A New Dentist and Some Fillings

For those of you who don't know, Elina frequently visits the dentist office. Unfortunately, she has inherited B's rotten teeth. Hence, Elina already has 2 silver crowns on 2 of her bottom molars. Yikes!

So began my search to find a pediatric dentist that I love. Since we will be visiting the office quite often, I figured I should really love this person. The pediatric dentist we were previously going to was good. She didn't "wow" me or anything. I didn't think she was particularly great with children...she was just fine. She never really explained much to me unless I asked questions, but I didn't think anything of it.

Then I did some research to find a better pediatric dentist...that's when I found Dr. Bob. He is absolutely wonderful! He's totally corny because he dresses up in a different kids' costume every day and he wears this funny red-necky visor that has fake, highlighted, spiky hair on the top of it. His staff is really nice and they do lots of different things during your visits. First they took 4 pictures of Elina's teeth and mouth and then they made it into a word document with Elina's name and the date. They give you one of these during every visit so you can keep it in a scrapbook and document it. On our first visit, they took a picture of Elina with Dr. Bob and put a label on it that said, "My first visit." So cute!

But honestly, the thing I loved the most was how much time Dr. Bob spent with us. He's awesome with both the kids and the parents. He explained everything to me...the xrays, her exam, her adult teeth. It was all stuff I had never heard before.

Of course no visit is complete without mentioning cavities. It turned out that Elina had 2 cavities between her top molars. The dentist said that it was probably due to imperfect enamel on her baby teeth since Elina doesn't drink soda or juice and she doesn't eat lots of candy.

Yesterday we went in for Elina's fillings and the dentist found one more cavity on the top between some molars. Yikes! Elina didn't particularly enjoy the whole experience of getting the fillings. I had to give her demerol beforehand (which she didn't like). Then she had to wear this nose mask thing for the nitrous gas (it's hot pink because it's bubble gum flavored). Plus, she had to wear sunglasses so the dentist light didn't bother her eyes. The good part was that they gave her headphones to listen to audiobooks. Well, that was supposed to be the good part. Elina, being our Elina, didn't mention that she couldn't hear anything through the headphones until the entire procedure was FINISHED!! It turned out that the nano they were using ran out of batteries, but the dentist didn't know because she assumed Elina would say something if there were problems. Nope, not our Elina. So during the entire uncomfortable procedure, Elina just listened to the soothing sounds of the dental instruments. How awful! I felt so badly about it because I know it wasn't a pleasant experience. I should have asked her if she could hear the story before they started, but I had assumed the same thing the dentist did. Now I know better.

At the end, though, Elina got to pick some cool prizes from the treasure box...a glittery bracelet, a butterfly ring, and some cupcake lip gloss. A pretty good ending to another dentist visit.

Easter 2011

[I really like this Easter picture of the kids...but please please ignore B's hand in there. There was just no way we could get Evie to hold her bunny.]

We had a really great time this Easter. There was a nice balance of family time, friend time, and Easter celebrations.

