This is it

Well, it's Friday evening now, so with just the weekend left, I guess you could say my parental leave is pretty much over.  I'd like to say this last week was a special, magical, memory-filled week, but truth be told, it was pretty much the same as any other.  The kids weren't little angels the entire time.  There were times they were each in trouble.  We didn't get to do anything super special to celebrate.  But that's okay.  It was a real week in our real lives, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Jorja had a dentist appointment this week.  This was the first one where they did more than just kind of look around.  She had her teeth cleaned, polished, had xrays taken and did awesome.  There were no issues at all.  I was so proud of her.  I guess if you've never had a filling or a tooth pulled or a root canal, there is less reason to be nervous going to the dentist.  The dentist did say that her bottom two front teeth are starting to get loose though, so maybe she'll start losing teeth this year.

Ginny continues to be Ginny.  So frustrating and stubborn and head-strong one minute, then so cute and funny and lovable the next.  We've all had colds here for what seems like forever, and we've pretty much got her trained to cough and sneeze into her arm.  Last night at supper, Julie sneezed and Ginny looked over and asked, "Did you sneeze into your elbow?"  Oh yes, she's watching.  We were eating a casserole that has crunchy chow mien noodles on the top of it.  Sometimes, I like to take a couple of noodles and tuck them under my upper lip and let them hang down so that they look like a walrus.  Yes, I'm kind of a dork.  Anyway, I did this yesterday and Ginny said that walruses bite.  Julie said, "Oh, did you read about that or was is on TV, or who said that?"  Ginny looked at her, paused and then matter-of-factly said, "I did."  As if to say, 'Hello, weren't you listening?'

CeCe is our easy going child.  She just sits back and takes it all in.  She is getting awfully mobile now though.  She still isn't quite crawling, but she can roll quicker than you would think possible.  She can sit back up when she gets to her destination with no problem.  I've found her sitting up in her crib quite a few times now, and today, she was trying to pull herself up on something.  It may be time to lower the crib already.  Yikes.  She's got a second tooth, and is becoming less interested in baby food.  We mashed up a real banana the other day and she loved it.  It was as if to say, 'What is that crap you've been feeding me?  This stuff has real flavour.'  The reception to the kiwi today wasn't quite as warm, but they may be an acquired taste.

Jorja brought home a note yesterday saying she was supposed to bring in a couple of little boxes of Smarties left over from Halloween because they were going to count them and graph the results.  First of all, it's a good thing none of my teachers ever wanted me to bring in candy a week after Halloween.  Second of all, graph?!  Really?  In Kindergarten?  Don't get me wrong, nothing gets me revved up like a good graph.  It's always amazing how a good graphical representation can really make some data come to life.  I wanted to show her Excel, and all the cool stuff we could do.  We could add a trend line, find the slope, intercepts...the possibilities are endless.  But I restrained, and kept my excitement bottled up on the inside.  I know she's really smart, but I didn't want to freak her out too soon.  I asked her today how the graphing went and she said, "The green won."  Maybe we'll wait with the Excel for a bit. (Yes, I know I'm a geek.)

So this is it.  Monday morning will see me out the door off to work for the first time in nine months.  It will definitely be a transition.  I'll keep you posted.  Later.

No socks!

Well, today started off with a bang, quite literally. Breakfast went by with no incident, and when Ginny got dressed, she decided she wanted socks. Shortly thereafter she decided to take them off. I was upstairs at the time, and she had taken them off in the kitchen. She came up the stairs, threw her arms in the air with her socks in her hands and declared, "I don't want socks!" As she did so, she lost her balance, went over backwards, did a backflip, half-twist, face-plant half way down the stairs and landed at the bottom. I saw the whole thing in what seemed like slow motion. I rushed down and grabbed her and then Julie and I started to examine her. Once she calmed down, we saw blood in her mouth, but it wasn't really obvious where it was coming from. Then Julie noticed her front tooth - when she touched it, more blood pooled around the base of it. It was a bit loose. Yikes. So I called the dentist (she's never been before) and they said they could see her as soon as we got there. So we all piled in and headed to the mall (the dentist is in the mall). Ginny wasn't overly cooperative, but the dentist did manage to get a look and a bit of a feel, and thought it should be all right. She said some would pull it if it was loose, but she wouldn't if it was her kid. She thought we should try to save it as long as possible. If there was nerve damage, it may get discoloured, but it should be okay. Just eat fairly soft things for the next two weeks (no apples!). So she has yogurt for lunch, pudding for snack, and we had pasta for supper. However, she was playing outside this afternoon and was supposedly sitting on a lawn chair properly when she came around the corner screaming again. She had somehow tipped the chair over, and there was more blood coming from her tooth. Sheesh. The rest of the day was probably fairly typical for her, but you don't realize just how dangerous she is until you are trying for her not to bump her mouth at all. Stressful.

We're heading south to Julie's parents' place tomorrow, so hopefully everyone travels well. One is teething, one is trying to knock her teeth out, and one is just broken-hearted when her sisters hurt. Are we nuts? Later.