The wiggly, woggly, wibbly, wobbly tooth

Elizabeth's tooth finally came out today. It took a full month of wiggling, and this morning we noticed that the new tooth is already beginning to poke out through the gums behind the loose tooth before it even came out.

This morning she showed us her loose tooth and it looked like it would come out with a good tug. Her tooth was so loose that you could actually see the jagged bottom edge of the tooth -- the part that's supposed to be embedded in the socket.

Before naptime I thought I'd give it a tug and see if it'd come out. It would wiggle, it would woggle, wibble, and wobble, but wouldn't come out. Thinking I just had to get a good grip on it, I told her to take a nap, and I'd get a gauze pad to pull the tooth later. After naptime I tried again, and she actually started to cry and said that it was hurting. I read somewhere that if you pull a loose tooth before it's ready, you could actually leave behind bits of the tooth's root and cause an infection. So of course I let it go and decided to let it stay to be pulled another day.

We went out for dinner at an ice cream parlor with some friends later, and after dinner and dessert (ice cream sundaes of course!), she said her tooth is even looser. She began to play with it, and discovered that she can spin it around in its socket. Next thing I knew, she pulled it out. By herself. No blood, no pain, nothing. Just a tooth, and a 5-year-old girl with a new hole in her smile. It was too easy.

First day of kindergarten

Today is Elizabeth's first day of kindergarten. We woke up at 6:30 and found a sign on our front lawn that says "Welcome to kindergarten" along with her name, her school name and mascot. A little freaky because we weren't expecting it, and who knows when the mysterious School People came onto our lawn and put up the sign. Middle of the night? And they know where we live! Freaky. But still, it's pretty exciting that these mysterious School People make an effort to make their youngest students feel welcome at the school.

Anyways, I don't know who's more excited about her first day of school, me or Elizabeth. She seems to be very whatever about it, whereas I'm the one with the camera, taking pictures of everything left and right pertaining to kindergarten. But I don't feel teary-eyed, and I don't feel sad that my baby's growing up. I'm happy for her that she's growing up and participating in this next step. I'm not sure if I'm taking pictures because I want to remember this Momentous Occasion or because other parents are taking pictures too and I gotta keep up with the Joneses. Maybe it'll hit me more later. Who knows.

Turning "24"

Yesterday we had an early celebration of my birthday by going out to dinner at Casa Madrid. It's a little restaurant in Pleasanton, probably no more than fifteen tables indoors. We were the only ones in the restaurant most of the time, which made me a little worried (don't other people like this restaurant?), but it was nice to have the whole place to ourselves. We ordered the Vieiras al Ajillo (scallops in lobster sauce), the Calamares Andalucia (calamari rings), the Tortilla Española (potato and onion wedges), the Pinchitos Morunos a la Casa Madrid (Casa Madrid spicy pork) and the Paella Valenciana (seafood and meat paella). Yum. My favorite dish by far was the scallops. The calamari was a close second. It could be the simple fact that I'm a sucker for seafood. But nonetheless it was really good. I'd love to go back just to have two orders of scallops and two orders of calamari.

Today my husband had to go to work (stinkin' work! It always takes him away from us! Oh well, at least it pays the bills) so I had a busy morning with the girls: bangs trim, gymnastics, lunch at Sushi-Ya, and painting a couple of bowls at Cafe Art.

The afternoon was a mad rush to get dinner going before Elizabeth has swimming lesson and I have my first day of school. (I'm going back to school for my Early Childhood Development certificate.) Throughout my entire school career, until today, I've never had school on my birthday. Before college, school always began the Tuesday after Labor Day, and always ended the second Friday of June. Summer school always ended the last week of July. August was always a slow, quiet month, with nothing really happening -- not even holidays. During college, school began dangerously close to my birthday, one year even daring to begin on the 18th of August, and summer school ended dangerously close to my birthday as well, one year even daring to end on the 16th of August. But I always figured society considered the 17th of August as a day exempt from any academic or scholastic responsibilities. Until today. Today was my first day of school. It was fine -- I just had one class, and it was 3 hours long, giving me some time away from the kids. While my husband took the kids to Elizabeth's swimming lesson.

When I got back from class, the kids were well on their way to bed, until Elizabeth asked me if we're gonna eat cake. Cake? What cake? Apparently he took the kids to Baskin Robbins and picked up a small mint-chocolate-chip ice cream cake for me. And they were looking forward to not only having ice cream and cake, but also delaying bedtime. Who am I to delay bedtime? So we got Abigail out of bed, sat down at the table, sang Happy Birthday, and ate cake at 9:45pm.

It's been a good day. Despite the fact that I had to go to school on my birthday. I suppose worse things could happen.

Swimmingly

The kids have been taking swimming lessons this summer. Elizabeth is finishing up her third session of Level One today, and Abigail, her first preschool swimming session.

Abigail has adjusted well to the routine of swimming lessons. She doesn't exhibit any hesitation about going into the water or leaving the steps in the shallow end of the pool. She follows instructions well, about as well as a three-year-old kid typically does. (Actually I'd like to think that my kids follow instructions better than typical kids their ages...)

HOWEVER...

I was frustrated with Elizabeth just a few weeks ago because she hated going to swimming lessons. Every day she'd say how she doesn't want to go because they're going to make her "do bobs" -- put her head underwater. She has been able to do it through most of the summer, but she would only do it when she's fully acclimated to the water -- something that would sometimes take a full half hour to happen, while the swimming lesson is 25 minutes long. Of course the lessons all build on this one skill, and if she's refusing to do it, then basically nothing gets learned.

Well, about a week ago Elizabeth had a breakthrough: she practically sat down on the floor of the pool (about 3 feet deep), blew bubbles, and stayed there until she ran out of air, about three seconds. She has been doing it at every lesson ever since. Her confidence level has skyrocketed. After a summer of frustrating non-progress, she's now trying to swim independently. Of course she'll go about six inches before she has to stop to come up for air, but still -- just a few weeks ago she would get mad if we left her in the middle of a 3-foot-deep pool and walked away. Now she feels confident enough to try to swim to the side of the pool, without crying! And yesterday I saw her swim across the width of the pool alone with a kickboard.

Such a change from the second day of swimming lessons last summer: she refused to even sit next to the pool, preferring instead to throw a tantrum because I even dared to bring her within a mile radius of a swimming pool.