Decorating With The Fu

For anyone not familar with Zach's added touch, those are the annoying "hot item" of 2010 (or maybe 2009 but the boys just caught on) Silly Bands. They are basically rubber-bands in various shapes that you wear as bracelets.

All I Want for Christmas Are My Two Front Teeth

I had an uncooperative model this morning but as you can see someone is now toothless. This has been a long tooth loss process. Here is the basic timeline:

• Late September - JT announces front tooth is loose but opts to not mess with it because there is still a fear of pulling the tooth.
• Mid-October - While waiting for that tooth to fall magically the other one becomes loose and takes the lead for falling out first.
• Last week - JT starts making promises of a pulled tooth.
• Friday (11/5) - JT asks Mrs. Barker (his teacher) if she thinks his tooth is ready to be pulled (yes, I did apologize to her when I saw her over the weekend). Mrs. Barker's diplomatic response was something along the lines of "when it is ready, it is ready." This triggered JT's desire to pull, which apparently was a classroom production.
• Friday night/Saturday day - JT looks like a hillbilly and I deeply regret not having a photo. The original loose tooth magically migrated more towards the center and sticks out at 45 degree angle almost impeding lip closure.
• Friday night - Tooth Fairy discovers that JT has hidden the tooth too well even for her to discover without disturbing slumber. She writes a note demanding that tooth be left out in an accessible area (preferably the dresser).
• Saturday evening  - I offer to pay the babysitter extra if she can pull the hillbilly tooth.
• Saturday night around 9:45 - I get a text from the babysitter that the tooth has been pulled.
• Saturday night - Upon our return home we learn that the boys and Aubrey (our sitter) decided to try the yarn around the tooth/door trick. Having no yarn, they opted for sewing thread. They tied the tooth and attached the string to the fridge door. Zach got the honors of slamming the door. The first attempt was unsuccessful the the string fell off. The second attempt caused the tooth to loosen drastically and faced with a knot that they couldn't undo, JT pulled the tooth.

the great debate

Here are some things weighing on my mind:

1) Who gave my children white bread and should I now be concerned (after my priding myself on only feeding them the non-high fructose wheat bread) that they request white bread all the time?

2) Will we survive without TV? Ok more specifically without cable? We have tossed it around for a while now. It helps that we have some friends that seem to function in society without cable. It also helps that recently HGTV just disappeared from our lineup and that the World Series is over. Also helpful is that JT recently pointed out that there are no good cartoons on anymore in the morning. Why do we bother then? Now do we cancel pre or post Thanksgiving?

350

Congrats to everyone! You have successfully powered through three hundred and fifty posts about the Lucas clan. treat yourself to a latte, a beer, a glass of wine. You deserve it.

And for some light, probably tear evoking reading, check out this blog post:

http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/

I have to admit that I don't personally know this woman but I know her experience. While neither of my boys have dressed as Daphne one of our sweetest buds went through an Ariel stage and got some of the same reactions. And of course, I often get reactions from moms who believe they know better when I let Zach out in a Jedi robe, Vader cape, or whatever is preferred persona is for the day. Ugh! Why do parents have to be so mean? Why can't we just let kids be kids and explore what they want (unless it involves knives, matches, and guns - I do have to draw a line somewhere).

stealth sleeper

There are many mornings that I have woken up surprised to find that I am sharing a bed with one child, sometimes two, or that somehow two children have kicked Rick to the couch. Sometimes I worry that I don't wake up; I recall my mom always waking late at night the minute I walked back in to the house as a teenager. Will this skill come to me magically?

I guess it should come as no surprise then that the other night I had no clue the Stealth Sleeper had snuck in to our bed. Let me start by explaining that Jet has this amazing skill that I have ever seen in a dog. Instead of jumping up on furniture or a bed, he quickly glides up almost like Dracula or Bat Man. One minute he is standing behind you and then suddenly he is curled up on the bed. It is a bit freaky.  And that is exactly what happened to me last night. I set off for bed, leaving Rick to finish whatever was on TV and by the time I was ready to get myself under the covers Jet was already up on the bed and curled up on Rick's side. I left him there. I admit this isn't the best tactic but I think after seeing Ella's rapid decline we are all filled with the "life is short" attitude, which means Jet gets to be more spoiled than his predecessors. I snuggle up, I quickly fall asleep, I remember briefly waking when I heard Rick talk to Jet and I just made the assumption that he was telling Jet to get out of bed. Fast forward an hour or so later when I wake because I am freezing and I need to find a back up blanket but I hesitate because I have both cats snuggled up on one side and call me odd but I really don't want to disturb them. I stir a little, try to steal some more blankets from Rick at which point I feel something furry up by my head. I am not sure if I woke Rick or if was still awake but he quickly confirmed my suspicion that Jet was in fact still in our bed and sleeping up on my pillow with no intention of leaving. Love ruled that night and Rick shared some of his blankets with me agreeing that if I got out of bed it would disrupt the whole bed. I warmed up, fell back asleep, and when my alarm went off at 5, I and my 3 furry friends all woke and got out of bed to start our days.
As a side note, Jet got in bed last night too but he got in at the bottom on Rick's feet and I am not sure he enjoyed it as much as he was in his own bed when I got up this morning.

Happy Halloween

Halloween weekend was packed with activities including a baseball tournament, trick or treating, and dinner with friends. JT woke this morning to go to school he announced that he felt like he never really got a weekend.  Here are photos from the Halloween part. I will have some year end baseball photos soon.

Zachy got tired of waiting for me while I obsessed over every move JT made with a knife so he went for a few cuts and more marker this year.

Despite my anxiety, JT carved his own pumpkin and did a nice job.

Elmo and the White Ninja (Slade and Eli) swung by for some serious trick or treating. Hard to tell from this shot but JT was intent on spooky/scary and his costume has a gruesome feature where it looks like blood is pumping through his ribbed chest plate.

Zach has been waiting a long time to be a "wolfman" (not sure why he branched away from Star Wars)but he didn't like the shirt that came with the costume and of course opted to tell me just about an hour before it was time to head out. Luckily I managed to graft the fur to another shirt and Zach created a story for himself about being a soccer player turned Wolfman.

buzzing by portland

If she stopped by my house, I would give her my entire bowl of candy.