3 Teeth Later…

The day has come and gone. My poor little guy is toothless. 4 days ago I took Aidan in to the dentist for his scheduled appointment to have 3 teeth pulled. I was a nervous wreck and he was calm…before the storm. I had been preparing him for 2 weeks for this moment and would reassure him whenever he would tell me he was nervous. I, honestly, didn’t know exactly what to expect but it was so much worse than I thought it was going to be.

This is a video of him before we went in to the dentist. He was in such a cheery mood!

I could tell it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park by the assistants expression when I told her I didn’t want him to be gassed. Last time Aidan was put under his breathing was extremely labored for 2 hours after coming out. It was such a terrifying experience, I didn’t want to risk something like that happening again, especially not in a dentist’s office.

So, the first thing they did is put a numbing gel on his gums. He screamed bloody murder at that! Oh man, this was going to be bad. I have to let it be known that Aidan is dramatic. He has always been but even I was surprised at his screaming with the numbing gel. I asked the assistant if this meant he wouldn’t feel anything from here on out and she said that he would still feel pain because the top front teeth are the most sensitive. Great.

After a few minutes the dentist came in and gave him 10 million shots in his gums. I watched as I held his arms down. I felt his pain:(

10 minutes later the dentist came back and stuck what looked like a flat head screw driver in between two of his teeth and wiggled it to loosen then. Aidan screamed at the top of his lungs and I squeezed my eyes shut tight while holding his arms and legs down. Usually, I will watch whatever is done to my kids because I feel like I need to so that I can understand what they have gone through. This time I couldn’t. His screams were enough to convince me that he was in terrible pain and would need lots of love and comfort from his mommy when it was all over. It wasn’t more than a minute before I decided to look up and watched as the final tooth was pulled. They stuffed his mouth with gauze and I picked him up and snuggled him while he sobbed.

It was such a horrible, traumatic experience for him. I felt so bad. We sat there for about 3-5 minutes when the assistant came over and gave him 3 tokens for the toy machines. He stopped crying instantly! That is when I got these pictures:

 

Are these not the saddest eyes you’ve ever seen?

After it was all done, we went to pick up the girls from my friend, Jessica’s house. Aidan loves Jessica’s son, Reese and actually cheered up a bit when I told him where we were going. When we got there, Aidan went straight to the back with a mouth full of gauze, to play with Reese. He seemed to be doing ok so we stayed for a little over an hour and when I went to check on him he was jumping on the trampoline! I was shocked at how quickly he bounced back. The dentist had mentioned that he would probably need some Tylenol when we got home but I asked him if his mouth hurt and he said, “Nope! Not even a little bit!”

He hasn’t complained once since having his teeth pulled:) I was so worried about what he would look like without teeth but I actually think he looks and sounds super cute!

The Tooth Fairy almost forgot to visit but thank goodness she remembered and gave him 12 quarters! She could have given him 3 dollar bills but she knows that Aidan thinks 4 quarters is so much cooler than 1 dollar!

All is well that ends well, right?

Annoyed And Going Private

For some annoying reason I’ve been getting a ton of spam comments on my blog. It’s driving me crazy so I’m gonna go ahead and make my blog private. I can only think of a handful of people that read my blog anyway so if you wouldn’t mind just leaving your e-mail in the comments I’ll add you to my list. I’ll probably do it in the next couple of days because I really can’t take the annoying spam! If anybody has any suggestions of anything else I can do to stop the spam, please let me know:)

CURSE YOU SPAM!

The Great Grandparenting Adventure: By Grandma Baker

First, I have to say, Grandma Baker is THE BEST! Not only did she and grandpa fly all the way out here from Missouri to watch our 3 little handfuls, but she also documented it all for me! I asked her if she would piece together a blog post of their 7 day adventure and she did, along with pictures! I sure love her! Here is their week back in Utah while Rich and I were on our cruise:

The Great Grandparenting Adventure

We had a wonderful “grandparenting adventure” last month when Jessica and Rich went on their cruise! I must say we were a little apprehensive…what would we do for a whole week with three grandkids ages 3, 4 and 5? Well, we found plenty to do!

Mornings were a sleepytime…

Climbing in bed with grandma and grandpa.

We were slow to get up and around…but that was ok!

It took a long time to put together a giant puzzle one morning and then we found it had 1 piece missing. We found that all three kids are masterful at puzzles! (Side note: I was told that they later found the missing piece but by then Arabella had destroyed the puzzle.)

On Sunday it was a beautiful sunny day to go to church together.

We discovered a park up the hill from home and took a hike up to play in the sand.

We brought the kids bubble blowers so we spent one morning blowing bubbles and catching them!

The kids loved to bicycle and ride their scooters anytime of the day!

We discovered a great bowling alley on base and they had slides for the kids to roll their balls down…perfect!!

