Kylee Lost Her First Tooth

It finally happened!!! Kylee lost her first tooth. I knew yesterday was going to be the day. That tooth was hanging by a thread. At naptime Kylee asked me to pull it so I tried but just couldn't get it so she worked on it herself until bedtime. I told her I would give it another try. Her teeth are so tight together that it took getting her tooth infront of the one next to it and it came right out. Not a tear and she really didn't even move when it came out. I was so proud of her and so was Katie. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. We put the special pillow case on Kylee's pillow (thanks Aunt T) and Kylee put her tooth in it. Kylee fell right to sleep but not Katie. I went up to check on them and she was smiling and I asked her what she was doing. She squealed I am so excited to see the tooth fairy:) She finally fell asleep and the tooth fairy visited leaving money and 2 suckers (Katie said that is what the tooth fairy should leave). This morning Kylee woke up at the crack of dawn before her alarm clock and came down with her treats. She was excited and said the tooth fairy left money and 2 suckers, I will give one to sister. I was so happy about that. I didn't even have to ask her to:) On a mommy note of the lost tooth. As soon as that little tooth was in my fingers I had the moment of sadness that this was the first little tooth I saw come up when she was 6 months old and now she has lost it. How is that possible that my tiny baby went from cutting teeth to loosing them in what seems like overnight. When people stop to tell me enjoy this age because it goes so fast, I am really believing it these days.

Katie's First Day of Preschool (3's)

Yesterday Katie had her first day of Preschool in the 3's class. She is going to a new preschool this year that is closer to our house and we are going to be able to carpool with a friend this year. I am so excited about that. Last year I taught preschool and Katie saw me their everyday at chapel and other various times so I was a little concerned she would have a hard time not seeing me during the day but she was totally fine with it. She was ready to go to school and just went right into her class and acted like a pro, such a big girl. When we got to her class she found her cubby with her name for her back pack and then went over to a table and she had to find her name and put it in the turtle pond. The class theme is turtles:) Katie was talking to her teacher and told her how to spell her name and her teacher was telling her we will work on writing your name a lot this year. I was thinking thank goodness!!! Katie can write it OK by herself but needs some work. She then went over to a doll house and started playing with her friend Camryn. She has 3 little friends in her class this year that we knew from church, Camryn, Maelyn, and Gabe. She is so excited about already having friends in her class. The rest of her class looks super cute and sweet also!! I then left my sweet little Katie and begun my first ever school day by myself. I would love to say I had this fun shopping day ahead of me but I didn't. I had a meeting at 11 for Kylee's school festival that I am on the committee for. So I went and ran 2 quick errands, went home, cleaned up the dishes, ate lunch, and went to my meeting. I had just enough time to go pick Katie up after my meeting. Katie had a great first day. Her teachers said she was hilarious and talked to them a bunch ( I hope the code word for hilarious is not annoying or naughty). They also said she went potty 6 times!!! Seriously, I did talk to them about Katie's love of visiting restrooms so I hope next week that will be better. They assured me she did great and we left. Katie loved her first day and said it was so fun. I hope to get more details from her later. I am so excited for a great year for my little Miss Katie!

Fun Labor Day

We had a fun family day this past Labor Day. The girls had been working hard to fill up a sticker chart for getting along with each other and we told them that when they filled it up we would do something fun together as a family. We also worked on the verse Do everything without complaining and arguing... to go along with the sticker chart. Since Charley travels he had a free Marriott hotel coupon that we needed to use so we decided to make their reward rather big since it was the first chart on this getting along quest we are on. We stayed at a hotel right by Grapevine Mills and took the girls shopping, to see G Force (notice the picture with their guinea pigs in honor of the movie), to Chuck e Cheese, and to swim at the hotel. It was so fun and the girls were so fun to be with.

