Emily's first teeth: the exodus

EMILY GOT HER FIRST TEETH THAT SHE HAD AS A BABY OUT AND IT'S SO ADORABLE YET SAD AT THE SAME TIME I JUST WANNA SQUEEZE HER SO SHE WONT GROW UP ANYMORE.

*ahem* I apologize. I lost my cool there.

As was previously stated, yesterday Emily went to the dentist to get her teeth taken out. She was a little worried about it but the dentist was so amazing and knew how to make her excited about it. I'm not gonna lie, I have a deeply rooted fear of the dentist. Whenever I smell the air in the room where they work on you, I get chills. Not the "aww this is beautiful" kind; the "HOLY CRAP TEARS HAVE BEEN SHED HERE" kind.

First, as i'm sure you all know but i'm typing it here for posterity, Emily had her gum line and her lip numbed. During the process, they gave her a syringe of something. While they were doing that, Kirsten kept turning to me, looking grim and like she was about to pass out. Being the strong, capable man I am, I leaped out of the chair I was on and whispered that it was ok. I also became nauseated and nodded at her.

Emily with her laughing

gas

While she was getting her laughing gas, she became hilarious to listen to. Here are two examples of things she was saying (she was screaming a lot of it):

"I CAN NAME TWO TOOTHED CAUSE THERE'S A LOT OF THEM!"

"WE HAVE THREE DOGS THEY KEPT ME UP AT NIGHT!"

When all was said and done, her two teeth "wiggled" out and afterwards she said "I don't wanna do this anymore" to which the dentist said "that's fine because we're all done!" She was very happy about the "all done" part. Emily was so incredibly brave and I am so proud of her. I was terrified it was going to be a nightmare keeping her still, but she just sat back and enjoyed it (as much as it could be enjoyed). Emily keeps surprising us in that way, when we think she will do what a normal kid does, she does the exact opposite. She was even trying to help the dentists with whatever she could help with.

We have an amazing child.

When Emily went to sleep, me and kirsten snuck into her room and took her baby teeth, exchanging it for real dollars as is the custom. Marveling at what these two teeth have been through, a small tear made its way down my cheek.

My baby is growing up.

Geocaching

At this very moment Emily and I are going Geocaching and she found it before I did. It's getting dark and I asked her how she could see it and she answered "my eyes are really strong I can see in the night."

Also: we have codenames in case anyone stops us; she's blumpkin and I'm blookey. GEOCACHING OUTLAWS.


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Location:University Dr,Richland,United States

This is, like, another blog post, like, for today.

This is to let everybody know that we're still alive and blogging. Also: today is the day we ran out coffee, and I have a terrible caffeine headache. This also happens to be the day Emily picks up saying "like" every other word.

Could these two be related?
Stay classy.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fall-ing...

It's turning fall around the edges here... Little hints of color along the highway when I drive Emily to school in the morning, The scent of burning leaves and cool air. Pulling out sweaters not seen since March, trying them on for size. We have the guys coming to inspect and clean the fireplaces on the 27th, and I cannot tell you how excited this makes me.

I'm always telling everyone who'll listen (usually my husband) that fall is, by far, my favorite season. I seem to be the only one in my family with this sentiment, as I usually get strange looks when I say this around my step mom, dad, and/or sisters. But, honestly, I loathe the hot weather, and I'm not a huge fan of weeks (or even days) of sunshine. I need some variation in my weather forecast, and that's where Fall fits the bill. You've got nice cool sunny days to enjoy the crisp air and fall colors, and you have crummy, rainy days to enjoy by curling up with a good book and a cup of tea. I also love the colors of fall, and I ESPECIALLY love the foods. In case you haven't noticed, I am a total foodie. I get excited over hard anodized cookware and elegant white serving dishes. So I love it when I can start making yummy rich fall soups and stews, homemade breads, and pumpkin muffins. Comfort food. I am all about comfort food. Just ask my thighs 

So today, in a fit of domesticity, I decided to make banana walnut muffins. Mostly because I had three bananas moldering in our fruit basket, but also because it just sounded so wholesome and delicious to me. Ok, oven preheated, flour, baking powder, sugar, milk, oil, banana, walnut, milk, egg... egg? No egg. Sweet. It was literally the last thing on the ingredient list, and the only thing I didn't have on hand. That'll teach me to bake unplanned in the future. 

This year, for the first time in my adult life, I am going to host Thanksgiving dinner at my house. This is the first year Daniel and I have had a house large enough to fit everyone comfortably, and a (matching) dining table to sit around. I've already started planning, and let me tell you, after so many years of dreaming of hosting my own Thanksgiving dinner, I am going to go fully Martha Stewart all over this holiday. There will be matching cloth napkins, handmade acorn placards, and whole apples and figs and whatnot surrounding a gargantuan, glistening, golden-brown turkey. 

