Caylee Lost Her First Tooth!

Last week, on Friday, Caylee lost her first tooth. Her tooth next to it has been loose for several months and we all thought for sure that it would come out first. But a few days before it came out Caylee was eating a plum and the other tooth suddenly became the main competitor. Caylee said that she heard a crack and all of a sudden it was loose. She was so excited! Especially after we told her about the tooth fairy!

But that is another story. Friday night is bible study night and Asher always stays up late playing video games on Fridays because guys stay over and play and he can play with Mike Warren and Mike's bible study guys over the internet. It is his favorite night of the week. Well, I was waiting for Asher to get done with playing video games so that we could do the tooth fairy thing, but I was extremely tired that night and I fell asleep on the couch. When Asher woke me up to go to bed with him, that was the last thing on my mind. So the tooth fairy did not come that night. I had to think of some reason, so I told Caylee that the tooth fairy could not come in when the window was locked. The next night was our date night so we did not put the children to bed. It was Ginger. She doesn't do the tooth fairy thing so she told Caylee that she needed to worry about that another night. She told me that it was so cute because Caylee and Natalie were still excited about the tooth fairy and Natalie looked out the window and said, "Look, I see the tooth fairy! She's beautiful!"

Well, the next night I think Caylee had figured out that the whole tooth fairy thing was a bit bogus and did not put the tooth under her pillow. That night Asher did put a dollar under her pillow and we thought everything was made right. But, unfortunately Caylee knew where she left the tooth and found it still there. I tried to convince her that there really was such thing as a tooth fairy, but during her lunchtime prayer she told God all about how Mommy thought the tooth fairy was real, but it was really Daddy that had put the money under her pillow. I thought it was funny, but I was a little sad because I believed in the tooth fairy as a child and I want her to have that experience also. She did crack a bit when I told her that we would go to the library to learn more about the tooth fairy. You know that saying, if it is written in ink it has to be true. I guess that applies to six year olds as well.

Wow, it really has been a really, really long time. I have missed blogging so much. It is just really for me to justify blogging when I have so much else to do. Also, it seems like when I have free time and Asher is not particularly wanting me to use it to spend time with him, he is playing video games and the computer is not available. I really do need to get back into documenting our life.

There is so much to write about. I guess the biggest thing going on with me is that I am about to deliver Serenity. I am getting very excited about it. Yes, I realize that it is going to be a huge addition to my work load, but I can't wait to have a new member of our family. Each new little person brings in a unique personality and adds a totally new dimension to family dynamics. I really do feel so blessed to have such a large (I personally don't condsider it large) family.

I think many of you are going to be a bit surprised to find out that I am planning on having a natural birth. I did not particularly have a good experience having an epidural with Bethany. The anesthesiaologist took quite a long time to get to the hospital because it was on Saturday. By the time I got drugged up and all taken care of it was not too much longer until Bethany came. The anesthesiaologist did not make sure that my head was up and the medicine went to my head, making me feel ucky. I also started to get real itchy. Then when Bethany was born I had to wait a long time before the medicine wore off before I could even move. It just made the recovery much slower. I remember thinking at the time that I had wished I had not had an induced labor with an epidural. I think that even with the pitocin I could have made it without the epidural.

So this time I am hiring a doula. I was talking to my friend Cathy one day on the phone about my labor plans and she was telling me about how wonderful it was to have Joncia assist at her last birth. I realized that if I am going to have a natural birth I should probably have someone there who can show me how to do it. I want to move around this time and be able to do things to help myself manage the pain. I realized when I was talking to her that I really don't know too much about the pain management because I have had an epidural 3 out of 4 deliveries. With Caylee I had Stadol and I was strapped to the bed so there was not much that I could do besides breath.

I am so excited because I am actually getting two doulas for the price of one. Cathy just happens to be want to train to be a doula, so she is going to assist Joncia at my birth. I guess she was going to ask me anyway if she could come and assist at my birth, but it just made it so much easier for her when I hired Joncia.

Joncia and Cathy went with me yesterday to my OB appt. It went great! Joncia had never met Dr. Martin and was preparing for her to show fangs at the sign of a doula. But Dr. Martin is actually a big advocate of doulas, because they relieve the overworked nurses. She was great about my birth plan and is going to release me from being a patient (I can still stay in the room) just four hours after the delivery. Hurray! I cannot STAND when they come in every two hours to take my blood pressure at night time. I need to sleep. Having a baby is hard work. After I had Bethany I was so tired when I got home from the hospital. I just came home and went right to sleep.

Today Joncia and Cathy came over to show me labor positions. Let's just say there was massage and much pampering. Joncia even gave me a foot scrub and painted my toenails. I was so relaxed when they left. I really do think I can manage the pain with their help.

Asher and I are so excited about cleaning out our garage. We did this for the Bible study because we needed more room for the kids to play since it is getting too cold outside. But now Asher and I have been shaking our heads and asking ourselves why we did not do this sooner. We had talked about it a long time ago, but we were still burnt out from the bathroom and did not want to take on anymore projects. But, man, if only we knew how easy it would be compared to the benefits of having more living space. This is great. I now have my laundry organized so even if it is not folded it is out of the way and does not look so horribly messy. And now we actually have room for the kid's toys. Before they were put away in not easily accessible places for the kids to get them out very often. It is sad, but it was kind of a treat for them to actually be able to play with their toys.

 

Sunday some of the ladies in the bible study had a cooking class/luncheon. Tegan, the girl on the phone, showed us how to make her famous enchiladas. Then we got to eat them with some sides and desert. Caylee tagged along for some Mommy/daughter time. I think it is fun for her to come and relate to ladies with no other children around. Personally, I think it is important for a child's development to be able to do that every once in a while.

