2nd Lost Tooth

I didn't intend to post about another lost tooth but this is too good of a story. Solana will get a kick out of this one in the future...

With the first tooth out of the way we started focusing on Solana's second loose tooth. That one also had a new one growing in behind it. Solana worked on it a bit but then lost interest. I asked her about it on Sunday and she showed me that it was really quite loose. Dave said that he could tie a string to it and do the doorknob trick. When I was a kid, my Mom told us that Papo (my grandpa) pulled out Aunt Linda's tooth that way. The doorknob story was one of those that grownups told just to scare us kids. They'd threaten us with it every once in a while but we never believed them. She also told us that they used to iron their hair straight with the iron - like, as in, the one you iron your clothes with. I wasn't sure I believed either story. That's why, when Dave mentioned it, I expected Solana to balk at the idea.

She didn't. She was all for it. And dear ol' Daddy was ready to go for it. Mommy, on the other hand, quickly dissolved into a wobbly kneed panic attack mess. The conversation happened over lunch and I tried to hold it together and act apathetic as they left me with Chloe at the table. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Do what you want." I failed miserably. Solana was excited. Dave was pulling string out of the "drawer" and I sat there staring with wide eyes and unintentionally making hateful faces at Dave. "Nothing's wrong. I'm fine. Carry on."

They went to the back room and I tried to follow them but my feet were glued to the kitchen floor and Dave shut the door. I guess he didn't want my nervous energy seeping into the room. I took a picture from the kitchen because that's the best I could manage at the moment.

Besides, Chloe was still in her high chair. I took her down and paced a few times in the living room and actually cried. I could just imagine the sound of a door slamming and Solana screaming. I remembered my 7 year-old self wiggling my teeth for my Mom and freaking her out. It was hilarious. So if I could remember that why am I so creeped out when Solana does the same? And why am I having a panic attack now? I couldn't answer my own question. I left Chloe playing with blocks and went to brush my hair but my nerve endings were all on high alert. Every tangle felt like a cactus was attacking my head.

Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer. They were taking way too long. I went to the office and opened the door and blurted, "Oh my God!" when I opened the door.

They had already tried once but the string slipped right off because Solana was sitting and the angle was wrong. They were about to try again but she was hesitant. After about a minute she decided against it. I literally breathed a huge sigh of relief (hoping Dave wouldn't hear) and ushered her away from the door of doom.

Later that evening I was brushing her hair before bed and mentioned that she should work on her tooth a bit. This is what she did while I brushed her hair.

The tooth fairy brought her $5 for tooth number one but only $1 for tooth number two. What a disappointment. After all that work? Where is that tooth fairy? I need to have words with her.

Solana Lost a Tooth!

Yesterday Solana pointed out to me that she's growing a new tooth behind her loose tooth. I took a look and, sure 'nuff, there it was. A little bit of white was poking out of her gums right behind her loose tooth. The fact that her loose tooth seemed far from falling out made me nervous. I called the dentist. They said to encourage wiggling and twisting. Eww. Just the thought gave me the heeby-jeebies. And just after I finally got that finger out of her mouth... I gave Solana a tissue and said, "Go for it. You need to wiggle your tooth out within the week. If not, the dentist will want to pull it." By the time she went to bed she was proudly showing me blood on a tissue. I went weak in the knees and congratulated her for her perseverance.

After school today Solana jumped off the bus yelling, "Mommy! Mommy! My tooth fell out at school!" If I didn't see it I wouldn't believe it!

Interesting Solana tooth fact. You can see that she has four teeth remaining on either side of the missing tooth. Knowing that this is her first lost tooth you may think, "Hmm. That doesn't make sense. If she lost only one tooth shouldn't she have four on one side and five on the other?" The answer to your question is, "Yes." That is, if two of her teeth weren't fused together. The tooth that you see to the right side of her gap is actually two in one. They say the permanents will grow in as two. That just happens sometimes with baby teeth. Weird, huh?

That's What Chloe Said - February

Chloe loves it when she burps. Every time she burps she says, "Q Me, Mommy!" And I have to tell her "You're excused." If I don't respond right away she'll keep repeating herself until I do. And if anyone else is around they also have to excuse her.

"Q me Mommy!"

"You're excused Chloe."

"Q me Daddy!"

"You're excused Chloe."

"Q me aNana!" silence "Q me aNana!" silence "Q me aNana!"

"You're excused Chloe."

