Update

The kids are watching one of my favorite movies, Belles on their Toes (the 1952 version). Aubrey likes to be in the middle of things, so she nestled in but was only there for a few minutes before she was on the move again. Her mouth is finally healing from last Sunday's accident. She reinjured herself several times this week (clumsy, reckless toddlerhood), kept running into things, bonking her mouth in various ways. Thankfully, mouths do heal quickly, and if she can keep from splitting it open for more than a day, it should be fine.

Now my husband can find it, too

Last week Leah inspired me with her post on organizing to do a long overdue organization of our medicine shelves. I didn't think to take a "before" photo in the closet, but it looked much the same as it does in this laundry basket. I had one shoe box size clear plastic bin, and then everything else was thrown in beside and on top of it. Greg says it literally took him 5 minutes every time he went to look for something in there, and I can vouch for that. If one of the kids needed some Tylenol it was always much quicker for me to go search for it. There was a little method to the madness.

"After"--This made my husband (and me) very happy. And why didn't I do this years ago, you ask? No vision, no motivation, and no label maker (I got it for Christmas this year). It feels so good to be organized!

Exciting Sunday morning

Aubrey made her first trip to Urgent Care this morning. We were all getting ready for church when she slipped on the dining room
floor with a toy in her mouth. It left a significant gushing wound inside her lip above her teeth. Thankfully, no stitches were necessary, and it should heal on its own in the next couple days. We just have to be careful about what we give her to eat (doctor says no crackers--sorry, Aubs!). She and I stayed home from church and napped after our rough morning, but the rest of the day and evening she was back to her cheerful self, just with a somewhat swollen upper lip.

Cousin Time

We mommies/aunts were going solo on Thursday afternoon and evening, due to daddies/uncles being away (some further than others--Ryan comes home from Africa tomorrow), so we decided to do it together. The kids were enjoying some treats outside, and I took the opportunity to snap some photos. Miles and Aubrey missed out, so it's just the "big" cousins.

This one made me laugh--all the little personalities coming out.

Maggie (3), Ashlynn (4), Kari (5), Joel (3), Sam (3), Lorelai (almost 3)

Why do we lie to our children?

Losing her first tooth ended up being a little traumatic. It had been ready to come out for a couple weeks, so ready in fact, that the next tooth was already coming in behind it, and the baby tooth was hanging out over her bottom lip, totally grossing me out. I had convinced her on Monday to let Daddy pull it out when he got home from work, but we didn't have to wait until then because it fell out while she was eating her lunch. She yelled, "Mommy, my tooth fell out!" and came running over to show me. And then the reality of what just happened hit, and she became hysterical. She didn't like the blood in her mouth, the feel of the gums, and the way her mouth felt with an open space, etc. I helped her rinse out her mouth, all the while cheerfully talking about how exciting it was that she lost her first tooth. Nothing I said was able to calm her down...until I mentioned the money from the tooth fairy. We'd been reading a book from the library about a girl who lost her first tooth, and so Kari knew about the tooth=money connection. The tears dried up, and she was excited.

Now, I didn't really know whether mentioning the tooth fairy was a good idea or not. We like to tell our kids the truth (what a novel idea, huh?), and they know that Santa Claus isn't real, that the Easter bunny is just for fun. None of those things are banned in our house, but it's just that we want them to know the true meaning of the important holidays we celebrate, that they're actually all about Jesus, and so the kids know that we are the ones who fill their stockings and such. The tooth fairy is just the tooth fairy, right? There's no holiday connected, no deep meaning related to losing a tooth, so I went with it. It made her stop crying, at least!

That evening, about 45 minutes after we'd put the kids to bed for the night, I was mopping the kitchen floor and heard a quivering, little voice behind me ask, "Mommy, is the tooth fairy real?" Apparently, the thought of some strange creature sneaking into her room while she slept absolutely terrified her. I sat down with Kari on my lap and asked, "Kari, are any fairies real?" Her response was an exasperated "I don't KNOW!" She was so confused, and I knew we needed to have a chat. We had Joel come out (he wasn't sleeping either), and Greg and I explained to the both of them that the tooth fairy is just pretend, that we would be the ones to put money under the pillow, just like it is with the stockings at Christmas. I actually think Joel played a big role in making Kari more scared. The more imaginative of the two, he couldn't stop talking about the tooth fairy, what she would look like, and how she would come into their room. He couldn't wait to see how much money she left Kari in the morning and wanted to know when he would be old enough to lose a tooth.

