Hannah (Tooth #1)

 "Dear Tooth Fairy, 

My tooth fell out 

It's no longer there. 

I give it to you 

to handle with care." 

Last week there were two main Hannah things Hannah had discovered: 

1) The first was that she discovered this pair of pink overalls that Abigail never wanted to wear, and she decided she wanted to wear them all the time.

2) The second thing she discovered? She had a lose tooth.

So here is a video of me discussing the overalls and teeth with Hannah

And here is Hannah after she had lost her tooth! It was so exciting. I love this picture, and I also love how blonde her hair looks in this photo. When did that happen!?

P.S. I started this Blog keeping track of all the kids' lost teeth. But the truth is, I lost count. They were falling out so fast between the oldest three that I just didn't keep up. I am pretty sure Sidge lost four in one week recently. But I'm gonna try to keep up with my little Hannah for as long as I can!

 

Tooth #22

Abigail lost her sixth tooth -- and it was her other front tooth. It was the 22nd lost tooth in our house! Hannah and her were wrestling, and Hannah's head knocked the tooth out quicker than it was intended. My first kid to lose both her front teeth!

Tooth #21

Abigail lost her fifth tooth last week -- and it was one of her front ones! We put the tooth in an orange box, but she wanted to be able to keep the orange box. We have tried to get the kids to believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy just because I think it is fun. But the boys decided at a young age, that the idea wasn't practical. And they explained it to Abigail who concurs. Only Hannah is allowed to keep believing ... for now. So as I put her to bed she said: 

Abigail: "Mom, so if you are the tooth fairy tonight, can you not take the box?"

Me: "I'm not the tooth fairy."

Abigail: "Mom, I know the tooth fairy isn't real so just talk to dad too and make sure I get to keep the box?

In the middle of the night, she got a little scared and wanted to sleep on the couch. She came to my side of the bed since Daddy was just coming off of nights, and the kids know he can't handle being woken up with so little sleep in his tank.

Abigail: "Mom I want to move downstairs, but I am not sure if you've put the money under my pillow yet."

Me: "I am not the tooth fairy."

Abigail: "Okay, but do I bring the orange box down with me?
Me: "Check inside of it and see if the tooth fairy has come yet."

Abigail leaves to run upstairs and come back down.

Abigail: "There is no money under my pillow."

Me: "Did you look inside the orange box?

Abigail: "No. Hold on."

Abigail leaves to run upstairs and come back down.

Abigail: "Okay, you put the money inside the orange box."

Me: "I am not the tooth fairy."

Abigail: "Okay. Good night."

Tooth #20

Abigail lost tooth #4. Actually, she asked Sidge to pull it out for her. It was bugging her so bad, and Sidge agreed to give it a try, and he got it out. Another one bites the dust in the Kitsteiner house!

Tooth #19

So somewhere along the line, I missed posting about Abigail losing tooth #2. So I am skipping to tooth #3 and the 19th lost in our house. Here she is with her dollar. This tooth was loose for awhile and was actually knocked out in a wrestling match with Isaac last night.

Me: "Abigail isn't that great. The tooth fairy brought you $1."
Abigail: "I don't know."
Me: "Don't know what."
Abigail: "I think you left the dollar."
Me: "I most certainly did not."
Isaac: "That's because Dad did."

Friday Funnies (and Sidge's #7)

Sidge lost tooth #7 for him and #17 for our family. In our home, the tooth fairy leaves $2 for one of the front two teeth and $1 for all the rest. Sidge lost a front tooth but not one of his front two teeth.
Sidge: "I think the tooth fairy made a mistake."
Me: "I don't think so."
Sidge: "How do you know?"
Me: "Well, when I was a kid I got $2 for a front tooth and $1 for the rest same as you."
Sidge: "Yeah but that was a long time ago. I think they are worth more today."

*****

While walking in the grocery store, a rather large man walked by us when Hannah said, "Mommy, that guy had a really, really big bummy."

*****

Hannah wanted to go to Grama's house, but I was busy and there was no one else to walk her over there.
Me: "Hannah we can't go right now. I'm too busy, and I don't have anyone else who can walk you over."
Hannah: "Hmmmm .... I need a WWOOFer to take me!"

