a lost tooth

Hello, hello. How nice to be back. And what a story to reconnect with...

Henry B has lost his first tooth! That's right, one more milestone on the books.



It's been loose for weeks but today it was finally hanging by a string. Stephen and the boys stopped by my office after school and I asked Stephen to please wait until I got home to yank that sucker out. Of course, that A-hole didn't respect my request - not surprising at all!

So apparently Stephen used a wet washcloth to pull Henry's tooth out rather than waiting for Nature to do it's thing. But whatever. I am still driving this tooth fairy train. I found the cute printable and I took the pictures that we will remember forever. And there's still Wyatt - maybe I'll get to be the one who gets to rip out that little guy's first tooth with a damp cloth.

As I write this, Henry has placed the tooth under his pillow and is waiting impatiently for the tooth fairy to make her appearance. His tooth is placed in this super cute tooth fairy emergency kit that I found at Hellobee maybe a year ago!

 

Obviously, I can't be sure but I think the Tooth Fairy might leave Henry two dollars. She may have stopped by the Shell station on her way home for a pack gum and five bucks in ones after finally using the two dollars in her wallet to buy a cup of coffee after waiting three weeks for this tooth to take care of it's business on the exact same day Henry lost his tooth. Anyway, we'll see what the morning brings.



In the meantime, congratulations Henry!

Have you ever seen a more handsome boy? Nope. You know you haven't. He's beautiful, especially with that missing tooth.

screen time

Stephen received a Google Nexus 7 from my parents for Christmas. It was originally intended to be family gift but it ended up going to just Stephen. Not that any of that matters because the boys still play with it and consider it to be their tablet.

After we got to the condo on Christmas Day, Stephen downloaded the free version of Angry Birds and handed the Google Nexus 7 the boys. I told Stephen I felt as though we'd crossed over to the Dark Side.

I don't believe I've yet voiced my disdain for parents who do nothing but let their children play video games on any number of mobile devices. For some reason, I try to keep my more offensive thoughts to myself. But whatever, it's my blog. Stop reading if you let your two-year play with your iPhone - you'll probably be pissed at me because let there be no pretenses, I am judging you. Hard.

I'm also judging myself pretty hard. Nearly six weeks have passed since Christmas and the boys seem to be spending more and more time in front of one screen or another. It's cold outside. I'm currently trying to juggle more responsibilities than normal. All three boys have been stricken with either a cold or the flu.

What I'm saying is now that we have the Google Nexus 7 it's suddenly become a lot easier to give in. To just let them play games on either one of two laptops or the new tablet. Or to let them watch cartoons for hours on end while Stephen and I try to catch up on our sleep over the weekends.

But it's got to end! This is not the childhood I envisioned for my boys. No! I will not succumb!



And that's about as far as I've gotten with that parenting declaration. We've already failed at distributing screen time tickets in exchange for agreed upon chores. We've already failed at limiting screen time to 30 minutes each day following an invigorating jaunt outside for 30 - 40 minutes.

But fear not. I am sure I will come up with the perfect strategy for balancing screen time with the rest that life has to offer us - just as soon as I have the time or the energy. In the interim, I will continue to judge myself and second guess my parenting abilities. And most importantly, I will continue to believe that my babies are the most beautiful things on the plant, regardless that their heads glued to a tiny little screen and especially because they, on occasion, rock totally 80s homemade sweatbands.

it's always a good time

Over the Christmas break Henry and Wyatt attended theater camp for a second time - thanks Grandpa and Grandma! Theater camp is in Ketchum and starts the day after Christmas. So as I mentioned at my Christmas recap post, we took off for Ketchum on the 25th.

Last year Stephen and I joined the boys in Ketchum just in time for the recital and then we stayed through the new year. But this year, we all went up and spent a relaxing week in the condo. Anyway, back to theater camp!

I don't actually have much to say about theater camp other than I like sending my kids. It's good for them to get up on stage and interact with new kids. In the photos Henry looks less than thrilled to be there but he was sick all week and we still made him go to camp everyday. Of course he looks a little apathetic - we're so cruel.

