First Dentist Appointments!

On Monday Sam and Anna had their first dentist appointments.  Our dentist recommends waiting until age 3 until bringing in kids, so that's what I did.  Although I did not need another thing on my to-do list in the midst of packing our house, solo-parenting two small children 5 days a week and working full time, I wanted to get it taken care of before switching insurance in a few months, since I know that it is fully covered under our current insurance.

 

Sam and Anna did GREAT.   We watched a little app called Ed's Dentist about a bunny that goes to the dentist for the first time (it was free when I found it) to prep for their first visit, along with reading several books and talking about it.  The app also has an interactive section where you can do all the things a dentist does:  move the chair up and down, turn on the light, take an x-ray, polish the teeth, wash the teeth, use the thirsty straw, use the explorer to check the teeth, and even paint on fluoride.  I highly recommend it.  Sam and Anna were very excited to go to the dentist mostly due to the fun things they got to do on the app.

 

While at the dentist, Sam and Anna sat incredibly still, cooperated every step of the way, and patiently waited while it was the other one's turn.  My silly Sam turned down the raspberry flavored polish in favor of mint, and did the same for toothpaste.  Anna chose raspberry polish and cherry fluoride.  Both loved the thirsty straw and giggled that it tickled them.  X-rays were not part of their check up.

 

When the dentist came in he noted that both have a slight overbite.  We had noticed Anna's, but not Sam's.  Nothing to do about it now, just something that will be watched.  Sam also has plenty of space in his mouth for teeth, just like his mama (I get to keep all of my wisdom teeth).  Other than that, he just remarked that both had very healthy teeth!

 

At the end of the visit, Sam and Anna were able to chose a new toothbrush- with dolphins for Sam, butterflies for Anna, and a toy.  They were extremely excited to tote home their bags full of goodies- new toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, and a truck (Sam) and a bouncy ball (Anna)!  Both told Daddy it was the best part of their day!

 

 

(Silly girl kept holding her arms up.  She'd put them down when we told her to, but then they'd just keep popping up like in the picture above.)

 (I tried to keep my picture taking to a minimum to avoid being that crazy mom taking photos left and right, so these are the only ones I took during our visit.)

Anna's First Haircut

I decided before Thanksgiving that it was time for Anna's first haircut, at just over 2 years 8 months old.  While her curly 'do hid the mullet she really rocked, whenever I put her hair into pigtails it was noticeable that one pigtail was longer than the other.  The baby fine ends from the first hair she ever grew were really making her hair extra tangled and knotted.  We really just trimmed off a little to make the ends even, and honestly you can not tell that it's any shorter.  But I can tell when I style her hair that it looks and feels better to me.

As straight as it gets during a bath- past the middle of her back!

One last pre-cut photo (in case, you know, she loses the curls)

She was ecstatic to be able to get a haircut "just like Sam" this time, and hopped right up into the chair. She held pretty still but near the end asked to get down before it was all done, because I think she was tired of sitting still.

Post cut

 

Now that I made the plunge and got the first trim done, I'm sure next time I will have an easier time seeing those curls snipped without fear of losing them!

Camping Take 2

Against what I thought would be my better judgement, we took Sam and Anna camping for the second time this summer last weekend.  I thought for sure after last summer's debacle,  it would be a long, long time before attempting it again.  However, I grew up camping with my family and spent 4 summers as a camp counselor in college, so camping is in my bones and I really want us to camp as a family often as Sam and Anna grow up.  So we went, and I braced myself for more of the same as last year:  horrible sleep by all,  sickness, bugs, crabby people, and probably whatever could go wrong, would.

It wasn't all sunshine and roses... but it was a definite improvement, and not horrible.  I only cried once. :)  (Mostly because of lack of sleep and rain holding us back from the fun we had planned.) Sam slept awfully the first night and was awake most of the time between 11:30 and 4 am. It rained Saturday morning and only cleared up when it was about naptime (figures) which shot our fun plans a little, and then rained again Sunday morning.  It would figure that the only rainy weekend so far this summer would be the one that we chose to go camping.  But besides that, no other huge negatives!

Anna slept great both nights.  Even though they went to bed late and didn't sleep late in the morning, neither child was overly cranky and we didn't have to do any time outs or endure any tantrums.  Naps were pretty good.  The camper was a savior with the rain, even if the close quarters made it challenging to entertain two 2 year olds for hours. 

Sam and Anna adored playing with their cousins and loved camping with their grandparents.

Rain wasn't going to stop us!

Going on a walk in the rain.

Going swimming when the weather cleared up after nap.

Eating first s'mores by the fire.

Sam and Anna's first bike ride.

(My disclaimer:  We do not own our own bike and trailer and therefore Sam and Anna do not have helmets yet.  It was a super short bike ride before bedtime, and that was it.  If we went one more than just this quick one, I would have certainly make sure all of us had helmets on.)

Where we were camping there was a bike trail on an old railroad bed that pass through rock tunnels.  We took Sam and Anna to the nearest tunnel by bike, the shortest tunnel at 1/4 mile long. 



Tunnel #1

When we left on Sunday, we drove to the trail by the farthest away tunnel (the longest at 3/4 mile long), walking to get down the trail this time.  Sam and Anna had so much fun walking through the dark with their flashlights, hearing their voices echo, and pretending to be trains chugging through the tunnel. Sam and Anna are in a huge train phase right now, so this was a perfect adventure to take them on.

