To the Dentist

Because I didn't want to go to Camden's 3-year well check up in a few weeks and continue to tell his pediatrician that he hadn't seen the dentist yet... I scheduled a "happy visit" appointment for the little bugger two weeks ago.

Like an idiot, I scheduled his appointment for 1:00pm - just saying "OK!" to the first appointment time the receptionist threw out at me.  Normally, I wouldn't have missed a beat and said, "sorry, no - that's during nap time."  But for whatever reason - I had a momentary lapse in judgement and didn't really realize what I had done until the day before.

Since he's been waking up at the ass crack of dawn the past several weeks, I knew I could get away with putting him down for an early nap.  But I also knew that would mean having to wake him up from said nap.  I shudder just thinking about it.

I woke him up at the last possible second and he cried the entire drive to the dentist.

Strike one.

We get to the office and he immediately calms down at the sight of a train puzzle and soon after says he has to go potty.  I'm excited by this because it means that (hopefully) we'll get through his dental appointment without having to excuse ourselves.

He sits on the potty and then starts to move around, trying to get "comfortable" on his new perch (since he's used to the potty seat) and he immediately falls in the toilet.  Cam's scream-crying and I'm laughing.  I can only imagine what the receptionists heard at this point.  No doubt he upped the dramatics thanks to being woken up from his nap.

Strike two.

Right now I'm thinking, "we should just cut our losses and leave.  I am just asking for trouble."

Camden gets called back and the sweet lady asked him if he wanted to sit in the robot chair and meet some new friends.  He was intrigued and while wearing some super cool sunglasses, got to meet Mr. Sunshine (the light), Mr. Thirsty (the sucker), Mr. Squirter (the water), and Mr. Spinner (the polisher).

The treatment coordinator introduced Cam to all his new friends then polished and brushed some fluoride on a few teeth.  The dentist checked and counted his teeth and looked at his bite, and we were all done.  A happy visit indeed!  I didn't strike out!

There was no pressure or fear whatsoever and it was a really good first dentist visit for my little dude.  I had to go back this past Monday to get a cavity filled and he said he wanted to go with me.

Let's hope his next visit goes just as well.  And he keeps his heiny out of the toilet.

Take Luck,

LP

Halloween

 I have been looking forward to Halloween ever since I found out I was pregnant with Zoey.  I mean, who doesn't get excited thinking about the possibilities of dressing their children in coordinating costumes?!

We were given a perfect hand-me-down lion costume by our neighbors so that sparked the idea of a Wizard of Oz theme and Cam being the Cowardly Lion.  In my daily conversations with Tiffanie, she offered to make a Dorothy dress for Zoey.

To say I was pumped is an understatement.

Tiff, being the brilliant woman she is, suggested taking the kid's Halloween pictures a day or two early - just in case.  I'm so glad she shared that wisdom because someone was not too excited to be the Cowardly Lion while the other was perfectly happy to be Dorothy.  

Even getting to draw a lion nose and whiskers on Mommy didn't cheer him up or get him excited.

I got my pictures, anyway and squealed in delight that my bribes of M&Ms and getting to watch Toy Story were successful.

Ryan came home shortly after I took the pictures and didn't help the "I don't want to be a lion..." situation by saying, "Don't you want to be something cool?!  Like Batman?!"  

So, off we trotted to my second favorite store, Costco, where Cam could choose between being a Minion, Scooby Doo, Captain America, Iron Man, or Batman.

After initially saying he wanted to be a "school bus," Batman won and we immediately started teaching him to say "I'm Batman" in a super deep voice a la Christian Bale.  We figured that come Halloween night, we could give him a choice between being the Cowardly Lion and Batman - but we were pretty sure which one he would choose.

Look at that smile!

We live in a great neighborhood but it's tradition to go to my parent's house to trick-or-treat.

Cam loved trick-or-treating.  He said his "trick-or-treat!" and "thank you!" without being told, and made this really funny, low laughing sound every time he was given candy.  He was cracking me up because after saying "trick-or-treat" he would put his little bucket down on the ground instead of holding on to it and then would run down the driveway, put his bucket back on the ground, and tell Grammy and Papa what candy he got.  If he didn't know what the candy was (everything except M&Ms) he would just yell "I got candies!"