The other thing I have to say about theater camp is that it brings me to tears. Happy tears, of course. I cried during the entire performance, regardless of whether my own children were on stage. Something about children singing and dancing and enjoying the simplicity of their youth hits me every time I attend any sort of childrens' activity. I'm weird like that.

Stephen is not weird like that but his head is big and mine is not.



Someone needs to teach those boys to dance! As a former dancer I seem to have failed them as a mother. You have to look closely for Wyatt in the first video. For whatever reason he was positioned in the back of the group, next to the Time Machine sign. But you can definitely see him in the second video, and after watching Henry dance in the first video and Wyatt in the second, you might agree with me that an immediate dance lesson intervention is absolutely necessary!



Aren't they just so cute! Wyatt had a speaking part and I just about missed taking a photo of his big debut. He had two lines:

                                 Has anyone seen Miss Franklin? She was just here.

and

                                 Aretha's on next? What will we do!

Oh! You might benefit from knowing the plot of the production. A bunch of children stop by a weird old professor's home and travel back in time to the 60s where they receive a lesson in music history. Good stuff.



I have one more thing to say about theater camp. It's organized and ran by good people. People we like and trust. People who know our mothers. People who've acted with Jack. I feel good about sending my babies there for the day. I guess I just add that because I like reminding myself of good things and good people. I like goodness. And now I'll stop because I am nearing the overly sentimental and positive outlook crap that drives me crazy in other blogs I sometimes (okay, all the time!) frequent.

And just because I can't help myself, here is one more video of my kids that you probably don't want to bother watching! But if you do, enjoy.

 

sew proud

I've never made any effort to hide my lack of humility in most all matters. When I know something to be true, I don't bother to pretend otherwise. For instance, if Stephen were to say to me, Hannah, you light up a room every time, I would not respond with a thank you. No, instead I would say, Yeah, I know.

The same holds true for my crafting accomplishments. When I am proud of myself, I will tell you! And I am super proud of the success of my most recent sewing project - mending jeans with patches!

I've attempted to patch the boys pants in the past but my efforts have all been half-assed because I've let myself be intimidated by the correct process of sewing patches. But not this time! This time I opted not to sloppily iron on some not-so sticky patches. Nope. This patch job is for real. I pulled each pant leg apart (six legs total) and actually sewed on patches I cut from last summer's shorts.

And not that I need to say it, but I am hella pleased with myself. It worked. The patches are holding up so far, plus they're super cute.



I should probably confess that the only reason I was able to throw caution to the wind this go round was because my mom just bought the boys new jeans. So if I totally and completely fucked up when taking the pant legs apart, my kids still had pants to wear. The stakes were much lower.

Also, I am not making any New Year's resolutions because I am tired of letting myself down - plus, shouldn't we all just be trying to be the best people we can be with the happiest lives ever because that's kind of point anyway? - but I am hoping that I make the time to try more sewing projects in the future because obviously, I've got potential. Here's to hoping!

snow day

It's been dumping snow all week and all I can say is, finally! Because it finally feels like a real winter. I'm not a big fan of being cold but I absolutely despise being cold without the joy of a snowy landscape. Finally.

It snowed all day Monday and most of the day on Thursday. In fact, school was cancelled across the valley and Henry and Wyatt had their first snow day ever! No doubt they went sledding with their dad and few friends.



I miss snow days. Do you?

christmas recap

Are you ready for the longest post ever? Actually, it's not that long and I'll go easy on the text.

Our Christmas was fantastic. My grandparents hosted dinner on Sunday. Everyone but Dylan was there. It was awesome. As we all (we meaning my cousins) grow older it becomes more difficult to get everyone in the same room but we managed to get it done this year - sans Dylan.

Tom has much better photos from that evening but these will do. After a delicious feast of prime rib, we opened gifts. The littler kids still get a handful of gifts to open. The older kids get a a big'ol wad of cash and this year my grandmother also bought fingerless gloves for all the boys and toe socks for all the girls. It was pretty silly.