Probably. 

Hiatus

So we've had a pretty long hiatus recently 'round these parts.. Because A. we've been really busy, and B. we've had an Internet crisis and have been without for oh, about two and a half weeks now. I'm actually writing this on my iPhone, which I can tell you, is the very definition of tedious. But I just can't make our loyal readers wait any longer for updates. So here goes:

Emily has learned many invaluable lessons from school, including (but not limited to) how to more legibly write her name, the absolute necessity of zhu zhu pets for the completion of one's life, and how to swing all on her own. Honestly though, she's such a bright, sweet kid that this whole school thing has been almost effortless, and the biggest stress has been remembering which colors and/or shapes correspond to which weeks and figuring out what to do with the reams of completed work she brings home.

Dan has been really enjoying his new golf obsession, and sharing in the madness with my dad and brother in law. They're all getting pretty good, and I'm contemplating getting Dan a matching plaid knickers/ vest/ cap set for Christmas.

Me: I've been really loving school and enjoying he heck out of work. I've been placed with an AWESOME freshman English class, with a really fun, young teacher. She has told me time and again how she already doesn't know what she'd do without me, so of course it's awesome to be needed, and to feel like such an integral part of the classroom. Every day I am reassured that this is indeed what I want to do with my career, and that I am going to love every moment of it.

So now you're pretty much caught up. And in case you were wondering if perhaps we were called away unexpectedly to France for business or something.. Well no. Not yet anyway.

First Day

So the past week has been a big one for us: it has been a time of talking, planning and buying for the very special event of Emily's first day of Kindergarten. We went clothes shopping, I spent a ridiculously long time searching frantically online for an adorable backpack that I saw in a magazine and felt that Emily simply had to have, and attended an orientation geared much more towards nervous parents than the kids.

So this morning I actually had to go in and wake Emily up at 7 (if any of you actually know our daughter, you will understand the irony of this), helped her put on her clothes she had picked out, and fed her breakfast. Then after the traditional first-school-day-picture-in-front-of-the-door (my sister and I have picture proof of our terrible fashion choices for almost our entire school careers), we hopped in the car and headed to Richland. Traffic was crazy and we ended up getting there after most of the kids had already gone into the classroom. It was still absolute pandemonium. It made me really pity the teachers and administrators, and question whether this is really the profession I want to be in. :)

We took her into her classroom, dropped off the last of her supplies, and reluctantly let her go when she pried us off of her. (Kidding. Kind of.) She sat down at her desk and started getting out her school supplies, while we slipped out the door. We looked at each other , sniffled a bit, and walked hand in hand back to our cars amidst other shellshocked parents and frazzled administrators.

Our baby. In Kindergarten. It's still unbelievable.

Retrospecticus

So, I always try to write about me, Kirsten, and Emily's life in a way that's entertaining and comedic. And, to the 5-6 people who've read this blog and have been following it, I give my deepest thanks. Nothing means more to me than knowing that people I care about, and in some cases I've never met before, follow so closely to the happenings of my family.

On that note, I want to talk a little bit about my wife.

Kirsten and I have had a lot of stress in our lives. I'm not belittling anybody else's stresses, but we've been through stuff that really, really tested our fortitude. I've done and said things that I am not proud of, and will probably regret for the rest of my life. One day, after a particularly grueling few months, when I looked over her shoulder, I found that she had made a blog. In fact, this very one. She started it when I moved to my parents house to start a new job in Kennewick while we find a place to live.

She never told me this blog existed.

I took a moment and read all the entries she had written while I was gone and I made the most obvious revelation in my life; Kirsten has the biggest heart of any person I know. I want the whole world to know how incredibly fortunate I am that the good Lord saw fit to give me the finest of His creations. Not only did He give me her, but He instilled upon her the patience to stick with me until I came to my senses.

Now don't get me wrong, she still:
- Begs me for a golden retriever every time she even thinks about one.

- Leaves drinks half finished. Everywhere.

- Brings home dogs she wanted to save (it happened once, but would've happened more if I wasn't there).

- Etc. Even I know when to quit lists

But, Kirsten is pretty damn near perfect in every way. And as long as I live, I will treat her like the queen she is. I promise. I swear. Hugo Weaving.

Well, tonight we are going to make rice crispy squares. I pretty much demanded it. I don't think I've ever made it, and I'm sure it's not that hard to make. But the delicious amalgam of marshmallow and rice crispies demands my attention.