Oral Surgery

When Ben was 18 months old, he had his first minor injury. While walking through the house with a sippy cup, he tripped and fell but kept that sippy cup in his mouth and that hard lid pushed three of his baby teeth all the way back up into his gums. It was a bloody mess. I thought he'd knocked the teeth out and so I looked all over for them. Not so.

Six months later, those three teeth were starting to reemerge from his gum line. However, I had a lapse of judgment one day and let him walk around with a sippy cup. Sure enough, he fell and knocked some of those teeth back up again.

So it's been a waiting game for the 5+ years since. There was one sad day a year ago when I got a call from his school that he needed to go to the ER for stitches after falling and cutting his lip. However, when I arrived at the school I was much more stressed to find out that he was also missing teeth from that fall. Hours and several xrays later, we were relieved to find that this time, those baby teeth were knocked out instead of pushed back up into the gums again.

Ultimately, there was one baby tooth that never did reemerge, even when it's permanent buddy came down. So that's how we ended up in the Oral Surgeon's office on Friday morning.

Thanks to a dose of Valium before leaving our house that morning, Ben was relatively mellow with the whole procedure. I say relatively because mellow for him is out of control for some. I held him on my lap while they got the IV in his arm for the "sleep medicine." But it only took one leg and one arm to hold him, and I didn't even break a sweat. That's amazing. Maybe he needs Valium every day =)

The surgery went well and I have the tooth (the only baby tooth I'll ever have to keep since he swallows every tooth he loses). The hardest part was those first couple of hours after he came out of it -- the numbness in his lip and nose was driving him crazy. He couldn't keep his hands off so I just sat and rubbed and tickled his nose. He also kept saying "the dentist can NEVER touch me" and "I told you that he can't touch me while I'm sleeping."

The highlight for him was riding in the wheelchair to the car after the surgery. We had to pry him out of it because he wanted to stay in. Here's his "sad" post-surgery face:


So we're relieved that it's all over and hopefully everything will heal well.

Moral of the story: If you are going to let your child walk around with a sippy cup, make sure it has a nice soft lid.

A 4th Birthday

One thing I've learned as a mom is that birthday is a total misnomer. It should be called birth weekend, or even, birth week

On the very birthday, family joined us for dinner and presents and cake. Ethan decorated the house with streamers for the special occasion:



The following week, at preschool, Wonny Bear came out for Eliza's birthday and gave her 4 kisses.


And finally, we invited some friends for a Nutcracker dance party. We had to convince Eliza it was okay to have friends from various places all come to the same party (preschool, church, etc.), but once the event came, she was definitely okay with it.

We started with a little ballerina craft as the girls arrived.


Then we practiced the five dances, followed by snack and presents. When the parents arrived with tickets, the girls performed their Nutcracker Ballet.

The girls did five Nutcracker dances, with simple costumes.
1. Clara and the Nutcracker

2. Battle between the Soldiers and the Mice (though I had to change the music because Eliza was scared of the battle music. Kudos to Tchaikovsky.)

3. Dance of the Snowflakes:


4. Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles:


5. The Sugar Plum Fairy

The girls seemed to love it, and I had a lot of fun putting it all together. Afterward I confess I had the thought that I should host a dance-a-long Nutcracker every year ... maybe have two groups of girls and do more dances. It worked out to move back the furniture and use our big family room for the stage. We'll see =)


"I likeded the presents. I likeded the dances. All of the dances were my favorite."

San Francisco Mega-Date

Thanks to my mom for tending our children while Jeff and I escaped for an overnight megadate to San Francisco on New Year's Day 2010.

We enjoyed browsing around Union Square, where I finally bought some maternity clothes (and have enjoyed much heightened comfort ever since).

We attempted to win tickets in the Wicked Lottery, but failed. However, we were able to purchase mezzanine tickets for less than half price so had better seats and saw another amazing performance of Wicked ... my third time, Jeff's second, still would love to see it again =) The added bonus was that we found free street parking just a block from the theater. Never done that before. And we even opted for a hamburger and fries dinner at some diner instead of the fancy shmancy food at Market Street grill. I know, crazy, but sometimes you just want to be able to eat without deciphering the menu first.


The next morning we went back to the Orpheum for a backstage tour of Wicked. I could have stared at this costume for half an hour ... or more:

And I love these boots!


In such a beloved, well-funded show as Wicked, the costumes are detailed, custom-made works of art. I was so inspired by these creations! I'd love to develop the skill and artistry to do something like this:

We attempted lunch at Mama's Diner near Washington Square, but the line was looooooong so we opted for a deli down the street. But we suburbanites were so ick-i-fied by the populace in the park there that we sat in our van and ate instead. Why don't I love San Francisco like I used to? What has become of me? It just seemed so dirty and smelly and busy and just not the glamorous city that I used to love ...

So we escaped to the beautiful Presidio and took a deep breath of green grass and trees and open space and then spent a few hours in the new Walt Disney Museum. Learned a lot there about the genius, lucky beginnings of Mr. Walt Disney.

And that's the nutshell of the weekend. It felt like a bunch of dates all crammed into 24 hours. Next time we'd like to getaway to somewhere more relaxing, with a lot of nature and fresh air.

On Friends

On a Friday in January, at school pick-up time, Ethan asked what our plans for the weekend were. I told him about a few things we had scheduled, including a party at our house on Saturday night where a LOT of people would be coming. He groaned and asked if any kids would be there and if they would be his age. I said yes and he protested and exclaimed that he doesn't like it when kids come and mess with his stuff.

Then Eliza asked if any girls her age would be there and I said yes and she clapped her hands and exclaimed "GOODY!"

Ah, perspective =)