Loose Tooth

So back around April 15th I started this post.  I hadn't finished the story and I am not sure how it was going to end, but now that its April 30th we've had some recent changes from the original story I started.  I thought I would just leave the original draft to capture the whole story, and then add the new news afterwards.  


Here it is.....

A couple days ago it hit me that Kamille is approaching the age where her teeth will start to get loose and fall out.  Her baby teeth will no longer be there!  And gosh, as if I need one more thing to get all sentimental about?!!  Seriously, I was freaking out as I tucked her to bed with this thought and begged her to let me take a couple photos of her and her baby teeth.
To capture what is today, because very soon that mouth of hers will change.

(Unless of course she is like me where my baby teeth needed to be convinced to leave by the dentist, oh the bad memories I have over losing teeth!)

Anyway, the next day we captured those teeth of hers.

She had just woken up from a much needed (and rare) afternoon nap.  She had fresh eyes, she was warm and loving.   And she had just the faintest bit of stinky breath that made me want to snuggle her in tight and be reminded of how much I loved to stick my nose in her mouth to smell her baby breath when she was much smaller.  (Seriously, I am weird I think).
Aaaanyyyyway....I still love it when I get those snuggles from her.

So that was April 15th.  Fast forward two weeks and now that story has evolved.  


Yesterday, while we were up at the trailer, I was busy talking to Stacey and Kevin when I noticed Kamille walking up to me holding her mouth.  She looked a bit sad, but she wasn't crying, she just looked a bit stunned.  I noticed that she was holding her mouth as she attempted to tell me that she had bonked her face on a piece of wood that she was climbing.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but upon inspecting her mouth, there was blood coming from behind one of her lower baby teeth.  Not only was there the sight of blood, but she was moving the tooth with her finger and I could see that it wiggled and appeared slightly turned.  I gasped.  Not a huge gasp, but enough of a gasp that I knew that as soon as I did it it would set Kamille off into a crying fit!  Damn it!

So why the gasp?  Well, as I alluded to in my original post, I don't have very many positive memories of losing teeth as a kid.  To my knowledge, I think I may have lost my first 4 teeth on my own, maybe 6.  I can recall as a kid being terrified of that old story about tying your tooth up to the door handle and then slamming the door to yank it out.  Yuck.  Even typing that makes me queasy.

By grade 1 or 2 I was holding thick popsicle sticks behind my big teeth as they grew in to ensure that I was getting them to grow in at the right angle.  I used to have to hold sticks behind them for one hour a day....while I watched Little House on the Prairie.

Then in grade 2, it was determined that the rest of my baby teeth were not doing their thing and over two weeks, I had 4 baby teeth removed by the dentist.  Two on one week, two a couple weeks later.  I can remember the feel of the needle pricking me, the pressure of the twisting and pulling (I can barely type this), the sound of the roots breaking free (my tummy is tight), and the taste of blood oozing through the gauze that compacted the openings where my teeth were removed.   The only good that I remember about this time was that I got a Cabbage Patch t-shirt from my parents as a reward for being so brave.

(Oh my goodness, I need to step away from this post right now......) 


Ok, sooo fast forward a few years and maybe a couple random pulls later, (I know one of them was at least wiggly!)  I am in grade 7, and I am about to get my braces put on, but before that happens I need to lose the last of my baby teeth.  They need to pull 6 teeth. Yes, 3 one week, 3 a couple weeks later.  Needless to say, my next year's grade 8 photo is hideous.  The teeth haven't yet grown in, but I have braces on my front teeth and wires spanning the sides of my mouth to attach to my very back molars.  Don't ask me how I even ate.   Again, I got through the whole prick, clamp, pressure, twist, breaking sound (omg, I hate this memory!) only this time its three teeth at a time....and twice done again.

So now by grade 8 I have had 4 + 6 + at least one random tooth pulled from my mouth and barely the experience of having a wiggly tooth that falls out on its own.  

I have braces, neck gear, elastics that go from the top of my mouth to the bottom - diagonally across the front of my face so I was a friggin' guitar mouth - and follow that up with a retainer.  Its grade 10 or 11 and I am finally free of dental agony, my face shape has changed and all was going well, until it was determined that my wisdom teeth were going to jeopardize it all unless they are pulled out.  Seriously!

So this time I was fortunate enough to get knocked out because they had to extract my teeth from below the gums.  PUT ME OUT!   Badda boom, badda bing.  I am out, and out come my 4 wisdom teeth.  The only thing I recall was waking up and having the nurse sit me up, only to recall then what had actually happened to me and I flat out fainted.  I'd had enough.

