Cashing In

Last week when  Maddy's tooth was so sore I made an appointment for the dentist. Unfortunately the earliest appointment they had was today. When her tooth fell out, I decided to keep the appointment because she had so many teeth coming through while others were just not falling out. Today we went and they pulled 3 teeth out!! I can hardly recognize her new smile. They numbed the area before freezing and pulled two that were already wiggly. The 3rd tooth wasn't wiggly at all, but it was center front and the dentist was worried about crowding the new teeth. Lucky girl, she got to eat popsicles and congee today!

The big tooth in the middle on the bottom row is already an adult tooth. 

It's fully grown and was behind the row of baby teeth that came out today.

AND....it's out!!!

...Her tooth that is. Finally, OMG FINALLY!! Just as I was beginning to think that Maddy would indeed have a full row of 'shark teeth' behind her yet-to-fall-out-baby teeth, her first tooth FINALLY came out this evening. Her first adult tooth emerged sometime in the winter and is now fully grown in. The baby tooth in front is wiggly but doesn't seem to be coming out anytime soon. In the last couple of weeks or so, we noticed the two adult teeth beside the first adult tooth were also erupting. The baby teeth on the bottom front then started to wiggle more.

The last couple of days, as Maddy would eat, we'd sometimes hear a 'crack' from her mouth and she'd cry out in pain. Each time I thought for sure the tooth was out, but turns out that it was just the sound of her top teeth scraping on the loose one. YUCK!!! There were lots of tears and after trying all we could to wiggle the darn thing out, I called the dentist. They couldn't see us until Wednesday! Ugh. Maddy spent most of the day weepy and crying about her tooth. We went to the park and she didn't really even want to do the crafts. (That's HUGE.)

By the time Josh got home, we were still wiggling it. I even abandoned the idea of cooking dinner, because I wasn't really sure what she'd feel like eating anyway. Josh sat with her and we encouraged her wiggle and twist and wiggle and twist. Oh the tears!! You really could feel her fear, but how do you explain, "You really will feel better once the tooth is out" to a 6.5 year old?? You may laugh, but afterwards both Josh and I remarked about how the whole process reminded us of labour/childbirth! Each wiggling and twisting session, like a contraction. She'd cry and cry and have to stop to catch her breath before bracing herself to let us wiggle and twist again. It really did get to the point of no return because the tooth was literally just hanging there and for sure she couldn't eat like that. Finally, it came free and she was just so relieved, almost too relieved to feel all that happy about her first tooth. She even cried for a bit.

All I can say is THANK GOODNESS IT'S OUT!!! We went out for a celebratory dinner and before bed she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy. Such exciting times! Ok, I admit, not as exciting as a the birth of a new baby, but pretty close.

Houston, we have take off!

This morning Maddy decided she wanted to make a rocket ship. She LOVES to make all sorts of things often, so we don't usually take pictures of it all. This one lasted all day long, and the play afterwards was pretty funny, so I decided to capture the memory.

 Left to right, top to bottom:
1. Astronaut Maddy and Lt. Ethan manning the base at Mission Control
2. Good bye hugs to the brave mission specialist
3. Loading on to the space craft isn't as easy as it looks
4. Houston we are ready for take off

Left to right, top to bottom
5. An inside peek of the space shuttle. Yes, that is her lunch on the 'table'.
6. "Mission Control, the Earth looks AMAZING from up here. Orbit almost complete."
7. The astronaut is emerging, everyone is holding their breathe
8. SUCCESS!!

Revelstoke

The day after the block party, we left for Revelstoke. We made good time (even though we took the MUCH slower Westy) and arrived in plenty of time for Auntie Lyn's birthday party. We spent the week hanging out with family, crafting, going to the lake and hiking. Josh and dad worked on our Westy and Josh was very pleased with the results. Here are some pictures from the week.

Opa and Ethan heading for the shade while hiking in to see Begbie Falls.

 

This is the ATV that Opa bought for the grandkids. I wish I had video of Ethan's first time on the machine. 

#fullthrottle, #almostthrewjoshoff, #ethanlovingit

Oma taught us how to make stepping stones for the garden.

 

Campfire in the backyard.

 

We went out to Mara (near Sicamous) to visit Auntie Lyn and Uncle Aaron. 

Then we all went to Mara Lake, followed by our first trip to D Dutchman farms for ice cream. Fun day!

This is Scoobey the three legged dog. Ethan played for a long time with him. 

#bestfriends, #ithinkweareintrouble

 

Block Party

This year I was approached by our Block Watch captain and asked if I would help to organize the Block Party. It was a lot of work to do but in the end it was all worth the effort. The party was a success and I think that everyone had a great time.We managed to get Tim Horton's to bring coffee/hot chocolate and Time Bits for everyone, Burnaby Parks and Rec sent a park leader to do crafts and face painting, Pricesmart donated all ingridients for an ice cream sundae bar, Starbucks donated many gift bags for draw prizes, and Burnaby Neighbourhood House gave us a $500 grant to pay for Chinese Food and Pizza as main courses. The fire fighters brought a fire truck out for the kids to explore and the RCMP came to do a presentation on 'identity theft'. It was a great event and so nice to catch up with old neighbours and meets some new ones.

Happy Canada Day!

For Canada Day we went to Belcarra Park for a BBQ/picnic with some friends. The weather was awesome and though our original plans of going to White Pine Beach were change due to overcrowding, we still had a great time. I didn't get too many pictures, but here are just a few.

 

Sparks Camp

 One last shot of Maddy with her Sparks uniform and badges.

At the end of June, Maddy's girl guides group went on their annual camping trip to Camp Olave. The camp is on the Sunshine Coast and lasted 2 nights and 3 days. Leading up to the camp, Maddy was beyond excited for her adventure. Josh and I both had mixed feelings and were mostly just shocked that she was old enough to be away from home for that long.

It was definitely an odd feeling to have your child so far away and for an extended period of time. Especially because there was no way to find out if she was enjoying herself or not. We just focused mostly on spending tons of quality time with Ethan and he really enjoyed it. I do believe that by Monday afternoon, he was really missing Jeh-Jeh too.

Thankfully, Maddy had a great time and even shed a few tears upon her return (tears from missing camp). She loved her time at camp and I bet she's already looking forward to next year. Her leaders were kind enough to take photos and share them with us.

Camping: Nairn Falls

The weekend of my birthday we decided to take the Westy and camp over night near Pemberton. We spent the day in Whistler and enjoyed the sunshine, playgrounds and general people watching. It was the same weekend as the Tough Mudder event and it was crazy watching people arrive back in the village. Most of them were hobbling or limping their way back to hotels!

We arrived at the Nairn Falls campsite by about 4pm and had a bit of time to settle in and unpack. We shortly realized that the camper was missing the lighter that we usually have packed in there. Oops! Luckily Pemberton wasn't too much farther up the road and Josh was able to head into town and pick up some firewood and more matches. We had a great evening with just the four of us and the kids loved staying up for the campfire.

The next day we went for a hike to the falls before driving to Pemberton. There wasn't too much to see in the town of Pemberton but we had a nice picnic lunch there and then made our way back home. It was a quick trip but super nice to get out of the city for a bit. It was also great to get a 'tester' trip out of the way so we know what's missing from the camper and what to bring on future trips this summer.

Josh was super happy to test out his brand new axe.

 

I finally found the best way to make s'mores.