We still switched out the tooth that night after she was asleep and replaced it with money, and we can pretend it was the tooth fairy, but now we all know the truth. Now I don't really want our kids to be the ones to spoil the fun for all the other kids, so I tried to explain that some kids actually like to believe the tooth fairy is real, and that it's ok to let them think that. When it comes to her faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, I want her to stand up for what she believes and tell other people the truth, but the tooth fairy is just the tooth fairy. Not a life or death situation here.

So, no tiny, tooth-taking, night intruders in this house. But if your kids believe in the tooth fairy, I hope our kids don't ruin it for them!

For the far-away friends and relatives

Easter

We had a really good Resurrection Sunday at church and then at my parents' house afterwards. I tried to get a photo of the kids before we went to church, but this is what I got--authentic, don't you think?

Checking out the fun stuff from Grandma and Grandpa

tasting the treats from the egg hunt

The photos don't show it (I guess I didn't do a very good job documenting the day), but Blake and Brian and Emily were there, too. It was a nice, low-key day. It's good to be together with family.

Brown is a pretty color, too

The kids were a lot more excited to dye eggs than they appear here. They were focused and working hard on their masterpieces.

We had some vibrant, beautifully-colored eggs at the beginning,

but, of course, we let them keep going, and ended up with our usual brown and grey varieties.

Joel had a little too much Easter fun today, and even though he took a nap today, he fell asleep on the floor before 7pm during our movie night. He was out!

Two day spring preview

Those 70+ days sure were nice!

The top left frowny face is one we're seeing more often (accompanied by loud noises and screams) as our baby-turned-toddler tries to communicate more but with very few words.

This garage sale find (thanks, Jen!) is proving to be quite popular already. Joel was busy doing manly things outside--driving, mowing the lawn.

Kari was quite helpful with Aubrey outside and did a good job taking care of her sister and playing with her.

The Adventures of Stari, Cole, and Baby Vaubrey

I knew when I married Greg that he would make a good dad, but I didn't know just how good he would be. Greg is a great dad. He spends time with the kids and plays with them when he gets home from work, even when he's dead tired and had a rough day. He's very good at making them laugh and being silly with them (and, as you know, preschoolers can be very silly). The title of this post is yet another example of the wonderful father my children have in Greg. He is usually the one who does the bedtime routine--reading a book or two, reading a Bible story, and praying with the kids before bed. Recently he started telling his own stories, and the kids LOVE it, and I mean, really love it. They love it because they are the characters in the story, just their names are a little mixed up. Stari, Cole, and Baby Vaubrey pretty much do what their real-life counterparts normally do, but somehow the mixed-up names make it hilarious. I hear the stories (Kari and Joel always give me the latest on Stari and Cole's adventures), and they're doing things like going to the library, shopping, and playing at home--not exactly adventure story material--and yet somehow when Greg tells the stories, the kids can hardly stop laughing. Baby Vaubrey's been doing some pretty funny stuff lately. I'm thankful that God has gifted Greg and me in different ways, because creativity is definitely NOT one of my gifts. Our house would be so boring without Greg around (it would be sensible and organized, but not nearly as much fun). It takes a lot of "work," a lot of effort, to be the kind of dad Greg is, and I'm so thankful for him.

The Bracket Buster

Four of us filled out brackets for the NCAA tournament, and guess who picked UNC? The youngest of the four of us. Joel's a winner!

Future teaching material

Today, for a moment, I wished I was still teaching. An excellent real-life example of the power of the written word showed up today in my mailbox.

In my short stint as a high school English teacher, I taught my students, as part of a persuasive writing unit, how to write letters of complaint to companies/businesses. Most of them just made up complaints to complete the assignment, but a few students actually had legitimate complaints, so I asked them to mail their letters. A couple of them heard back from the companies, and the students were shocked when it actually "worked."

A few weeks ago I talked with a customer service rep at Kitchen Aid about my Kitchen Aid attachment piece that was no longer working properly. I love my Kitchen Aid mixer, and I use it all the time, at least once a week, so when my slicer/shredder attachment piece broke, I was very sad. (You see, I've truly embraced my domestic side since becoming a wife/mom.) The lady I talked to told me my warranty had expired but that I could buy a new piece for $19.99 plus shipping. No, thank you very much. Not going to do that. I was a little miffed that this supposedly reliable company wasn't going to replace my faulty attachment piece that came in a box that said "designed for a lifetime of use."

So, I wrote my letter, explaining how much I appreciate Kitchen Aid products, how I received my mixer as a gift from my mom who used hers everyday when I was growing up and still uses it all these years later. I explained the issue at hand, made my case, asked them to please consider replacing my attachment piece, and thanked them kindly for their time and attention to this matter. It was a great, cheesy letter...and it worked! A little box with a new attachment piece arrived from Kitchen Aid today, and I'm so pleased. :)