So this just happened today...
She's been waiting and waiting to finally lose a tooth, and now she's a member of the snaggletooth club!
Now she's anxiously awaiting the arrival of the toothfairy!
So Aylin got to experience the joy of getting her very first cavity fixed last Monday. I really hadn't expected to have to deal with that quite so soon... Clearly we need to work on getting those toofers cleaned better. Anywho... The dentist highly recommended we use the "happy gas" even though our insurance didn't cover it. So we went with it, and I'm glad we did. She was pretty nervous to start, and even cried just having to put on the "piggy nose" (happy gas) because "it was weird". But after having it on for about 60 seconds the happy kicked in, and she was quite the goofball. She cracked herself up several times, and told the dentist and his assistant that everyone that worked at the dentist office should wear shorts, swim suites, flip flops, and piggy noses for their daily uniform at work. He got quite the kick out of her. He also joked that he should start an anonymous twitter account for "things kids say while on nitrous", I'm sure it would be a hoot if Aylin was any indication. So here are our pictures from the event.
Honestly the worst part was a combination of waiting for the numbness to wear off, and that half asleep tingling sensation while her mouth slowly came back to life. She fussed with and bit on her lip enough while it was numb that she'd made it raw and swollen. She reacted to it the same way I do; it lasted FOREVER. She had the work done at 4pm and the numbness still hadn't gone away by bedtime at 7:30. Thankfully she was worn out enough that even though she cried herself to sleep, it didn't take long for her to just give in and fall asleep.
Last week was Dr. Seuss' birthday, so we had a fun day each day last week where the kids went to school with some wild and wacky theme. One day was crazy shoes day, and pajama day, etc. Friday was dress as your favorite Dr. Seuss character day, so Aylin wanted "Cindy Lou Who" hair. We started out with the side braids, and I was going to tease up the top and put a bow in it, but we literally almost missed the bus because the hair was taking way longer than expected. So I ended up doing a third braid up top and just looping them all up and around. And unfortunately, since we were late to the bus stop, I didn't get any pics of it while it was still cute and fresh. So these pics are from the end of the school day...
Aylin really enjoyed the One District One Book of The World According to Humphrey. It was a fun addition to our nightly story time. At the end of the book, they had a week at school where each day had a fun dress up theme. A few of those days were missed because of various things. But we managed to get the "dress as your favorite character", and "dress as your favorite animal" days. She dressed as teacher Ms. Mac from the book, and also as a cat. Fun times! Aylin really has exploded into the reading world far faster than I expected. She continues to amaze me every day with how well she reads and how much she loves it.
How on earth did that really happen? Sorry for the belated post, I had been waiting for the full birthday festivities to conclude, and since they spanned more than a week... Her birthday was on a Thursday, so I surprised her with waffles in bed before getting ready for school. She also came home to balloons and presents that I wasn't going to let her open until after her father got home. I'm such a meanie... :D She also had ballet that evening, so she had to wait until we got home from that before we let her tear open all her gifts. Then Friday evening is when we had the family birthday dinner and cake. We had a blast filling up balloons and decorating with Uncle Richard. The birthday girl was rather particular in her requests for the evening. She wanted waffles for her birthday dinner, she wanted a "round chocolate cake with layers, smooth chocolate frosting, and pink strawberry frosting for the words and decorations, and strawberries on it for decoration. Also sparkly candles for the cake" She got all of those things, except for the sparkly candles. We had snow early in the week and I wasn't able to make it to the store. I ordered, instead, some fun candles from Amazon that had colored flames to match the candles. That was apparently not an acceptable substitution.
After the birthday evening, part of her birthday gift from mom and dad was a special day out at the mall with mom. This included a lunch out to a place of her choosing, pedicures, and a movie. She chose P.F. Changs, and we got a super yummy dessert with chocolate and raspberries. Then we enjoyed a little pamper time and pretty toes. We had intended to stroll around the mall, but it was SO. Cold! We had snow flurries while we were out walking. So we made a stop in to the candy store, and popped in a few other placed before finally ending up at the movie theater where we watched Paddington Bear.
To end it all, she got to spend the following weekend (SLEEPOVER!!) with Papa Joe and Grandma Linda in Harrison where she was thoroughly spoiled and loved on. All the while Jeff and I jumped on the opportunity for a kid-less weekend, and took our friends up on an invitation to enjoy their cottage for the weekend. The snow ALMOST kept us from the fun weekend away, but in the end we made it to our destinations safely, and back home with no major issues.
We're enjoying a fabulous February snow day, the first of the 2014-2015 school year. Aylin could hardly wait to get out into the snow. It was straight up 8am when she burst out the front door. Dressed with 2 pairs of leggings with a pair of knee high socks on top, and gloves that didn't stay on for very long. The squealing and giggling lasted pretty well the whole 30 minutes she spent out there. Then she had the bright idea to request a cup so she could fill it and make a Sno Cone. So once she warmed up enough in front of the fireplace she made a Sno Cone with her cup of snow and an apple juice box. To kill a bit of time and get my morning devotional in (that i usually wait to work on after she's off to school...) I turned her loose with craft supplies and she cut, glued, and glittered till her heart's content. Then, of course, the day called for grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. So now we're settled in, enjoying a bit of down time watching Mary Poppins!