After she's properly excused. She chuckles. "Da Bunny!" (That's funny.) And that's repeated until someone agrees with her. It's actually pretty hilarious.

Cynthia's Birthday

I turned 37 this year and had a great birthday. I love baking cakes and decided I wanted to bake my own cake this year. Dave usually picks one up for me but I like my own cakes better so I called him at work and warned him. I'd been fantasizing about a couple of cakes for several months. First, the coconut cake from Bobby Flay's Coconut Cake Throwdown but also this cake that my friend, Melissa, blogged about a few months back. The Chocolate Pumpkin Cake sounded easier so decided to go for that one. I baked it while Chloe napped and it smelled divine.

When Dave got home from work he and the girls took me to my absolute favorite restaurant, Rue Dumaine. The food was amazing. Just a few short weeks after this dinner Chef Anne Kierney was announced to be a top 5 finalist for the James Beard Best Chef Great Lakes region award. We're lucky her restaurant is 5 minutes from our house! She's the only chef outside of Chicago selected. I suppose that means I have really good taste. ;-) Check out the menu!

They don't have booster seats at Rue Dumaine and we brought one but then decided we'd be ok without it. Chloe disagreed. She was sort of a handful and didn't want to sit in the booth. I finally let Dave take over and he had her taking a pretend nap and then flipping through pictures on his phone.

Hi Mommy! Here's the plan. I'm going to try and look cute so I can then act like a little stinker. What do you think?

We ordered lentils and spinach ragout for the girls but they were so good Dave and I wanted to eat them all!

After dinner we returned home, smiled for a picture, and then chowed down on cake. Dave served ridiculously enormous pieces. But did we leave any on our plates? No. Thanks Mel for the awesome recipe. I just might make that again!

Honey Caramel Sticky Nut Buns

After 9 months of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day I finally made the Whole Wheat Brioche. It's one of their Enriched Breads (uses eggs) and has a fair amount of butter in the recipe. While eating healthy is a priority for our family I definitely love indulgences. The thing I try to do is make our indulgences myself. If I'm willing to make it from scratch I figure at least I know we're not eating a bunch of chemicals, preservatives, and highly processed foods.

But I was afraid that, after trying the Brioche, we'd have a hard time going back to the other breads. Turns out the brioche is, well, AMAZING! I first made a sandwich loaf using the dough and it's soft, light, and fluffy - different from the more firm and dense sandwich loaves I've been making. Drat! We'll have to finish off this loaf and forget we ever had it. That's the ticket! Dave had lunch provided at work twice this week so he hasn't actually had a sandwich with the brioche. I'm considering finishing it off without his every trying it just so he won't ask me to make it regularly.

I decided to use the rest of the dough from that batch to make something sweet. There are a number of pastry recipes toward the back of the book that I haven't yet tried. Honey Caramel Sticky Nut Buns being one of them.

Ummmm. Yum?

I made them the night before and let them rest in the fridge overnight. This is a trick I read about in the book. It's nice for breakfast pastries because preparation and rest time make it impractical for the morning unless I want to be cooking at 6am. I would also be really handy for someone who works all day but wants to have fresh bread with dinner. You pull off a chunk of dough in the morning and form it into a loaf (1 minute process), place it in the fridge and cover loosely with plastic wrap. When you get home take it out, uncover, and let it rest at room temp as the oven pre-heats. Then it's good to go! I was shocked to see how my buns filled out and rose significantly overnight in the fridge.

Coming out of the oven. I used a Pampered Chef stone version of a cake pan. You can barely see the stone under the buns because they rose so much they're practically laying over the edges of the stone!

When you make Sticky Nut Buns you smear some of the creamed butter, brown sugar, spices mixture on the bottom of the pan and place the rolls on top. Here's what it looks like after flipping them out of the pan. Sticky yummy goodness!

Dave was a good sport. He waited for me to take a picture before digging in...barely.

Mmmmm. Honey Caramel Sticky Nut Buns. I need to hurry up and toss the rest in the freezer before I pick on them all day.

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Vestibular System

Vestibular is a word I never heard of until Chloe's Vision Therapist, Linda, brought it up a few months ago. It involves the inner ear, which sends signals to our neural structures that control eye movements. It affects our balance and ability to stay upright. A much better and thorough explanation can be found here.

The whole concept is little fuzzy to me but Linda has always been adamant that Vestibular Activities are very important for Chloe. I know that she loves them but didn't really comprehend the importance until recently.