Added bonus of a camping weekend:  Sam slept for 13 hours straight the night we got home, and still took a 3 hour nap on time the next day.  Anna slept almost as long.  Now we're pondering a trip in the camper to visit the farthest away grandparents in two weeks...  a 8 hour drive, just a two hour drive south of the Canadian Border and the farthest north Sam and Anna have ever been.

A Fun Fourth

We spent a good chunk of the fourth of July inside because of the 105 degree heat indices.  We made some firework art after talking about fireworks in prep for Sam and Anna's first firework display that evening.

We decided to brave the heat for the noon parade downtown, mostly because I came up with a plan to play in the center fountain to keep cool until a few minutes before the parade started.

It was the first time we've done this, and oh boy, they had a blast!

We got a prime location in the shade, but it didn't stop us from sweating buckets.  Thankfully, a lot of the parade people gave out frozen ice pops and cold bottles of water instead of just candy so that helped!

 I thought it was so sweet to see my duo clap along with the crowd when veterans walked by us in the parade.

Sam was enthralled by the fire engines and other vehicles.

Anna loved waving her flag while collecting goodies

We took a good long nap (until almost 5 pm!) to help get through the late night we had ahead of us.  This was the first time Sam and Anna have seen fireworks, and the latest they have ever stayed up (except for one trip driving home from visiting relatives).  Considering that, I think they did really well.

Waiting for the fire works to start. 

I had my doubts that tossing our sleep schedule out the window would be worth it to see fireworks (which is why we've skipped them so far), but I had a feeling that this year Sam and Anna would really enjoy them.  I was fairly certain that neither one would get frightened and they would be thrilled.

I was right.

I spent more time watching the wonder and amazement on my children's faces than what was flashing in the sky above.  Their eyes shown and twinkled with joy.  Perma-grins plastered their faces.  Anna's gasps of awe before some of the spectacular ones filled my heart.  They loved to call out the colors they were seeing, but couldn't keep up.  Both Sam and Anna spontaneously clapped in happiness several times.  The big boomers especially thrilled Anna.  While a 30 minute show could have been shorter for their attention span, the end was filled with lots of cuddles from our tired twins.  I would take them again in a heartbeat to experience fireworks through their eyes once more.

At the Cabin

We're back from our 2012 trip to my in-law's cabin in northern Minnesota!  Our 780 mile roadtrip went far easier than I expected it to go, which is a relief.  Our ipad proved itself as a great investment a million times over, and although I am extremely tired of hearing the Curious George theme song (Curious George is the new Elmo in our home these days), the $2.99 I spent on the Curious George and the Cows episode was some of the best money I've ever spent to get us through the last legs of our driving days.


Sam and Anna slept pretty well, especially considering we were pretty consistently delaying naps or bedtime due to travel and off our usual routine.  We still do not have car nappers, which stinks, but atleast we've got the traveling awake thing down. They slept until 8 am most mornings, and took a typical nap length so I was thankful for that!  I hope we are lucky with similar results when we go camping in a few weeks!

Last year the big hit with our 1 1/2 year old was the boat rides. Boat rides continued to be a big hit this year... even more so when they got a turn to help drive the pontoon. Anna (Miss Independent) didn't like anyone to have their hands on the steering wheel (adults included) when it was her turn and she would try to push them off. Sam was a wheel turn-er- we may or may not have gone in circles for a while during one of his turns. We checked out loons, blue herons, and even a beaver lodge on the lake.

This was last year's version of the above photo:

This year they still loved the boats but the hugest hit was swimming in the lake.  The lake was significantly high so the docks were actually partly under water.  The drawback to that was that the sandy beach was underwater, so Sam and Anna were not able to play in it.  The advantage to the high water meant that the end of the dock was the perfect toddler swimming area until they got more comfortable!  In no time, Sam and Anna were jumping off the end of the dock into waiting arms.  I am so glad that they meet the weight range for Puddle Jumpers this year too!  (Well, Anna almost does.)  Puddle Jumpers are fabulous for swimming compared to typical life jackets. 

 Swimming... on the dock

Swimming off the end of the dock

Both Sam and Anna became total water kids this year.  Not only were they jumping off the dock, but they discovered how to kick and move their arms to move.  They put their heads back into the water, and even swam out to the floating swimming dock (with adults close by).  I wish we could have stayed a week longer just to let them swim in the lake every day for seven more days. 

We even took them on a tube ride pulled by a jet ski.  Anna the daredevil grinned the whole time, and I'm sure she would have thought it was great to go by herself.  Sam was a little more unsure, but had fun going a little slower with the jet ski.

 Chillin' with the girl cousins on the big tube

While at the cabin, we took Sam and Anna fishing for the first time and both "caught" their first fish (with assistance).  They liked touching the fish and watching them bite the hooks under water.  We had a nice sunfish meal for dinner with the fish they caught!

 Sam's first fish

Anna's first fish

We went into town one morning and discovered a new playground.

Then stopped for a special ice cream treat.

Stopping for a small break by Lake Mille Lacs.

Our yearly picture in front of the big walleye on the way home.

last year in front of the big fish