Easter 2016, or, Teething Pains

Easter this year was one of highs and lows.  But let's start with the highs!  Even though baby was around last Easter this year felt more like her actual first Easter.  In the morning there was basket investigation:

(Baby got squeezy pouches and some empty eggs because I am a sugar curmudgeon)

(She has been quite happy with the empty eggs.)

(Charlie got a little box of Goldfish, an egg with Reese's pieces and some eggs with jelly beans.)

(Those jelly beans were gone in a matter of minutes.  Kind of embarrassed how quickly I polished off the rest of the bag later...)

Side note: I DID attempt to make those little sock sheep that made the rounds on Facebook.  And...that's all I'll say about that...

ANYway, off we went to church, with everyone looking so fine.  Afterwards, we made some asparagus and headed to Drew's sister's house for the eating and the egging.  We had done some egg hunting that afternoon so Mr. C was very excited to go outside and find eggs.  Pretty sure the only reason I got him to stay inside was because of all the cool toys.

But we had a lovely time munching and mingling, pre-egg hunt.  Mr. C refused to try most of the food aside from the potatoes and rolls (distraction is dinner's enemy), but Baby was a huge fan of everything (except the asparagus of course), especially the ham.  Me too, Baby, me too.

Then we finally went out to find eggs.  Baby was very excited to have more eggs to chew on.

(The only picture we got of the two of them.)

Do you see that metal fence in the back?  There are horses behind there.  Neat, huh?  Well, unfortunately Mr. C tripped on his way to look at the horses and hit his mouth on that bar.  I ran over to see lots of blood and lots of tears and when we took him inside we looked in his mouth to see these broken bits of front teeth and it was just AWFUL.  I almost lost my mind right there.

The bleeding did stop though and we got him some medicine and some TV and he calmed down.  Drew was on the phone for ages to talk to the dentist and texted him a picture of the teeth.  Then the dentist said there was good chance that the teeth were okay, just pushed back in to the gums!  Who knew that was even possible?  I'll be honest, I didn't really believe that was what happened.  I was SURE those teeth were broken right off.  Looking back, I think he would have been in lots more pain if that had happened.

After a while, Mr. C started talking about his teeth being gone and feeling his gums with his tongue.  He also chased after the cat outside and wanted to show it his missing teeth so that was a good sign.  I had happened to bring his jammies (and Kitty too, thank goodness) so he got into those and don't jammies make everything better?

(Luckily all the blood came out.)

He woke up a couple hours after bedtime and was just miserable though, partly from pain I think but also because he was just SO tired.  After another dose of medicine and a blessing, he completely passed out in my arms.  Not sure when I last rocked him to sleep, but it was nice to do again, in spite of the circumstances.  He slept the rest of the night just fine (and has since).

In the morning, right after Baby's check up (two thumbs up), we headed to the dentist.  He'd never been before, but he saw me and Drewbles get a cleaning last fall so I hoped he would do all right.

(You can kind of see how his upper lip was swollen and kind of droopy.)

Well that didn't quite work out.  He sat on my lap for x-rays and sobbed throughout.  He laid on my lap for the (very brief) exam and sobbed throughout--kind of helpful, really, since his mouth was wide open.

But the dentist was right!  We saw on the x-ray those two little top teeth sitting right back up in the gums where they started (also saw his adult teeth above them, whaaaa).  There are a couple little chips, but no nerve damage whatsoever, and the teeth should come back down over the next few months.  So, basically, he's teething again. 

And after the trauma was over, he got to pick a prize!  

He picked one of those grow-in-water dinosaurs and it did indeed grow at least a few centimeters.  We also stopped at the dollar store on the way home where he picked out a red monster truck for surviving the very careful, quick dentist.  And when he put on his jammies a half hour later (as he does at least once a day) I let him wear them all day.  That might have been his favorite reward of all.

Whew.  So, now we are just carefully cleaning the gums and waiting for the teeth to come back down.  An eventful, painful day, but there's no lasting damage--or really much damage at all.  It's basically the best outcome we could have hoped for!  And since we have to periodically check back with the dentist to make sure everything goes according to expectations, maybe we'll get over the sobbing too?  

Back to his old, funny self.

Happy Easter!

Books Read (Housekeeping)

• Just clearing out the books read section...It never seems like very many when they're listed out like this. Lame.
• 
  
• The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, C+
• The Penderwicks at Gardem Street, B+
• A Christmas Carol, A
• The House at Riverton, B
• The Secret Keeper, A
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, A-
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, A-
• The Prestige, A
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, B+
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, A-
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, A-
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, B+
• Candle in the Darkness, B-
• Sorcery & Ceceila, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, B+
• All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, A
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, B-
• The Big Disconnect, B
• And Then There Were None, A-
• Bill Peet, an Autobiography, A
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, A+
• The Hundred Foot Journey, B-
• The Big Year, A-
• Flora and Ulysses, B+
• Bridesmaids in Black, B
• Bobby's Back, B-
• Bobby's Watching, B
• Beatrice and Virgil, B+
• The Little Princess, A-
• The Moon and More, B
• The Penderwicks, B+
• Yes Please, B-
• Bossypants, B-
• Wonder, A-
• The Devil in the White City, A-
• Eleanor & Park, B+
• Gone Girl, B-
• "Shouldn't You Be in School?", A-
• Ramona's World, B
• Ramona and her Father, A-
• The Visitors, B
• Ramona Quimby Age 8, B+
• Ramona the Brave, B+
• Ramona the Pest, A-
• Beezus and Ramona, A-
• Ramona Forever, B+
• The Blue Castle, A-
• Ramona and her Mother, A
• Behind the Scenes, C
• The Impossible Knife of Memory, B-
• Panic, B-
• The Children of Men, B+
• 84, Charing Cross, A-
• Howl's Moving Castle, B+
• The Scorpio Races, A-
• A Company of Swans, A-
• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, A-
• This Lullaby, C-
• That Summer, B+
• I Capture the Castle, A
• Making Masterpice, B
• Harry Potter: Page to Screen, A
• The Secret Garden, A
• Oldsoul, B
• Allegiant, C

