The Tooth Fairy's First Visit

Well, it happened! Our little girl lost her first tooth. I still remember the first time she found out that kids lose their teeth. She was probably just three and the idea petrified her. Times, they have a-changed!

I really don't think I've seen her more excited and proud about anything before. 

Her tooth has been loose for some weeks now. And she's been working on it, pushing it with her tongue, showing it off and announcing it to anyone who looked her way. But then suddenly today, seemingly out if the blue she hopped in the car and announced excitedly, "I'm going to lose my tooth today!" with such certainty. 

Thirty minutes later we're sitting on my bed and she's showing me her tooth. She was right, it really was wiggly and looking pretty unstable. So, I asked her if I could try to pull it. I never thought she'd say yes, but she did. I yanked with a tissue but stopped when she winced. She giggled, continued scoping it out in the mirror and came up to me three more times, each time handing me a tissue and saying, "Ok, try again!" The third time was the charm!

Thank goodness she couldn't stop talking about the tooth fairy all night so Dan and I wouldn't forget our duty. Sofia insisted on leaving the TF a note reminding her to lock the door after she left and to please not take the box with the tooth in it with her. She also gave the evicted tooth one last cleaning with a toothbrush so it looked it's best for the Tooth Fairy, who left five one dollar bills in the little wooden box to replace that little tooth. I can't wait to hear her reaction in the morning! 

Going through these "firsts" with her is so fun! I can't wait to experience these moments with all three of our little ones. 

Thunderstorms are scary

Thunderstorms are scary, so it's a good thing God gave these little girls a strong, comfortable daddy to protect them. 

Ana was covering her eyes and hiding her face until eventually she fell asleep. Daddy soon fell into line and Sofia just posed for the picture. 

Ana Camp

Last summer Grandma started a tradition with Sofia called Camp Grandma, where Sofia could spend two full days and nights at Grandma's house, doing all the fun things they do together: crafts, cooking, playing and just spending time together. 

One of the benefits for me is that it gives me special alone time with Ana! She can require lots if energy these days, which I seem to be short on, but we had a really wonderful day together. I don't realize how little time I get to devote these days to just her and listening to her voice and fulfilling just her needs. Mostly I think it's because she's always so active, but of course it's also because she shares the limelight with her older, more vocal big sis. She's changed a lot during the summer already. She speaks a lot more and every day I understand more of what she's saying. She's also developed a really sweet and caring side to her personality. She won't leave the house without giving whoever she's leaving behind a hug and kiss. And she plays such a nurturing little mommy with her baby dolls. Today at the mall she walked up to a complete stranger, a woman pushing a new baby in a stroller, and out of the blue gave her a hug and a kiss on the leg. The woman nearly melted into the floor at her random display of affection. 

So, we had a wonderful day. After dropping Sofia off to Grandma's we went to the mall, played on the playscape, had lunch and shopped leisurely at Target, where she picked out a water color book. After her nap the first word out of her mouth was, "Paint!"

I love that sweet little AB!

Twins?

Ana and her daddy's 40+ year old Curious George doll have matching expressions here. 

She's really into the Curious George shows on tv lately. When it's her turn to pick a show she generally yellls, "Monkey!"

Mommy! Come here!

"Mom, take a picture. This is going to be really cute," says Sofia.  

"Yesh. Take pisher!" yells her two year old sister. I obliged. 

They were right. 

High Chair Acrobatics and Getting Ready for School

Ana loves to squirm around in her highchair so I took some shots of this crazy little girl. She's so fun!









And while Ana's busy in her chair, Sofia is busy bundling herself up for school. She loves to add her own accessories, hats or scarfs each day - it doesn't really matter how cold or warm it is outside.

I love watching these girls express themselves! They're such cuties - we're really loving these days...

Halloween 2011

Well, even though I took some time off of blogging it doesn't mean we didn't do some really cool things in 2011. For instance, Halloween!

Sofia has a lot of good ideas - but too many sometimes. She came up with a new idea for a costume at least once a day. So, we set a deadline of October 21 and started journaling all of her ideas. I wish I would have kept the list but it ranged from princess to Spiderman and I think there were about ten ideas on the list. One of which was Menchie,



the frozen yogurt mascot from the shop up the street. That would have been fun to figure that one out!

But she ended up surprising me and choosing an idea that I had come up with - a butterfly. I loved the idea because we could coordinate Ana's costume. I took inspiration from one of our favorite children's books, Eric Carle's A Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Ana would be the hungry caterpillar,



and Sofia would be the beautiful butterfly.



Ever since the success we had making Dan's robot costume the year before I've felt compelled to make the Halloween costumes when I can. The butterfly wings were pretty easy - just a ModPodge project with colored tissue paper. But for the caterpillar I attempted my first sewing project on my own. I started it by hand and thankfully my friend intervened and showed me how to use her sewing machine! I purchased some crocheted caps from an Etsy seller and we had our little caterpillar,



and a grown up butterfly!



It was a special year because not only was it Ana's first Halloween but it was also Sofia's first time to trick-or-treat with her classmates. We live on the same street as her teacher, Mrs. Kuhnen so I thought it would be fun to invite the class over for a little party and trick or treating on our street. It was a blast! I'm so glad we did it - Sofia had so much fun having everyone over and we had so much fun seeing her in her element with all of her buddies.







I think normally she would have been shy approaching each house but with the added security of all her friends around she just loved running from house to house screaming, "Trick or treat!" What a joy!