Miles Tooth Saga

Miles lost his tooth Tuesday morning before school. He was so excited!! He has not let anyone wiggle his tooth for fear that they might pull it. I am not sure exactly how his tooth came out, I sent him up to brush his teeth and he can down holding it, so I don't know if actually fell out on its own or if he finally pulled it. We hurried and took a picture, put the tooth in a glass in the kitchen window sill and off he went to school.

When he got home from school he asked for his tooth, I told him, "I think that you should leave it in the window sill so that we don't loose it before tonight and so that the tooth fairy will find it."

So.....on we went with the after school rush: homework; dinner; baseball game and then home after bed time so we are in rush mode to get baths and in bed.

Now the saga starts:
Troy leaves to go help one of his home teaching family and Miles come down to get his tooth ready for the tooth fairy. He writes her a note asking that she leave his tooth and money. He decides that he wants to put it in a ziplock bag under his pillow. We put it in a bag and go for his tooth and it is not in the window sill. "Miles" I ask "where is your tooth?"
"On the counter."
"On the counter? I thought that I asked you not to play with your tooth?"
"I know, but I really wanted to see it, so I got it down and left it right here on the counter!" Now the sobs starts. As we both look at the counter where he is pointing and see an empty counter.

While the Troy was bathing the boys, I cleaned up the kitchen. In my hurry to get it done I grabbed every on the counter and threw it in the dishwasher without thinking that one of the glasses that I grabbed might have a tooth in it. I look in the sink, and the disposal, in the dishwasher, everywhere. Miles is now hysterical, I am thinking it is 9:00 we have got to get you bed, you never wake up in the morning. So, I write the tooth fairy a noted tell her that I accidentally threw Miles tooth down the sink when I cleaned up the kitchen and to please leave him money. We place it under his pillow, with him still crying. I feel horrible. When Troy get home we look again for the tooth, but to no avail.

3:00am:
Miles come running into my room wailing! I am thinking that he must have fell off of the bunk bed and broke his arm, but no....he is upset because he just found the money that the tooth fairy left and is upset at "that stupid tooth fairy left him a dollar!" Honestly?!?!? Who starts checking for the tooth fairy money at 3:00 in the morning? Who get upset at free money? And what was he expecting? So the waling continuing for 2 HOURS!!!

Wednesday 7:30am:
Miles is still crying about his tooth, and the money and I am so ready for him to be a school so that I don't have to hear about it anymore. I am tired through his wailing and yelling, he woke up his brothers, so I got like zero sleep from about 3:00 on.

3:00pm:
I pick up Miles from school, thinking that he is going to be so happy because we are going to the library for WOW Wednesday. NO! He starts crying the second the door on the van closes, about how I lost his tooth, and how the tooth fairy only left a dollar. So, then I make the stupid mistake of asking "well did you even ask your friends how much they got for their teeth? Maybe they all got the same thing." I should have known, of course he asked everyone in his class and then proceeds to tell me everyone who lost a tooth and how much they got. Some of the kids got $5, $10 and $20 for tooth......are you joking me? I told Miles, they must have lost their teeth before the recession and the tooth fairy must have cut her prices.

He gets control of himself and calls Grandpa to tell him the news about his lost tooth and wants to collects on the $1 that Grandpa told him he could have when he lost his tooth. But, the crying started all over again when he finds out that we don't have time to go to their house.

At the library he know longer crying, but still going on and on about this tooth. I am wearing thin. So I ask "well how much did you think you were going to get?"
"Like $265."
"What!!! Teeth are not even close to worth that much."
"Yeah they are...Aidan told me that if it was a gold tooth I could have got like 20 hundred dollars."
"Well you didn't loose a gold tooth, and even a gold tooth is not worth 20 hundred dollars."

5:00pm:
Back in the car going home, he is crying again. I am now angry thinking how could I have raised such an ungrateful child. I tell him, "did you know that when I lost my teeth I only got 50 cents?" Then I go on to explain that it was two quarters and that I would have to loose 2 teeth to get what he got. Then he starts saying that he wishes he would have got 2 quarters instead of one dollar. Now I have come to the realization that I have been arguing with a child over a dollar when he has no concept of money. Also, during the ride home he confessions that he thought he was going to get enough money to go buy new legos.

I try to explain that loosing teeth is not Easter or Christmas, you don't get big presents for it....just a little bit of money from the tooth fairy in exchange for your tooth. So, he needs to saves his money from all his teeth and then he can buy a new lego. I think he gets it now. Crying has stopped and I don't hear anymore about this tooth.

8:00pm:
Bed time - Miles is crying again....guess what about. I guess he didn't get it.

10:00pm:
Troy and I are now talking about this dumb tooth....honestly it is consuming our life.

Friday 3:00pm:
I go get Miles from school. We haven't heard about the tooth in a day. As we are walking out of school he point to Payton and says, "Payton just lost his tooth and got $5.00 and the tooth fairy left fairy dust all over his bed." OH HEAVEN HELP ME!!! Here we go again.

My solution: I told Miles that the next tooth he looses he will leave a note and let the tooth fairy know that this is the second tooth that he lost, and that he doesn't think that the tooth fairy knew that the other tooth he lost was his first one. Because, as Miles has taught me, you get paid more for the first tooth than the subsequent teeth.

Who would have ever thought that the simple thing of loosing a tooth could turn into a week long saga.

The San Antonio Tea Party

Troy and I went down to the San Antonio Tea Party yesterday. What an experience!! Troy was working in Austin so we decided to be in San Antonio about 2:00 for the Glenn Beck program at 4:00, the tea party started at 6:00. When we got to San Antonio it took us about an hour to find a parking spot. That was went we realized that it just might have a good turn out. After we parked and walked to the Alamo we were able to stand across the street from the stage, and then after his program we were able to move up closer for the rest of the rally.

