing your first tooth is such a big deal 

that we needed cake pops shaped as teeth to celebrate this huge milestone in Alli's life.

That and Mommy loves a reason to make fun desserts ;-)

Then there is our sweet littlest fish who finally got tooth number 5 ~ top middle left

yesterday at 10 months, 2 weeks, 1 day old.

Sadly, no more Baby Dracula look and we were never able to capture that on film.

Then again, I couldn't capture this new tooth yet either but I did get him using the new chomper . . . 

Thankfully, both Alli and Luke are in great spirits!

Gingerbread Man Hunt

On Monday, Alli's Kindergarten class went on a Gingerbread Man Scavenger Hunt

to explore the school and find all of the important places they needed to know about.

 

Her teacher had asked for a volunteer to make 20 gingerbread man cookies and I said I would,

forgetting that we would be in Pullman last weekend . . . enter Ducky Gramma,

who saved the day by graciously making the cookies, which were way better than I could have.

As Alli says, "Ducky Gramma is the best baker in the world!"

 

According to Mrs. Otis, the cookies were DELICIOUS!!!

 

Mommy is not a total slacker . . . I was in charge of decorating

I think they turned out pretty well and I had a number of people comment on the "LCS cookies"

 

Score one for Mommy and Ducky Gramma ~ we made a great team!!!

Eli's First Day of 3s Preschool

Another successful first day!!!

Today this handsome little man began his second year of preschool at Chapel Hill.

He is now in Mrs. MacIntosh's 3 year old class.

He has been so excited to go back to school, especially with Alli starting last week.

He was all smiles for his photo shoots this morning ;-)

A bit silly too!

Big sister Alli was happy to get in on the photo shoot with Eli . . . 

It is so hard to believe that we have a Kindergartener and a Preschooler!

Today was a staggered start, so he could meet his teacher 

and explore his classroom without too many other kiddos around.

 Driving up to Chapel Hill and parking in our familiar spot was almost too much excitement for Eli.

He could NOT wait to get inside and meet Mrs. MacIntosh, and play, of course!

Eli had a blast exploring his new classroom and was very impressed with the little potty,

proclaiming "I going to use it" and then pulling down his pants to do so ~ too funny!

He was most impressed with the pirate ship, cars and tools but did stop for about 2 minutes to paint.

After exploring the classroom, it was off to our scavenger hunt which ended with him getting candy and a new Chapel Hill t-shirt ~ he picked blue and was very excited about his new blue shirt!!!

I think he would have happily played there all day and is looking forward to returning on Thursday.

He about broke my heart when I explained that I would leave on Thursday and he said

"you don't like to play with me in my class Mommy?"

I assured him that I LOVE to play with him but that Mommies were not allowed to stay,

he seemed happy with that answer but talk about breaking a Mommy's heart!

Given how much Eli loved school last year, and how excited he is now, I have no doubt he will do GREAT!

Only one more in diapers . . .

Because this handsome little man is fully potty trained!!!

Woo Hoo!!!!

 Eli has used the potty a handful of times since turning two but just had no interest in ditching the diapers.

Mommy and Daddy, on the other hand, were so ready.

We tried every "incentive" we could think of . . . cool new underpants with Toy Story and Cars,

candy and treats, toys, you name it, but he still didn't want to do it.

Enter Uncle Danny who had given Eli a big boy "measure" {i.e. measuring tape for construction} that came in a tool set of real "big people tools" that were simply smaller.  Needless to say the "big tools" were put away.

Eli could see them on a shelf in the garage and LOVED looking at them.

We always told him they were for when he was much, much bigger, like 10! ;-)

The first week of August, Eli was talking about his tools again and said "I get them when I big?"

I responded, "yes buddy, when you're bigger"

Eli responded so matter of fact "when I go big potty"

G and I looked at each other as a light went off in our heads . . . "yes buddy, when you go big potty"

There you have it, from that point on, diapers were gone!!!

HUGE thanks to Uncle Danny 

who provided the incentive E.Z. E needed!

It took a couple days before he would poop on the potty but then he got diarrhea and we were golden.

Funny since that would deter most kiddos but not Eli.

Nope, he thought it was so cool and loved going potty every couple minutes.

 Eli is now the proud owner of his "big tools"

Needless to say, these are only brought out during highly supervised play in the garage.

He loves to "build castles" with his hammer and scrap wood ~ too cute!

He wants to know when he gets the rest of the tools but we're holding off for a bit on the screwdrivers.

Funniest part is that when Lukey has a dirty diaper, 

Eli now comes over and scolds Luke, telling him he needs to go in the potty ;-)

We've told Eli that if he gets Luke potty trained now, he can pick out any tool he wants!!!