I played baseball all through my youth and into my 20s and I was the only one that wore a mouth guard ALL. THE. TIME.  I could not stand the idea of getting hit in the face or teeth with anything.  Even thinking about losing an adult tooth was and is still nauseating.

So when Kamille shows me the sight of getting a wack to the mouth, blood and a lose tooth, I panic.

I immediately realize what I have done.
She's crying.
She's sticking her dirty fingers in her mouth to feel if her tooth is there.
I am trying to insist to her that it is and for gosh sakes get your fingers away from it!
Kevin wants to know what's going on, but I'm trying to give him the "don't make a big deal out of it" face.
She's insisting that her teeth have all moved around in her mouth.
I am trying to get her to calm down using deep inhalations.
I'm trying to calm down doing the same.
All the while I am begging for that tooth to still be firmly embedded in there.
I show her in the mirror that it is and I tell her that it might be wiggly for a bit but that if she leaves it alone it will tighten up.

So once she's calmed down and we've got Gus by our side asking her to come and play, Kamille remembers that I told her that when she is in Kindergarden her teeth will start to get wiggly.  (It was just an innocent little conversation on the day that we took the photos).  But oh my goodness.  She freaks out now saying, "but I'm not in Kindergarden yet, I'm not supposed to have wiggly teeth!"

Good Lord child!
I think that was the point where I just had to walk away.

But today, I've got a very excited girl with a wiggly tooth.
She has insisted that there are foods that she can no longer eat because of that wiggly tooth!  ; )
She was super excited to show her friends at daycare today.
Teeth brushing has become a bit more dramatic now too.  

Really...its teeth.  

Wiggly teeth.

Losing teeth. 

This just might be difficult for me over the years.  

Hopefully I get better at it because between my two girls there's a lot of teeth that are going to be leaving their mouths!  ; ) 

I do wonder what this smile will look like in a couple years!  xo

P.S.  My sister's got a story that is traumatizing for me as well.  Two top teeth that are perfectly lined up in her mouth today were once sitting in the roof of her mouth, under her nose area.  No. joke.  She had the roof of her mouth peeled back, her teeth were wrapped with metal (like molars are when you wear braces) and they were wired and pulled down into place over months.  I am not kidding.  

Mail Run

Its those two hours between Karis waking up from her nap and the time to start getting ready for dinner that I sometimes find challenging to fill with quality time together.   We tackle most of our errands in the morning just so that we can have this down time.

What to do?  What to do?

Sometimes I get trapped into putting Netflix on for the girls so that I can squeeze out an extra bit of school work or studying, but lately I've been trying to do less of that and trying to spend more time with them doing fun things.

Spring has been inspiring for us all and so it didnt' take much effort to suggest a walk to the mailbox along the path behind our home.  Throw in a snack for the journey and I am guaranteed two happy girls!

Who also like to strike a pose every now and then!

trail mix for a trail walk

The forest is beginning to thicken. Soon we will have to really look hard to see the water through the bush!  

We explored an end of the path that we don't usually walk through.  It got the girls nice and close to the water so that they could check things out.

Love this reflection....

fishing anyone?

We popped out of the trail, walked through the neighbourhood a bit more towards our mailbox, bounced with some friends on a new trampoline, and then we were back on the trail on the way home.

You've got mail.

Ok, I'll admit it. I totally asked her to walk ahead of me with the mail in her hand.
I wanted this shot.
I wanted to remember our walks to get the mail.

But while I was taking those shots Karis got a bit cranky behind me.  I wasn't sure what was going on for her.  I told her to hurry along as we were close to being home.  I figured she was done with walking....

..and then I turned around again to check to see if she was still following me and there she was....

...taking matters into her own hands, under the trees, on the path and all on her own.

I was sure that she'd peed all over her pants and her shoes, but the girl's got talent.

She did her first nature pee all on her own.
Why does this girl seem to be growing up so fast?

Oh, my love.
How cute you are.

And so ended our mail run.
Topped up with snacks, fresh air and socializing - and an emptied out bladder!

Poor Circulation

"My legs not working."

This is a statement I hear from Karis at least once a day.  And although our family certainly understands the reality of legs not working, Karis' legs "don't work" only momentarily because it appears that she is susceptible to poor circulation.  

The girls have this fight tradition every morning of sitting on our two stools for their breakfast.  Apparently one stool is better than the other and it often turns into a mad dash to get to that particular stool first.  Once they have calmed down from their fight quest for the best chair, they enjoy their breakfast and chat with me while I do things in front of them in the kitchen.  

