Teeth are flying over here!

I finally remembered to take a video of our tooth extraction process! Yesterday morning Mayzie decided that her third tooth was ready to come out. It was! I wonder if #4 will come out this weekend, leaving her with a huge and total gap in the front...time will tell!

Toothless

She lost her tooth!!!!!

Mayzie has been working on her loose tooth for over a week now....with dad's help and encouragement! This has been a bit of a special project for them. The father daughter tooth removal project! She has been loosening her tooth by moving it back ad forth with her tongue and her finger. John has tried to pull it out with the doornob trick a handfull of times to no availe. He has also egged her on in the loosening activities and been excited for her and with her for the very first tiny movement of her tooth! Soooo cute!

Mayzie has been excited too. She has also been much more go with the flow about it than I thought she would be. I thought she would be more private about it and not want any pulling or pushing. But she really got into it and has been so cute about it all. She is quite eager to finally join the ranks of her school friends who have lost many many teeth. She is a slow tooth loser, though she was also a slow tooth-getter as a baby. 

And after all her work along with dad's encouragement and door slamming, it finally came out last night! We are allll very excited! Her siblings are in awe. There was much discussion about the tooth fairy and when everyone is going to lose their first teeth and how it felt and if it bled and how much $$ she would get and what the tooth fairy is like and who she will tell at school and how exciting it allll is! It's all very cute. And hey! It's my first time too; my first kid to lose their first tooth!!! I am excited, but I must say that John is even more excited than the whole bunch of us. 

Truth be told, Mayzie was informed by her dentist over a year ago that 4 of her teeth were a little loose. By little he meant microscopically...only evident to dentists and hygienists. When we went to see him again this year (in January) he told Mayzie that they were loose again/still. She was excited and played with them a little bit here and there from then on. It was only in the last few weeks that the tooth was obviously moving though and she and her dad have been diligent about getting that thing out! They did it! While I was reading books to the other 2 big ones, and the little one was obliviously sleeping in his crib, daddy and daughter were sneaking around down stairs playing a little tooth roulette with some floss and the front door. This time they won and the tooth came out, making it's escape known with a small and delayed plink-plink on the ground. 

These Two

These two are the greatest of friends and the worst enemies. They are a tough pair, but oh sooooo cute! They each have loud voices that need to be hurd. They are oppinionated and will do pretty much anything to get what they want. They love to play with their siblings but get their feelings hurt easily. The find the craziest things to fight over, but will back each other up when in a fight with someone else or when they get in trouble with mom or dad. They scream at each other and fight at the drop of a hat, but also hug and kiss and make up quickly. They love each other!

The things that is amazing to me is how close in size they are. I think they are more alike right now than anyone else (maybe not in looks all arouns, but in personality and in body stature). These Pjs they are wearing are a match set, one pink and one blue. Both size 4T. They fit. Each one fits differently, one a bit snug and the other a little baggy, but they fit!

I was actually hoping Addie would pick the blue as I love it when Jonah dones the pink or princess stuff, simply because it makes it so wonderfully obvious that he has big sisters whom he adores and wants to be like. It makes it obvious that he doesn't care what the norms are or what someone else might think of his clothing choices. He is confident in who he is and is happy to be like his big sisters. And that is one reason he and Addie fight so much....he wants to be just like her and do everything she does. And you know what...Addie is that same way about Mayzie! They adore each other to the point of annoying-ness!!! That is what little siblings do. I did it to my siblings and John had it done to him all over the place by the 3 younger than him!

Walking!

Walking a video by John Carleton on Flickr.

That's right! Things around here just got a lot more interesting. Just in the last week David has started walking more and more. In the last couple days he's gone from a maximum of three or four steps to walking all over the house!

not done yet....

We're still here...on vacation. Enjoying Mountain Hood!

cuddles and a movie last night...with homemade cookies!

