Splish Splash

Now that summer is officially here we have been trying to soak it up as much as possible. Arden and Dax have been doing an art class three times a week at the local park. It has been going pretty well, but Dax sometimes gets a little restless during the class. There have been a couple of days when he has escaped from the class and I have had to take him back to his teachers. He is getting better every week and they have been enjoying the class and then playing at the park afterwards.

Last week the temperatures finally broke through to the 90-degree range, which felt pretty warm to us since it was snowing on Memorial Day. We decided to skip our weekly neighborhood playdate at the hot, hot park and head somewhere where we could cool off. Off to the splash pad we went:
It is amazing how much fun a little bit of water squirting out of the ground can be. We got there as it opened and had a great time splashing around for a couple of hours. By lunchtime it was getting pretty crowded (it is FREE, after all) and we had had enough sun so we were ready to leave and make room for some other kids. We had a great time, and I am so excited that they are building one of these in my town!

Butterfly Afternoons

Can I tell you how much I am loving June? Loving. It. The weather is finally warm and the flowers are blooming and the butterflies are out. Today was such a beautiful day, the kids and I couldn't stand to stay inside for very long. Dax and Arden had their art class at the park this morning, so Corbie and I played at the playground while the big kids painted on t-shirts. Cora refuses to swing in the "baby" swings, and takes it as a personal insult if I suggest them. (She has a similar view of high chairs and booster seats). So I have to take her to the big-kid swings, giggling all the way. As I carefully push her, she always shrieks "HIGH-AH! HIGH-AH!" I am always worried she is going to fall out, but she is fearless. I never push her as high as she wishes I would (I am such a mean mom!).

After class (and a quick trip to the potty for Dax), we all played at the park for a while. We had lunch out on the deck and then played in the backyard until nap time. Unfortunately we had to go back inside for naps. Dax is usually still a pretty good napper, but he decided not to participate in naps today, which was a bummer for me. But as soon as Corbie woke up we headed outside again to play in our fabulous pool!

I hear you thinking to yourself, "I didn't know they had a pool." Oh yes, we do. It even has a slide. Ta-da!

Someday I would love to have an actual, real life, in-the-ground pool, but for now this works for us. The kids probably have just as much fun and I don't have to worry they will drown. They slid and splashed for hours. Arden, of course, has to turn everything into gymnastics: While we were outside, a butterfly fluttered by and landed on some of our flowers. The kids love butterflies and pretty much all kinds of bugs, so they all ran over and crowded around to take a look. It was all I could do to stop them from grabbing the butterfly in their wet little fists to get a better look at it. Cora especially is fond of picking up bugs and showing them to me. Her favorites are potato bugs and snails. She won't pick up spiders (she screams at them instead), but will show me potato bug after potato bug as long as she can find them. She always says something like: "Wook, Mom! A tay-to bug! It's a baby one! It's soooo cute!" I never thought of potato bugs as cute, but if you say so, Cors. It's cute. She will hold them and love them until she accidentally drops them or until they, um..."break" as she calls it. Anyway...

Once I convinced the kids that the butterfly did not want to be held OR petted OR touched OR kept in a bottle etc., I went to get my camera and took a couple of pictures of our pretty visitor:

By the way, Dax is doing pretty well with the potty training, and stayed dry all day today! Atta boy little man!!

Arden's Lost Tooth!

About a week and a half ago, Arden started telling me that one of her teeth was loose. I didn't believe her. She isn't old enough to loose a tooth! She isn't even in kindergarten yet! I just kept saying things like, "Don't worry, Arden. Your teeth will start falling out pretty soon, but maybe not until you are six years old." She kept talking about it and talking about it (and talking about it some more). After a day or two, I finally reached my finger in her mouth to prove to her that her tooth was NOT loose....and it wiggled. It wiggled a lot.

Oh, craaaaaaaaaaap.

I have never been as beautiful as Arden (who is?) but any little kid cuteness I had going for me went right out the window when I lost my two front teeth and my HUGUNGOUS permanent teeth grew in. Thus began my "awkward stage" that I sometimes feel I am still waiting to grow out of. I am sure (hoping) that Arden will be able to make it through the big kid/tween stage with a lot more grace that I did, but I know everything isn't going to be peaches and cream.
Our dentist has already told us that since Arden's mouth is so small, there isn't going to be enough room for all of her permanent teeth to grow in straight. She is going to need braces. I had braces when I was a kid, which isn't something I would wish on anyone, let alone my sweet little girl. Knowing what is coming, I was hoping that somehow that little tooth would just hang in there and let me enjoy Arden's perfect smile for just a little bit longer (like a year). But it was not to be. Arden was crunching on a carrot on Friday and out fell the tooth.