• A little background on Chloe's vision: It's inconsistent. We never know what it's going to be from day to day. Some days she's great and others she's...off. The thing is that Chloe adapts amazingly well so sometimes we don't notice. She could run around the house blind-folded and, unless we looked to see the blindfold we wouldn't even notice. For example, a few days ago I made a horrible mistake. I put her contacts in the wrong eyes. One eye is severely far-sighted and the other is extremely near-sighted. You can imagine that I basically made her blind for the two hours that she wore them that way. We played in the living room for a while. She ran around picking up and playing with toys like nothing was wrong. In fact, I think she even watched a little Dora while I got dressed. Then we went out to breakfast with my friend, Angela. I handed Chloe some paper and crayons and she put her face right into the paper to color and then lost interest pretty quickly. It wasn't until then that I noticed anything was wrong. If I hadn't handed her something that absolutely required vision - something she hadn't already memorized - I might have let her go all day like that without knowing.

We spent a week in Houston around Christmastime and returned to Dayton shortly after. Texas was sunny and wonderful. Chloe's vision is actually better on sunny clear days. When we returned to Dayton it was cloudy and gray. After a day or so, all the good vision energy she'd built up in Texas wore off and she started stumbling around like she'd just stepped off a boat. It was disconcerting to me. I thought about vestibular and put Chloe in the "Bubble." Chloe previously hated the Bubble but I had her lay in it this time to feel more secure and...it helped. It actually helped! And she loved it!

I talked to Linda about it and she wasn't surprised to hear that Chloe's vision went downhill after returning from sunny Texas. She's planning a move to Florida and, being visually impaired herself, is thrilled at the idea living somewhere that's always sunny. It's like a new world opens up for her when she's there and I can see her eyes twinkle when she describes the crispness of her vision in Florida. She said that she needs vestibular exercises every day and has 4 swings at her house. A while back she had to have neck surgery because she injured her neck after years of tilting her head. For six weeks she was miserable because she couldn't do any swinging. She couldn't sleep. A little light started flashing in my head when she said that. "Vestibular exercises help you sleep better," I asked. Absolutely. I thought about the fact that Chloe's been skipping some naps and taking longer to fall asleep - tossing and turning a lot. It didn't seem unusual to me until Linda's comment.

The next day I put Chloe in the bubble before her nap. She normally naps 1.5 hours. She napped for 4 hours that day! We've been focusing more on the bubble and other vestibular activities since them. Some others Linda recommended are:

1. Swinging in a blanket - Two adults hold the ends of the blanket and swing side to side and even up and down.
2. Log Rolling - rolling across the floor or a mat
3. Crawling - and rocking back and forth while on hands and knees (something Chloe used to do a lot when she was a crawler).
4. Swinging - Chloe could swing for hours. We're considering installing a swing in our house but aren't sure about the bolting system required and expense. And with Spring on its way we'll probably be getting outside more. We'll see...
5. Therapy Ball - These are those huge balls that you see people sitting on instead of chairs. Kids can sit on it and bounce (with adult support) or gently roll back and forth.
6. Sit and Spin - Chloe loves any type of spinning. She'll stand in the living room (usually close to the entertainment system) and spin and spin and spin.
7. Mini Tramp - We're still trying to teach Chloe to jump but she's getting closer every day and loves practicing on her mini trampoline. Sometimes I carry her while jumping on it.
8. Stroller - Chloe's OT and PT mentioned that riding in a wagon or stroller also provide vestibular input. It got up into the 50's outside yesterday so I bundled Chloe up and we went for a jog. 40 minutes at jogging speed must have done the body good. She slept in an hour and a half this morning.

A little non-traditional bubble play

Solana is spinning Chloe by placing her finger in one of the holes and then spinning her. Solana doesn't normally do the spinning but she loves showing off and being in front of the camera so we let her this time.

Sometimes dollies, stuffed animals, and blankies get the honor of joining Chloe in the bubble.

When I spin Chloe I spin her FAST and for minutes at a time. Every time I stop she says, "More pinning bubble?" I swear that, were I to spin like that, I would literally be throwing up. Chloe barely gets dizzy. I'm sure that has to do with our vision/balance connection being so different.

I'm glad to finally be on the vestibular activities band wagon. I think it's good for her and can tell she really enjoys it. Linda says that, as Chloe gets older, she'll recognize when she needs vestibular activities and do them herself or ask for them.

Cincinnati Mini Vacation

Dave had a four-day weekend so we took a mini-vacation to Cincinnati to check out their Children's Museum and the Newport Aquarium. Dave booked the pet sitter and hotel, loaded the van, and we headed out Saturday morning.

