Whoever invented the tooth fairy idea ought to be punished

This is going to be an admission of bad parenting to my seven year old who has lost four teeth since last Sept. We are not, Really not, good at the tooth fairy thing. The first two teeth were normal. We got $2.50 in quarters under her pillow with no incident. (As a side note--how do you decide how much to give them? Do we have to account for inflation? I still think $2.50 was pretty steep, but Todd handled the first one, set a precedent, and now she has got some affluent teeth in my opinion.)

The next two, both of which have happened in the past four weeks, have been disasters. Emma lost the second of her two front teeth within a week of us getting home from the hospital with Cami. She put the tooth under her pillow on the 2nd day after losing it. We forgot to switch it out. She woke up devastated in the morning. We told her the tooth fairy must have been confused since she actually lost the tooth the day before but had forgotten to put it under the pillow the same day. (We thought, whew, we had a lame excuse to cover ourselves, but at least we had some logic to appease her.) 2nd night, we forget again. In the morning: a very distraught girl, again. We tell her to cut the tooth fairy some slack, maybe she's out of her routine. 3rd morning--we finally get it switched, thanks to Todd. It never even crossed my mind that night either.

So, we are quite contrite about messing up Emma's experience with the tooth fairy, when two weeks later she lost her fourth tooth, her 2nd front bottom tooth. I groaned to myself when the tooth came out, hoping we could manage to not botch this time up. Todd remembered that same night to get the 10 coins traded for that affluent tooth. The next morning, Emma woke up, came into our room and this time said, "What!!!??? Car wash tokens?? The tooth fairy left car wash tokens under my pillow?" Todd had bested me at remembering once again, but this time hadn't checked the coins well since 3 of 10 were wrong. Todd gave an answer that those could be used the next time we go to Peter Piper Pizza. She wasn't entirely appeased by that, but let it drop.

Personally, I think she may be harboring deep doubts in the ability of the tooth fairy. I can't blame her. All I can say is whoever came up with the idea had not just had a newborn that was waking them up and distracting them at night.

Cute girls

At the end of May we went to the Temple and took pics on the temple grounds. I especially liked this shot of the three girls together.

Life updates

Thanks to all my friends who posted congratulations on my last post--that was such a pleasure to read comments. :)

Life is good--feel like I'm finding a sort of equilibrium. Sometimes I'm not sure who causes more stress--my almost 2 yr old Kayla or Camilla with the baby demands of being held, fed, etc. Oh wait, that would be Kayla, as images of hair gel, toothpaste, and diaper rash creme spread over various surfaces of my house come to mind. Not to mention her entry into the two stage, or tendencies to take her diaper off when she throws those characteristic tantrums.

Like any two year old she has her charms and cute phrases--"gi go" or Here go, as she hands you things, i.e. pacifiers for Camilla that have fallen on the floor; "Doe know" or Don't know, when you ask her for something she can't locate, with her arms raised in a questioning manner; "Go" to keep you singing when she likes the music.

Abrianna has found her calling of showering Camilla with love. I suspect her frequent requests of "Can I pet Cami, or kiss Cami" are partially motivated by desire to get out of things she's asked to do, i.e. cleaning her room. It's not always so cute, such as when I have to lean down with Cami for the 2nd time in two mins to satisfy her request.

Emma has shown a bit of resentment at her greater responsibilities of keeping an eye on the smaller girls--to be fair, really just Kayla, getting various items from around the house, or picking up after all the girls, not just her own things. She surprised me last week in a spectacular show of maturity. She told me she wanted to help with Mommy chores; she asked me to teach her how to do laundry and make dinner. We covered laundry basics, and both she and Abri are doing better at putting away their own clothes, so that's a plus. We haven't tackled dinner yet. Overall, she fulfills the position of eldest sibling well and I'm really proud of her.

Pics of Camilla

Understanding of a 2 yr old

Toddlers are so cute yet so frustrating at times. One situation that was on the funny side of things happened while in Virginia on July 1oth. We were at a state park under a pavilion. Abri, Kayla, were on one side of the pavilion, myself on the other. I noticed I had left my cell phone on the bench on that side, not far from where Kayla was. Concerned Kayla would pick it up and drop it the ground, I told Abri: "Abri, will you put my phone back in the diaper bag just there so Kayla doesn't get it?" Abri didn't really pay much attention to what I was saying, but Kayla on the other hand, was. She promptly picked up the cell phone, looked at me, then put the phone in the bag. If I wasn't so pleased and amused I would have felt a little offended that she so blatantly understood what I was saying but disregarded the intent if not the request.

Virginia

It is such a blessing to have time spent with family. We loved having time with Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents on a trip out to Virginia. The East coast is so green and beautiful compared to here and its so refreshing to enjoy the scenery while appreciating good company.

Hasn't met a fruit she doesn't like

I know there are some I haven't tried with her yet: Papaya, Mango, Coconut, Pomegranate, Plaintains, but Kayla loves fruit. She shovels it in when she's hungry. Here, on July 4th, I think she ate 3 slices of watermelon before she had enough.