The great crowning

Well, this past Wednesday Adriana got a day off from school, Bruce took a day off work, Cara and Jonah were able to spend some time with their "Nanny" and a dentist in Greenville became a little richer.

Adriana became an "official" princess with her spanking new silver crown on one of her molars. I noticed what I thought was a cavity a couple of weeks before her last cleaning. Her dentist agreed, and we set up an appointment for what we thought was going to be a filling. The main obstacle to overcome was having her sedated. Her dentist said the way she acts when her teeth are getting cleaned (something about four people having to hold her down and a great imitation of Linda Blair in "The Excorist"), she would need to be sedated. This, of course, sent Bruce into a panic with Internet research, and sent me into a stress-filled month.

We contacted Adriana's pediatrician to make sure the sedation would be okay. We were mostly concerned with her slight heart murmur, but Dr. G. assured us that was not a problem. She did suggest getting a second opinion, but after going back and forth, we decided to go ahead and take the plunge.

Wednesday morning we arrived at the dentist's office where they weighed her and went to mix her medicine. I tried giving it to her, but she said it didn't taste good, so she refused to take it. In fact, she proceeded to spit the little I had given her out. She still had about two-thirds of the dropper left. Dr. B. (the dentist) said our options were to come back and try some different sedation, get her to take what was remaining knowing that it would not be as effective or use suppositories. I knew coming back would make things worse, so I explained to Adriana that she either needed to take the rest or she was going to get pills up her bottom. Somehow, that worked like a charm. She took the rest of the medicine.

We waited about 30 minutes, and we all went in a room to start. She was wrapped solid like a burrito and was given laughing gas. She didn't give them too much trouble after that. After reviewing the x-rays and drilling, Dr. B. told us his recommendation was a silver crown. Adriana thought that was the neatest thing after Daddy told her he has a gold one. So, she was officially coronated while Daddy went to pay (and tried to figure out why neither one of us went into dentistry), made a quick trip to the toy box and then Daddy made a quick stop at Best Buy while Adriana and I snoozed in the van. (We definitely believe in bribery.) Now, Adriana is a Hannah Montana DVD, HM CD and a High School Musical 2 CD (thanks, Ma!) richer. And, Bruce rewarded both of us for not having a nervous breakdown.

Locks of Love

Well, Cara took the plunge this past Saturday and had all her hair cut off for Locks of Love. Locks of Love takes donated hair and turns it into hair pieces for children who have lost their hair due to illness/treatment.

This was originally Adriana's idea, but her hair grows very slowly. Her hair was almost long enough last year, but then we had a "critter" outbreak as we call it and had her hair cut some to help with the combing. She wanted to go ahead and cut her hair for LOL on Saturday, but that would have made her hair very short, and she didn't want it to look like a "boy's" as she put it. She actually got upset and started crying because she really wanted her hair cut. We finally told her that she could get her hair cut some and she could let it grow again for donation later. She seemed satisfied with that. I think she was upset because she really wanted to help someone, but wasn't able to do it. I told her that they will always need hair and they will appreciate it later.

We were not convinced that Cara was going to do it, but we caught her in a good mood Saturday morning and she was willing to do it. Uncle Chris did the cutting. The part she loved the most was that we all said she looked like Dora the Explorer now!

Soccer kids

Well, soccer season is upon us. We made a difficult (well, I think it was difficult, anyway) decision this year not to place the girls in a dance class. No one teaches dance in town, and the nearest lessons are 30 minutes away. The cost of gas, time going and coming and the fact that it wears Adriana out so much led us to deciding to take some time off from dance. So, instead, the girls are going to play soccer. The ages are 4-6. Cara is still 3, but with her birthday coming up soon and the rec director needing players, we signed her up.

The first practice was the other night, and Bruce said he wondered how she will do. (I was not there because it was WW night.) He said she came off the field crying to him because Adriana would not let her play with the ball. He tried to explain to her that was the way you play. Last night they had another practice. It was very hot. Cara is much like me in that she gets hot very easily. Once she does, she loses interest in what she is doing and just wants to get cool. During the practice, she didn't pay attention to what was going on. The coach made her run to the goal and back. She walked instead. By this time, she was very hot. All she wanted was her drink. She looked at me and started to cry. I had to turn away and walk away. She was able to get a drink a couple of minutes late.

Cara wanted to play soccer because Dora the Explorer plays soccer. Now, I am not so sure she wants to. We'll see.

Adriana, on the other hand, has shown vast improvements from when she played two years ago. She didn't want to play last year, and we didn't push her. She said she didn't want to play this year until she found out her friend Rebekkah was playing. She then decided she would play. When she played a couple of years ago, she had trouble keeping up and she didn't really try. Now, that has all changed. She is trying and keeping up!

Now, remember the reason we decided not to sign them up for dance was because of distance. Well, four of their soccer games will be in a town 30 minutes away. So much for saving gas. Oh well, at least I get to keep my title of soccer mom.