Tooth #16 (and more)

So firstly, in a big surprise in our home, tooth #16 in our home was lost by our little Abigail! It was her first lost tooth. She will turn 5 in July so we weren't expecting this quite yet.

I also wanted to show a picture of a hair-do I managed on Abigail the other day. I was pretty proud of it! I'm not a girly-girl mom, but I have done a lot of braids in my lifetime.

And the last thing I wanted to note was that Abigail was recently in a mini-recital at ballet this summer. It was a week long camp, and at the end they performed Jack and the Beanstalk. Abigail played the beanstalk and a person at the market place. Abigail's teacher, Ms. Lori Ann, does an amazing job. She encouraged me to put Abigail up into the 6-11 year old class. The girls were mostly ages 5-9. Abigail was the youngest but totally held her own and absolutely loved it. Here's a picture of the group after their recital. It's a bit blurry but is still a great memory for me:

I cannot even explain what it feels like to see my little girl come out of her shell and thrive. She has gone from so painfully shy to almost a bit on the outgoing side! It's absolutely amazing to watch as a mom.

Tooth #15

Sidge lost his 6th tooth (15th total tooth in our house) leaving his hole mouth basically toothless. (This one was a bottom tooth.)

Tooth #13, Tooth #14 and a trip to the ER

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, JB and I went away. I am so glad we had this time before everything happened with Scrubs. He took me to a wonderful hotel in Asheville where he had some great R&R. 

While we were gone, Sidge lost tooth #13 for the boys (#4 for him) -- a front tooth.

And then last night, tooth #14 (#5 for him), another front tooth. He had lost both front teeth at the front time. So fun!

But that "cuteness" was short-lived. This morning, as we prepared to walk out the door for church, Sidge jumped on his scooter. The scooter caught inbetween the driveway and the grass and Sidge's face hit the handlebars. The damage was ... significant.

JB immediately surmised that Sidge was going to need to have a baby tooth pulled. In addition, his gums had gotten pulled back leaving both of his two front big teeth exposed. Through the beauty of Facebook we were able to get a hold of a few dentists we knew. We couldn't find a dentist on call or anywhere we could take him locally (or even not-so-locally). But JB was able to shoot a video and share it with a friend of his and then with the local oral surgeon. 

Both the dentist and the oral surgeon felt this was something that JB could handle in the ER. So that's what we did. JB and I headed up and with the help of one of his great nurses, they were able to pull Sidge's tooth and then stitch his gums back together. We are going to see a dentist later this week to just make sure all is well.

What a weekend. I am so ready to have some boredom in my life. The good thing was, that while all this was happening, I completely forgot about the loss of our doggie. But once Sidge was okay, I found the tears coming back again.

Day by day.

Tooth #12

Another tooth out in our house. This is Sidge's 3rd. He lost it while JB and I were out on a date. He was eating dinner with Grampa and Grama and the tooth came out. 

(We went grocery shopping together and then went to eat an Ethiopian restaurant (Yum!) about an hour from our house!)

Sidge put the tooth under his pillow, and JB put a dollar there for him, but the truth is, Sidge and Isaac have both gotten too inquisitive to believe in Santa or the Tooth Fairy anymore. JB and I had never really discussed allowing our kids to believe in mythological beings. But as they grew, we just kind of let Santa and the Tooth Fairy be a part of our family traditions.

But about a week before Christmas, while the boys were drifting off to sleep, they started drilling JB with questions. Their Daddy is a huge proponent of giving kids the answers they deserve and not sugar-coating the answers. I could get into a whole post on this, but he has strong feelings that part of the reason children leave their childhood faith is because parents and teachers and other adults have not answered their questions the way they deserve to be answered. He wants them to know the truth and know it with real answers, not fluff answers. 

(When JB was in college he had a professor tell him that his goal was to knock the Bible out of the Bible belt. This launched JB into a head-first campaign to learn and study what he believed. He read nearly every apologetic book he could get his hands on and read both sides of the evolution and creationism books into the ground. What emerged was a man who totally understands why he believes what he believes. And he is determined that our children will know this as well. When the boys recently started asking him difficult questions about dinosaurs and creation, he purchased a few more books to make sure he was up-to-date on his "stuff." I have asked him to write a Blog post on this topic, and I am hoping he will do so in the near future.) 