We stayed home in the morning and afternoon on Saturday. We decorated more Easter eggs and did a few crafts. It was a nice quiet time at home.
Honestly, though, I'm not a real fan of dyed, hard boiled eggs. Here are a few of my reasons: (1) lots of them go to waste because we can't consume them quickly enough, (2) a lot of times we can't get the dye or design to look perfect on them, and (3) they're too fragile for my kids to handle. I mean, we still dyed a few eggs just to "be cool," but this year we also decided to decorate our plastic eggs. (I got a few ideas from Make and Takes and from Parents magazine.) And instead of buying fancy kits to decorate the eggs, we used all the craft junk we have in the house. This turned out to be WAY more fun and I think this is what we're going to do from now on. Over the years I have accumulated tons of sequins, gems, buttons, string, pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, stickers, and beads--moms, you KNOW what I'm talking about! Now I can try to clear some of that stuff out when Easter rolls around. Not only that, it was great fun to create our own unique decorations. We made aliens, fancy eggs, carrots, pigs, bugs.
The best creations we made were portraits of ourselves. This year we each had to decorate an egg that looked like ourselves. I accidentally made mine look like a gypsy because I wrapped the black string all around the top of the head. So to soften it up, I glued extra pieces in the front to look like my wispy short hair in the front. I had a ponytail, too, but you can't see it in the picture. We all think that B's was cute, but it kinda sorta looks like Bert (of Bert and Ernie). He even put a bow tie on himself--cute!
J's had a cute headband and shiny earrings on. Elina's had a flower hair clip and a gem necklace.We let Eli do his own and he did an impressive job...although his egg has 3 eyes (he's strategically covering it with his middle finger in the picture. Elina made Evie's and gave her an "E" made of gems.
We attended Easter service on Saturday evening this year so that we could avoid the big crowds on Sunday. We're glad we chose to do this because our church can get pretty crazy on holidays. Here are some cute pics we took of the kids all dressed up for church. I LOVE LOVE that Evie has one hand on Eli's shoulder and one hand on her hip. She looks like she's got it goin' on!I also thought it was cute that all 3 kids have bunnies for loveys. There was no chance we could get Evie to pose with her lovey WITH the bunny ears on, so we just took pics of the older kids with theirs. Although Cuddlebunny is not really Elina's primary lovey (her mouse, Squeaky Tiny is her fave these days), we still thought he deserved to be in a picture with Elina. Eli, on the other hand, will probably be toting his bunny to college with him later in life.
On Easter morning, the kids hunted for their Easter basket. Last year I did it as a jellybean trail and that didn't work out as well because they were too focused on stuffing jellybeans into their mouths. This year I made it a scavenger hunt and it worked out a lot better...probably because Eli's older this year, too. Elina was great about reading the clues aloud and letting Eli help.

There were lots of fun goodies in the basket. Elina got a flower press kit, a mouse puppet, and a Wonder Pets activity book. Eli got some train stuff, a dinosaur book, and a Wonder Pets book. Evie got a new bunny lovey. (For some reason she seems to be more of a "blanket girl," so we're trying out a new lovey on her. It actually looks like Eli's bunny, but it's pink and softer.) The kids loved everything. They spent the morning eating jellybeans while they checked out their loot (jellybeans courtesy of Ah-Gong and Ah-Ma).

Then we went out for brunch at Z'Tejas. It was absolutely delicious! They seriously have the best muffins...which you would never expect to get at a Tex-Mex place. We chose Z'Tejas because they were also doing egg hunts and they had the Easter Bunny. The kids loved looking for eggs (like they haven't done enough egg hunts) and Elina thought the Easter Bunny was so fluffy and cute. Eli was wary, but he still agreed to take pictures with him. Evie screamed when he walked passed her, so we didn't even try to get a picture of her with the Easter Bunny. Yikes.

Since we went out for a big brunch, we decided to do something smaller for Easter dinner. We invited LW and her family over and we had a dip party. It was so much fun and so yummy! We had 6 dips and they were all delicious. I made a chili dip (thanks, KT!), a black bean salsa, and a spinach dip. LW made a cucumber dip, a pizza dip, and a 7-layer dip. It was great! Unfortunately, I was so busy eating I forgot to take a picture of the spread...lame, I know! But we are decent parents so we did not feed our children dips for dinner. The kids got bunny pasta with red sauce.

Before we ate dinner though, I did some games and songs with the kids. Then they decorated some rice krispy treat nests. While they made those, B hid all the eggs in our backyard. Here they are showing of their eggs--This year's eggs were filled with some candy, but mostly stickers, fruit snacks, marbles, and sticker earrings.

