Putting Things In Perspective

Victoria had her very first haircut on Friday. She sat really nicely and the hair stylist was able to cut about an inch off the back. Her haircut has not improved her hair style... she still has out of control hair! She has really fine baby hair so I am hoping that once her hair gets a bit thicker it will be easier to do something with it :-)






This morning Hannah had her first orthodontist appointment to discuss her thumb sucking habit. Hannah was pretty adamant that she was NOT going to open her mouth and let the orthodontist look at her teeth so I was pleasantly surprised when she gave him no real problems during the appointment. It helped that they let her play with the cheek separators to make silly faces :-)


So the verdict on the thumb sucking battle is that Hannah has 6 months after getting her stern warning from the orthodontist today to quit sucking her thumb of her own free will. (She is watching TV right now and sucking her thumb so that tells you how far his 'stern warning' got!)


She has her next appointment scheduled for April to re-assess her mouth. They took lots of pictures today that they will compare with in 6 months. As it stands now Hannah is already showing some changes to her bite and her jaw due to sucking her thumb. She is what he classes as an "intense" thumb sucker which means that she has quite a bit of force on her teeth, palate and jaw. The Dr. said he usually prefers to wait until they have their first permanent molars at around 6-7 years of age before they put in the 'habit reminder' which is a metal contraption to prevent thumb sucking. Given Hannah's intensity of sucking he has said that we may need to go that route sooner. So she has until April to become a 'big girl' and kick the habit.





After Hannah's appointment we went to visit with Hannah's friend Emily. We haven't seen Emily since she began her cancer treatments last January and it was great to see her! She has such personality and despite everything her little body has been through she is such a happy little girl :-) Hannah took a few minutes to get used to Emily's new look without her hair but soon the girls were playing pretend ice cream shop and hopping around the alphabet mat to see who could do it the fastest.





Emily really puts things into perspective for me... I am blessed that all I have to be concerned about is messy hair and crooked teeth. And are those things even anything to be concerned about in comparison? I think not.


Please keep Emily and her family in your prayers as they wait for Emily's latest biopsy results to confirm whether or not she is in remission.

Totally Two - Victoria's Turn!

Yesterday was Victoria's first "Totally Two" class... she had a fun time :-) They had story time, singing and crafts. Victoria really liked doing the craft... glue and glitter... I was happy she was doing it there and not in our house!

I forgot to wish Ronin a Happy 2nd Birthday... his birthday was on the 13th and he had a Hawaiian Party. Hannah and Victoria had lots of fun bouncing in the bouncy castle and running around :-) Hannah wore her hula costume and she won a little prize for dressing the most Hawaiian... she kept bugging Rhonda for a prize the whole party!

Here is a picture of Stallone wearing his "crown". Victoria keeps putting a plastic bowl upside down on his head and says he is a prince wearing a crown. Then she giggles away about it while the poor cat lays there with a bowl on his head.

Not much other than that really new around here... just getting used to being back on a busy schedule again now that its fall. You wouldn't know it with this beautiful weather we are having... LOVE IT!

Some Firsts...

Yesterday was Hannah's first day back at preschool :-) She is a 'senior' this year and she gets to go 3 days a week now instead of 2... I think I may have been the only mom that wasn't teary about school starting again! I had a skip in my step as I left... it was a LONG summer and I was quite happy for Hannah to get back into her school routine!

It was POURING rain yesterday... the 5 minute walk to the school took us 20 minutes. Victoria refuses to sit in the stroller and insists on walking which is usually fine except she is incredibly SLOW at walking in her rain boots (and her umbrella handling skills need some work too!) Between the 2 of them I am surprised that nobody had an eye poked out and none of the cars that were parked on the side of the road got scratched up. It was a very torturous walk.

Here is Hannah all set for her first day of 4 year old preschool :-)

Victoria was a bit upset when we dropped Hannah off at school... she wants to go to school too. I did however decide for the sake of my sanity and the fact we were pressed for time to get Victoria to wear her old runners to walk to the school at pick up time. She had wet feet but it was a much quicker walk without her clomping along in those rubber boots!

After we got home the kids had a quick lunch and then we were off to Hannah's first gymnastic lesson. Hannah was super excited about it... she has been wanting to take gymnastics classes since she went to a gymnastics birthday party back in May!

Since the gymnastics classes are pretty pricey I told her she had to wait until she was 4. Hannah got $50 in birthday money and I told her that if she wanted to take gymnastics she had to put her birthday money towards the cost. She thought about it for a couple days after her birthday but then she decided she really wanted to take gymnastics so she gave me the money to pay for some of it. I figured if she was willing to give up a trip to Toys R Us to spend that birthday money she must really want to do it!

Hannah really had a fun time... the class is an hour long and she listened really well and followed all the instructions. Parents aren't allowed in the gym but there is a viewing area upstairs where you can watch from a balcony.

Victoria again was upset... she wants to go to "nastics" too. Poor kid... she had a tough day yesterday having to sit on the sidelines while Hannah got to do stuff. I did register Victoria for 'Totally 2' which is an arts and crafts type of class but it doesn't start for a couple of weeks yet.

This is Hannah's first ever 'landing' (into a pit of foam blocks so she doesn't break a leg!). I will have to save this picture in case she becomes Canada's next Olympic gymnast ;-)

Seattle Girls Trip & Victoria's Big Girl Room!

I just got back yesterday evening from a girls trip to Seattle with some friends. We had a fun time... shopping, sightseeing, shopping, sightseeing, shopping... you get the idea :-)

We went to the Space Needle downtown Seattle... I had never been there so it was kind of fun to ride the elevator to the top and view the city from way up high.

While we were stopped at an intersection we noticed a bullet casing laying on the ground... nothing says your in the hood like a shotgun shell on the ground! Of course we all hung out the window and took pictures... we were total tourists!

While I was gone Dave finished painting and putting up the wallpaper border in Victoria's room. Today I washed all her new bedding and made her bed up and decorated the walls with the wall appliques I ordered online.

Victoria was very excited about her new 'Care Bears' room :-) She has been talking about it all day... although at bedtime she was upset that she doesn't get to sleep with Hannah anymore. I am glad they are both back in their own rooms... they spent way too much time fooling around and bugging each other instead of sleeping while they were sharing a room for the past week!

Oh - and here is a picture of Hannah from the other day that I didn't get a chance to post. She got a call from a photographer about a possible modeling gig. I had to send a couple recent pictures in since her hair is shorter now. The photographer asked about Victoria as well... I sent the picture that is at the top of my last blog post.

This was the photographer's reply regarding Victoria.... "Victoria is a little cutie! Does Victoria's hair fall nicely when its down and is it very curly? Do you think with some kind of hair product her hair could be tamed down?"

SERIOUSLY! I think she is trying to say in a nice way that Victoria has out of control unruly hair! I couldn't stop laughing when I read this reply! I think Victoria may need a hair intervention soon... perhaps it is time for her to get her first haircut and style. But really how can you 'style' wacky hair like hers?