All things random! (aka: "catch up!!")

My "overwhelmed state" in blogging (aka: too many basketball videos to go through!!) has led to a major backlog, therefore the post of random happenings to catch up:

Owen chillin' out in the front seat before the doors to preschool opened:

He touched this button and said "I'm gonna turn the car around!"

This poor, unfortunate baby rabbit made it's way into our backyard, had a near-death experience in Alli's mouth, survived, and still insists on hanging out in our backyard on occasion. We do a "baby rabbit scan" of the yard before letting Alli out now. Good luck to you small creature!!

Yep....we did celebrate Valentine's Day...just didn't get posted until April...

Meanwhile, Chris continues to be creating awesome stuff out of anything he can find:

Michael's had a fun, cheap fairy house painting project one Saturday:

Willow was passing time reading her blog book from when she was 0-1 yr old and came across this post  Gasp!!! Thankfully her questions were answered by Chris, so I dodged that bullet this time!

We celebrated Grandpa's 70th birthday by stuffing ourselves full at Golden Corral, our recent most successful kid-friendly place to eat. 

The weather turned from a mild winter to spring then back to winter, causing this sadness:

When reading "The Butter Battle Book" you must always eat a piece of bread with the butter side down!

I enjoyed attending an awesome reading conference were I learned a ton AND got to get book autographed for the kids from Eric Litwin (Pete the Cat) and Marc Brown (Arthur series). 

Willow continues to enjoy science projects that she gets from a fun kit each month. Here she is with the bouncy ball she made, then a diaper she dissected to learn about polymers. 

Owen has LOVED having his Legos organized! He's rebuilt sooooo many sets AND kept them together (probably because he doesn't want to put the pieces away!!).

Alli keeps an eye on the dogs, sitting at their door across the street:

We had some fun new friends from church over for pizza, playing, and s'mores!

There was a free entrance day at the zoo AND amazing weather, so we checked out the animals, heard about the red panda (leading to Owen's favorite backyard game being to play "zoo"), ate a picnic lunch, and enjoyed the view of town from the star!

Owen's friends at a birthday party at an indoor pool:

Willow and I took advantage of a "no studio fee" day at a paint-your-own pottery place in town last weekend. She did a great job on her elephant and I made a "Giving Plate."

Both Willow and Owen rocked their dentist visits this week!! No cavities (whew!!)!!

Dentist

 The kids had their regular dentist visit recently. They both did awesome! Owen had his first full cleaning and x-rays too! Despite our regular flossing since Willow's last cavities, her x-rays showed another cavity between her top molars. Argh! We're switching the kids to our dentist so we'll get his 2nd opinion before having this one filled.

I have a feeling this won't be the last time this happens:

Dentist visit

We had the dentist appointment today that I've dreaded for 6 months since our last visit. Willow was such a rockstar at her first visit and they were so kid-friendly there, that it set such a high expectation for any other dentist we see. I figured we'd see how it went today, then I'd scope out a new dentist if it was a disaster. It definitely wasn't a disaster but I should've reviewed the blog before going! I swore Willow had done the x-rays last time so on the drive over I told her she wouldn't have to do them this time and it'd just be a cleaning. Whoops!! She sat down in the chair fine, then the hygienist (a different one than last time) said she'd do the x-rays after the cleaning. Willow's face dropped instantly and you could see the fear in her eyes as she started to cry. The hygienist left for a few minutes and we had a pep talk. She was really hesitant for the beginning of the cleaning. Thankfully, though, the hygienist was very patient with her. She ended up doing fine with the cleaning, flossing, x-rays, dentist checking her, and fluoride. The bad news is that she has TWO cavities!! What???? The blasted things are between her two bottom molars on both sides. She'll have them filled one at a time in late Nov and early Dec.

All grins after the cleaning/x-rays, while waiting for the dentist.

I was worried about how Owen would do since he hardly opened his mouth (in my arms) last time with LOTS of tears, plus he'd just seen his sister cry sitting in the dentist chair. I asked if he could lay on my lap considering how last time had gone and the hygienist agreed. Maybe it was that Sponge Bob was on the TV. Maybe it was that I held him to watch while I held Willow's hand during her cleaning so he knew it would be ok. Maybe he aged 2 years overnight (he had gone pee pee for the 2nd time in the potty this morning!!) But, the child was a rockstar!! Not a single tear. Not a single hesitation during the whole cleaning or flossing!! She even used the motorized toothbrush (no water to rinse or "sucky straw" though)!!! He opened his mouth great for the dentist too! I don't have any pictures since he was in my lap, but Willow and Owen did give me a narrative of their visit so they can pump themselves up before their next visit (Plus, who doesn't want a lollipop after a dentist visit anyway??).

Oh, and go figure the hygienist is 6 months pregnant and isn't going to return to work after having her baby, so we have to cross our fingers for our next hygienist!! sniff sniff

Dentist (Willow's 2nd, Owen's 1st)

I won't go into the whole story of our search for a pediatric dentist but will just say that Willow and Owen had their first dentist visit in our new town today. It's a pediatric dental clinic but didn't come across as even close to as kid-friendly as where we took Willow for her first visit, at which she was a rockstar. I think it started off on the wrong foot when the hygienist had her sit down, didn't warm her up to being there in any way, then asked me to leave the room so she could do x-rays. Willow swelled up in tears and was hesitant from that point on. Poor thing. She ended up letting the hygienist use the electric toothbrush to clean her teeth (the motivating factor: chocolate flavored toothpaste). She also flossed but that's all she wrote. When the dentist came in she didn't even want to be laid back for him to see in her mouth, so she laid on my lap in the chair. Here's hoping the next visit goes a little easier for her!! 

After Willow doing so awesome at her first dentist appointment at 4 years old, I was tempted to wait until Owen was about the same to take him. I wanted to hear the dentist's opinion about Owen's front teeth (blasted paci!!!) so I figured I'd take him too, especially since we're paying for dental insurance for him. Nana brought him back with Willow and me to see what a good job Willow did of sitting in the chair (they made a quick exit when Willow started tearing up at the thought of x-rays) but it wasn't enough to convince him that the dentist's office was a happy place. As I brought him back for his turn he kept saying, "No want it. No want it." He wasn't cooperative in allowing the dentist to see much so we'll keep exposing him to it every 6 months in hopes that he'll do better each time?!?

Our brave girl

Willow's First Dentist Appointment

Yep...we waited until Willow was 4 to take her to the dentist. Don't judge. We do brush her teeth twice a day and I religiously go to the dentist every 6 months. For some reason I've just really delayed taking her for the first time. The dentist recommended that kids start coming in before they're a year old (YEAH RIGHT!!), but with how AWESOME Willow did, I'm almost convinced to wait until Owen is 4 to bring him! I think it helped that she'd been to my dentist appointments 3 or 4 times, we've read books about the dentist, and they've talked about dental hygiene at one of her school's field trips. She was a pro. She did exactly what the hygienist asked (she opted to not lay back because she was given a choice, otherwise she likely would have) and she even said Willow was the best listener she'd had all day so she earned two tokens instead of just one. The hygienist brushed her teeth with a regular brush, flossed, did x-rays, and the dentist checked her teeth for cavities/overbite/etc. She got a great report!

She walked away with a balloon, Clifford toothbrush, silly band, bouncy ball, AND ring! 

Way to go big girl!!