Christmas Morning

Reese's Christmas break began December 20th and Kyle's the 24th. We have been so busy playing that I haven't really taken any photos, so I haven't blogged. Finally I'm going to post our Christmas morning photos. Since we go to my mom's house on Christmas morning to open gifts and then stay for Christmas dinner we decided to do "Christmas morning" at our house on Christmas Eve. Reese actually passed the tree with all the gifts under it as he came to our bed at 5am.  I was shocked he just crawled under the covers and went to sleep. I thought maybe he didn't notice even though we left the tree lights on overnight. When we woke up at 9am Kyle asked Reese is he thought Santa had come to our house. Reese said yes he saw the presents!! Ha ha I can't believe he didn't want to wake us and open them at 5am!!

 Gus went straight to the big ones.

 Then he spent a lot of time trying to reach stuff behind the big ones!

Reese was super excited about the Batman muscle suit Santa brought. He asked every Santa we saw this year for the suit. He wore it the rest of the day.

 Gus' favorite seemed to be this piano. The little round colored buttons play real songs like Love Shack and ABC,123.  He loves dancing to the music.

 Reese and Daddy have both been enjoying the Imaginext Aircraft Carrier from Grandpop Joe.

 Gus was pretty amazed by the Car Garage from Grandpop Joe.

 Reese is so happy with anything superhero. I'm excited to try out Chutes and Ladders!

 Gus loves all the books Mommy chose. I found these Lois Ehlert's at Costco for cheap!!

 Gus really got into ripping off the paper!

 Reese got tons of imaginext...we really like these toys. I found this TRex on sale for $5!!!

Both boys really enjoyed opening gifts. Even Gus ripped the paper off. They were very excited with all of their loot and spent a long time checking everything out.  After Gus' nap we headed over to Kyle's parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner and opening gifts with them...I forgot my camera.  Reese was ecstatic to receive the imaginext BatCave from Gigi and Grandad.

The next morning we went to Mimi and Poppop's house. He is overjoyed with his talking spiderman action figure and batman's batcopter. Mommy was particularly happy with lightbright!! Cube style so they can both play together. 

Kyle has been enjoying playing with PlayStation3 Move. I'm thinking perhaps I can use this to exercise and I'll be tricked into thinking it's fun. Ha ha!! 

We were happy NOT to have a white Christmas this year. It made traveling to each grandparents house so much easier!!

Hands On Children's Museum

On Monday we got up bright and early and headed to Olympia to the Hands On Children's Museum with two other families. It was tons of fun. The boys both really enjoyed it.  Gus did fantastic even though I woke him up early and he skipped his nap. They napped in the car on the way home. Then we picked Daddy up and headed out to dinner. It was an all day event and I think they'd have gladly stayed longer!

Reese making his farmer's market purchases

Reese playing with the crane

Reese and Lincoln operating the crane

Reese and Gus getting rocks out of the shed

Gus approves!

Gus painting

Gus and Atticus checking out the rocks in the dumptruck

Gus driving the dumptruck

one cute boy

Reese in the tree house

Reese driving the delivery truck...reading the map

Gus enthralled with the bakery

Reese collecting eggs

Gus running off with his fruit selection

This week they were offering buy one get one free yearly memberships.  My friend would've paid 2/3 of the membership for just that one day so she joined and gave us the extra membership for $25.  I am really excited to go back. I'm hoping we can make it monthly outing!

New Past time

 So the boys have discovered a new past time and it's become a favorite. I heard a muffled giggle. When I went to investigate I discovered they were playing inside the tv stand.

 Surprisingly they happily take turns.

 

They can not get enough of this new game. Eventually they get a little carried away sliding the door open and closed. I'm a little nervous they'll break the glass, but so far so good.

Visiting the Oral Surgeon

 Reese had his consultation with the oral surgeon on Friday.  While we were waiting I noticed the tables were full of Arthritis Today and AARP magazines.  Not exactly kid oriented.

 They needed to take an xray that was a more full mouth view. Of course the xray machine didn't go low enough. Reese had to stand on a stool, then she had to go in search of a phone book and then a second phonebook.

 Reese used the equipment like Batman's plane.

Once we got everything rigged up for him he got his xray. The doctor held him up so he didn't fall off the phone books. He advised us to keep an eye on the situation in case anything changed, but otherwise to come back once Reese's bottom teeth fall out. They would xray at that point to verify the tooth's presence and placement and take it out at that point. He said at age 3 a person's head is about 80-90% it's full size, but the face is only 30%.  By age 6 there will be a huge growth spurt making it easier and safer to access the extra tooth for removal. He said the scar tissue that would form as a result of the surgery could actually prevent the permanent teeth from pushing through if it has too long to build, if we wait until he's 6ish then the permanent teeth would come in before the scar tissue gets to progressed.

So...we don't have to do anything for a few years...hooray!

This local guy says he is comfortable doing work on children, but it is perfectly fine if I am more comfortable with a pediatric oral surgeon. So I think when the bottom teeth fall out I'll ask for the referral to The Children's Hospital of Seattle Oral Surgery.

5th Tooth

This is a terrible looking photo, but it was the only one I got that allows you to see THE. FIFTH. TOOTH!! Gus woke up Thursday morning with a new tooth popped through. Wednesday night it was not there and by morning it was huge!! 10 days before his 18th month birthday and he finally has 5 teeth.

Merry Go Round

 Does your video store have a merry go round?

 We discovered ours does and the boys loved it.

 Reese wants to go back to ride, so I may have to occasionally go rent something so we have an excuse. 

