Sydney's Birthday (and a tooth fairy pillow)

This past Monday was Sydney's birthday, and we went up to my parents' house to have a family party and spend the week with them. My mom's birthday was yesterday, so we were able to spend the day with her as well. We just returned today for the weekend, because the kids have their Christmas program on Sunday night and a rehearsal tomorrow morning.

When I took Sydney shopping to pick out her birthday decorations, she said that she wanted Strawberry Shortcake stuff. Well, as we walked through the party section of Wal-mart, she spotted some snowman plates with coordinating napkins that had polka dots (Soooo Cute!) and decided that she wanted that. It's a good thing she found (and liked) these first, because the "kid's section" of party decorations did not have Strawberry Shortcake. Well, we proceeded to pick out balloons and stuff and found that Wal-mart only has one brand of balloons now. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought they used to carry a wider variety of balloons. Anyway, we got some blue and white balloons that matched Sydney's snowman theme.

Well, we will NOT be buying these balloons again! Apparently, Larissa is now allergic to yet another thing. Look what blowing up balloons did to her...

I asked her if she could smile for me...here's her attempt...

We don't know if the balloons had latex or what and if that's what she's allergic to, but her face blew up like a balloon (no pun intended). She was pretty miserable for the rest of the day and even into the next day.

My niece, Kelly, decorated a banner for Sydney's party. I thought that was really sweet of her and that she did a great job on it.


Sydney chose a carrot cake for her birthday cake. The cream cheese frosting looks like it was melting off of the cake, but it wasn't. =) It just wasn't as thick as a regular frosting for some reason, but it tasted great!


We used to just get those number candles for the girls' birthdays, but for the last few years, they've been requesting the individual candles. Sydney had a hard time getting all of them blown out at once. Here's attempt number one...

Here's attempt number two...

That last one just doesn't want to be blown out....

Finally...she got it! =)

Licking the icing off of the candles is a MUST and is sooo much fun! =)

Here's all the cousins. You can see the snowman plates and dotted napkins on the table...they were sooo cute! =)

Among Sydney's presents was a new outfit that Alyx helped to pick out for Sydney. It was a Hello Kitty shirt with some khaki pants. This was one of my favorites, so that's why I'm highlighting it. =) I thought it was really cute, because the picture on the front was in reverse on the back side of the shirt. Here she is right after she opened it...


Here she is the next day, modeling the front and back of her new outfit. I know...her hair is hanging in her face. She really doesn't like for me to put anything in it, but sometimes I just have to make her, because I get tired of not being able to see both of her eyes all the time. =)



On a side note, I just recently finished Sydney's tooth fairy pillow. She was thrilled with it and is now excitedly awaiting her first loose tooth. =) She chose the same type of yarn that Larissa did, so it's very fuzzy and difficult to make out the tooth fairy angel on the front. They love them, and that's all that matters. =)

We're still alive...barely

I'm beginning to get a little bit concerned about the coming cool weather and the sickness that it inevitably brings. My girls seem to be catching everything that's going around. This is the third time in the last 2 months that they have been sick. Sydney is running fever again, and they have that deep, painful-sounding cough. I hear that other people in the church have the same thing, so I guess that's probably where they caught it.

This has served as a reminder that I need to teach them (again) about germs and the importance of washing hands and keeping their hands out of and away from their mouths. You would think that once they get past the baby/toddler phase of putting everything in their mouths, you wouldn't have to stay after them quite so much, but I have caught them so many times just this week sticking one or two fingers in their mouths. Ewww, gross! I can't stand it!

Do you think they could be doing it on purpose? They know that when they are sick, we don't do school, and they get to lay around and watch movies. Surely they aren't that smart, yet! =)

Oh, well...this too shall pass. Please pray that they get better soon. I think I'm going to go work on some crocheting. I recently started Sydney's Tooth Fairy Pillow, because we anticipate her losing her first tooth in the next few months. We're enjoying "Toy Story" right now, so...."To infinity and beyond!" =)

The Tooth Fairy must have been busy last night...

Before we went to my parents' house this past weekend, Larissa showed us that she had a loose tooth. It wasn't about to fall out, so I figured it could just wait until we got back home to pull out and put in the Tooth Fairy pillow. Well, she could not leave it alone, and by Sunday evening, it was sticking straight out only hanging by a thread. We teased her that Papa (my dad) was going to have to get the pliers after it. That's how he used to pull some of our teeth when we were kids. Larissa didn't care though--she has a high tolerance for pain and has not cried once during a tooth-pulling session. When she showed Papa her tooth, he said, "Aw, we don't need the pliers." He reached in and pulled her tooth out without any trouble. He did it so quickly and effortlessly that I actually had to ask him if he got it. =) Larissa was thrilled! Here she is with Papa...


