The Tooth Fairy

Did I mention how happy I was that I was awake and home when Anna lost her tooth? I am sure I did not. That morning before the party I did have a feeling that tooth was coming out very soon so I took one last picture of my little baby with all of her sweet little baby teeth. What an absolute blessing that was.

When we came home from the party I whipped up a tooth pillow. Gerard and I had plans to go out together alone that night. I was better with the whole missing tooth so I decided that we should go ahead and continue with our plans. My schedule in the up coming weeks is really tight so I knew it was that night or maybe not until December. We had to have a meeting with the man in a red suit if you know what I mean.

Gerard's parents came over to watch Anna while we were gone. We talked about putting the "tooth" into the pillow for the Tooth Fairy. Anna's reaction to that was priceless. "Oh no she can not come here and take my tooth...that would be like being a bully! You tell her no!" I told her that I would let her know if I saw her.

Grammy called once Anna was asleep to tell me that she put the tooth in the pillow walked into her room and put it under the pillow in her bedroom that got into my bed. I just love her so much because she cracks me up.

The morning came and we reminded her about the Tooth Fairy. She walked in to find the pillow with a few coins and her "tooth" she in the pillow. Anna told me "See Momma she is not a bully, she left my tooth."

This would be Anna's "tooth"

 

 

 

Here is the after picture with one tooth missing and one still loose.

Gone!

Saturday morning Anna and I were getting ready for the day. You know the standard, Get dressed, wash our faces, brush our hair and teeth. It was that last step that she noticed that something was different. A few drops of blood from her front bottom gum! Anna's tooth was very wiggly! She had been preparing for a birthday party of one of her classmates. Her reaction was so funny "I won't be able to eat the cake!" Now I had to hold back my chuckle because I am pretty sure nothing would stop me from eating cake. I reassured her that she could still eat the cake.

Gerard was on birthday party detail this Saturday because I had a massive project to complete for school. I gave both of them very clear and concise instructions (at least I thought they were clear and concise) about what to do when/if the tooth came out. About 2 hours after they left for the party I got a call. It was Gerard telling me that she lost her tooth. I was both sad and excited for Anna. That is when he told me that he could not find it anywhere.

My heart sunk. He told me were the party was so that I could come over to help him look for the tooth. I started to cry. How could I miss this first too? I know this is just feeling sorry for myself so I dried my eyes on the drive over. I pulled up to a yard full of adults and children playing around. There was Gerard on his hands and knees searching for the tooth. When I walk in a couple of the mothers said that he has been searching for nearly an hour for the tooth. We decided that it was just gone and we (Gerard and I) would have to just accept that. We picked up a small rock as a replacement.

So now on to Anna's reaction. She ran over to tell me she lost her tooth. She was excited and not the least bit phased that we could not find it. I asked her "Where did your tooth go?" To which she replied "Gone!" and ran away with her friends. So there you have it, Anna met this milestone without any problem and it was me who was a crying mess.

More on the tooth fairy in the next post.

 

This is the before shot with her tooth.

And then there were three!

Well, I have more news that I did not get to last week. Drum roll please....Jenny is having triplets!!!! Well last Thursday we went to the high risk doctor. It is confirmed there are three babies! It appears that they are also identical which makes them very rare.

There were a couple of moments during the ultrasound when we all held our breath. The ultrasound technician was having difficulty finding the membranes that separate the babies. One deep breath, a quick prayer and boom we spotted a membrane that separates each of the babies.

Once the ultrasound was completed it was time to talk with the high risk doctor. I had talked with Jenny the day before about a few of the things that I thought she would cover which in retrospect I am so glad that I did. It gave Jenny the opportunity to think about what she was going to say prior to being put on the spot.

The doctor talked about prematurity, complications for Jenny with a triplet pregnancy. I could see the doctor starting to head down the road of giving Jenny the option of what she called a therapeutic abortion. Jenny turned and looked at me then to the doctor. Her exact words were...

"Doctor I mean no disrespect but see God is the one that allowed me to get pregnant with these triplets and I have no intention of aborting them under ANY circumstance! They are my babies and I will take care of them. There is nothing therapeutic about an abortion."

I am pretty sure that this is one of those moments in time that I could never be more proud of my sister. See it is going to be hard...VERY hard but through it all Jenny just keeps saying I will make it through. She will need to change careers, find a new job to accommodate her family, find a place to live and just the day to day issues of raising children. Here is the funny thing I know she will do just fine.

Jenny will be monitored very closely, about every two weeks she will have an ultrasound until the babies are born. Our prayers are that she is able to remain pregnant to 36 weeks of gestation but we are also realistic and know that she more likely than not have to deliver them much earlier.

Thanksgiving is the date when the babies will be considered viable or able to live outside the uterus. I am praying more specifically that they are more than 33 weeks (around  Valentine's day) and that none of them experience twin to twin transfusion. If they find this to be the case she will be transferred to Philadelphia to deliver.

So what is on the list?

Well it looks like at least one tooth will be on the list for Christmas this year for Anna! This morning after she brushed them it got very wigglely. I am hoping in stays in for one more day because we have our first official family photos set to be taken with a REAL photographer. Everyday I just love her more.

Fancy foot project day

Okay I might be bias but Anna has the cutest little feet in the world but they are growing. Yikes! She is now in a size 9 shoe although it is still a touch big. Orignally, I had wanted to do a family foot project but Gerard felt a migraine coming on (actually I think he did not want me to paint his foot) so I changed it a bit.

Gerard is fearful that I am becoming a hoarder because I hang Anna's fancy projects on the wall. I laugh because I am totally disagree. If it were up to him our house would be completely bare of decorations.