For dessert I made our usual Jello eggs. This year I did orange and blackberry fusion. I made the same mistake as last year--the blackberry fusion turned out looking black like last year's grape. BUT it tasted delicious! Next year I have to opt for lighter colors. Here are all the kids with their Jello eggs...yum! Even Evie got to taste her first Jello egg.
After that we did the adult Easter egg hunt. All the adults, except for one, puts $5 into the pot. Then the 1 adult (who did not put money in) hides the egg somewhere tricky. We chose the playroom again because it just inherently has the most hiding places...with all the toys and containers in there. J decided to be the one to hide the $20 egg. Man, did it take us a long time to find it! I was so upset because it was actually inside the mouse puppet that we had just bought for Elina. The puppet was inside the stuffed animal bin and that was the first place I had looked! J thought for sure that I would find it. But I wasn't really feeling the animals, I was just digging to the very bottom of the bin. Boo!

As I was cleaning up our Easter mess, I told B that I was kinda glad that Easter was over because this has been a very long and busy month...3 birthdays, Fiesta, Easter. But I had a lot of fun this Easter, so it couldn't have been a better ending to the crazy month we've had! We hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter this year, too!

Easter Parties Galore

This past week was filled with LOTS of Easter Parties.

We started the week off with Eli's music class party. I was sad to miss it because I had to take Evie to the doctor for her fever. Luckily, J attended and got some cute pics and videos. The theme for the month has been Fiesta and weather, so I led the body movement section with lots of silly, fun songs. This is kind of a bummer in ways because I can never get videos of what Eli is doing. One really fun song that I chose was "Tooty Ta." Kids have to listen to the instructions and do all these silly poses while singing, "A tooty ta, a tooty ta, a tooty ta ta." I love it and so do the kids! But since I wasn't there, RT was nice enough to cover for me. (For some reason, J wasn't interested in leading my section! Weird!)
Here's Eli performing "Tooty Ta"--



After the music section, the kids had an egg hunt. Eli has been so excited about egg hunts this year. He just loves opening eggs and discovering the presents inside. In this video, he is so excited he can hardly contain himself...his legs can't stop moving...



In this video, he can't believe that tootsie rolls come in different colors!



Then on Thursday we had Elina's class Easter Party at Hardberger Park. The party was pretty laid-back because the kids mainly just played on the play structures. They had an egg hunt for the kids and Eli was so so so so sad that he couldn't do it with the older kids. The parents in charge of the party had found 12 different sets of eggs so that each child had to search for eggs of a specific color, pattern or texture. For example, Elina's eggs were all shiny eggs, while another kid's eggs were all plain green. I had brought extra eggs and Eli's basket for him to do his own hunt, but I had to wait until all the older kids were finished. The whole time the older kids were hunting for eggs, Eli stood on the sidelines bawling and saying, "I don't want to see anyone." Poor boy! He didn't want to hunt for eggs with Elina either. It was pretty sad to watch. But then during his own private hunt he cheered up.
On Friday we had a neighborhood Easter Party hosted by my next-door neighbor. For a while now, my 2 next-door neighbors and I have shared one big yard because we've all taken down a few slats in our fences. It's nice since we all have different things to offer in our backyards. Well, there were lots of kids attending the party, so the kids had to be split up into 3 age groups and split up into our 3 yards. The 4 and younger kids were in my backyard and their party was led by RT. Elina wanted to join our group, so she ended up staying with Eli. RT did a great job at the party. She's such a great teacher, especially for younger kids. She had books, games, coloring, and face painting for the kids. As you can tell from the collage, Eli did not like the feeling of the face paint drying on his face. I had to wipe it off for him. Then we ended it with an egg hunt. It was lots of fun.

During the party, RT had the kids do different things in order to get their eggs. Sometimes they had to walk slowly like a turtle...sometimes they had to waddle. In this video, they had to hop like a frog....but Elina is definitely a quick hoppin' frog! I love that one of the dads was a good sport and showed the kids how to hop.



As you can tell, we definitely had a party-filled week!

