Wordless Wednesday

Tooth Drama Completed?

Yesterday, Nicole went in for what was hopefully the last of our tooth drama. The second filling on her tooth fell off again, two days after she got the filling. But, then we all got sick with colds and Nicole got pink eye, so we had to wait a week before we could take her back in to the dentist.

So, Matt took her in yesterday to the dentist. They did the oral sedation with her again and it did not take as well as it did last time. Last time, she was very loopy and weak, but Matt reported that this time she was a fighter. She fought the medicine, fought the dentist and Matt had to hold her down during the procedure. This is perhaps because her last trip to the dentist was a little traumatic for her.

Matt and the dentist decided that instead of doing a filling this time, they would put a cap on the tooth. The cap makes the tooth a little bigger than her other front teeth and it is a lot wider. She won't have a sharp edge on that tooth for biting her food, but, hopefully, it will stay on.

Once they got the cap on, the dentist needed to take the plastic film off of the tooth, but Nicole was just not having any of that. She was really upset by this point, so Matt just told the dentist to leave the plastic on. We will get the plastic off when she goes in for her follow up appointment in 6 months.

So, this hopefully concludes the drama of the chipped tooth. We still have her on plastic utensils and we have to remind her all the time not to chew on hard things.

Yesterday was a difficult day for my little Nicole but she really was very tough about it. I don't think she will ever want to go back to the dentist though.

Kids Sleep in the Weirdest Places

This is Nicole asleep in our office chair.

He's a Climbin Climbin Climbin Climbin Boy!

Dan loves to climb on the lovesac. He will crawl up the lovesac, get into standing position against the wall and look at me with triumph in his face, like he has climbed a mountain and wants praise. But,then, he loses his balance and will often roll down the lovesac and start crying. Mountains can be dangerous.

Dan also loves climbing the lovesac because he can then reach the dvds on the bottom shelf. I tell him, "No, no Dan," which only makes him smile like he is getting away with something and then he tries harder to get the dvds off the shelf. Little rascal!

Even though he falls and tries to pull dvds off the shelf, I am still proud of him for climbing his mountain. He is such a big boy!

The Zoo!

Not too long ago, Nicoley was watching Your Baby Can Read and they started talking about the zoo. Nicole turned to me and said, "Mommy have I been to the zoo?" I said, "No." And then in her cry voice she said, "I've never been to the zoo!"

So, last weekend, it was warm enough that we decided to take a trip up to the Hogle Zoo. Nicoley was so excited to go and see the animals. It was still pretty cold at the zoo, but we wore coats, and a lot of the animals were inside.

Dan spent the whole time in the stroller, but he was happy enough in there. He was able to see everything, stay warm, and take a little nap.

Nicoley got really excited that they had chickens and peacocks just wandering around the zoo. Every time she was one, she said, "Hi chicken!"

Nicoley saw other little kids playing on this big elephant statue and then she wanted her picture taken with it. But, she did not want to ride the elephant's trunk, it was a little too scary for her.

Nicoley's favorite part part was the monkeys. Probably because the monkeys are all active and fun to watch. It is less fun to watch a turtle sitting in a tank.

This monkey loved Nicole's gloves. It followed her glove wherever she put it on the glass and Nicole loved it!

This is a blurry photo of Nicole and a gorilla.

This lemur was at the top of a tree in a cage full of monkeys and he looked like he was king of the monkey's. He also looked like he was meditating, so we took a photo.

Matt took this picture of this bird in the aviary. Nicole was not interested in the aviary. She just wanted to roll around on the ground.

It was super sunny outside so everyone without sunglasses had a hard time keeping their eyes open for pictures.

They had a little playground and we stopped there last, after we had been at the zoo a couple hours and Nicole was at her breaking point. She played on the playground for a very little bit, but then she started to cry because she was super tired.

I was super tired too. I started to feel sick on Friday night, but I decided to ignore it push through the day at the zoo. After the zoo, we went to Ruth's diner in emigration canyon. It is a diner that we saw featured in Diners Drive Ins and Dives. It was a really yummy diner and the kids loved their mile high biscuits.

