An Even Trade...One Lost, One Gained

Do you see anything missing from this beautiful smile?


That's right...JOSIAH LOST HIS TOOTH!!
YIPEE!!!

He lost it last night. According to him, he was just sitting there wiggling it with his finger and...it just fell into his hand. BIG EXCITEMENT!! His tooth was getting pretty loose and I think the process was helped along by the apple he ate yesterday morning (that he first tried eating whole which pushed on his tooth and made it bleed...and oh, the trauma of blood!). Anyway, we are all VERY excited!! (There is a bit of jealousy on Micah's part...he's feeling a little left out and keeps checking his teeth to see if they are loose.)

But why does this make me feel so much older than the birthday I have coming up? For some reason having a kid lose a tooth makes me feel a lot older than having another birthday. Hmmmm...

In other tooth related news...Emilia sprouted another one this week and is now up to 5 teeth, with one more sure to pop through any day. She's averaging a tooth a week lately!

Last thing for now...this is my Micah Monster. He's such a goof!

Bits and Pieces

Still no pics for you because most of them are on my mom's computer, but I've got some stories to share while you wait...

I found where Micah cut his hair yesterday. There is a chunk above his right ear that is missing. Depending on how his hair is laying, though, it is very hard to tell (obviously since it took me so long to spot it!)

Josiah still hasn't lost his tooth. It's still hanging in there, but it is getting loose enough that he has trouble eating some things. We still haven't started sewing, either, but that's on the agenda for today or tomorrow. I'll post a pic of his creation once he makes it.

Josiah is also reading quite well now. Yesterday and today he has been reading a Dick and Jane book that we have and he is about 100 pages in and has read the whole thing on his own. I've been trying to work with him on reading because I knew he could do it, but everytime I tried he would get whiney and say, "I can't! It's too hard!" I have very little patience for whining and I didn't want to make reading an un-fun thing (because it is SUCH a fun thing!) so I let it drop. Then I decided he just needed a little motivation, a little competition. So I got a "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons" book from the library (very simple lessons) and said I was going to teach BOTH the boys to read. Well, what do you know, that same day Josiah was reading on his own the same books that were "too hard" yesterday. :) (By the way, Micah did very well on the first reading lesson yesterday)

Emilia got a stroller/baby walker for Christmas and has been walking all over the place with it! She's pretty unsteady, but hasn't had any major spills with it, yet. She also has four teeth now, and two more coming in. YIKES! Oh, and a few days ago she was standing at one of the boys stools and then just....let go. And there she was, 9 months old and standing all by herself. What all this means is that instead of typing on this blog I should really be baby-proofing my house, especially since she is so attracted to wires! Add it to the list...

Micah went skiing for the first time last weekend. I think he liked it. He told me about learning to make pizza wedges and french fries. And Josiah got to go on the big lift and down the "big hill" this time. He was excited about that! They have both asked me several times about when I am going to ski...um, never. They don't like that answer, but too bad!

John's car has been getting some work done on it so the kids and I have been without a car for the last week. We're getting a little stir crazy, but so far, no one's been hurt....I'd say that's pretty good. So, for all of you still waiting for me to mail your Christmas presents and Christmas cards...hang in there--they're coming! But I am NOT walking to the post office with three kids, countless envelopes and several boxes. I'm not that crazy!!

That's all I'm coming up with right now. A photo slide show will be coming your way soon...at least I plan for it to be soon. Could be a week or more. Who knows. One of these days I'll get organized again. But not today!

I'm Sooooo Behind!

I can't believe how quickly the last month has gone by. We had a fun and busy holiday and hope yours was wonderful, too! I still don't have time to do a real post about Christmas and our trip to Texas and what all we've been doing, so I'll have to do that another time. But I did want everyone to know that we are doing well, having fun and have all sorts of new devolpments to report to you! For now, here's a picture of all the cousins down in Texas. Wouldn't you have liked to be in the house with all of these little ones for five days?? :) Although I do think the kids had more fun than the adults, we all had a good time (mostly)!

BIG NEWS!!!

Big news, everyone!

Josiah has a for real loose tooth!

I wiggled it myself.
He is not nearly as excited about it as I am, since he's thought he's had a loose tooth for the last 4 months. But he is excited about learning to sew and making his own tooth fairy pillow!

Miss Me?

I know it's been a long time since I posted. Needless to say, we've been busy, as I'm sure are most of you--it's just that time of year!

Here's some highlights from the last few weeks:

The boys and I went to see a Peter Pan play with gramma. Josiah, especially, LOVED it! Micah really liked it, too, but he was so tired I think it put a damper on the experience. And ever since we went, there has been a lot of pirating in our house, with many visits from the fierce Captain Hook. (A little aside...did I ever tell you the story of Josiah asking Nana if she would be a hooker with him? He thought she'd make a great hooker (and he told her so). He MEANT someone with a hook on their hand and was, of course, oblivious to what he had actually said. I think he was 3 when that happened.) Anywho...When I asked Josiah what his favorite part was he said it was TigerLily. At the time he couldn't tell me what he liked about her, but from watching him play I think it was the indian dances they did. Micah liked the part when the crocodile tried to eat Captain Hook's hand! Here are pics:

After the play, all the kids had their first taste of Big Ed's pizza. By this time, Micah was waaay too tired to like anything, as you'll see in the pictures. Josiah liked it, but Emilia LOVED it. I was feeding her pieces of my crust and she couldn't get enough! I can tell you one thing about my baby girl--she LOVES food. Seriously. Anything, any time, just put it in her mouth and she's a happy camper. So here's the crew at Big Ed's...

I must've missed grampa in the picture taking...sorry Tom!

The boys rode on the Habitat for Humanity float in the downtown Knoxville Christmas parade and they had a BLAST! They thought it was awesome to get to be IN the parade! Josiah has already been asking when he can be in another parade. :) It was also the first time Josiah was on TV! The local news station was broadcasting the parade and if you knew where to look you could see Josiah hanging out in the Habitat float. Guess that means he's used up 1 second of his 15 minutes of fame. It was cold the night of the parade so I bundled the kids up before they left and had to laugh at Micah because at first he was walking like the Stay Puff marshmallow man! Here are all the boys before they went down to the parade.

We also went to the Nutcracker Ballet last week. How did the boys like it? Well, they liked the parts that told the story, particularly the fighting of the Mice King, but they got pretty bored in the second half when they were just dancing. Josiah spent the first 10 minutes asking when they were going to talk and didn't want to believe me when I told him they wouldn't. After a while, he accepted the situation settled in. Micah always wanted the ballerinas to be dancing WITH someone and didn't really like when they danced by themselves. Other than that, I couldn't believe how well they sat and watched the whole performance. I was VERY impressed! Here are the cousins lined up for the show:

I don't know what's up with the boys in this picture. They're boys, what can I say?

(I don't know why the computer is posting it sideways, either...)

I spent most of last week making some stuffed animals to sell in a craft show. The dolls turned out great, I thought, though apparently I should have made more lions! Here are a couple that I made.


We attempted to take some family Christmas pictures on Sunday, but none of the ones of all of us turned out very good. Emilia was over the photo shoot by then, I think. But I did get some great pics of the kids! Our Christmas card pics won't be much of a surprise to you, but I can't keep these to myself!




This one is my FAVORITE!


My little pirate-ess

So, there's a little of what we have been up to. We had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the whole holiday season. The boys are very anxiously awaiting Christmas and our road trip to Texas! That will be a fun one to post about! :)