Oh there was so much to do! The kids loved being outside so we spent one morning playing baseball! Aidan was quite the hitter!

And Maya was quite the gymnast on her jungle gym!

Later we washed the windows to get ready to celebrate spring.

We hiked to the splash pad a block away and though the water wasn’t turned on yet, we pretended it was!

Later on, Maya wanted to plant pretty flowers so she picked out her favorites and we brought them home to plant.

Making Rice Krispie treats was a real “treat” for Arabella!

We made cookies too.

When our week was up we were sad to leave our Utah family but knew it wouldn’t be too long before we would have another adventure together!!

The End

Aren’t they the greatest? I know that there was so much more to be written about their adventures but here we got a little glimps into the great fun they had. Our kids had so much fun and still tell me all about the fun stuff that Grandma let them do. I don’t know if I can live up to her! We are so blessed to have the world’s best grandparents for our kids!

Kids Favorite Song

Every time this song comes on Pandora the kids think it’s the funniest thing in the world! Besides Gangnam Style, this is their favorite song as of late.

Update 5/24/2013

Picture of the girls watching this video:)

Update 5/26/2013

Maya singing “Mahna Mahna”

Time To Let Them Go

5 months ago Aidan’s front teeth were knocked back. (Story HERE) We tried really hard to hold on to them but sadly, the time has come to let them go. I took him to the dentist last week and Aidan is now on an antibiotic and scheduled to have three teeth pulled in 3 days on Thursday.

At the dentist:

 

It’s so bad of me but I’ve realized how vain I am when it comes to my kids. I’m so, so sad that he isn’t going to have his super cute smile anymore. I think it partially has to do with him growing up too. You know how when they lose their baby teeth their adult teeth come in and they are huge! It just kind of makes it official that they are growing up and will never be little again. I’m pretty sure this is going to be much harder on me than on him. Gonna miss that baby teeth smile!

Speaking of this silly little guy, here is a video of him singing in the shower. He makes me laugh!

Also, this is a picture he drew in church. He said he is reaching out for a hug. Bet you didn’t know I have a red head kid with green eyes, did you?

Feels Like Spring…Finally!

It has finally gotten warm enough for the kids to play in the sprinkler! They have been asking almost daily when they would be able to play at the splash pad just down the street. My response in the beginning was when the snow melts. The snow on the ground melted and they were ready to go out, even though it was 50 degrees outside. My new response has been, when the snow melts on the mountains:) Well, the snow on the mountains hasn’t melted yet and the splash pad isn’t open yet but it has gotten in the mid 80’s so it was sprinkler time!

Mother’s Day 2013

Mother’s Day was last week and I have to say, even though Rich wasn’t here to treat me like a queen, it was a good day! The kids were good, we made it to church(late) and our friends the Jarnot’s had the kids and I over for a BBQ! I missed Rich but my mother’s day was filled with love and fun with the little one’s that made me a mother.

Fun fact: Every single time I say, “Look at me and say CHEESE!” Arabella looks off to the side and says cheese. Every time.

Me after about 10 picture attempts: “Listen kids, it’s Mother’s Day and I’m gonna get this picture! Whoever looks at me and smiles gets M&M’s!” The result? Arabella looking constipated…I’ll take it.

 

 

This Mother’s Day I felt so blessed. Next year I’ll have another little Baker girl to make me feel even MORE blessed, if that’s even possible.

Baby Girl ~ 26 Weeks

Well, I was really going to try to keep up with the weekly picture updates of baby girl’s growth but Rich has been TDY and that really threw me for a loop. While I really hate taking self pics with my phone, I just really don’t have much of an option right now so here are a couple of baby bump pics:)

~25 weeks~

~26 weeks~

Taken today

Maybe next time I won’t be running so late to church and I’ll actually clean the mirror before taking a belly pic!

I feel huge and can’t believe that I still have 3 months to grow! How big will I get this time around? We shall see!

Mexican Riviera Cruise!

And THIS is exactly why I shouldn’t have taken complete advantage of my 7 day opportunity to relax and do nothing! I knew that if I didn’t take a few minutes to blog on the cruise I would never get to it. Here I am, over 2 weeks later, finally sitting down to post about the most amazing getaway that feels like such a distant memory. Funny how life gets so dang busy, huh?!? Better late than never!

On April 19th we picked up Rich’s parents from the airport. They were so incredible to fly out here to spend time with their favorite grandkids(hehe) while Rich and I went on our 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Mom is the best and actually kept a record of what they did and special moments from each day. A blog post from her will soon follow:D

We flew out to LA the very next morning on Saturday the 20th and boarded our ship, the Sapphire Princess, around 1:00. (P.S. I was so lazy the first couple of days I didn’t even pick up my Nikon, thus the phone and point and shoot pics)

We ate lunch in the dinning room, which was delicious and then Rich wanted to go to a raffle that they were having at the spa. I humored him even though I personally thought it was silly. We took a quick tour of the spa and then filled out our cards for the raffle. There were 3 drawings for 3 prizes, a $150 spa credit, a $175 spa credit and the grand prize was a $200 spa credit…

Haha! What are the chances? We used our spa credit on a couples massage.