So, now Nicole can say that she has been to the zoo. I no longer feel like I am neglecting my child from experiencing valuable life things. It was fun and thankfully short. We would definitely go again.

10 Months

Dan the man turned 10 months old this week. He is getting so big so fast! Sometimes I feel like I a missing all of his babyhood because I am not home with him every day. But, at the same time, I love to see him grow up and learn new things and get this super cute personality.

This week, one day, Dan woke up and it was like the lights turned on. He understood more, he was saying more words and responding more to what we asked of him. It was amazing! I always feel so proud when my kids learn something new.

Dan's words: Mama, Dada, More, Done, No, Hi, and Baba(bottle).

Dan doesn't know as many words at this age as Nicoley did, but I am not concerned. Boys usually have slower speech and Nicoley has always been very advanced with words. Coley could already say her own name by 11 months, but even if Dan said his own name, we probably think he was saying Dada.

Last month when we went to the doctor, the doctor asked us if Dan was clapping or waving and he wasn't. So, we put a lot of effort into teaching Dan those things this month. Dan can now clap, wave, and put his arms up! Your baby can read has helped with this a lot.

But, Dan is not a performer. Nicole at this age would perform for us when we asked her clap or wave. Dan just looks at us and smiles when we try and get him to perform. But, then he will surprise us. The other night, at dinner, Dan was being a good eater, so I said, "Dano, you are doing so good eating your food!" And then Dan started clapping for himself. So cute!

Dan's favorite things include:

Dan loves to climb the stairs and going into the bathroom. The bathroom is his favorite room in the house (I don't know why, but Nicole did the same thing at this age). He loves to unroll the toilet paper and throw bath toys in the tub. He also is very fascinated by the toilet and it grosses me out. He is always pulling himself up on the toilet and that is just too yucky to me, germs!

Dan is a bathtime baby. He LOVES bathtime. He and Nicole bathe together and Dan loves to splash and Nicole hates it! She is always telling him not to splash. Dan also likes to try interact with Nicole in the bath, but Nicole prefers her space. When Dan crawls toward her, she says, "Dan is getting me Mama!" I think Nicole would prefer to take her own bath, but Dan definitely prefers to bath with a friend.

Dan loves playing piano. Dan pulls himself up on the piano bench, then he grabs hold of the edge of the piano and presses the keys with his finger tips. He can just barely reach the keys when he stands on his tippy toes. Then, he walks down the piano playing all the keys. He also loves to sit on Daddy's lap while Daddy is playing the piano so that he can pound on the piano keys. Nicole's interest in the piano wore out after about 4 days, but Dan still loves it.

Dan loves remotes. He is always going after the tv remotes and smashes the colored buttons, which always is the power button. So, every time that Dan gets a hold of the controller, he is turning off the television. He also loves the Wii mote. He grabs one and starts swinging it by the wrist strap and then inevitably hits himself in the head with it and starts crying. I am constantly trying to hide the remotes from Dan, but he is very sneaky and finds them or climbs to them. He watches where I place them and tries to go for them.

Dan's favorite person is still Nicole. He follows her around and bothers her to no end. But, Nicole loves him so much. If he is sad, she tries to comfort him. If he is hungry, she either shares her food or comes and tells me that I need to feed him. They are becoming very good friends.

Nicole and Dan FINALLY are falling asleep in the same room together. We put them down in their room in their beds and they play together for a while before they fall asleep every night. It is glorious! Bed times are so much easier now. I often find extra items in Dan's crib in the morning because Nicole loves throwing things in there with him in attempts to comfort or play with him.

I love this little boy. He is so much fun to play with, but he also still loves to snuggle up to me when he is tired. He loves falling asleep in my arms. My little man really is becoming a little man.

Chipped Tooth Update!

On Tuesday, Matt took Nicole back in to the dentist to see what we could do about the chipped tooth whose filling fell off. I am glad that I didn't go to this appointment because I could not have handled it. The dentist looked at the tooth and decided that he could fix it right then and there; no sedation, no NOS, no nothing. Matt decided to go ahead and let him do it because we are both very tired of this tooth fiasco. My guess is that the dentist did not want to incur more costs, so he wanted to just do it.