Karis is on a total breakfast kick right now and I swear she eats more cereal than I do.  So when she's up there, she's up there a while and she sits like this....

And as she sits, the food goes everywhere on her, the chair and the floor, but that is besides the point I make here.  They love sitting up here for any meal that they will be allowed.  

But its when its time to get down that becomes the problem.   She can get up on her own, but she hasn't mastered the getting down part yet....either that or she just can't.
"Get down" is followed by "My legs not working."

They have fallen asleep.

As a kids I can remember this happening quiet often to myself, usually during the night.
My mom tells me that I would call it "sand in my legs" when it would turn to that torturous pins and needles feeling.
Some days seem more "pins and needles" than others for my little one.  I've tried to insist that she doesn't sit that way, or perhaps just to sit at her booster on her usual chair, but apparently that's just not as fun.

Oh well.  I suppose one day this will all just be a funny thing that we remember about Karis at age 2.

Nature's Playground

Ever since we started going to our little family trailer, we have always told Kamille that Nature would provide all the toys and entertainment she would need when away from the "toys" of home.  This has really stood true and not just there, but  wherever we are outside, there is aways something in nature that will end up being a source of fun and entertainment for our girls.

Something to spark the imagination.
Something to climb on.
Something to be curious about.
Something to watch closely.
Something to turn into a game.

It was an overcast kind of morning, warmer in temperature than it looked and I knew that I wanted to be outside with my girls.
What are we going to do,  I ask my girls most mornings.   Where did they want to go for some outdoor fun?
We like playgrounds - parks, play structures, swings and all that, but I really love exploring more.

We pack a snack and decide to drive to the waterfront.  Our seawall.
We never really know what the waterfront will look like.  Sometimes there is no beach and sometimes the beach goes on for forever before our toes hit water.  Whether the tide is in, or its out the waterfront always offers something to do.

On this day, nature gave us the best playground ever!

Wood, water and sand.
That's all it takes to turn a usual morning into something more than just the same.
Surely, we would not be slinging mud and rocks at home....

 Nature pee, in a potty.

Its spring time down at the waterfront too.  Everything is on the brink of blooming!  

 A great old stage structure made for some entertaining play.

 Oh hello there....

Behind the scene.
It wasn't all that easy.....

 How cool is that?

 Karis was too nervous to walk under that big tree, but this one was no biggy.  

 Now this is what I call a wooden play structure!

 Exploring and moving in ways that challenged their little bodies.

Seriously cool wood.  And it was all mostly smooth as a result of its long journey from somewhere in the water.  The sound of it was also amazing.  Banging different pieces against different surfaces was quite entertaining in this way.

 Hey wait a minute... I see something!

 Down this hole....

 It was a Geocache.  If it weren't for my friend Kari, I would have no idea what the heck this was all about.  For now we opened up this treasure.  It was planted (is that what you called it?) in September 2011. And as far as I could tell we were the first to have found it.  YAY!  I wrote a quick note and the date.  Probably not exactly what I should be doing as far as geocaching rules go, but I just had to!  How fun!

Speaking of fun.
How do you like my new BOGS?  The ones I had before were GREAT, however the print on them started to fade and that was quite unexpected for this brand.  I emailed them and they agreed to send me a new pair - for free!   Love that!  Thank you BOGS!

Did you know that nature also makes a snot cleaner upper?  

I found a very small smooth branch and used it to wipe Karis' snot from her face.  Easy peasy.  She did it herself too!  

 Karis is in the jail.  The creative play is endless!

 Trapped!

It seemed that every direction I turned another gorgeous scene was ready to be captured.
Nature provides an incredible backdrop for adventure to happen.

While we were at the waterfront there was another mama and her nearly two-year old girl enjoying the surroundings as well.  My girls were spying on her and finally worked up the courage to join her in her play.

My girls were social with both the young girl and her mother.
I love meeting other moms in this way.  The conversations usually revolve around how fortunate we are to enjoy living in such an incredible corner of this world!  Usually you find out that you have mutual acquaintances or friends and so that is always fun to discover.  You never know if you will run into them again, but chances are you will (and we did, 4 days later at a community event).
We parted ways to go home for lunch.  They were going home for chicken soup, we were going home to decide on what sounded good.

We were there for two full and fun hours.

Just 10 minutes from our doorstep.
An incredible place to play, socialize and enjoy being with my girls.
I am grateful for the Playground that Nature never fails to provide us.