Birthdays, Birthdays

This was a busy week for us with J's birthday on Monday and then B's birthday on Wednesday. Actually, it's been a busy month since we started everything off with Evie's birthday, then Fiesta, then J and B's birthdays, and now Easter. Crazy, right? Anyway, i digress...

For J's birthday we took her out to eat at an Italian restaurant called Piatti. We've been there one other time, but J had never been so she wanted to check it out. It was definitely a yummy dinner. (In the collage below, the bottom right picture is a "silly face" picture...I love that Elina and Eli have on the "Asian Rage" faces. Yikes! How is that funny?)
Then for B's birthday, B chose one of his fave restaurants, PF Chang's. We actually haven't gone in a while, but it was still really great. (In the picture on the bottom right of the collage, all the kids are looking off to the left--even Evie. We have no idea what they are looking at! It's so weird that when you take pictures of kids they always look off to the side...but WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING AT?? We looked around and didn't find anything interesting, but then again we're adults, so who knows.)
For the joint birthday cake, J requested my chocolate chip bundt cake. J and B both aren't really into icing, so all I had to do was sprinkle the top with powdered sugar. How easy was that?? And to make matters even better, the cake was delicious and moist. Yum! (Does this count as tooting my own horn? Sorry, if it does.)
On J's birthday, we were going to go out to lunch, but that was the day that poor Evie had to go see the doctor because she had a high fever that wouldn't break. So instead of going to lunch, I took Evie to the doctor and then we let Evie take a super-long nap afterwards. We have to make it up to J another afternoon.

Now let's talk gifts...J has been asking Elina to get her a red jeep for her birthday. At school there's a teacher who drives one and J is always pointing it out to Elina. Since J's current car is paid off, she's trying to convince my dad to trade in her current car for a red jeep. J's still working on that, so as a joke she's constantly asking Elina to buy her one. So...for J's birthday...Elina and Eli got her...a RED JEEP!! Actually, it's a toy Jeep, but it's very realistic. The hood pops open and there are actual shocks. It's pretty cool--for a toy. Anyway, it was an awesome gift and J was really surprised.

B's big present was a little less exciting because it was something he asked for--a new Tempurpedic pillow. And Elina drew him a new family picture to take to work. It's funny because there are additions to this year's version. J made it into the picture and so did Eli's bunny (the lovey that he sleeps with). It was funny because originally, Elina forgot Evie...she included J, but not Evie. Of course, we will not mention this story to Evie when she grows up. But then Elina drew a really cute Evie on the right, so that made up for it. From left to right, it's B, me, J, Elina, Eli, Eli's bunny, and Evie. Here are 2 funny details to note: (1) B is wearing a t-shirt that says, "I love my dad" and (2) Elina is the girl with the fanciest, prettiest dress on. Anyway, it's been a week full of celebrations...busy, but fun! Happy birthday, J and B! We love you guys!

Texas Bluebonnets

Bluebonnet season is one of the things that I love about Texas. That's when you know spring has really arrived. That's also when you know whether or not we got enough rain over the winter. If the rains were heavy in the winter, then you're in for a spectacular wildflower show (like last year). If it didn't rain as much, then there aren't as many wildflowers and the season doesn't last quite as long. This was the case this year. Bummer. It's too bad, but the pictures still came out well.

