Dentist Shmentist

Jonah had an appointment to see the dentist today. He was VERY anxious all morning, asking me if we could just stay home and telling me that his teeth were already clean, and look! He flossed this morning so we didn't need to go to the dentist! I ended up packing his blanket and puppy in the diaper bag and letting him take his toy ambulance to ease some of the anxiety.

He seemed deep in thought on the drive there, but got out of the car willingly, walked into the office, and sat in the waiting room quietly. He was visibly nervous.

One of the ladies called us back and then the fun began. And I don't mean that sarcastically! We really had fun! They let him touch and try everything! The vacuum, the "water gun", the air blower (these are the technical names, of course.) They gave him rides in the chair and let him move the x-ray machine up and down with the arrow buttons. He was so proud!

(Those are puddles on the floor from the "water gun".)

They turned on Looney Toons and Ms. Nancy did a bit of negotiating to get Jonah to recline in the chair. After that, it was smooth sailing. He let her polish his teeth and giggled every time she sprayed water and suctioned. He even asked her to spray and suction a couple MORE times!

(Gracie chilled and ate cereal the whole time.) When they were done brushing, flossing, and painting flouride on his teeth, they let him play with the air blower some more, and even blew up a glove (and drew a face on it) for him to take home.

At the very end of the visit, they convinced him to let them "take a picture of his nose". He was seriously impressed that their camera could take pictures of his bones.

All clean! And very proud. Both of us.

The Little Sisters

Our playgroup is FULL of boys. We're talking a freakish 10 to 1 ratio of boys to girls now that Lauren has moved. What was in the water?! It's not like we're turning girls away.

Well, the tables have finally turned. The second baby boom in our playgroup is producing all GIRLS! Gracie has a nice group of little sisters to play with now. Zoe is one month older, and Angelina and Valentina were born almost 3 months ago. These are definitely Gracie's future peeps.

Presenting her Royal Chubiness, Princess ZOE.

and The Twincesses, Angelina and Valentina...

Funny thing about those twins, Gracie can't seem to accept that she's not one of them. She's always trying to climb in their carriers or into Jill's arms to be with them.

Dear God,

Jonah is a habitual getter-out-of-bed at night. So we lock his bedroom door. When he learned to unlock it at age 2 1/2, we turned the lock around. When he learned to unlock the backside of the lock with his fingernails at age 3 1/2, we caught him in the backyard at 11:00 pm. Not. Good. That incident motivated me to get creative. I couldn't find duct tape, so I grabbed the nearest roll of Scotch tape and wrapped half the roll around the inside of his door knob and over the lock.

Last night, Jonah was saying his prayers and I heard this...

Dear God,
Thanks for my Lego cars, an' gettin' to ride in da golf cart with Papaw and Daddy. An' forgive Mama for tapin' da lock on my door. An' help me to get da tape undone.
Amen.

Airborn

Jonah and his buddies, Austin and J.T., played "follow-the-leader" happily for an hour at our last playgroup. They went up the ladder, down the slide, over the monkey bars, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide. Over and over and over.

I wandered over to snap some pictures of them coming off the slide, and later at home, laughed out loud at what the camera captured. It looks like Austin's feet catapulted Jonah off the slide.

Gracie Girl: 13 months

Jonah and I took Gracie to the doctor yesterday for her 1 year well check. She was 30 inches tall and weighed 20 lbs, 4 oz. (average height, and 25-50% for weight). She came away from the visit with two bandaids on each leg and was mad as a hornet.

What's new?

• Gracie has 1 more tooth on top, and another trying to cut through, for a grand total of 4
  

• She was recently motivated, by an ice cream sandwich, to begin signing "more"

• Story time is her new favorite. She finds a book, brings it over, then turns around and backs up into your lap. Often she'll say "ree, ree, ree" when she's backing up. I'm pretty sure she's trying to say "read"

• When Michael get's home from work, she drops whatever she's doing and RUNS to him

• Her curls are outrageous! We had a nice rain yesterday and the humidity did wonders for our hairs...
  

Top 10

Top 10 reasons Jonah should go to bed...NOW!

10. I just caught him outside digging up one of my potted plants with the pointy end of an umbrella.
9. If I have to say, "The top of the couch is NOT FOR RUNNING ON", one more time, I'll lose it.
8. We went for a walk, as requested by Jonah, and 5 minutes later he was asking to be carried.
7. All his coordination has shut down for the day. I'm talking multiple boo boo's in the span of an hour.
6. The cheerful Jonah has become manic.
5. The sad Jonah is a whining mess.
4. The two moods alternate frequently and without warning. I'm suffering from whiplash.
3. He just set a pillow on top of his sister, then climbed on the bed and JUMPED onto the pillow. (She's okay).
2. I read him a story and he didn't negotiate for more.
1. He didn't sing at the top of his lungs during bedtime songs. In fact, he was asleep before I shut the door.

Night night, Little Man.

It's only 108

For some reason, Jonah decided to wear a windbreaker all day. (It's only 108 degrees, compared to our 116 last week. Brrrrr!) Sometime around 4:00, he got really sleepy and slumped over in the club chair for a cat nap. He was SO sweaty when he woke up!

Best Friends

In the last 3 months, it seems Jonah has learned to truly appreciate friends. The concept of having a best friend has been sinking in since he moved to the four year old class in preschool and had to leave familiar faces behind. He suddenly treasures his playgroup buddies. They have been a constant when everything else changes. They were there when he turned 2, 3, and now 4. They were there after Gracie was born. They are names he remembers, faces who smile at him, voices who call for him to come play.

We had to say goodbye to our sweet Lauren today. She and her mom, Kim, are moving back to Indiana and Jonah was seriously distressed when I broke the news to him. He wailed, "Oh nooooo! I will be SAD! And then I will be MAD!" (He's very into naming his feelings lately). After we talked about Lauren being closer to her Mimi, he felt better :)

"Few delights can equal the mere presence of someone we utterly trust."
~ George MacDonald

New Tricks

Suddenly, we have a dancing, climbing, kissing tot on our hands :)
Warning: Before you watch this video, please know that I intended for Gracie to develope a healthy fear of falling. We moved the stool to the middle of a carpeted room so she would learn how to get down without hurting herself. After this, I promise I'll stop posting videos of my kids being neglected.

Storytime with Marmee

Gracie plopped down in Marmee's lap with a book, and as Marmee started to read, the crowd grew...

Lucy (the dog) was a tad jealous of Marmee's time with the grandkids.