After about 10 houses, we called it a night and headed back to Grammy and Papa's to count his stash. We let him pick one thing to eat and shocker - he chose M&M's.  My own OCD heart leapt as I saw him grouping his M&Ms by color before eating them.

Now to start brainstorming for next year's coordinating costumes.

{Halloween 2014}

{Halloween 2013}

Take Luck,

LP

Zoey - 5 Months

What the what?  How has another month come and gone already?

Wah, wah, wah.  I know, I know.

- She won't have another well-check until 6 months, but I would guess she weighs a smidge over 12 pounds.  The (literally) little lady weighed 12 pounds on the dot at her weight/growth check two weeks ago.

- Wears almost exclusively 3 months clothes, but can still get her tushy in 0-3 month pants.

- A happy, happy, happy baby.  This girl is smiling all the time.

- Nicknames include Zo, Zo Zo, Zoey Bear, and Baby Bear.

- Sprouting more and more hair on the top of her head.  I'm not sure if I can still call her eyes "dark hazel."  They are really toeing the line with brown and I think brown is winning.  Sister has mommy's complexion, daddy's eye color, and mommy's eye shape.

- When holding her, my mom swears she's looking at me as a baby - but I'm not so sure.  I see a lot of Ryan and Camden in her.  

- Rolls all. over. the. place.  I don't think crawling is too far away.

- Usually (usually!) sleeps through the night after a 6:30/7 bedtime and a five o'clock-hour nursing session before waking up around 6:30.

- Takes three or four naps a day, anywhere from one and a half to three hours.  It's not at all uncommon for her to have one final little cat nap in the Ergo while I'm trying to make dinner.

- Remains the drool and spit up queen.  I'm always shocked (and excited) when she stays in the same clothes all day at daycare.  Usually I pick her up and she's on her second or third outfit of the day.

- Has started blowing raspberries with her mouth.

- Can hold her own bottle.

- Is chatty, chatty, chatty.  I hear her at least once in the middle of the night just wide awake and talk, talk, talking to herself.

- Rubs her eyes when she is tired.

- Is reaching for toys, grabbing at faces and hair.  Oh, the hair.

- Her feet and hands are still constantly in her mouth.

- Is super observant and loves to look around.  Her new favorite thing is to sit in her Bumbo seat so she can watch her crazy brother be crazy.

- Laughs for no one like she laughs for Cam.  Still thinks he hung the moon.

- Has started to notice the TV and loves watching baseball with Ryan.

- Has cried real tears a few times and it is heartbreaking to say the least.  Thankfully this doesn't happen very often.

- Watches us eat food like she's watching a good tennis match.  Her head just goes back and forth and back and forth tracking the food from our bowl/plate to our mouths.

- Had a few bites of rice cereal yesterday and I thought she was going to eat the rice cereal and the spoon too.

Oh, my sweet Zo Zo.  You are such a little joy and as sad as I am that another month has passed - I am so happy and grateful to be your mommy.  I love you so!

As with Camden at five months, it's now time to start mentally preparing for the big "half" birthday next month.  So much ugly crying.

Take Luck,

LP

Pumpkin Patch

I came to write my Halloween recap post and realized I never posted about our trip to the pumpkin patch!  The past few weeks have been nothing short of crazy so, better late than never.

There's not much to say about our trip to the patch.  And of course, my goal was all photo-related.

Cam was not super interested in looking at the camera, or smiling, for that matter.  All he wanted to do was try to pick up and heave any pumpkin in his sight. 

And then I forced them to sit for a pumpkin-patchy siblings shot.  Clearly, Cam was thrilled and thankfully Zoey is still little enough to oblige my photo requests.

I had just waved my white flag in hopes of getting a decent picture of Cammy with the pumpkins and he said "Mommy, take my picture!  I sitting on the pumpkin!"

Not the greatest family picture ever, but considering we don't have too many of these - it'll do.

And why I didn't take their little sibling picture here is beyond me.  I'll blame the oversight on my mind being focused on getting out of the patch sans-potty accident.  I really wanted to take Cam through the corn maze but I just knew that we'd be deep in the maze (or lost, for that matter) and he would say, "I gotta go potty!"

We came home with a couple pumpkins, dry undies, and some cute pictures to document the adventure.

With two young kids, that's called a success.

{Pumpkin Patch 2014}

{Pumpkin Patch 2013}

Take Luck,

LP