No More Cavities

Mireya went to the dentist this morning to have her cavities fixed. The only way to fix cavities on a toddler is to sedate them, so that is what they did. They gave her a shot in her arm and I held her while she fell asleep. I was doing fine until she shook a little before falling asleep and I watched her eyes roll up in her head. I handed her to one of the dental assistants and as soon as they shut the door, I cried. I could not control it; the tears just flowed down my cheeks. Thankfully my best friend and her son, who is Mireya's best friend, were there for moral support. She gave me a big hug and talked with me until Mireya was done. (Thank you Jaquete!) Her son, Landon, kept calling for, "Aya! Aya!" He missed her! It was super cute and a wonderful distraction for me.

After they filled her two cavities and a slight depression in a third tooth, they brought her back to me to wake up. I held her while she woke back up and she was so out of it. Her little eyes jumped back and forth and I could tell that she really wanted to talk. When she finally could speak, she said, "Landon?" Of course, the first thing my baby thought of was her best friend! :) The second thing was, "I love you mommy." As soon as she was awake enough, she started begging to see Landon, so he came back. She calmed down after he was in the room, but he kept looking at her like, 'what is wrong with you?' Poor guy could tell that she was not herself.

Overall, everything went great. She did get a sore spot on the outside of her cheek, because the thing they use to hold her mouth open pinched her. :( Other than that, everything was fine. She did not even have to be numbed up, becuase the cavities were not that deep. I am so relived that it is all over and I hope that this is not the beginning of a lifetime of dentist visits. Jason and I are way too familiar with dental work and we do not want that for Mireya.

Downsizing

The Author of this post is Velma Baird I guess we were lucky to be able to hold off as long as we could, but I was essentially given an ultimatum last week at work. I had the option to take a pay cut or take a pink slip. Hmmmmm, which one should I pick? I watch the news; I know how long the unemployment lines are! So of course, I agree to the “wage reduction”. Anyways, as soon as I got home and talked over my new pay with my wife, it was time to get to work trying to find some cost cutting measures. Luckily, the Super Bowl comes on a channel provided by my cable company’s basic package because the first thing that bit the dust was my sports and movie package. Next to go was our big minute cell phone plan. Next on the chopping block was our internet service. However, since my job brought my wife and I to the west coast 15 years ago, both of our families still live on the east coast. Since we don’t get to go home as often as we’d like, the internet is a must-have. Luckily a quick search for Wildblue Deals and I was able to find a cheap internet plan. Any other ideas for cost cutting?

Oh NO! The Garbage Man!

Mireya is terrified of the garbage man! She used to get excited about watching the garbage truck drive by, but ever since we gave the garbage truck and the man inside a name, The Garbage Man, she is terrified! She cries every Thursday morning when he comes and we have to cuddle her until he drives far enough away that she can no longer hear the truck.

Well, now apparently, The Garbage Man has invaded her nightmares. Poor Mookie. She woke up just a minute ago crying and I rushed into her room to see what was wrong. She was sitting up in bed, so I scooped her up:

"Honey! What's wrong? Don't cry baby! What's wrong?"

"Right there!"

"What? What's right there?"

"Garbage Man! Right there!"

"Oh no baby, there's no garbage man!"

"Right there! Garbage Man right there Mommy!"

"Ohhh, sweetie no. There's no garbage man. It's just you and me, Sara, Emily, and all your stuffed animals. I promise there is no garbage man in here, okay?"

"Okay."

"Go to sleep now baby girl."

"Okay... *pause* ...tooting..."

"Yes, sweetie, your tooting." *giggle* "Now, go to sleep."

"...tooting..."

*giggle*

Poor girl. I think next Thursday we are going to go out and meet the garbage man, so she understands that he isn't scary. As for the 'tooting', well, she ate too many fruit snacks. :)

Crib to Toddler Bed

Guess what we are doing right now? We are watching Mireya on a video camera. She is laying in her toddler bed (her crib with the front rail removed.) We decided that we didn't want to risk her climbing out of her crib, potentially hurting herself in the process; and with the camera installed, we can watch her to make sure she stays in bed and doesn't get into trouble.

She has been doing great! She had a nap earlier and stayed in her bed the entire time. Now, she is sleeping for the night and didn't put up a fight what-so-ever. She's such a good girl. She is so excited about it, too! All day, she has been putting her stuffed animals and dolls to bed in her new toddler bed. She's so cute!

Stay at Home Mommy

Guest post written by my buddy Bernardo Graham Well, we are down to one income now. I was a teacher, but we decided with three kids, it was better for me to finish out this year and stay home with them. We were spending almost my whole paycheck in childcare for three. Then the little bit we had left of my paycheck was going to pay doctor bills because they were always catching things from the other kids at their preschool. Not to mention, I used so many sick days that I started having to take days with out pay. So, by the time contracts came back around to be signed for the next year, we decided it was probably going to work out the same financially, sparing me the stress of all the things that teachers have to do in a week. We also looked to see if we could make cuts on our utilities. We decided we could do without HBO/Cinemax and our TiVo. We also bundled home and cell phones with our cable. With a little research at Just Energy Offers, I found that we could save by switching energy providers so we did! Hopefully, we won’t even realize that we’re down to one income with the little changes made and no childcare expenses!

Mommy, LISTEN!

Mireya is so cute! She just came up to me and said, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I told her she had to wait one second and she said, "No! LISTEN! Mommy, LISTEN!" When I said ok she asked me a question. How cute is that!? My baby girl is growing up! :( :)

No, no, no Daddy!

Lately, when I snap my fingers to a beat around Mireya, she tells me no, no, no Daddy! She hates it for some reason. Mommy hates it too!