Kylee said she was trying to make a beard with her sausage for the picture:)

First Day of First Grade

Another year of school has come and I can't believe that my baby is in First Grade!! How did that happen? I was teaching 1st grade when I was pregnant with Kylee and had her. I never imagined it would get here so quickly. We have a super sweet teacher this year, Mrs. Word. She seems like just the right teacher for Kylee. Kylee also has one of her friends in her class that she has known for her whole life, Anna, so they are excited about that. They even get to sit at the same table. Kylee was up and ready early on Tuesday ready to go. I had to go early to get a Kindergarten Parent Breakfast ready so Charley and the girls met me. We are walking to school right now but the first hint of cold we start doing drop off in the morning. Kylee went right into class after she gave her teacher a tub of goodies (see below) that she picked out for her the first day. They she found her seat and sat down. We took pics and left. She seemed happy and ready to go. When she got home she said she had a great day and she was ready to go back. At about 6 pm last night she did tell me she cried in the cafeteria because she wanted to sit with some girls and there were no seats at their table left but then a little girls told her she could sit by them. A little back story on this: Last year her teacher assigned them lunch seats and they had to sit there all year and this year they have 3 tables that are Mrs. Words and they can sit anywhere at those three tables so it was a change that she wasn't quite sure about. Here's to a very structured child but learning to work it out and be flexible is good too. Today she said everything went well so YEA!! She is all smiles today and got her 2nd blue for behavior. She is excited because that means behavior above and beyond! I also think 5 of those in a row is a trip to the treasure chest, I think that is what has her the most excited:) So two great days and we are doing good! Still can't believe my baby is in 1st grade. I know I will say that every year!

This pot above is something I modge podge for the teachers full of candy for PTA Teacher Appreciation for the first day of school. I thought it turned out pretty cute. The school theme is Wild about Granger so I tried to keep with the theme.

A little tradition we have is letting Kylee pick out something special for her teacher before school starts. This year I wrapped a paint can in zebra fabric and trimmed it with pink feather trim (she had lots of zebra print in her room). Kylee picked out a notepad, two types of stickers, candy bar, and wrote her a note with a sweet picture she drew.

Our life Happenings

We have been busy the last couple of weeks with getting well from tonsil surgery (which I will have a short update on) and trying to get ready for school, only 12 more days until school.

*Yesterday I had a girl that has done other mural type painting in my house to come over and work on Kylee's room. I am so happy with what she did and Kylee is so proud of her room. It is so cute and fun and not too baby. We have just a few more things to do to her room and it will be all finished hopefully for a while. I know there will come a time when she will have a big opinion on her room and this time she actually helped us think of what she would like on the walls and purple is her choice color.

*Yesterday Katie started dance class with her friend Camryn. She was so excited and looked adorable in all her dance clothes. I am so excited about her class. Her teacher seemed super sweet and the girls in her class are all adorable. I think this will be so fun for her and is the perfect fit for her personality.

*Kylee took gymnastics this summer with her friend Lauren and had to miss the last two classes because of her tonsil surgery but I took pics on her last day. She improved so much this summer and was able to do a great back bend, climb this rope all the way to the top, and gain greater arm strength. She is taking again this fall and also will take Tennis for a month. She was begging to take tennis so I am excited this will work out for her.

* We have still been in the healing process for Kylee's tonsil surgery. Day 6 and 7 were the worst by far. Lots of crying, not much eating and lots of sleeping. She complained a lot about her ears, head, and stomach. But by day 10 we went shopping and she played on the slip in slide outside. Today is day 13 and I really thought we were in the clear on all problems because she has been doing so good but unfortunately today at 5:45 am she started out really bad with vomiting blood and not just a little. I got real upset about it so I called the ENT office on call nurse and she walked me through everything and thought it was left over from the healing process (I will save the gross details) so we did all the things she said to do to see if the problem could be bigger but they were OK. She was so lethargic and sickly so I called our pediatrician and we went in this morning and he said she was mildly dehydrated, lost 3 pounds in the last 13 days, and all the problems were from leftover healing and she would be fine just have her rest. So we are back to the couch and lots of TV and drinking a lot more and whatever she will eat or drink. She is actually a lot better right now and even asked if she could go to church tonight. I said No she needs to rest. Hopefully this is the last of the tonsil problems. I am still glad we did it just want Kylee back to her old self:)

*We had lunch on Sunday with our supper club or lunch club from church. It was fun and we had lunch a great place for having lots of kids. If you ever really want to visit with people go to Red Brick Pizza. They have TVs at all the table and the kids were mesmerized. All the adults really got to visit. It was great!!