Way to go Eli ~ we are so proud of our big boy!!!

Now if only we could get him to call his underwear something other than panties . . . 

C-O-U-G-S . . . Go Cougs!!!

C-O-U-G-A-R-S

THAT'S THE WAY WE SPELL THE BEST,

THE BEST,

COUGARS ARE THE BEST

GO COUGS!

 Friday morning {6 a.m. YIKES!} we packed into our car and headed over to Pullman, WA

to visit WSU and cheer on the Cougs in their first home game of the season.

Our last trip to Pullman was in 2008 when Alli was 18 months old, 

and we decided it was time to get all three of the little fish over there.

While the 5 hour drive is never fun, the kiddos did a remarkable job, yeah for DVDs!
On the drive over, they watched McKenna (new American Girl movie) twice,
as well as Toy Story and Peter Pan.  They did not sleep at all!
Poor Luke was exhausted but didn't give into sleep until the evening.

The weather was fabulous ~ sunny and 80s ~ and the kiddos loved WSU.

Looks like we now have three CITs {i.e. Cougs in training}

Meeting Butch T Cougar was a huge highlight of the trip!

So was ice cream at Ferdinand's ~ we had to go there twice.

 Mommy wised up by the second trip and ordered Eli his own shake 

since he and Luke polished mine off the first day ;-)

All three munchkins also enjoyed some "Cougar treats" that Mommy and Eli made before our trip.

 {red rice krispy treats dipped in mint dark chocolate}

Another highlight was seeing Nathan and Brent, who Eli has informed us are his very best friends!

 Nathan and Brent were over visiting a friend and were kind enough to make time 

to play with the kids, who loved every minute of it!

Of course, the biggest highlight of the trip was watching the Cougs win their first home game!

Eli was so excited to see some Cougars, as he had spent the whole trip looking for Cougars ;-)

Although he had a few meltdowns during the game, he did pretty well and LOVED the binoculars.

Alli was the perfect little cheerleader for the Cougs & very concerned about any player who appeared hurt.

Even Luke got into cheering for the Cougs and practicing his "touchdown" pose!

By the end of the game, poor Luke was done for . . .

No idea how that could be comfortable but he was out!!!
Kept sleeping even when I put him in the car seat.

The long day did not wear out Eli, who was full of energy on the walk back to the car and had to stop to do some tumbling in the grass with Daddy before catching a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

We are exhausted but had a fabulous trip and are already looking forward to the next one!

This photos screams Christmas card pic doesn't it???? ;-)

Mommy's shopping buddy

After dropping Alli at school, the boys and I stopped at Fred Meyer for milk. 

Eli was such a big helper pushing the little cart. 

He was so proud!!!

Alli's 1st Day of Kindergarten

 Was a success!!! 

I had to wake her up much earlier than she is used to this morning, but the fun surprise was seeing Daddy!

He had to stay and take his baby girl to her first day of Kindergarten :-)

Love this shot as she is doing her "I can't believe I am already in Kindergarten" pose.

She was a bit slow eating breakfast and getting ready but once she was dressed, 

Alli was full of smiles and giggles ~ so excited for her first day of Kindergarten!

We thought she looked so precious in her little uniform holding her lunch bag and backpack!!!

Alli was very excited to be taking lunch and dictated exactly what she wanted . . . 

Sausage, cheese sticks, crackers, craisins, fruit leather, yogurt and a PB&J sandwich.

Needless to say, she didn't come close to finishing this but did eat all of the sausage and sandwich,

finishing the rest of it {with help from Eli} on the drive home.

The whole family had to get a picture with our new Kindergarten gal before heading off to school.

Poor Eli wanted to know why he didn't get to go to school today too.

After the photo shoot, it was off to school.

She was a little apprehensive when we got to school but walked right in to hang her coat and backpack,

before posing for more pictures in her classroom . . . 

She was happily playing by herself when we left.

I stuck around much of the morning in the school helping to organize the curriculum books with some other moms but only peeked in on her once, she was wiggling her tooth at recess when I checked ;-)

2:45 seemed to take forever to get here but I was so excited when we finally got to see her!!!

She said she had a fun day and got to have a cookie for snack ~ very exciting!

Alli was definitely exhausted when we got home, 

so she crafted a bit, did some interviews, ate an early dinner and was in bed by 6 p.m.

I still haven't heard a peep from her!

This new schedule will take some getting used to ;-)

I have to share her "interviews" we did at home . . . 

The one that cracks me up the most is 

When I grow up I want to: still live with Mommy

I cannot wait to show her that in a couple of years!!! ;-)