Matt and some assistants held Nicole down and the doctor went in to fix the tooth. Nicole was not happy and she cried and she fought and she bit the dentist twice (and drew blood), but the tooth did get fixed. I am glad that the tooth is fixed, but I never would have been able to hold her down while she cried and fought to get the tooth fixed. The tooth looks good. I hope that this saga is over for the time being.

Initial Chip

Fixed Chip

Chip after the filling fell off

Chip fixed again

Pictures of my Dan

I cannot get enough of this little man.

Iron Chef Battle Bacon!

I once again held my Iron Chef birthday party this past weekend. You may be asking, Becky, why is it that you throw yourself a birthday party every year? And I will respond to yourself, because I throw good parties. Who is going to throw a better party for me than me? No one, so I really owe it to myself to throw myself a birthday party. But, as I get older, it really isn't about the birthday or about me at all, it is about the party and about the food. I love having this party every year. There is always good food and fun.

This year was the bacon battle! At first I thought that I would do a dessert since I usually make the cake for my birthday and then enter it into the competition. But, this has not worked for me the last three years. So, this year I decided to not make a cake and instead go for the win. I found and tested and refined my recipes before the party so that I would have an amazing dish to present. I ended up entering a pizza trio. My pizza trio included:

Greek Bacon Pizza

Potato Leek Pizza

Spinach Bacon Pizza

It was awesome.

Technically, I forgot to take pictures of my pizza's so, I stole these pics from the blog who actually invented these recipes. See A Hint of Honey for awesome recipes. I slightly altered all of my recipes after my first test run and I added way more bacon than the recipe called for.

For the party, I had assembled a panel of judges. I stressed to the judges that they had to be on time so that they could see the presentation of every dish before it was ceremoniously devoured by party goers. Unfortunately, only two of my four judges showed up on time. One judge was an hour late, but we let him judge anyway and my other judge was so very late that I was forced to cut them as a judge and have only three judges.

My wonderful judges included. Honorable Johnnyson!

Semi-late Jakeson

And unphotographed Dad!

We did not have as many entries as we did in years past. It was not as good a turn out as I have had to my parties in the past, but there was still plenty of food for everyone. I neglected to pull out my camera until much of the food was gone, but here are some pics of some of the food.

Gluten-free bacon cake

The only picture of my real pizza

Bacon Little Smokies

Bacon-wrapped Little Smokies

The only thing left of my pizza by the time I pulled out my camera

The judges were great! They took their jobs very seriously and let everyone present their dish to them before tasting each dish and scoring each dish. And Johnny did a wonderful job announcing the winners. And the winners were:

1st Place: My Awesome Pizza Trio!
2nd Place: Marie's Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos and Dates
3rd Place: Momma Kimball's Maple Bacon Cake and Robert and Corrinne's Chocolate Covered Bacon

I was very excited to finally win! I have lost the last three years, but finally my efforts have paid off. Because Matt and I won this year, we are going to be judges next year, which I am very excited for too. Marie won second place for the fourth year in a row. I guess she has to up her game just a smidge to take that first place. Momma Kimball tied for third for the second year in a row. Desserts seem to get third place every year.

It was a lot of fun eating massive amounts of bacon in different mediums and I think that bacon goes very well in dessert dishes. A lot of people were skeptical that bacon would not taste good with sweet, but it was awesome. Who doesn't like salty and sweet?

It was a lot calmer and quieter atmosphere this year, this is perhaps because the kids were scarfing down Jill's Bacon Mac and Cheese and so their mouths were all full. But, it was just a really nice and non stressful party this year. I loved it!

Here are some of my guests of the party.

Anne and Lindy

Mom and Momma Kimball

Miranda and Dan

Ree, Anthon, and Avery

Winners!

Cutest chip-tooth girl!

And, my wonderful brother Johnny with magical foresight, bought me a little cake for my birthday and we used that as the birthday cake. (Thanks Johnny!)

It was a good birthday! Now I can start planning for next year.