We bought a membership to the museum a few months ago. With it, we also get admission to museums in Dayton and Columbus. We've been to Boonshaft, the one in Dayton, a couple of times but never Cincinnati so we didn't know what to expect. Turns out it's a really great museum and only 45 minutes away from our house. We'll definitely be back.

Dave dropped us off and parked so we hung out in the atrium for a few minutes. We found one of these little machines that makes souvenir pennies. I hate buying souvenirs but I used to collect these pennies in Europe and was happy to drop 51 cents for this one. Solana loved it! Chloe watched in admiration, just like a little sister should, as Solana cranked the wheel.

Museum highlights

Chloe loved the water play area.

They both loved the ball room. Solana's catching balls in her sack as the dropped from a bucket. There were thousands of those little balls in there. Chloe wandered around a sea of balls kicking them. I'm not sure how she managed not to fall.

Chloe enjoyed the toddler area. She's really into imaginary play right now. These lego farm animals were perfect. "Mommy, cow widing! Moo!" Chloe yells most of her sentences. I anticipate we'll need to work on her "inside voice."

"Mommy! Dinadoor eating a twee! Mmm mm mm Yuuuuummmmy twee!"

Time to fill up! We should have bought a hybrid.

Bus driver Solana is making her final stop of the day.

There are three museums in the same building. After the Children's museum we went back up to the atrium at ate our packed lunch. I looked around at everyone else eating pizza and nachos and was glad to have brought tuna/egg salad sandwiches, bananas, prunes, and cheetos. Fortunately for me, the girls aren't old enough to care that our tuna/egg salad probably stunk up the place. After lunch we entered the Natural History Museum. Dave and I worked on the scavenger hunt and Solana amazed us with her dinosaur knowledge. We sort of breezed through because it was already well past Chloe's nap time and she was getting impatient.

Here's our only family photo of the whole trip.

After we checked in at the Hilton and enjoyed listening to the girls freaking out over the room we headed out for dinner. We walked about 2 minutes to a place called Local 127. The atmosphere wasn't exactly kid friendly and the girls were "starving" but we managed. The food was divine.

Back at the hotel the girls curled up on their very own pull-out bed. That was soooo cool! This was their first time sleeping together and they couldn't have been happier about it! Dave and I thought they'd pass out watching TV but that never happened. We finally turned out their light some time during the 9 o'clock hour. And yes, that's a pacifier in Chloe's mouth. Sigh.

They magically slept through the night and everyone woke up in good spirits Sunday morning. We ordered breakfast room service and then headed down to the pool. Dave went first and enjoyed some steam room time. And I took a dip in the hot tub at the end our pool time. Finally, we got everyone bathed, packed up, and headed out to the aquarium. The aquarium is just across the bridge into Kentucky - a 7 minute trip from our hotel. It was PACKED. We enjoyed it as best as we could but the crowd was a bit much. I was glad to see Solana zipping around the crowd to find empty spots in front of the aquariums. When I was a kid I think I was too timid to do that and would have missed out on everything. We'll need to go back during the week some time.

Check out those crabs! Wow!

I think I look pretty in this picture and that rarely happens so I'm posting it! Ha.


I was worried that Chloe wouldn't be able to see anything and be bored but she could see a few things. There were some jellyfish that glowed and a few of those glass tunnels that you walk through and are surrounded by water and fish. She loved it when the really big fish swam by. The movement helped.

Solana especially enjoyed the glass floors.

After an exhausting weekend of museums we finally headed home. As we passed the IKEA Dave mentioned a shelving unit he'd been wanting to get me. Chloe was asleep and Solana was watching a movie. I suggested he go in for it while I wait in the van with the girls. We turned off the engine but kept the power on for Solana's movie. Dave knew just what he wanted so he wouldn't be too long. After a while it started to get cold so I texted him and he suggested I start the engine since he'd be a little while yet. It...wouldn't...start. We'd killed the battery! Then, as I was freaking out about the dead battery and trying furiously to call Dave the people parked next to us set off their car alarm in order to find their car. Guess who woke up screaming? Not exactly how we'd envisioned that particular 10 minutes of our weekend to go. Dave found someone to jump the van and pushed it out of the parking spot to do so. I'm glad he's strong! We left without the shelves and sort of wishing we hadn't stopped. Dave went out to replace the battery after we got home and that was the end to our mini vacation.

Whew!