Playing Catch-Up

Somehow, some way, I've gotten way behind on writing blog posts. Another day will pass and I'll think, "Oh, I need to write about the strange rustling-about noise we heard in the middle of the night ... or how the boys have decided to take up flag football in the off-soccer season. Or how Zach and Allie's latest bedtime ritual involves Brett holding them, in turn, like a little baby and singing "Rockabye Baby." But somehow the daily routines seem to swallow up my time and energy lately. So to get caught up ... some highlights of late:

• Blake and Nick's soccer season ended about a month ago. And while I love watching their games, I was kinda looking forward to a respite from the weekly grind of practices, broken-up dinner times, scrambling to do homework and providing chauffeuring. That little sigh of relief was short-lived, however, as both boys decided to give flag football a try. So now Nick practices on Mondays, Blake on Tuesdays and both have games on Wednesdays. Sigh ...
• Allie is still enthralled with her weekly dance class. She loves practicing her stretches and the five ballet positions. Recently when I was playing little-kid baseball with Zach and Allie, it was Allie's turn at bat. I told her to choke up on the bat, turn her feet around and to "get into position." She then proceeded to turn her feet and get into her ballerina first position. Priceless.
• Zach, who had about an 18-month obsession with all things pirate, has now progressed to all things Star Wars. Light Sabers and action figures and endless showings of our collection of Star Wars movies keep this little boy going these days.
• Although it's starting to heat up here, the pool is still a little brisk for most of the family. There have been three or four times where Zach and Allie will ask to get in. Zach will stand on the top step with his life jacket on and just dabble around a bit. But Little Miss Adventure, I mean Allie, will gleefully run to the side of the pool and jump in without even testing the waters. And she's done this more than once.
  
• School is in the home-stretch now. Our last day is May 21 ... three weeks and two days. Always mixed emotions. I am excited that we can say good-bye to 3rd-grade homework and that I don't have to pack lunches (yippie!).

"The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one."
~Erma Bombeck

The Heat is On: 1 Down, 105 To Go

Yesterday marked the first day this year that hit 100 degrees in Phoenix -- 102 to be exact. Mighty, mighty early, especially considering that last year we didn't get struck with the start of the triple-digit brigade until May 19.

The steering wheel was scorching and it was just too stifling to run in the morning, as I usually do on days when Zach and Allie are in preschool. Apparently there are an average of 106 days with temperatures of 100 degrees or higher in Phoenix, according to our weather forecasters here, who, I'm convinced, from May to October, have one of the easiest jobs around. Pretty hot, hot or really hot.

But anyway, a few days BEFORE the beastly heat snuck up on us, my parents visited. The weather was NICE -- 80s. We took a little walk in Cave Creek and saw lots of flowers in bloom.

Allie and Zach check out the view.

A beautiful magenta bloom -- not as common as the yellow ... at least where we were in the Cave Creek Recreation Area.

The more common yellow-orangish blooms (hope that's not too technical for anyone :)).

Meanwhile, today isn't quite as warm and I'm hoping we might be lucky enough to get at least one more little cool-down before the real stuff -- the miserable, why-am-I-living-here heat -- rears its ugly head.

Toothless Wonder

"Other than a dimple in a cute little chin,
What's more adorable than a toothless grin?"
~ Azu "Betty" Espezia

A couple weeks ago amidst playing tag with Zach and Nick, Allie stopped in the middle of a spirited sprint from the one who was "it" and pronounced, "I have a loose tooth."

I bent over, looked at her cute little 4-and-a-half-year-old face, and obligingly pinched the tooth between my thumb and forefinger and gave the tooth the test. It wiggled a little bit and I told her it was a little loose.

Over the next couple days I'd spot Allie wiggling her tooth. Again she'd mention how loose it was. Again, I felt it and this time it was REALLY loose. I became a bit alarmed; she's only 4 years and 7 months old. Surely she bumped it on something while playing with her brothers, but she told me she didn't.

Nicky lost his top teeth just a year ago when he was 7 and a half.

So I made a dentist appointment for her, scoured the Internet, got opinions from Facebook friends and sought the advice of a friend who works for a dentist. She thought it was too early.

Then, two days before the appointment, the tooth fell out. I panicked a bit. How can my baby girl be losing her tooth already? This isn't supposed to happen until kindergarden or first grade.

But Allie was so excited, she felt like such a big girl and had heard so much about that Tooth Fairy from Nicky, who has been receiving frequent visits the past couple years.

We went to the dentist, took x-rays and the dentist confirmed it came out naturally and on its own; the permanent tooth will be in in about 3-6 months. And the other top tooth will be coming out soon, the dentist said as she showed me the x-ray of the baby tooth with the root already dissolved.

So even on your third and fourth kids, you still get thrown some curve balls and are reminded that every kid is different.

I was glad to hear everything is normal and as it should be. But still, there's a little part of me that's sad that this milestone came so early. Just another sign that she's not a baby anymore. She's now my little big girl. Just never saw it coming.