Clara's Teeth

Clara made a collage of photos at school this week, and as I looked at them, I was struck by her changing teeth. Naturally, I've been watching the metamorphosis of her mouth, and tracking the comings and goings of teeth and Tooth Fairy, but I hadn't really looked at a year's worth of photos side by side. It was very interesting (and funny) to compare September with December, with May. So I thought to myself, "Hey! I've got a ton of pictures of those teeth! I should put together a tooth retrospective!" And here it is:

11/4/06 - All baby teeth are still firmly in place as we head to a Kindergarten cakewalk.

1/28/07 - A couple of weeks after her 6th Birthday, Clara loses her first two teeth on the same day! Caught unprepared, I manage to MacGyver a tooth holder with an old jewelery bag and some glitter glue.

4/3/07 - After a few months of gummy smiles, we finally start to see some teeth peeking through.

7/27/07 - The bottom teeth are almost all the way in, and the top ones are showing signs of impending loss. All corn must be eaten off the cob.

7/29/07 - Yep, there goes the first top one.

8/9/07 - Filthy and happy on the way home from a camping trip, she mercilessly twists and tugs at her remaining top front tooth, grossing me out in the process.

8/21/07 - This tooth fought the good fight, and eventually was yanked out with needle-nosed pliers, after numerous apples and even the string-on-the-door trick didn't work.

10/10/07 - Throughout the fall, she has the perfect look of a First Grader, and she is the poster girl for "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" (oh, if only that were true!)

12/6/07 - Another bottom tooth makes its exit.

12/28/07 - It may be Christmastime, but Clara's doing her best jack-o'-lantern impression.

2/24/08 - Little mouth. Big teeth. You do the math.

4/9/08 - Those top ones are starting to even out a bit, and she can already taste a summer's worth of corn on the cob.

6/3/08 - Clara's beautiful smile at the end of First Grade.

Watch out for the sequel: The Orthodontist

High Chairs

What is it, exactly, that makes sitting on a tall stool such an adventure? Could it be the dangling foot action? The chance to imagine you are bigger? Maybe the thrilling danger of a possible tip-over? Personally, I'm a feet-on-the-ground kind of person, but I guess I can see the draw.
Earlier this week, Chad hauled these out of the garage, and Clara and Trevor have been spending a bizarre amount of time at the counter ever since. Sometimes they draw or eat a snack, but most times they just sit and chat (about the weather up there?). Sure, there is the odd argument about who gets to sit on which seat, but that one is easily settled by my threat of removing both seats *insert evil heckle*.

Watching the kids sit there today made me think about my Nana's kitchen, and how she had a tall chair with a step stool that flipped out from underneath. Nana would use it to get things out of the top cupboards, and my brothers and I would just climb it for the sake of climbing.
As is often the case, thinking got me to ebaying, and now I am on the lookout for a chair/stool thingy that will help me to relive my childhood. If I find one, I'll share it with the kids, but I get the first turn.

I am also trying to find an old phone that rings like a phone should ring, but I'll save that story for another time....

Usually we love restaurants...

Let me just preface this by saying that I do not have time to be blogging. Ever. No time to be doing anything optional, except for that wonderful, optional activity called "Getting a good night's sleep".
And that, my friends, explains my increased dependence on caffeine lately; I have been stealing some of my negotiable time from sleep, and dropping it off here.

Today we decided to go out to dinner, because we just couldn't bear the thought of cooking anything, and you have to eat, right? So we headed off to Chili's, with smiling children in tow. They love restaurants. At restaurants, we don't make them eat vegetables. After all, going without broccoli once a month isn't going to lead to a bad case of anemia or scurvy or anything.
Aren't you so proud of me that I have taken two pictures of myself in two days? This photo cracks me up for several reasons, but the funniest thing is that everything went downhill from this smiling moment. Our table became home to cranky kids, cranky parents, sub-par food (not that we expect big things from Chili's), cranky kids being overly dramatic about their crankiness, cranky parents thinking about how they wasted forty bucks on this???? So, ya, not a fabulous night. Even a visit from Brain Man and Mad Guin couldn't bring cheer.
In all fairness, they actually were really tired. Clara was asleep by 7:15, and Trevor only held out a few minutes longer. So tonight, I don't need to steal time from my own sleep. These few extra minutes of evening were a generous donation from the kids. Of course, I really need to transfer the funds to my report cards.