Lately

I've been meaning to write a lengthy blog post for months now about why I don't blog as much these days.  But I'll whittle it down to a few sentences instead: I record things elsewhere.  I got a paper reading journal that I write in rather than on Goodreads.  I write in my actual journal.  I record things in the baby journals.  I have a paper planner.  I guess I'm regressing as far as the digital age goes, but I love it.  So, sorry.  My blog posts have been going elsewhere.  

But I do still enjoy keeping up on the blog, at least to a point, and of course it's fun to add in pictures and what not. 

So in that spirit, here are some little things that have been happening lately.  

I will start with a confession.  You know how on special occasions people make fancy/special foods for each other?  For example, for Valentines, Drew wanted to make (simplified) pho and sticky rice.  

Sometimes he asks for ribs or some other favorite food.  Do you know what I asked him to make me for my Valentines meal?*  The same thing I ask for every birthday or special occasion:

Yep.  Velveeta with hot dogs.  DON'T WORRY--it was the fancy Velveeta where you have to make the cheese sauce yourself.  It is delicious, okay guys?!?  

I finally started an etsy store!

Buy my stuff!

I love Kate Morton.

I have read 4 of her 5 books since November and I love them and she is just SO GOOD and I wish she were my spirit animal.  This one might be my favorite.  And I'm so sad that once I read the 5th book I will have to wait until a sixth comes out!  Pretty sure Drewbles is kind of tired of hearing about Kate Morton...

Kate Morton Kate Morton Kate Morton!  

*sigh*

But speaking of other excellent lady authors...

I hosted a book group and our book was Murder on the Orient Express.

I also tormented Mr C with watercolors.

When I say "tormented" I mean I tried to get him to paint and he recoiled and said he was scared, refusing to do it.  But he had no problem telling ME what colors to paint and where.  

(This was actually very similar to his first experience with finger paints about year ago, but with much less sobbing on his part, fortunately.)

I made the mystical three ingredient scones/biscuits.  

Pretty amazing that they turn out!

I've had these three prints for yearrrrrrrs and I rediscovered them when we cleaned out the office.  I put them in frames (for the first time ever!) and now my laundry room looks really cool.  

I finally finished this wreath I started last summer:

It's covered with moss!  I made the little eggs out of model magic and painted them.  

I'm not sure the moss will survive more than one season, but if it falls off or whatever I think I'll just remake it with artificial greenery.  Have I mentioned that I really like making wreaths?  Pretty sure I meant to blog about it...

Well, here are my wreaths:

I also remade a fall leaves one from Walmart, guess I don't have pictures of that one.  Anyway, I have a grand vision of 12 wreaths hanging on the wall in the garage, one for each month.  I think I need about four more!  Maybe by the end of the year...?

*Obviously we did not eat all these meals at once.  Next time...

Twelve

And just like that, here we are--twelve months old.  Or rather, a year!  A whole year old!  In some ways I feel like she's been a year for ages and in other ways it seems like that should still be a ways off.  Nevertheless, here we are.  And here are her stats (from March 28th) just for the record: 19.56 lbs (20%), 30 inches (72%) and 18.1 inches (72%) for head circumference.

No new teeth this month.  And she's been rather hot and cold about food.  One day she weeps over bananas, another she eats them all and so on.  Some things she will never turn down though and those are cheese, applesauce and prunes.  

But now let's talk naps.  I am going to go on a bit for a minute.  So, some months back I could rock her for a minute, put her down and she would go to sleep.  Then she started sitting up when I put her down, and then she started sitting up and crying.  My solution was to rock her all the way to sleep and then put her down.  It was a little time consuming but it worked for several months and she would still go to bed by herself.  Then, about a month ago she just started waking up every time I put her down and we would repeat the process over and over.  If I left her to cry, she would either reluctantly fall asleep for 20 minutes or so, or just keep crying and then nobody was very happy.

SO.  One day, I had the brilliant thought to just do what I used to do!  So I rocked her until she was very drowsy, put her in bed and left.  The first time, she cried for maybe one minute (maybe) and then just went to sleep and had a great nap!  In about two days she'd stopped crying at all and has been having great naps ever since. 

Can I just say that this is AMAZING.  Every time I put her down and she just goes to sleep happily it is just awesome.  She sleeps better, I don't want to throw things, nobody cries, everything is good. 

Ahhhhhh.

Okay, that's the nap story.  

But the other big story is that she is walking!  Yes.  She's been standing and cruising for a long while and I knew she COULD walk but she just wasn't ready.  One night, February 17th, she went for it and surprised us all.  

She crawls most of the time still, but in the last week she's definitely been trying to walk more often.  It is so fun to see her toddle about.

So, all in all, a pretty terrific month.  It is so fun to have her around, she makes everyone laugh and she is such a good girl.  Always on the move, always climbing onto everything, always following people and always having a good time.

Happy birthday to you, baby girl!