*I have a PTA board meeting tomorrow. I am going to be the hospitality/teacher appreciation chairman at Kylee's school this year. I am really excited about it and ready to get going on my duties. I love this type of thing and hope I do a good job.

Kylee's Tonsil Surgery

Last Friday Kylee got her tonsils and adenoids removed. It was the dreaded day for 3 weeks prior that I was extremely nervous about. Infact the day of the surgery I took my blood pressure and it was 140/103 (if you know me I am struggling with my blood pressure so it could be high but this was really high since I got regulated). So I was stressed. Only by the coverage of prayer do I feel I made it through the surgery part. We woke Kylee up early on Friday so she could have some clear liquids before surgery. Her surgery was scheduled for 11 so she got to have that before 8 am. She was in the best mood ever. Some of our sweet friends put a fun basket together that I let her go through that morning so she would enjoy it and she was beside herself with excitement. That basket has been a lifesaver these last 5 days. I felt so bad knowing that her great mood and happiness would be over after surgery. She stayed happy all morning never acting scared or hesitant, again covered with prayer. So we left our house around 9 to take Katie to my moms and then we were at the surgery center by 10 a.m. We filled out our paper work and they called us back by 10:30. They gave her giggle juice to take the edge off and at 10:45 she left us, by far one of the hardest parts of the morning. I held it together. Had my iphone to play with. Then by 11:15 they called us back to a conference room to talk to the doc. He came in said she did great and we could see her shortly. While we were waiting in the room we heard a child crying so hard, Charley and I both know our babies cry and could barely control ourselves. Even typing this makes me tear up. They came and told us she was coming out of the anesthesia and having a hard time and they would come get us in a little while. I seriously almost lost it but again covered with prayer. I waited 5 more minutes and they took us to see her. It was a sad sight. She was out of it and crying and hurting. They gave her pain meds and she slept off and on and drank sips of sprite. She really was struggling with nauseousness too and did throw up once before we left. Thanks to my sister in law who used to work here they treated us so sweet and were extra kind to Kylee so we really did have a great experience. We were out of there and home by 1:30. Kylee slept and ate tiny bites of ice cream, shakes, and eggs that day and watched movies. She really didn't feel like doing much that day. Then Saturday she really was doing well. I was happy with her eating and she wanted to play games and do craft projects really all day. Then Sunday and Monday were pretty tough days with pain but today really does seem better. We were all pretty tired considering we have been giving pain meds around the clock even in the middle of the night. Kylee has been waking up around 6-7 in pain each morning but by afternoon even on the worst days she seemed better. Two things we didn't expect that she has struggled with are ear pain and constipation. We know both are related to the surgery and pain meds:( Kylee's foods of choice these 5 days have been eggs, can chicken, ice cream, brownies, mac and cheese, and grilled cheese. Her drink choices have been Gatorade, vitamin water, slushies, milk shakes, and koolaid. This child has consumed more junky stuff in these 5 days than in a whole month. Oh well, she is recovering. I am still very thankful we went through with the surgery and I am so hopeful that her health long term will be great because of it. As for Katie she enjoyed spending the weekend with my sister and then Monday with my mom. We got her officially back from my mom before nap on Monday and we were happy to all be back together. One funny Katie story: When she got home I was talking to her about Kylee's surgery and how they had to take something out of her mouth called tonsils and she looked at me and said, "Does she still have a tongue?" I laughed so hard and assured her she did:) Also, I only took pictures and really documented this for Kylee to remember so one day if her children have this she can show them her experience and empathize with them. I got my tonsils out at 19 and it was horrible. This has made me glad we did this now for Kylee and she will not remember too much from it. Thanks for the prayers and keep them coming for a full recovery! The first picture below is right before surgery and she had just drank the giggle juice she was feeling good!