So when the kids started asking about Santa Claus, JB let their questions guide them to their own answer. They surmised themselves that it was a nice idea but not a real one. I knew this finding was imminent as they had started asking me all kinds of questions about Santa Claus that I had put off answering in the preceding weeks.

Sidge came up to me yesterday and said, "Mom, is it okay if I tell Abigail that Santa Claus is not real."

Me: "Who told you he is not real?"

Sidge: "No one. Isaac and I figured it out ourselves."

Me: "Oh. Well, no, don't tell her that. Let her figure it out by herself like you did."

Sidge: "Okay. I had said to her 'Abigail do you think a reindeer could fly?' And she had told me that they could and I was going to correct her."

Me: "No, don't do that. She'll grow up soon enough."

Sidge: "Got it."

I had been hoping I'd get a few more years of Santa-magic out of them. But truly I think the combination of two boys works against them. They discuss things and determine things together. They lay in bed and do all kinds of imagining and figuring out.

Isaac and Sidge rarely fight. (Don't worry -- we have a lot of fighting in our house but usually with the Sidge/Abigail combo. They truly are best buddies and while very different in their interests, share a common love of Legos and Star Wars and movie watching.  I am so glad that they are both boys and that they will have an "Irish Twin brother" for the rest of their life!

Tooth #11

He lost his 9th tooth. (Sidge has lost 2). This puts our house total at 11 teeth! This one was a top tooth. (If you are looking at the picture, it is on the left next to his two big teeth.) He was relieved to get this one out because it was dangling and bugging him a lot. Wow. Growing up.

Tooth #10

Isaac lost his eighth tooth in the middle of the night. I was bleary-eyed and confused and suddenly had a tooth thrust in my face. Isaac's sweet little voice was saying, "It fell out Mommy!"

I told him it was too late of notice for the tooth fairy. "Set it on your dresser and we'll put it under your pillow the next night."

So that's what we did. Ten teeth so far in our house. He's days away from turning seven.

STOP GROWING UP KIDDOS!

Tooth #9

Tooth #9 in our house belongs to our Sidge. This is his second tooth outage. I asked him to smile so I could get a picture of him and his missing tooth for the Blog. I need to see some teeth Sidge!

Much better! He actually asked Daddy to finally yank this one out since the big tooth behind it was completely in and he was sick of waiting. "I"ll say Uhhhhh if I want you to stop because your hand will be in my mouth and I can't say STOP!"

Tooth #8

With two boys the same age, the teeth are falling out like crazy around these parts! Isaac lost his seventh tooth today -- and with Sidge's one, that makes for a total of eight for us now.

He actually lost this one about 30 seconds before he went in for his speech appointment. He just handed me the tooth, grabbed a Kleenex, and went in with Ms. Linda for speech like it was no big deal at all!

This little guy has been at such a fun age. He is just behaving so well and all the manners and discipline and guiding seem to have come together to produce a six year old who knows the rules and does a great job following them. 

I love being his mom!

Tooth #7

Tooth #7 was lost in our house last night. It is the first for our Sidge-man! Isaac is currently 6 "tooths" in the lead!

Tooth #6

When I first started labeling the tooth losses by number, I really thought Sidge and Isaac would both be losing these babies. But while big brother Isaac has now lost six teeth, Sidge is still not-so-patiently waiting for his first loss.

Since this was his other front tooth, it makes him two bucks! Inflation!

Tooth #5

Isaac lost his tooth in Vermont while eating an ice cream cone! Surprisingly, he didn't lose the front tooth that was so loose but one that was off to the side. 

(And apparently, the Tooth Fairy in Vermont pays more money because it is so cold there!)

Tooth #4

Back when Hannah was firstborn and we were "living" in Florida with my parents, waiting for her arrival, my friend Joia came to visit and we took the kiddos to a local water park. 

All the kids liked the park, but Isaac was hooked. Ever since that day, he has been begging to return to a water park. 

Of course our rainy and cold little island home in the middle of the Atlantic ocean didn't have a water park, so we told him he'd have to wait until we returned to America.

Fast forward to June of this year. Back in America. 

Isaac did not forget. He kept reminding us about his desire to go to another water park.

We found a small little water park by our house here. Nothing much, just a slide or two at the community pool. It sorta held Isaac over, but he kept reminding us that he wanted to go to another water park -- a real water park.

