Tooth Adventures

The new source of delight and frustration. As Cody was so delicatly spilling water all over the counter downstairs and worked his way into the plastic veggie bag to get a green banana for breakfast, Aiden was petting a cat next to me on the bed when he discovered laying on his tongue was his tooth.

So as 7am I wandered my unstretched body downstairs to get the camera and the tooth container.





Then the cutest phone conversation I have ever heard took place as Aiden called Terry to tell him.

"Good Morning, Daddy This is Aiden I am calling to tell you that there is a hole in my mouth now where the tooth was." (Yes, he said this as all one coherent sentence.) After a small pause, "Yes, my tooth fell out."

I then cleaned up the spilt water from Cody, and since have been laying flat on my belly twice so far doing the great baby tooth search as Aiden is compelled to carry it around and drop it in our tooth colored verigated carpet.

UPDATE!
Since this just happened one hour later than the original blog post, I figured I'd just add it on as an update.

Aiden and Cody were goofin' around of course. Cody reared his head up and knocked Aiden in the mouth. He cried ouch and reached in his mouth and pulled out the OTHER tooth that was next to the one he just lost. That one was loose before, but not as loose, so this was a bit more painful to loose than the one that came out on it's own. This one still has a bloody little stump, which is causing Aiden some distress.



Poor Guy. After some TLC to both Aiden's mouth and Cody's head, Aiden is back to normal with the exception of a funny accent when he talks now. No determination if Cody is actually back to normal as normal for him is yet to be determined.

Here's the Summer Slam

Even over the constant request to keep blogging, I have denied my fans of reading my illustrious and sometimes illusive words so I may cater to my whims of self indulgence in summer activities such as.... school, and trips to far off places like Lubbock Texas. (Which yes, is exactly as enchanting as it sounds.)





Truth is, I have found my new addiction and quick fix to bloggers outlet in indeed the social networking system known as FaceCrack. The games, the funny quips of life and bizarre love hate relationships with the "Like" button take the larger part of my creativity and mutilates it into heaps of grain after being worked over with a mortar and pestle.

However, the summer has been filled with fun and friends that we look upon fondly, as the upcoming school year is upon us. This year both kids will be at the same school, and even though it's unclear how often I will be called to substitute teach, the days I do will be calmer and more controlled, shaving off a cool 45 minutes of drive time from shuffling kids from one side of the county to the other.


I have been making an effort to connect with my community. All 7200 residence that stay here in the winter, and apparently I am intent on meeting them all personally. It's not all fun and games however, as I try hard as I might to make all my efforts of volunteering in drug prevention groups and group facilitating a women's support group into something that might be resume worthy in three years or so. I have to admit, the "work" itself is really something I enjoy so if it never makes a relevant point, I am growing.

Speaking of growing, it's a well known fact that sitting on your butt, talking, writing papers and playing on facebook all lead to obesity. Yes, it's true... the lack of getting paid to work out and filling time with trying to fill my brain has also lead to me filling my body... back up. It's ok, I know I will just do it all again when I move back to civilization where they have real gyms and not port-a-aerobics stalls. I just won't go visit my Grandma Betty anytime soon, because I know it will break her heart.

Speaking of heartbreak, we had two of our most beloved family members of ten years leave us this year in a tragic way. Brie and Chianti have gone to a better place to chase rabbits in landfill. While my heart still is healing, the boys are thrilled because we opened our home to a pair of kittens. Skitty is the brother of the two, who has taken to sitting on my desk while I am typing and trying to get comfortable on my face when I try to sleep. Iris, is a lovable little girl who is a bit less demanding in the affection department but still has a great time in their $200 kitty tower that now occupies a quarter of our computer room. I am just happy they use the darn thing more than the kids do. Now it's a fun game of "Is that smell your booty, the cat box or just Jersey?"


Me in my neurotic motherhood, took Aiden to the dentist at the first sign of a loose tooth. I just had visions of extra teeth growing up and mangling his jaw bone so he would be wearing dentures at age eight. The Dentist assured myself and Aiden after a few x-rays that his teeth were perfectly positions and everything was fine. Aiden loves creeping me out by wiggling it all over the place. You can even see the dark root when he pulls the tooth all the way forward where it shows it's bloody little stump. AAAAAH! He loves it.


"Mommy, my tooth not only can wiggle back and forth but also left and right!" The next day, "Look, it can go around in a full circle." Meanwhile my arm hair is crawling out of it's follicles and running for a less stressful location, which appears to be anywhere my delicates cover as those places keep getting hairier and hairier...but I digress.

With that lovely image in your head, I will end it here. Thanks for being patient with me my bloggie fans. I will try to post more often. Oh, just one more picture of Cody with his new teacher!


Tootles!

New American Privileged

I never considered myself privilaged in the manner the economist or sociologists discuss. It todays economic times however, I have to say being married to a military man is a privliage indeed.

The more bizzare thought however, is the realization that our kids are growing up privilaged. Not rich, but privilaged. They have an attentive two parent household, more toys than they should have, good schools to attend and extra activities like swimming and karate to boot. They will have college funds and opportunities to make the rough college years a little more comfortable. Who's to say if they will be attending ivy league, but truth is our boys are privilaged... just not rich.

With the privilage of raising white men in this socitey however, I think it only responsible parenting that we teach them the truth, that they are privilaged. Denial of that fact will only lead to justification of greed and entitlement issues. I think there can be something to be said for gratitude of circumstances without being racist or elitist. The recognition of privilage among those of us who are privilaged needs to be a humbling and inclusive experience.

When I think about the circumstances in which Terry and I were raised, I can't help to divulge that we were not privilaged in our childhoods. The most disappointing thing I think we could encounter, it to strive to give our children every advantage we can afford only to have them look down their nose at us without even know it. We were the children who grew up in the emotional roller coaster of insecurity, and strive to provide security for our children. We may not have as much now as our neighbors, and we may not be Polyanna every miniute of the day, but despite our backgrounds we can appreciate them, teach our children to appreciate them and know in many ways we are privilaged.