So Monday night I knew that I wanted to complete a fancy foot project so I changed it from the one that I had planned on to one similar to this project I found of Pinterest. Gerard so wishes this site would have technical difficulties more often. LOL Here is the orignal project that I took my inspiration from Witch foot

Mine is a little different but I just used the paint and canvas that I had on hand. I think it turned out pretty cute. I plan on writting the words to one of Anna's favorite Halloween books on the edge of the canvas. Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino

 

This is just a random picture from earlier in the day. She loves jumping into the back of his truck (while it is parked) and playing. The funny thing is she asked me to take her picture for Daddy who was mowing the grass so he could see her playing.

Switch up, Change up...Good news!

Well I have been a little absent from the blog for a couple of days but honest I have a good reason. For some reason when I have big news that I am not ready to write about I can not write about anything else. I guess I am just like a little kid with a secret.

Gerard will be home ALL week! Any guesses why? Well he took this week off to get ready for next week at his new job! Now I fear sounding ungreatful but the job that he started in February was not his perfect job. Yes, it was the same type of work that he had done at his previous job but the casino industry is REALLY hard to work in for any long period of time.

Basically, you have no holidays off unless it falls on your scheduled day off. You read it right, essentially you could work every Christmas for 15 or 20 years. Prior to Anna coming he did. We got lucky because since Anna has been home his days off fell just the right way for the holidays. He also was working the 12am to 8am shift so even if it did fall right he was still able to be involved with careful planning.

The job he started in February was not going to work out as well for the holidays. He was also working 3pm-11pm so he got very little time with Anna. We have found that (I am sure like most children) that Anna does the best when she is in her own home with one of us. So our goal has been to make that happen as soon as we could. Since I love my job and the people I work with the change needed to come from Gerard's schedule.

He had been interviewing for the past couple of months. He passed a couple of jobs up because it would not have improved the situation. Well 2 weeks ago he went on an a second interview for the hospital just south of us. The hospital basically hired him on the spot. The following day he got a call back from one of the local utility companies for a second interview. We talked about it both the hospital job offers some good options so he took the job. He has not heard from the utility company so even though that job was his first choice we both feel confident that the job he has taken is also an extremely good job for him.

His new job has a bit of a weird schedule in that he will be required to work one holiday a year but for us that is not a problem. He days off will have a pattern but every month there is a built in 4 day weekend. I see lots of family time in our future with that so I am super excited. I KNOW he will like that part. So I am excited. He is too. the best part is he will be working 7am-3:30pm. This means that Anna will get to be home every night with one or both of us. My Mother will come stay with her in the morning when I am working but should only be 2 days a week.

So the news is Great news in my opinion. Sorry for being absent.

And I thought...

I needed to shave!

A certain little someone has...

a loose tooth. Yup, a couple of nights ago Anna woke me up to tell me that her tooth was loose. The lower one on the left side of her mouth is loose. I know this is suppose to happen but how can it be that it is happening now. Gerard was shocked and horrified in the morning when I told him about the tooth being loose. His exact words were "Impossible she is just a baby!"

Now I know that I am a bit over protective and a loose tooth is not an emergency BUT she is due for her cleaning so I will try to have her appointment moved up just to double check and confirm that the tooth is loose and okay.

Can you tell that she is my only child. Yes, I hear you all laughing at me but it is only making me smile.

Fall Fancy Project Day

I had picked Anna up from school and she asked so nicely to go to the Big Bad Wolf park. This is what she calls it I think because we also walk the nature trails there like the story of Little Red Ryan Hood (yes this is what Anna calls it and I think it is too funny to correct her). She promised not to cry when it was time to leave which is my big anxiety. I just hate a melt down even though it happens so infrequently but I had other plans for us this evening.

Around 5 pm Me-Me and Hans joined us at the park. They ran around a bit then the rains started. As we walked back to the car both of them did really well until they figured out that they we had two cars. Anna and Hans wanted to ride together but wanted both Me-Me and I in the car with them as well. A few tears flowed until we got them to understand that we were all going to the same place. They do love being together.

Our first project was a pine cone turkey but the problem is I had not washed and dried the pine cones so perhaps next week we will get a chance to do them. Instead I pulled out two art canvas that my Mother gave us for the kinds. Those along with some paint and a Pinterest idea we came up with the cutest wall hangings. Here is where I got the inspiration for our project. Ours is a little different but the same basic concept. My Mother and sister Jenny (the pregnant one) came in because we were going to also have dinner.

It does not matter some times how old you are and I fully admit I love to wind up my sister. Tonight it was teasing Jenny about needing to have two of every hand made project.  Now I know the pictures of Anna and Hans look like "Awe look at how sweet and nicely they do projects." Well I can tell you usually it is a hot mess. Hans will take off at a moments notice with his hands covered in paint. Anna will paint the wall, table or anything else that she deems should be red. Me-Me and I laugh because when it is all said and done it all gets cleaned up. Really it is about making memories and having fun. So yes Me-Me and I allow a certain level of mess to occur. You will notice there are pictures of the first stage of the project and the finished project nothing in between.

Tonight we made a tree with leaves that were different colors. Yes, we guided them through each stage so this was a little more mommy controlled than usual. We painted the whole canvas blue, used a blow dryer to dry the paint quickly, then we made a dotted line for the green area, more blow drying, the sun came next, the tree trunk then the leaves. We dried it after each step.

I am amazed as to how big these two have gotten.

 

 

I found a nail and promptly hung it up in the dinning room. One day I think I will be very glad that I have so many things with her little hand print on it.