There is a huge water park about an hour from our house here in Tennessee. I looked it up online. Expensive! $34 for a day at a park! I think not.

But yesterday they were offering a deal for homeschool families. School was back in session so anyone who homeschooled could go to the park for half price.

Okay! No crowds and half price. I'm in.

I opted not to take the girls. I left them at home with Grama. This was very hard as Abigail absolutely LOVES the water. I just didn't know if I wanted to try to managed 3 kids on 1 at  park I'd never been to. In retrospect, I think I could have managed, especially because I met another homeschool mom there so we had a second adult. In addition, it was so not crowded that I definitely could have managed it.

It was a FANTASTIC day for the boys and myself. Not only was it not crowded, but it was overcast as well -- not hot at all. Neither of my guys had ever been down a big water slide before. I took them down in a double tube the first time, and immediately they were both completely and utterly hooked. They absolutely LOVED it and were non-stop the rest of the day.

I was introduced to a childhood rite of passage and that is being tall enough for a ride. I witnessed countless children int he park fighting back tears as they were turned away from rides. The boys were easily able to slide the two mini slides pictured above. You only had to be 36" tall to ride those by yourself. But in order to ride the bigger slides, you had to be 48" tall. I don't know exactly how tall my boys are, but I think they are both hovering right in that range. 

Apparently you can find some booth somewhere and get an "official measurement" which guarantees you do or don't ride the bigger slides. But Isaac and I decided to wing it. We went up to this big double slide, had him measured, found he was tall enough, and went for it. I decided to take Isaac first. I didn't want one of the boys to be able to ride and the other not, so knowing Isaac was a smidge shorter, we took off for a big ride.

The first thing we both said upon finishing this sheer drop ride was, "I do NOT want to do that one again." It was terrifying. But I was happy to see he was tall enough to ride the bigger rides. Knowing my "slightly shorter" boy was good to go, I told both boys they could now ride the bigger rides. 

We headed up the steps for another ride (a dark tunnel -- not the drop ones!) Isaac was measured again, and this time told he was too short! Sidge was measured and given the go ahead. This was EXACTLY what I had been trying to avoid. Isaac was trying not to cry, but he was sad, and I felt terrible. The lady who had just measured him saw what happened and remeasured him with her stick. Tall enough she said! Ugh!

We all went down, and I was relieved when Isaac told me after that ride that he was going to stick with the smaller rides. At least he wouldn't have to face an uneven measuring stick on each ride! Sidge wanted to ride the harder ones again, but after one of his attempts, he had a little trouble swimming his huge tube to the side and the lifeguard waded into help him. We all decided that we could wait until next summer to do the bigger kid slides!

Isaac and I had a good talk afterwards. We talked about the fact that he would always be the big brother even though Sidge may get taller than him. He nodded and said, "It's like how you are taller than Joni even though she is 62?" 

Exactly!

But honestly, my little brother is taller than me. JB's younger brother Ray is taller than him. I know this is not just an adopted thing that is going to happen. But I still felt so bad when Sidge was told he could ride. Isaac told the man, "But I'm older!" 

Break my heart!

Speaking of being the older brother, Isaac has had a loose front tooth for a week now. No longer!

While riding a tube in the wave pool, the tube knocked his mouth and his front tooth popped out. Only problem? How do you get a tooth fairy to leave you the dollar you've been planning for to help purchase that new lego set you want when it is at the bottom of a wave pool? Well, you write her a letter:

Translation: 

To Ms. Tooth Fairy, 

My tooth fell into the wavepool at the waterpark. 

Love,

Isaac K.

P.S. She decided to pay him $2 instead of the normal $1 for all the trouble! 

P.S.S. Here's a video of the boys at the park.

Tooth #3

Third lost tooth in our house belongs to big brother Isaac. Three in a row on the bottom now out. Click here to look back at the previous tooth losses in our house. In the end, we will have 80 posts -- 20 for each child and the teeth they have lost!

Tooth #2

Lost tooth #2 also belongs to Isaac!

He was in time-out (for shooting his gun at the landlord's HDTV screen) when he came running back in. I was just about to say, "You are supposed to be in time-out," when he showed me that the tooth had fallen out. It's been loose since he lost the last one. 

Growing up.