We all had a great time. After we ate, we played a board game then we met up with more girls and guys and all went to the Audio A and Mercy Me concert together. We were actually all able to fit in our van. Asher drove and that was not boring. I likened it to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a ride at Disneyland. He is not a bad driver, it is just a big adjustment to have a few hundred more pounds added.


 

Here are some more pictures of Polly a couple of days after we got her. By the way, we looked up how to to tell the sex of a leopard gecko and after using the information we decided that we should probably go with Polly rather than Hannibal (my choice). Actually the information we found said that most leopard geckos sold in pet stores are female for some reason.

On this particular the weather was a bit chilly and I noticed that Polly seemed a bit pale and was not moving very much. I mentioned to Asher that she might be cold, so he went and got her and tried to snuggle with her for awhile to help her get warm. He is so sweet. My plan was to just turn up the thermostat, but he wanted Polly to feel better right away. Well, lizards don't snuggle too well, so Polly ended up on his head. But I thought is was a endearing moment and I took some pictures.

In this picture you can really see just how pale she was. She is normally a bright orange and black, not ashy looking at all.
 

We finally got a pet! I have been wanting one for years now. Actually since Caylee was a baby. We tried it once before with a cat, but unfortunately got the cat from hell. That little guy was very pretty, but man, he was spoiled! He would not leave us alone. He was constantly on my lap, when I laid down he would jump on my face, if we closed our bedroom he would throw himself against the door in a fit of rage. I could really go on and on about that cat. The worst thing though was him pooping diarhea behind the furniture. After that Asher did not want to deal with another animal. Fortunately, Star, the neighbor cat has adopted our family and has chosen our porch as her home. That has worked out well. We get to pet her and they get to feed her.

But now we have our own pet. I have to admit that I am pretty excited. I think this little fellow will be a good thing. We started out possibly wanting a frog because Chrysinda said they make a good pet. We definitely had an open mind though, not being too familiar with reptiles. The guy at the pet store pointed out that a lizard might be a better pet because they get to where they actually enjoy being handled, whereas frogs generally sit nicely but if you jostle them too much they will jump off and you have to fight to get them back on and sit still. So we ended up getting a lepeord gecko. The guy said that they are very hardy and docile. They make excellent pets.

Now we just need to work on a name. Asher wants to name him Oober and Caylee wants to name him Polly, like Pollyana. We realized that we forgot to ask if it was a girl or boy, so I guess either name would work. Does anyone know how to tell on a reptile?


 

Yesterday I took the girls to Martin Nature Park because Cindy and I are looking for pretty looking places to shoot professional looking pictures. We were asked by the homeschool group awhile ago and we decided that fall would be such a pretty time to do it. So now we are on the hunt for good backgrounds. We have decided to do it free of charge because neither feel it would be right to charge a fee since we are only amateurs.

I didn't prep at all for this shoot because it was only for practice, to get an idea of what the backgrounds would look like. The girls were uncooperative for the most part in posing, but I didn't mind because it was only a practice. That stuff is boring to them and they would rather go explore when we are at a park like this. But I think that a couple of the shots came out alright. I like the picture of Natalie and the one of both girls sitting on the steps.

Cindy and I are going to another park later this week, so I am sure I will be posting more of these soon.


 

This one is a huge trantula. I saw one of those in CA also while camping. It made the mistake of walking into our campsite one day. It probably was not going to hurt anyone, but the adults wanted be sure of it.

 

Here is another cheese face.


Asher is helping Natalie look at the black widow. She was a little disappointed because she could not see the red hourglass shape on its back.

 

Next, we went to the Agtropolis building. This is our favorite place to go at the fair. At the chicky incubators they had a 4H girl that was holding a chicky for the children. She said they didn't mind because they were used to it, but I felt sorry for it when Macy got there. She tries to be gentle.

This was at the Farmer's Market. The girls went through a series of steps where they helped the farmer plant a seed and water it, then they picked apples, gathered eggs, dug for potatoes and pumpkins. Then they took it to the market and sold it for fake money.

After we did that we walked towards the back of the building to see the cows and bugs. The insects are Asher's favorite part of the Agtropolis building. I was interested to see the fiddleback spider. Last year the specimens they had were very tiny and I had expected them to be bigger. But when I looked this year, they had increased in size. I guess the ones they had last year were babies. Natalie has been asking me about spiders lately, especially the black widow. She was excited to see an actual spider. In California those things were all over the place, but I haven't seen any while here in Oklahoma. The picture that is hard to see is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Asher loves to tease me every year whith those because he know how much I despise roaches. Yuck, just imagine those crawling on your bed at night.
 

Saturday we went to the fair. Our favorite things to do at the fair is all the free stuff. You know, that is the stuff that seems to be more fun anyway. This is the Bank of Omaha Wildlife Adventure. It was way cool. There was all sorts of robotic wild animals. Macy was a little wary at first because she is too young to truly tell the difference between real and pretend. She was okay after she realized that all the animals were behaving themselves and they were not going to jump out and get her.



This is Macy's "Cheeeese" face. I laugh every time she says it because it is so automatic and that was actually one of her first words.
The girls were intoduced to a fair classic. I wish I had gotten a picture of the girls eyes when they first saw how big the corn dogs were. I didn't think they would be able to eat the whole thing, but that did not prove to be any sort of problem. I had an indian taco, because I have been wanting to try one for a while, and Asher had a colossal garlic chicken burrito. The food was all very delicious and I can see why people talk about fair food like they do.