We decided that we didn't want to do the whole Tooth Fairy thing until we got back home, so we told Larissa that the Tooth Fairy wouldn't come to Granny and Papa's house and that we'd have to wait until we got home. =) She was fine with that--I think she was just glad to get that tooth out of her mouth.

We got home Monday evening and honestly forgot about the tooth. I spotted it just after I had put the girls to bed last night, so I took it in their room and gave Larissa her Tooth Fairy pillow to put in bed with her.

This morning when I came into the kitchen, Alyx looked at me wide-eyed and said, "Did you hear the news?" I had no clue what she was talking about. She proceeded to inform me that the Tooth Fairy did not come last night and that Larissa still had her tooth.

Oops! I wondered if that would ever happen. We've been so good about remembering in the past. I guess we were just extra tired last night and forgot to go back in there after they went to sleep.

They were all venturing guesses as to why the Tooth Fairy had not come. Alyx thought that maybe since it had rained during the night, she didn't want to get all wet. They also thought that maybe the Tooth Fairy had too many kids to go to last night and just wasn't able to make it to us. I said that maybe it was because we did it at the last minute and it was so late.

She better not forget tonight! I don't know what I'll say to them. =)

Here she is sticking her tongue through her two empty spaces.

All she wants for Christmas...

...is her two front teeth!

I tell you...we are keeping the Tooth Fairy busy this week! Larissa lost her fourth tooth last night, and she has two more that are loose. I'm afraid she'll have to go on a liquid diet soon. =)

Check out her toothless grin...

Third time's a charm...

Yesterday morning after breakfast, Larissa wanted to show me how loose her tooth was getting and begged me to take her picture, so of course I did. =) If you couldn't tell by the title of this post, this will be the 3rd tooth that she's lost.



After Jason left for work, I set the girls up with 3 baskets of laundry to fold, and I went to get my shower. When I finished getting ready, I came out of my room and the girls were all standing around just outside my door. Immediately I could tell something had happened. Larissa was looking at me kind of funny, and she had her lips closed tightly together. I kept saying, "What? What?" Larissa just kept smiling bigger and bigger with her lips still closed. It finally hit me, and I asked, "Did you pull your tooth?"

There it was...she finally opened her mouth and exposed the gaping hole! That girl has the highest tolerance of pain I have ever found in a child. She actually let me pull one of her teeth one time when it was hardly loose, and she never shed a tear or even flinched! That will serve her well in the future! =)

Look how cute she is...



She was very thrilled to find that the "Tooth Fairy" had visited last night.

What kind of traditions do you have concerning the Tooth Fairy? I have crocheted a Tooth Fairy Angel pillow for both Alyx and Larissa - Sydney hasn't needed one yet but will soon, I'm sure. (FYI: I get a lot of free patterns at Crochet Pattern Central and there are other choices for Tooth Fairy pillows on the "pillow" pattern page.) They each get to choose the color/style of yarn that they want, and Larissa's choice definitely portrays her personality. She chose a bright-colored, fuzzy yarn that makes it kind of difficult to make out the "Angel" on the front, but she loves it and that's all that matters, right? =)

This is a picture of her with her pillow last year when she lost her first tooth.



Using a Tooth Fairy pillow is much easier than having to dig under their pillow, because it just sits at the head of their bed next to their regular pillow. The "Angel" on the front is actually a pocket where the child can leave their tooth and the "Tooth Fairy" can leave her payment for taking the tooth. =) At our house, the Tooth Fairy leaves $1.00 and sometimes a special little note congratulating them on losing a tooth and for being so brave. What does she leave at your house?

The kids have been questioning the reality of the Tooth Fairy for some time now, but I just try to sidestep their questions without lying. They ask things like, "Mommy, are you the Tooth Fairy?" and I'll answer with something like, "Have you ever seen me wear a tutu?" That usually makes them laugh, and the subject quickly gets changed. The questions are getting more pointed, though, and I'm afraid the truth will have to come out soon. I'm pretty sure that Alyx and Larissa already know, but I've told them that if they don't believe there's a Tooth Fairy, she might not leave them anything. I know, I'm so mean! I'm just trying not to ruin things for Sydney, since she's going to start losing teeth in the next year or so. =)