 

Not pictured are the photo calendars I made for each of my grandparents. I used pictures of all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. They make memorable gifts - in my opinion - but if only I could remember the actual year my grandparents got married because this lapse in memory totally botched my thoughtful gift. The cover of the calendar reads: The Straubhars, est. 1953. Except that's not the year they got married - it was 1956!!!!!

I am now 0 for 2 when it comes to giving gifts with the est. date. Last year I made a print for my parents that read: The Mikesells, est. 1979. Except that's the year I was born not the year they were married! Pointless story, but worth telling on the off chance that someone finds my inability to count or remember dates entertaining.

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and Jack. My grandparents stopped by for a bit as well on their way to a crab cook at my aunt and uncle's house. Stephen and Jack did a splendid job preparing rack of lamb and mussels - there is actually a disproportionate amount of food pictures from that evening. But we all know that if I love anything in this world it's a big'ol chunk of meat.

 

After my grandparents snuck out we opened gifts. Tom came away with the biggest haul - Dana got him a new bike! I also think Tom and Dana were pleased with the homemade yet thoughtful and quality gifts we crafted for them. We had a good bit of fun opening gifts and chatting before everyone left around 8:30 pm.



Even though the boys got to bed by 9 pm they still slept in. I don't think we were up and out of bed before 8 am. It didn't help that Henry had a cold (maybe even the flu). Wyatt was up for nearly 45 minutes before we decided to wake Henry.

Opening gifts didn't take very long since we were adhering the read, want, need, wear trend. You know how I hate anything matchy-matchy but when it comes to gifts, we keep it pretty even. The boys each got a new bike from Santa. This was their need gift. I didn't snap a picture but these bikes are legit. And they'd better last a long time because Santa paid a lot of money for them!

To read they each got three Easy-Reader books from National Geographic. To wear, I sewed them each two pairs of pajama bottoms and made graphic tees with their personal spirit animals, a squirrel and a bald eagle respectively. As always, I was super pleased with my ability to be crafty and I was equally as pleased that the boys are still young enough to think my creations are cool. Also, I already had all the materials I needed for the wear gifts save two bottles of fabric paint costing about a buck fifty total!

Henry and Wyatt had to share their want gift, which I suppose is one of the burdens of being a twin. They have had to endure their fair share of shared gifts over the years and I imagine the sharing will only continue. Anyway, we gave them this crappy plastic Bey Blade dome thing that they've literally played with three times because it doesn't work well. But I was expecting this. It's the reason we only bought one!



Stephen and I don't exchange gifts but I wrapped up a pair of lounge pants he knew I was making for him - he selected the pattern and the print. We were both super pleased with the final product. Me because I made the pattern from scratch and the pants fit! Stephen because the pants are just his kind of hideous plus they're cozy!



Between opening gifts and hosting brunch with the Crumrines, we made a quick Skype call to Dylan who was enjoying Christmas in France with a buddy. Then we started pulling together yet another delicious holiday meal. But don't worry, we took a break to open gifts with Glenn, Stephanie, and Tia-D.

The boys scored some fun gifts, this Foosball table being one of them. Again, I think our homemade gifts went over well, although for a brief moment Diana thought we bought her pancake mix from Trader Joe's. Luckily for her I'd just run out of regular gift boxes.



PS. You can catch a glimpse of one of those awesome new bikes in the picture above. It also substitutes as a coat rack.

In addition to our homemade gifts, I gave Stephanie framed family photos taken by the photographer at Wes and Melissa's wedding in June. They were so amazing that Glenn and Tia-D felt compelled to ooh and aah over them!



And then it was time to eat! Stephen made a scrum diddly umptious crab souffle and Tia-D brought fresh fruit and scones. We also had scrapple - a classic Crumrine traditional Christmas brunch staple. If you don't know what scrapple is, you should really click that link. I will tell you that scrapple is some hella good shit and I look forward to the one morning a year that scrapple is placed on the table!

 

After brunch we high-tailed it out of there and headed up to Condo Town for a five-night stay in our snowy little haven - another post. Although don't hold your breath, I am way behind in my story telling!

Also, I lied. This post was heavy on the text. I guess I just had a lot to say after weeks of silence.

Hope you all had a nice holiday and are enjoying the New Year!