I couldn't get them both looking at me at the same time, but I love this one of them grinning excitedly at each other. We are finally getting to a point where they are actually playing together, not just stealing toys and jumping on each other.

Everyday when we pick Reese up from school he grabs Gus' cheeks between his hands and gives him a big kiss. I am so glad they are finally to a loving brother stage. 

Oh and yes that is superhero Reese in his cape out in public.

MIA

We've been missing in action this past week because we've jumped on the Twilight bandwagon and have been totally sucked in. We let Twilight get to the top of our Netflix list by accident. We grudgingly decided to at least try to watch it before we sent it back. About 20 minutes in Kyle actually turned his laptop off to focus on the movie. As soon as the credits rolled he said "Part 2 is next on the list right?" Ha ha...no it wasn't even on the list because we figured it would be so ridiculous we'd never want to see it.  Of course we quickly added it to the list in the #1 spot. We watched New Moon a couple of days later. Kyle briefly joined Team Jacob during this one (to my shock and amazement.) Then 2 days after that was Saturday, the release of movie #3. We decided we couldn't wait for Netflix to mail it to us, so I went out and joined a brick and mortar movie rental place (yeah they actually still exist).  We watched Eclipse on Saturday and then again on Monday when we got it from Netflix. I got all 4 books from the library and read them in less than a week. Of course I had to stay up until 4:30am a couple of days. But I didn't even nap with Gus because I just had to keep reading!! Ha ha. Kyle bought the Twilight Tours book and wants to head to Forks to check it out in the summer.  Kyle has even been bantering around the idea of Isabella as a girl baby name.  Does Bella Benza sound dumb?  

Now we're just debating if we should wait for all the movies to come out in a boxed set or if we should buy the individual blu-rays now. We're kind of planning a movie rewatch marathon over the Christmas break. We'd have to rent them from the regular movie rental place....so I may cave and buy them. Now we're pretty traumatized that we have to wait until next November for the next movie and the following November for the last one. 

So now we'll be getting back to life as usual and I'll actually take some photos so I can blog about our cute boys.

Chopping Down a Tree

 We headed out Sunday morning for the annual Christmas Tree hunt. It's usually quite the ordeal as we debate the appropriate height, bushiness, smell, needle health and no whole-y spots.

 We pretty much found the tree as soon as we got out of the car...but we looked around some more just to be sure. Gus and Mimi posing in front of the chosen one.

 Poppop saws under Reese's watchful eye. It's trunk was so thick we had to go back for a saw with a fresh blade.

 Reese had to get a better look.

 Time to haul it in to get it measured and baled.

 Reese with his 2 best girlfriends from our vacation, Alyssa and Amanda, and Uncle Dylan

Gus and Reese with Mimi after cocoa and then we're ready to go!

Oh, Christmas Tree! (Wordless Wednesday)

DENTIST!!

Gus had his very first dental appointment today.

 

He had a good time playing with the sun glasses Reese chose for him. These are supposed to block the bright dentist light from shining in their eyes. He also had a blast racing in the hall and digging through the prize basket.

Reese chose matching ones for himself. Here he is with his hygienist. He was not particularly cooperative at first during the "how often do you brush" questions. He did NOT want to lie down on the table even though they have flat screen tvs on the ceiling running kid movies. It was Beauty and the Beast while we were there.

 

But then he headed off for his very first xray. He actually kind of liked his heavy xray apron. He had to bite down on a flat xray paper (not that thing they shove way in the back for our molar xrays) just right in front. He was totally cooperative. I was shocked.

Then Reese got his teeth polished. He chose strawberry paste for the polisher.

He was super cooperative and followed instructions about not swallowing and let her use the rinse wand and the sucker wand.

Meanwhile Gus practiced brushing the alligator's teeth. Then he used it on himself too. Luckily they said they'd sanitized it.

Then the dentist counted all 4 of his teeth and smeared the fluoride goop on them and Gus was done! Next visit will be his first cleaning. She wants us to floss his bottom 2 teeth since they are pretty close to each other. She said not to worry that he has only 4 teeth at 17 months....it's not a race you know!

I took a photo of the computer screen showing Reese's upper xray. The bottom row of teeth are his baby teeth that are grown in and currently in use. See how perfectly shaped and aligned they are? The second row at the top of the screen are his permanent teeth still inside the jaw/gums. Looks weird, eh?

Here I've drawn lines to show you what you're seeing. The outline marked "extra" is an extra tooth. Mesiodens or supernumerary tooth is what they call it. That means extra tooth in fancy medical speak. They sometimes just erupt on their own and the dentist can do a normal in office extraction. Reese's is upside down with the "tooth" part facing up and the root facing down, so it will not grow out on it's own. We got a referral to an oral surgeon. They are not a pediatric oral surgeon, but this is who our dentist uses. I think if we'd have had a normal experience with Reese I'd probably be so happy to be referred to someone local (Silverdale), but the whole NICU experience makes me feel like we must go to a pediatric specialist for anything atypical. Of course Kitsap County has no pediatric specialists. Our ophthalmologist did a pediatric fellowship, but he still sees grown ups too. Of course any baby or preschooler in town probably goes to him. So these oral surgeons may be the same scenario. When go in for our consultation I will be sure to verify they do this sort of thing frequently on the under 4 set. I think this is more delicate than just removing a rotted tooth, so I want to know they know what they are doing. Since the tooth is right in the middle it has spread the permanent front teeth. Our dentist said he may need an orthodontist sooner than we'd normally have been referred.