I'm always a sucker for bluebonnet pictures though. I just think fields of wildflowers are magnificent, no matter how you look at them. This is how crazy I am...last year, we took bluebonnet pictures of the 3 kids and Evie was only one week old! I had Elina holding this one week old baby in a patch of bluebonnets. I know...I'm crazy! I'm surprised B even agreed to go along with it. He's such a good sport. This was the picture we got last year. Not bad considering Evie just arrived a week earlier. (It's amazing to me how young Eli and Elina look as well!)Anyway, this year I asked my good friend (who happens to be a photographer and who happens to be Elina's best friend's mom) to take pictures for us. I figured it would kill 2 birds with one stone--I could get bluebonnet pictures and I could get Evie's 1 year portraits done at the same time. I love that her birthday coincides with bluebonnet season because it makes for great pics.We didn't get back all our pics from my friend yet because this is a busy season for photographers (school pictures), but she did send us 2 that were way cute--the one of Evie by herself and the one of all 3 kids together. I'll have to post more when I get them all back, but here are some that I took myself. I didn't get to take any of Evie because she was not having it. She developed really bad stranger anxiety and was having a bad morning. After a point she wouldn't let me put her down and she wouldn't smile! The only reason we have that great smile of her (with the chair) is because we got Elina to make her smile. Elina has some sort of magical power over Evie and can make her smile in almost any situation. It's crazy...but it's also a nice secret weapon in cases like this. Anyway, we're glad we got the pictures that we did. Ya gotta love the bluebonnets!

A Royal Party

Last week Eli attended a Princess Party for Queen TT. Eli was excited to go to a birthday party...because there are always treats involved. Plus, the invitation asked that guests wear their royal best outfit, so Eli got to get all dressed up. How could it not be fun?? Of course he wore his crown and cape...and rode his cool bike.

It was a cute party. TT's mom, RT, dressed up in this wild getup. It wasn't wild, it was just out there. Let's just say it was a pink ballroom dancing gown that had sequins on the front and wrist cuffs that connected to the bottom of the dress (for a more dramatic effect). It was really quite the dress, especially since RT is currently pregnant. But I have to give her props for putting it on in the first place...she really loves her daughter. (Honestly, I'd do the same.) TT's grandma also put on an orange off-the-shoulder number that was just as fabulous as RT's pink dress. I'm telling ya, there's lots of love for TT!

There was lots of fun to be had. The kids ate a princess lunch with golden mac n cheese and grape jewels. They also decorated a cookie scepter with frosting and marshmallows. They did a royal craft, listened to a princess story (a funny book called Falling for Rapunzel), built a Lego tower for royalty, and played a Rapunzel game (very similar to "We're Going on a Bear Hunt"). We had a wonderful time and we just love TT! Happy birthday, TT!

There's This Guy...

We always get the strangest questions and comments from Elina after church on Sundays. Here were last weekend's comments--

1. This Guy

Elina: Mommy, there's this guy...he tries to tell us that Easter is about bunnies and eggs...and that it's not about Jesus.

Me: Uh-huh....

Elina: And this guy...he also tells us that Christmas is about Santa...and that it's not about Jesus, too.

Me: Uh-huh...

Elina: Do you know this guy? What's his name again?

Me: Satan?

Elina: Yeah....Satan. That guy.

I thought it was so funny that she was talking about Satan like he was some kid in her class. Hilarious!

2. Heaven

Elina: Mommy, if God is so good, why does he want to make us get old and die?

Me: Elina, do you remember where we go after we die?

Elina: Yeah, heaven.

Me: It's going to be great up there because we get to be with God.

Elina: But, Mom, I don't want to be walking around all bones and stuff!

This led into a whole conversation about how Heaven is not filled with walking skeletons. I just couldn't believe that that's what she pictured in her head...skeletons walking around Heaven. I wouldn't want to go there either! Poor girl. In the end, I got her to forget about dying because she said that she wants to fly up to Heaven. One of her dreams is to fly, so she's pretty excited now. I just let her believe that everyone's flying up there...it's better than walking skeletons, right? Plus, she informed me that everyone must know how to fly up there because if you stood up on clouds you would fall right through. Ahhhh, silly me!

So, as you can see, Sundays are super-fun! But honestly, I'm glad she's asking all these questions. She's always excited to learn about God, so I'm glad she can ask questions too.