We leave today, but not after a well deserved relaxing morning in our swanky condo, enjoying alllll the amenities. Our plans? Jumping on the couch, standing on the big table, breakfast and TV in bed for the littles and breakfast on the "veranda" with a view of the mountain for the bigs. A swim in the big tub and a spray off in the huge shower is in order too. Oh and cookies for breakfast! What else can we do around here to enjoy our day off...it is Monday after all and we're all playing hooky (don't worry it's a scheduled hooky day)?? It's so beautiful here and perfect weather, with birdies chirping while we watch the clouds wrap themselves around the Mountain.....I don't want to go home! Though I hear it's going to be 80 degrees in Portland again today! Welcome Spring...you're late, but we'll open our arms to you.

Capturing the moment

We take a LOT of pictures in this family. Sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you get a GREAT one. Anyway you slice it, all the pictures will be a wonderful way to remember the fun we have had over the years. 

This is one of my favorites! 

These kids make me laugh....so silly, so funny, sooooo much ATTITUDE!

Family Vacation

Yep. It's true. People with 4 kids go on vacation now and then too (not often because it can be hectic and expensive and fuuunnnnn too, as we also get a lot of interesting looks when out and about in vacationland). 

Here we are in Govermenet Camp, near Mt Hood. It's a beautiful weekend and we're staying in a condo about the same size as our whole house! It's pretty awesome. Thank God for Living Social....it affords us the ability to find places to stay reasonably priced for our huge family of 6! 

(this is our view of Hood from the condo)

So far (in the first few hours) we have eaten, watched TV (on just one of the 3 huge flat screan TVs provided), eaten some more, taken 30 minutes to walk to the pool and 15 min to come back for towels and 5 minutes to get back there in time to swim before dinner, when we will eat more! Today (On day 2) we took a hike in the snow around the little pond near our condo. That was fun for the first 20 minutes and then somehow our kids were all too tired or too cold or too hot or too blinded by the sun reflecting off the snow to continue for one more minute... not sure which! After some more food and some more sleep we're ready to explore a bit more. I have a feeling we are going to spend more time around the pool they have here than we will spend in the snow. But whatever makes the natives happy! Some people long all winter to play in the snow...apparently our kids really like to play in the water (good thing it's heated and there's a hot tub too).

 

I am happy whichever way you slice it. Being away from home is a nice oportunity for me to NOT clean the house or think about all the clutter and mess that is staring me in the face at every corner. It is also a nice opportunity for my kids to be away from the toys that they fight over. Surely it's a nice opportunity to take in the peace and quiet of the snowy forest, to enjoy the view of Mt Hood up close (which Jonah continues to call Mountain Hood). Over all I am loving seeing my kids out of their own fish bowl. Somehow they look, act, smell, sounds, and feel differently to me when we are on vacation. Jonah and Addie took a nap in the bottom of the full sided bunk bed this afternoon/morning ...to-get-her!! Mayzie has been our very own princess and the pea sleeping on the top of the very high, very big, and oh so plush bunk bed. My kids hug and snuggle more when we're not home. They laugh and enjoy each other more somehow. There's still tears and blood, fighting and eye rolling, but either it rools of my back much easier or it happens a lot less. All in all it makes for a happier day and I am enjoying it. I told John we might need to just stay here indefitielly! Don't I wish.  

Oh yeah and there's a tub here that fits my whole long body in it and even John's (but not at the same time)! We have yet to try that out, but we did take a nap in the middle of the day while the house was quiet,. which felt simply indulgent (especially with the oober soft bed and feather comforter on top, with the millions of pillows...Ahhhhh). Vacation is so nice. We have too much fun doing nothing (ie relaxing and hanging out as a family) that it's hard to motivate ourselves to take 4 very young, small, tired people tubing or snowshoeing, but we're drinking out coffee and contemplating the many options for our last afternoon on the mountain. 

Currently Jonah and Addie are racing up and down the whole condo (from front door to back). There's lots of laughing and loud feet pattering on the floor, but not without crying and whinning over who won). And then, off to find some popcicles somewhere in this little town, because really what else do you need in the snow?!?!