The first 2 days on the ship were sea days so we had a ton of time to lie out on the deck by the pool and read.

Note To Self: Yes, you are Mexican but that doesn’t mean that you will not burn. Take your white hubby’s advice next time and wear sunscreen.

Rich did 2 long runs our first 2 days and I didn’t mind because I wasn’t taking care of the kids! haha! The dinners were great! Always delicious. We shared a table with some great people, 2 of which only spoke Spanish so it was perfect!

Our first port was Puerto Vallarta where we had booked an excursion to a place called Las Caletas. We took a 40 minute boat ride to get there.

Las Caletas is a private beach that was basically set up to pamper it’s guests. The workers are brought in by boat every day because there is no other way to get there.

As we were got closer all of the workers stood and waved to welcome us.

This lady on our boat started blowing some kind of special whistle and a parrot swooped in, right over my head and landed on her arm. So awesome!

Serenaded

Treated to delicious tacos first thing

Everything was included: the food, canoes, paddle boards, constant drink service on the beach…it was heaven. Rich got a massage there that was amazing. While he was getting a massage I was enjoying the beach, pineapple juice and the fresh guacamole and chips:)

 

Lunch time: Best lemonade and ceviche ever.

The ride back

The next day was also a port day in Cabo San Lucas. We had a glass bottom boat excursion booked there. They took us to the most awesome beach where Rich snorkeled and I chilled under an umbrella.

Back from snorkeling

Then we walked over to Lover’s beach where there is a cave that they say if you go in as two you come out as 3. Haha!

There were a ton of people hounding all of the tourists trying to get them to take their excursion. There was this one guy that said to us as we were walking by, “Wanna go to lovers beach?” We politely declined and he said, “Already been there, huh!” I had to laugh! It was a good one!

One more funny moment: Another one of those guys asked Rich if he wanted to donate to the “Feed a Mexican Fund”. I told him he already feeds one. Hahaha! I cracked myself up;)

Us with the famous “El Arco” behind us.

My Pharmacist in a Mexican Pharmacy

Every city we went to we were sure to stop and enjoy the tacos and coke.

 

Poor guy, I think I embarrass him sometimes. Deep down inside I know he likes my nerdiness.

Truth is, we were made for each other…

 

That was a great port! We were exhausted from all of the fun and were ready for our yummy formal dinner that night back on the ship.

Lobster tail and shrimp

Our server shelled it for us and everything! P.S. That is NOT our wine;)

After another day at sea we landed at our last port, Ensenada! First stop…..TACOS!

The restaurant was called “La Comadre”

They were DIVINE!

A local man on the street recommended this place and we quickly realized that this is where the locals eat. Jackpot!

Rich made his a little too spicy.

After tacos we did some shopping.

This next experience may have very well been the highlight of our entire cruise. After stopping to get a paleta (popsicle) we headed towards the plaza just to chill for a bit. The plaza is where all of the vendors walk around trying to get tourists to buy their trinkets. The vendors mostly consisted of young kids that should be in school and women with small children.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see this woman rounding up her 4 little kids and sending them our way to beg. I know that that’s how they get you but honestly I don’t really care. The reality is that we have soooo much more than they have and we should give to them.

These two little cuties came with their cup to beg for money and stole my heart!

We chatted with them for a bit and then they ran off to their mother. I just kept thinking that I so badly wanted to buy them a sucker or something so Rich and I went back to the store and bought 5 suckers to hand out to the little kids. We found these two sweet girls again and gave them each a sucker and before we knew it were swarmed by little kids that also wanted a sucker! I sent Rich back to the store to get a few more suckers and my incredible husband with a heart the size of Texas came back with two grocery bags filled with bottles of water, soda, candy and cookies!

There is no better feeling than to give to the poor. After he handed everything out they all thanked us so much and we could really see the gratitude in their eyes. We got on our bus which was going to take us back to our ship and just sat there looking out the window, watching them all as they took a break from working to enjoy their cold drinks. All of the little kids were munching on their treats. Best experience ever!

Soon we were back on our ship and our cruise was coming to an end.

But not before we enjoyed a “Movie Under The Stars” on the top deck of the ship! That night we watched “Life of Pi”

 

Before we knew it we were back home struggling to get the kids to smile for a final picture with Grandma and Grandpa.

What a week and what great memories. That was just our week though, I can’t wait to post all about “The Great Grandparenting Adventure” by Grandma Baker!