During the rally they told us that there was about 15,000 people there. Together we prayed for this country and our leaders. We sang "God Bless America" and said the pledge of allegiance. What an incredible experience to be that many people singing, praying and reaffirming that we are "one nation under God." During the rally we heard speakers remind us are a government for the people by the people. That we have a constitution that was written to give us rights and liberties and to insure that we are protected by the government, but not to be ruled and dominated by the government. I loved it!! I do believe in the constitution and do believe that we are a choice a nation. I do also believe that we have some government officials that have taken on more control and over stepped their bounds with all the bailouts, taxes and spending. One thing that I have learned from this experience is that I need to become more active in the elections - both local and national - and make sure that I vote for honest men that will represent my beliefs and stand by the constitute and the rights that I have been given. I think that I have become complacent by just voting for a party and not for the person.

This is the video I made of our rally.

I'm Not Into This

Miles came home from school today dramatic throws himself on the couch and said "I am so not into this". I asked "into what?"
"Lily asked me to be her boyfriend and I just think that I am not into this". I am now picking myself up off the floor. "What?!" I am thinking to myself , "you are 6! What in the world do you know about boyfriends yet?!" I couldn't believe it. I was not ready for this. I guess that figured that he would be closer his pre-teen/teenage years before I heard this conversation. So, I asked calmly "what did you say to Lily?"
"Nothing. I just hide my head like this (showing me how he hid his head in his elbow) and then I fell over like I was dead like this (now falling over and hanging his tongue out of the side of his mouth and rolling is eyes into the back of his head)."
I again was shocked in silents. First, I am shocked that he asked to be someones boyfriend, and then I am shocked that pretended like it killed him. I guess that I am glad it said no - I am guessing falling over dead means no. But, I am also glad that we 10 more years to prefect how to say no to girls politely. I am wondering if the rest of the story play out something like: Lily runs away crying and goes homes telling her mom that she hate boys and never wants to see Miles Whatcott again.
When asked Miles, "What did Lily do when you fell over?" He just shrugged his shoulders.

First Bike Ride

I am getting ready to ride in the MS150 with Rod in May. Today I did my first group ride with Rod. We rode 35 miles, it fun and hard! We started out first thing in the morning, everyone was so nice to me and helpful getting my bike set up. When we started the ride it was cold and windy, then it started raining. I was so grateful that Rod gave me one of his windbreakers to wear. I was going to wear my sweater - I think that I would have been miserable and it would never have dried. We did some hills and the wind was blowing so hard that we had to peddle down the hills. So this was an experience for me. I am very proud of myself for finishing the ride. I thought that when I was done I would not be able to walk, but it wasn't to bad. In two weeks it is 60 miles - I better kick up my training during the next two weeks.

Miles Tooth

Most of Miles friends have been loosing their teeth. He got to send the night over at a friends house a couple of weeks ago and while he was there his friend lost a tooth and tooth fairy came. So, Miles has been anxiously waiting for a loose tooth. For weeks he has been asking me, "is this a loose tooth?" As a feel his teeth and there are no loose teeth. Well today he was in playing Lego's and then came running into my room - "I have a loose tooth!" Sure enough he has a loose tooth. He is so excited!! He said that he was biting his Lego's to take them apart and felt his tooth move. I bet that he starts biting a lot more Lego's. I don't think that he is excited about loosing his teeth - he is excited for the tooth fairy to come and leave him so money.

Spring is Here

I love spring. I love emerging from a dark and dreary winter to the light cheerful spring. I have my little signs of springs: I watch for the Tulips, my favorite flower; the Bradford Pear trees are my indicator trees, the first to get blossoms in the spring, first to turn bright red in the fall; the grass starting to turn green, and the urge to be outside and enjoy the sun.

The boys spring indicator: SWIMMING!!!

They have been wearing shorts for most of the month, and everyday that it is sunny I am asked "can we swim yet?" So, today the answer was "Yes". We heated up the pool for the boys. They were in it most of the day. We even had a fire in the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.

Welcome Spring!!

Spring Break in Austin

Troy has been working in Austin for a couple of days a week for a few months now. We knew that he would probably have to go to Austin during spring break. So we decided to all go down with him. Thankfully Troy's sister lives in Austin and was so gracious to let us all stay at her house with last minute notice. The boys had a great time jumping on the trampoline int he mornings while Troy worked and Drew had a new slew of dogs to terrorize.

While we were there I got to see some of the area and where Troy is building his pools. We ate at this awesome restaurant that over looked Lake Travis. The lake looked so nice and blue - our lake in Dallas are more green/brown disguising. I think that we all would have like to have the boat and go for a drive around the lake. We were invited to go for a cruise by one of Troy's homeowners - but sometimes it is hard to do "friendly" things with people that owe you money...so we reluctantly declined. Although, I bet that Troy has our boat in that lake before the summer is over.

I really wanted to take the kids to the LBJ library. I love to learn about history, and thought what a great opportunity to learn about a president of the United States. I thought that the library was cool - the boys were bored - Troy's dislike for LBJ deepened. I thought it was interesting and will make a point to visit more of the presidential libraries. Even if you don't agree their policy they still are a part of history that shaped our country for good or bad. We also had a good time walking around the botanical gardens that they had downtown. I am embarrassed to say that I have never to the Dallas Arboretum - and don't even know where it is for sure. So it seems a little strange that we drive 3 hours to go the Austin gardens. They were beautiful. Downtown Austin was having the SXSW festival so we could hear some the bands playing as we walked around. It was very cool.