Fiesta Flambeau

We went to the Fiesta Flambeau parade this past weekend. We aren't usually parade people (especially during such a busy time like Fiesta), but we went with our friends who have been attending this parade for over 30 years! They knew what they were doing, so we were comfortable going to this huge event. This is America's largest night parade, so we were really excited to go!The parade was lots of fun! There were lights everywhere and lots of people cheering. Elina and Eli donned the Fiesta medals they made at the Fiesta Arts Fair the weekend before. I wished I had remembered to wear Elina's Fiesta flower crown, but B was secretly (or openly) happy that I forgot. Eli thought everything was so cool. Elina's favorite floats were the ones with the women wearing fancy crowns and dresses.
She also liked the ladies in fancy dresses and lights dancing around. She said, "They're amazing!...Mommy, what does amazing mean?" It was so cute!

My favorites were the ladybug, butterfly, and turtle that were lit up.

Honestly, I think the kids just loved the idea of staying up late. When we got back to the car and started driving, Eli was asleep within 10 minutes. Elina lasted for an extra 5 minutes after that. It was funny because right after Eli fell asleep, Elina said, "Mommy, is there anything to do? I'm bored." I told her to shut her eyes if she was bored because it was already 10pm. Within 5 minutes she was asleep. The next day I asked her if she fell asleep in the car and she claimed she didn't fall asleep. She said that her body really wanted her to sleep, but she didn't really fall asleep. Seriously? We had such a fun time at Fiesta this year! Can't wait for next year...Viva Fiesta!!

Elina's Art Show

The kindergarten classes had their annual art show yesterday before the Fiesta Float Parade. It's one of the kids' biggest events because the Big Room (cafeteria) is turned into an art gallery and the teachers display all the kids' art work from the beginning of the year until now. Every month the kids focus on 2 artists and then the kids do their own artwork in a similar style of the artist. One of Elina's favorite artists was Claude Monet ("His paintings are always so pretty."). Her Monet is to the right of her in the picture below. She called it "Beautiful Sky with Bluebonnets."Georgia O'Keefe ("I love all the flowers.") was another favorite. Her O'Keefe is the one with the dark blue frame in the picture below. At the beginning of the show, the kids came into the Big Room in pairs while the teachers read a summary about each artist studied. As the teachers talked about each artist, each pair of kids held up their own artwork that was done while they studied that specific artist.

The artwork the kids produced was amazing. Each child could give their artwork their own titles and some of the titles were so funny. Below is Elina's painting based on Wassily Kandinsky. The kids listened to music and they had to paint what they felt. Elina's is the top left rainbow with butterflies. The title of her painting is "Beautiful Rainbow Heart Love." It's such a funny title because it sounds so Asian. When I say "Asian" I mean it sounds like the way Asians can misuse the English language. You'll have to check out this website in order to fully understand what I mean. Here are some of the highlights from the show.

Here is Elina's Frida Kahlo. Her's is the one with the pink paper. She drew a self-portrait and then glued her favorite things around her portrait. Of course there's a mouse on there!Below is Elina's Picasso that she calls "Blue, Purple, White Painting."Here's her William Blake (the top light blue one) called "Heart in the Dark with Pretty Stars."This is based on John Constable entitled "Trees with Flowers."On the left is her Van Gogh entitled "Swirly Night with Towers" and on the right is her Henri Matisse called "Big Swirly Snail." One of my faves was Elina's painting based on Seurat. The teachers had the kids pose like they were holding umbrellas in the rain and they used pointillism to paint the tops of the umbrella. In Elina's picture, she's holding her hand out like she's touching the rain. It's so cute! (Sorry the picture isn't that great, but it was the only shot I got of it. And her Seurat wasn't in the portfolio she brought home today, so I have to just use what I have right now.) In the collage below, I love that in the picture on the left Eli looks like he's an old Asian man listening to what Elina has to say about her artwork. On the right is Elina's mobile based on the sculptor Alexander Calder.Great job, Elina! We are so proud of our little artist!