Manners

Manners are an amazing thing. They help change the outlook of so many people when they are used properly. We have tried to emphasize that to our three from the start, but something amazing happens around about age 5-they forget. Or, they don't care. One or the other.

Even though our efforts have failed on the oldest child, somehow, like a miracle, the youngest has picked up on them.

For about the last month, Jonah, at 21-22 months, has turned into a little gentleman. For a while, he has been saying "please" when he has wanted something, and then he added, "thank you, Mommy." Now, "yes, ma'am" has become a regular part of his vocabulary, even to Bruce. Well, we still have a little work to do.

He is just so cute when he says it. He also likes to say his nighttime prayers. And, you can just about make out what he is saying, but for some reason he has been speaking in a whisper. (Maybe he is only concerned with God hearing him.) When he gets to the end of his prayer, he finishes with a hearty "Amen." I need to capture that on video.

First Day, Part 2

Okay, so yesterday's post was long, and I didn't want to make it longer, so I waited until today to post a little more.

Adriana said she had a good day yesterday, and she was picked to be the teacher's helper. I was very excited for her and told her that I was picked to be my teacher's helper the first day of first grade, also. (It helped that my teacher had both of my brothers before me and thought my oldest brother hung the moon.) I then started thinking about why she was picked, she must have been on her best behavior, etc., etc. Then, the more I thought, I started thinking about the other children in her class that I know. The more I have thought about it, I think she was chosen alphabetically. Oh, well, it is still nice to be chosen.

When she came home, I had broken in my new KitchenAid Artisan mixer (which I got at a wonderful discount thanks to my bargain hunting friends on BabyCenter) by making her a batch of cookies. I made the mistake of mentioning a surprise to her the day before, and of course, she wanted it right then. She ate a couple and then ate another snack.

Later on in the evening, while I was occupied doing something else, she had the cordless phone and started dialing numbers. I was able to get the phone from her and saw that she had not completed the phone number and I turned the phone off. She said she was doing that because she was going to play a joke on me by dialing our number. Then, I would answer and she would be on the other end. The only problem, other than the fact that you can't dial your own number on the phone you are wanting to talk on, is she misdialed the number. When I told her that, she went into meltdown mode. At first, she didn't believe me, but I told her I saw the number and it was not the right number.

She starting crying hysterically for about 30 minutes, begged for my forgiveness and kept saying things like, "I want my life back. I want to have a good life. I don't like my life now. I want things to go back to the way they were." Now, I had not said anything about anyone coming to get her, the police being involved or anything like that. We never say things like that to her, but she got it from somewhere. So, evidently she thought she was off to Alcatraz for misdialing a number.

Needless to say, she went to sleep pretty quickly last night.

First day of school

"First day of school, first day of school," Nemo said. Somehow, the child bouncing out of bed on the first day does not happen in real life. This morning, our own little guppie had to be forced out of bed by both of us singing. Now, somehow that was enough to get her out of bed.

After an attempt at a good hearty breakfast that I made this morning (yes, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to be able to achieve such a feat. Don't worry, it won't happen again.:)) and a cooperative spirit of getting dressed, Adriana loaded into the van to go to her first day of first grade. She was accompanied by her entourage of fans (us), a video and still camera. I think I am only going to be able to pull this off one more year since she is already protesting.

Thinking we were doing well since she was about 10 minutes early, we walked down the long, long hallway to her classroom. She is in Mrs. Leverette's class. We walked in, and about three-fourths of the class was already there. Oh, well, it was the first day. Mrs. Leverette gave her a paper with her name on it, and she was allowed to choose her space for today. Thankfully, a spot was vacant beside one of her best friends from last year. She sat down, I took a few pics, we collected Jonah's shoes that we had left the day before, she gave us a look and off we went. Back up the hallway with two, soon to be just one when Cara starts school in two weeks.

Here is an e-mail I sent out earlier about the day. Forgive me if you have read it already. I was attempting to have the blog ready earlier, but a little boy needed my attention.

Six years ago this week we were preparing to bring home from the hospital a little baby who had almost doubled her birthweight to four pounds. When she was first born, our prayer (and many of yours) was that she would live.

Over the next few days when we were confident that prayer was being answered, we starting praying that she would thrive and that our stay in the NICU would be short. Well, it may not have been short, but it certainly wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Once she began to thrive, our prayer was that she would be healthy and that she could live a life by "normal" standards. If not, we prayed that the Lord would show us best how to parent her and her special needs. She had a little delayed development, and still needs a little help with gross and fine motor skills, but overall she is a thriving, healthy "normal" Hannah Montana-loving, pink-wearing, sassy-talking, off-key singing six year-old. And, today she started her first day of first grade. In a regular class, along with other children her age. Please bear with me as I share the greatness of our Lord and thank you for helping to pray for her way back when and now.