The girls approach Santa with a mixture of awe, dread and fear.
"Beautiful teeth. No worries." - a direct quote from our dentist after he checked out Athena's teeth for the first time. Zoe got a similar report.
Whew. I was so worried that with my history of childhood cavities the girls would be equally unlucky. The dentist explained that childhood cavities are often a result of the saliva the child inherits. So the girls must have gotten their Daddy's spit, because they are cavity free! They even had their picture taken (above) and added to the "Perfect Smiles" board.
We found a great dentist here who could not have been better working with children. The whole staff was fun and engaging and the girls allowed them to take x-rays, clean their teeth and do a check up in the big dental chair. There were many bribes given out along the way - among the loot were sparkly princess toothbrushes, Christmas pencils, Scooby-Doo stickers and miniature toy horses.
They even gave me a copy of Zoe's x-rays to take to her new cranio-facial team next month. It shows a baby tooth growing inside her cleft (tooth "C") which is often missing in cleft babies. However, there is no adult tooth "C" behind it, so that will have to be implanted after her adult teeth come in. No other little baby teeth are growing in weird places (which is common) but the dentist did say he noticed a hole in her palate (!) which he suggests I speak with her new team about. Poor little girl has so many surgeries ahead of her, my heart aches.
Since Zoe was feeling pretty wretched today with symptoms of lethargy, whining, no appetite and extreme clinginess, we decided to cancel our outdoor activities and stay home.
After the favorite morning shows were finished, we all got a little antsy so we decided to build a rocketship to the moon and take Zoe's stuffed "alien" home to visit his Mommy and Daddy.
We sacrificed one of the massive moving boxes that we haven't Freecycled yet, cut out holes and decorated with construction paper moons and stars, markers and stickers. Both girls would go into the rocketship at the same time and the giggling that would ensue would shake the whole box. We had more than a few crash landings.
After all this activity, Zoe was exhausted and went to nap sobbing "I want my Daddy." Chris is always the caretaker when the girls are sick, or recovering from surgery (probably because he is usually the one not freaking out) and they always want him when they're feeling yucky. When he got home from work, Zoe made up for lost time and made him hold her for most of the evening.
I let Zoe pick her outfit today
The problem with having your birthday the week of Thanksgiving is that it often falls on a very inconvenient time. This year, Chris' birthday fell on the day before Thanksgiving, the day we spent 5 and a half hours in traffic trying to get down south for the holiday.
So we celebrated today. One of my favorite birthday traditions (from MorMor) that we have adapted for our family is the birthday breakfast. This is where the whole family gets up before you and prepares a table with breakfast, presents, decorations and cake!
We took a little long to make the breakfast and cupcakes, so Chris opted for a morning run while we made all the preparations and came home to his favorite meal, eggs with Tapatio and a whole plate of bacon.
The rest of the day was spent doing NO-thing, just bumping around our house, enjoying being home.
Mmmm. Cupcakes for breakfast.
Zoe thinks we should have cupcakes
It's becoming Athena's custom to buy gifts for her Daddy that they can enjoy together. This year it was the new obsession, and Chris' childhood obsession, Lincoln Logs. Chris and Athena spent a good part of the morning creating the "Big L Ranch" and then...well...I'll let the photos tell the story...
The day after Thanksgiving, we rolled our turkey and apple pie filled bellies out of bed and went to the Living Desert, a wonderful local Zoo in Palm Desert, with Aunt Katie and our beloved Uncle Corey. The girls really enjoyed their Uncle Corey. However, Zoe showed us her two year old side and was a total pill most of the day, insisting her very pregnant Mommy carry her around the park all day. The only thing that got her to settle down and sit in her stroller was when Athena played "Mommy" and pushed her. Every time Zoe started to fuss, we told Athena to tend to her "Baby" and Zoe was distracted by the game.
The Family at the Living Desert,
All in all, we had a great weekend in the Desert
After a long journey over the river and through the woods (literally) we arrived in Palm Springs to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma Andree and Granddaddio. Although it rained in the morning (!), the clouds cleared up and we enjoyed a golf cart tour of the country club and a fun day spent with Aunt Katie and Uncle David. Dinner was beyond excellent, even Athena ate two helpings of Granddaddio's turkey, and in solid American tradition, we all nearly fell asleep in front of the t.v. after overindulging in the great meal. However I did manage to rouse myself to eat two more helpings of apple pie, yum.
It feels like it's going to take forever to get this house in order. Everything is everywhere and nothing has a place yet. And to make it even more challenging, Zoe and Athena's preschool closed this week, I have a ton of work to catch up on and I've been a little coughy and achy. If I can unpack two boxes in a day it's a huge achievement.
I'm realizing my limitations. I just am no good at "making pretty." I need MorMor or Aunt Mimi to help me with that. Each box of knick knacks, books and pictures that I unpack, I just put aside, having no idea what to do with it. So I'm essentially unpacking boxes and just creating little piles of stuff in the corners of empty rooms. It makes me want to throw everything away and keep a clean, minimalist home. Less to dust.
This house is so massive (twice the size of our house in New York) that even with all our things in it, it remains empty. Stuff will come, things will find a place, but not yet. So no pictures.
But we are head over heels in love with our new house. I love my kitchen, my walk-in closet, the three bathrooms, my front loaded washer dryer, the new house smell! To us this is all total luxury and we are literally skipping around (dodging the piles) gleefully. We are already very happy here.
