William's First Lost Baby Tooth

This morning William decided he could not eat breakfast because his loose tooth hurt. So Mom attempted to remove it, but was unsuccessful. When William got home from school we decided it was time for that loose tooth to come out. He was a little hesitant to let Dad near it, preferring Mom to look at and touch it. Dad did get one time to touch it and was able to push it back (William was too smart to fall for the trick where he pushed it back himself that always worked on his Dad). The next time that Dad was able to get in there to look, he yanked out the tooth. William had quite a funny surprised look on his face.

Canoe time

This weekend was the big race our family usually helps out with as a fundraiser for a clean water non profit organization. This year, we had huge voyager class canoes for people to paddle in.

The kids were SO excited about getting a chance to be in the big boat. I was pretty nervous, but strapped up the life vests and away we went.

The highlights:

William was thrilled about how "easy" it was to paddle the canoe and about drove me absolutely crazy repeating over and over how it wasn't hard at all to paddle. And really it wasn't that hard to paddle - especially when you DIDN'T EVEN PUT YOUR PADDLE IN THE WATER! Or when you wave it around and whack your poor mother in the head and wiggle around so it feels like the whole boat is going to tip. Special thanks to the teenaged boy who sat next to William and put up with his constant stream of chatter and wayward paddle without dumping into the river.

Asian carp- we were paddling along and William was asking his 94737372829th question when 6 fish leapt out of the water about two feet away from my head. Canoes, you may know, are low on the water. They were WAY to close and I was not happy. But, how can I complain? It was my idea to take the kids out on the water....

A big thanks to the kids and my great husband. Our family carted just about everything in the garage down to the riverside at 10am and then stayed all day until we packed it up again at just before 7pm. In the rain. The kids were awesome and loved it- John was super supportive, even though I know this is far from his cup of tea!

11 weeks old

Here is our exhausted 11 week old baby. She has her first cold which makes her very pitiful and sad. And tired.

She was a very good girl and spent all day with our family outside at a festival. She was such a trooper- as were the other kids.

We have much to be thankful for..,

My Big Girl

I've been spending some quality time with my big girl this week!  I miss my big guy, but it has been fun to have some girl time with Amelia.  In the first week, we have colored and cut, baked cookies, gone to library story time, gone out for lunch and gone shopping.  It sure has been fun finding out what she likes when her brother isn't around!

One Happy Boy!

This isn't great quality video, but the giggling boy makes up for it.  John was running after William while taking this video.

How?

Yesterday, William decided he wanted to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. He practiced for about an hour and tonight we had this:

Husbands are helpers

Sometime this summer I ventured to Costco with all three kids. These kids of trips are all about business. Get in, get out, get home ASAP. With a newborn, 3 and 5 year old, I am always moments away from disaster. You know that disaster with 3 screaming kids and spilled milk all over aisle 6.

On the way out, Gemma was starting to fuss and I was hurrying to get everything unloaded so we could finally get home. A super sweet Costco employee, a teenaged boy of about 17, stopped and helped me load the rest of my groceries before taking my cart and putting it away for me*.

I thanked him profusely and he waved away my thanks with his hand.

With the groceries loaded, I turned to the task of buckling up my children. William chose that moment to loudly ask: "Mama? Is that man your husband?"

The look on that teenagers face was priceless and he burst out laughing while he walked away shaking his head.

While he was still within earshot, I replied loudly, "no, he isn't my husband! He is just someone who was nice enough to help your Mama when she needed it most."

After all three kids were buckled and the doors were shut, William piped up once again "it is probably a good thing you didn't kiss him to say thank you. Because he isn't your husband."

Yep. Good thing.

* I always park as close as I can to the cart corral. I know I'm not supposed to, but I don't care. Life being a little easier right now is worth a few dings in the car.**

** John probably disagrees with this. John does not shop solo with three kids either. I win.

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