Pro-D Day and No Play Date!

My kids live a highly scheduled and structured life. My daughter is just one of those kids who thrives on doing STUFF, and her brother happily tags along.

Alyssa is a November baby, and I started her in Kindergarten when she was still four. She's in French Immersion, which she loves. in September '07, I fought the urge to enroll her in other activities other than school so that I wouldn't overwhelm her with her new 5 day a week schedule. However after a couple of weeks of "Mommy, why don't we have school every day? What are we going to do on Saturday and Sunday?" my credit card magically rose up out of my wallet and my fingers, seemingly possessed with minds of their own, were dialing the phone to the local parks and rec enrollment office.

So now, thank goodness, we still have swimming tomorrow even though there's no school. Yay!!!! (phew). Plus, I do get to sleep in a bit. I can`t lose sight of that ;-)

15 Heathly Loose Tooth Foods

OK here are some things I've been trying... This is one of those lists that's endless, so I know as soon as I publish this I'll think of ten more things!! LOL

1) Sliced banana (or any sliced fruit, for that matter)
2) Sliced avocado
3) Soup
4) Yogurt
5) Porridge
6) Whole grain pancakes
7) Cheese
8) Eggs
9) Peanut butter
10) Fruit smoothies
11) Cooked mashed veggies
12) Pasta
13) Rice pudding
14) Homemade pudding (made with real milk and reduced sugar)
15) Apple sauce

Kids and Asthma

Thank you, Dr. Rhonda Low, for pointing out that too clean isn't always better. I'm referring to her story about rising asthma rates in kids, and how under utilized immune systems (created from over clean environments) can overreact to benign things such as dust and pests.

Ah ha! Finally. My not vacuuming daily has been vindicated. OK so I'm a bit of a germaphobe with the kitchen counters and the toilets, but the carpets are lucky if they see the vacuum cleaner more than 2 or 3 times per week. Wahoo!!! Hey maybe I should do less laundry too. Hmmm. This theory definitely has potential. Hey, it's good for the kids, right?

Still Hanging

Actually it's a bottom front tooth, so technically it's not hanging. It's still firmly rooted in her little mouth, blocking entry to anything healthy that needs chewing.

I was lucky to get apple in her today - I sliced it into thin wedges, gave her some caramel dip, and showed her how to shove it in her mouth from the side (and told her it was OK to get caramel on her cheek). The sliced carrots would have been as easy to eat but apparently the lack of caramel dip for them was too much for her tooth to bear. At least the avocado slices were soft.

For breakfast she and her brother had peanut butter and banana (banana slices with dabs of PB on them), which made it past the tooth OK. The afternoon snack of ice cream went over well, although she didn't eat the cone, even though it was pink! (So maybe she IS telling the truth about her tooth hurting ;-)

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Refresh my memory, anyone - how long do these loose teeth take to fall out? At least she spends a lot of time wiggling it - showing people, checking it, scaring her brother (kidding, but I'm sure she wishes it did). I don't know why it's such an inconvenience to me - she's almost always been a picky eater. At least now, though, she has some kind of excuse...

Ouch

Ok I forgot (about the loose tooth). Oooooh, baaaad Mommy. I wash doing my "Mommy brush" of her teeth, vigorously battling my parental fears of inadequacy, when sure enough:

"OOOUCH!!"

Aw geez... as if I don't feel bad enough for not having the backbone to lance the blister on her foot ("NO Mommy, it will HURT!"), now I get to feel guilty about not paying enough attention to to her childhood dental milestones.

At least I hug her a lot. That should count for something, shouldn't it??