I hope everyone else is staying warm and cozy and enjoying a lazy day as well as you can! :)
Here are a few fun things that have been happening the last couple of months with Aylin:
1) The Ginger Girl is going to start taking ballet - She is SUPER EXCITED (if I cold make those words glow and sparkle maybe then it would truly convey her excitement). We're joining some friends from community group where the ballet is taught at a church and they use praise and worship music. It'll be fun to have friends to do an after school activity with. At the end of 3 months they do a recital, and Aylin is already geared up for it even though she hasn't yet attended her first class. She's also thoroughly convinced that she already knows every thing there is to know about ballet and she's just going to go dance with friends. I love her confidence, but sometimes... Oy.
2) And before ever introducing the idea of ballet lessons to the Ginger Girl simply cannot keep still if there is a groovy beat (or soft and flowing music, just any music at all really), so here she is dancing along at one of our runs to Starbucks.
3) THIS is a super fun kiddo. She was a real trooper when some of my intricately planned details ended up in the trash. The PLAN had been that on this particular Friday I would attend her school's monthly assembly (otherwise known as BASH) where she'd get called as a February Birthday, and then I would stay for the day at the school and assist with the class Valentines party. However the class party ended up moving to Thursday instead and I had a conflict and was then unable to attend. So I still attended BASH, where she not only got her Happy Birthday recognition, but ALSO got an AWARD for Extraordinary Effort (WOO)! Then I stayed and had lunch with her and we did crazy things like take goofy photos and look up silly cat pictures on my phone.
4) This is the sweetheart who was ecstatic to have her Daddy go attend the "Doughnuts with Dad" event at school with her.
5) The Ginger Girl enjoying her raspberry Hot Chocolate at Kennedy Coffee which HAS HER NAME ON IT (Oh my goodness the excitement was so real). We had a super fun family date night where we went to Chili's for dinner followed up with yummy hot drinks for all.
6) The Ginger Girl growing up without my permission... The headphones and ipod in her big chair just really get me. How did she get this big?!
7) The Ginger Girl on her FAVORITE thing EVAR at the playground. This girl just HEARTS swings. I'm confident that if we had one in our yard we would almost never see her. When she talks about recess at school it almost always involves the swings and who she was with on the swings.
8) PIANO - Oh my goodness! I can't even, ya'll. My heart is so full right now. When we first acquired the piano from the sweet Acosta family Aylin was not interested in being shown how to play (reference previous point about knowing all about ballet before even taking a lesson...) so I just let it be for a while. I didn't want to force it and for it to become not fun. My mom sent me a lot of my old piano music - including lots of the beginners workbooks that I used when I learned how to play so many moons ago. Well we've hit a sweet spot finally! She wanted to learn how to play an actual song, rather than something she made up. So we're starting out very slowly and "lessons" only take place when they're requested. But we're both loving the process right now, and I'm ecstatic to be able to teach her.
9) And last but not least (And clearly my photos are out of order...) The Ginger Girl all dolled up for our sweet friend's - Joel & Cari - wedding. What a beautiful day that was, and we all had so much fun! Woo!
January
By January we were already sick and tired of snow, and being cooped up in the house. So. Much. Snow.
February
Aylin turned 5.
We added pets to the Melton Casa - FISH
Jeff received his 1 year evaluation which was hugely positive, and awesome considering he had completely changed career fields.
Teena hit the 5 pounds lost mark.
March
Jeff ran a 10k
Jeff and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary.
April
I (Teena) walked across the overpass bridge separating me from Bentonville and walked the 2.5 miles to the square in downtown Bentonville.
Jeff ran a 5k with his work buddies, while Aylin and I participated in the fun run. While doing so I realized that maybe I could do this running thing, too.
Teena hit the 10 pounds lost mark.
May
Teena began using the C25K training app, and started running for the first time.
June
Aylin graduated from her preschool class at Mary's Little Lamb's.
Teena, Aylin, and Uncle Richard traveled to Tennessee to meet up with more of the Leach crew for a week with the family to (pre)Celebrate Dad's (Tom Leach) 60th birthday!
July
Ayin went to spend a week with her Papa Joe and Grama Linda in Harrison, while Jeff and I packed in 3 dates into the week. One of which ended abruptly when a roach fell from the light fixture above our table into Jeff's plate of food that we had *just* finished with. Another of the dates was a fun evening at the AMP sitting on the lawn watching Alison Krauss with Union Station and Willie Nelson.
Aylin, along with momma and daddy attended her new school's open house.
August
Aylin began Kindergarten with a bang. There was much to get accustomed to, but once we fell into rhythm things started moving more smoothly. This took between 6 and 8 weeks for the behavior problems to clear up.
Teena hit the 15 pounds lost mark.
September
The Melton family plugged into a community group.
Aylin began to READ.
October
Aylin attended her very first field trip to a pumpkin patch with the kindergarten class.
Jeff and I attended our very first Parent Teacher conference, which was super positive.
Aylin chose Merida (not Elsa!) as her Halloween costume
Jeff accepted a new job with IT company IFWORLD
I survived the 2 year anniversary of my IIH Diagnosis
I experimented with making homemade applesauce, and then canning it.
November
We celebrated Jeff's last birthday in his 30's
I took my very first longer run on a trail, and survived.
I made my very first 100% from scratch pumpkin pie, and it was a huge hit!
December
We had our largest ever sign up for the Fellowship rEcess EVER and it was a super awesome day!
We celebrated Teena's fourth anniversary of her 29th birthday.