Arden was sooo excited. She ran up and showed me the tooth. I put it in my hand and looked at it.

It was SO SMALL.

Suddenly, an image flashed through my mind of when this tooth was new: And suddenly it was not about crooked teeth or spending money on braces.

My baby is a big kid. Big enough to have a hole in her smile. Am I really going to get all blubbery over a tooth? Apparently I am.

Arden immediately began asking a zillion questions about the tooth fairy. "Mom, is the tooth fairy a boy or a girl? Mom, is the tooth fairy big like a person, or little like Tinkerbell? Mom, where does the tooth fairy put my tooth? Mom, how does the tooth fairy get into my room? Mom, how many coins is the tooth fairy going to bring? Mom...." I suddenly realized I am not up on my tooth fairy facts. Arden was pretty disappointed in my lack of knowledge about such an important person, but she was still pretty excited about the whole situation.

Introducing Arden's new smile:

(If anyone wants to start donating to Arden's braces fund, let me know.)

Vegas and the Toilet

Last weekend my little sister Val turned 30 (which seems impossible since I am only 29). To celebrate she requested a girls' weekend trip to Las Vegas. Have I told you about my sister Val? Smart, beautiful and has been watching my kids for a couple of hours every week for FREE pretty much since Arden was born so that I can go into the office once a week. So her wish is pretty much my command. As you know I am a total wussie about leaving my kids overnight, but since Preston is a boy and therefore automatically not included in girls' weekend, I felt pretty comfortable with the available babysitter and agreed to go. The "girls" of girls weekend ended up including me, my two sisters and my mom.

I will admit I shed a tear or two on the way out the door as Dax was at the front window crying for me not to go...but then I remembered that he screams louder than that pretty much every time Grandpa leaves our house. I wiped my eyes, put my chin up, threw my bag in the car and we were on our way!

We were trying to conserve money, so we decided to drive. I was taking my turn at the wheel when Preston called me and told me that he had decided to start potty training Dax while I was gone. Yay! (Potty training is not my favorite thing. Or my second favorite. It is pretty far down on the list...just above cleaning up barf in the middle of the night. Dax didn't seem interested in using the toilet and I was dreading the whole process, so between Dax and me we could have gone on forever just ignoring the fact that he was now over 3 years old and not yet potty trained.) More on this later...

The ride down didn't seem very long and before we knew it we were on the Strip. It had been probably ten years since I had been to Vegas, and there were a few new hotels. They were very shiny and modern, but none of them seemed as interesting as the ones that they built back in the old days, like the Venetian or the Bellagio...all the new ones are pretty much big glass rectangles that (except for the casinos inside) could be hotels in pretty much any city. In my opinion, if you are going to build a hotel in Vegas, you might as well build something with a little personality. The other change I noticed is that Vegas is in NO WAY pretending to be a family destination like they used to. I had to learn to walk down the street without ever looking down at the ground and there were even "dancers" on top of the blackjack tables in full view of the whole casino (I said a little prayer that Cora's love of dancing on top of our table doesn't lead to a similar career). Also, slot machines no longer spit out coins...just receipts. BOR-ING.

We had a fun trip! Some highlights include:

• Cirque Du Soleil - Viva Elvis show;


• Relaxing by the pool (no pictures were allowed);


• Eating, eating, and more eating;


• The Fremont Street Experience - it was 80's night (or month, or something) and there were three live bands playing 80's faves:in addition to the light shows on the ceiling. It was a party down there and no one tried to hand me porn! Loved it; and


• Just spending time with the girls!

My sister Amanda was in charge of pictures, so I don't have any good ones, sorry. We had a great time and stayed up way to late and slept in (something I looooove but hardly ever get to do). I checked in on Preston and the kids a few times a day and he did a fabulous job while I was gone (THANKS PRESTON!!!) The kids had so much fun and ate so many treats that they probably can't wait for me to leave again.

The ride home seemed a LOT longer than the ride there, but we made it safe and sound. It was a short trip, but I couldn't wait to get home and see the little (and big) faces I was missing. And Dax is actually doing pretty good with the potty training, but we still have some work to do. Wish me luck!