Braces!

Well, Willow got her braces yesterday, and she seems to love them so far. We will see how long that lasts as the novelty wears off. Keeping them clean is a really serious project. Up top she has braces on her front four, and below she has a soft splint to help with her under bite. She had great fun show and telling them in class today. One good thing about being six, the kids all think braces are cool, not horrid. I have to reconfigure her lunch plans since she can no longer eat some foods, but all in all, it is not as disruptive as I had thought it might be.

Winter fun

While we didn't quite get dumped on the way Washington state has, we did get enough snow to be a pain for natives and awesome for those of us who have lived in CO and miss the snow. One of the neatest parts was watching the hummingbirds bicker over the feeder. Eventually I put up another in the back because one big female was guarding the one in front from the other three who were hanging around. It is amazing such little creatures can survive in the cold.

The Nutcracker...on Ice!

For a little girl who has never had dance lessons, Willow is a pretty dance-y person. I decided she was finally old enough to go see The Nutcracker this year, so I bought tickets as soon as they were available. Tonight was the night, and as it turns out, Portland was hit by a big winter storm, with snow that actually stuck to the roads. Usually it just mixes with rain and becomes a slushy mess. Thank goodness for Tri-met, the local transit agency. We didn't have to deal with chaining up the car, avoiding other drivers and finding parking downtown. We just took a quiet ride on the train and street car with a couple of blocks walk at the end. The show was beautiful and it was really fun to see all the other little girl in the audience in their pretty dresses. Because of the nature of our trip, Willow had a pretty dress with long underwear, tights and snow boots :) I felt bad for all the teenagers and adults who couldn't bring themselves to do the same and were freezing their little tootsies off in pantyhose and pumps. We were very lucky in many ways, the show had a live orchestra (Willow spent intermission down at the pit checking out the instruments) and we met one of the dancers on the train back home. She showed us her shoes...pretty cool. All in all it was a wonderful holiday experience, and the snow and ice just served to make it seem extra winter wonderful.

Zane has a crazy laugh

We have tried so long to catch his crazy giggle, and this is the best we could get...but trust us it gets much, much crazier when we don't have a camera pointed at him.

who is raising whom

Isn't it amazing to realize that as you are helping your children learn and grow, they in turn are helping you do the same? Through marriage and establishing a household part of me felt like I was getting away with something, and inside I still saw myself as young, on the cusp of adulthood. Even for a while after Willow was born, I still felt like I was playing grownup to some degree. I think Grandma Barbara knows this, because when we speak on the phone, she always asks "how is your dolly?" But somewhere along the way I realized I had become more bold, more assertive (still need to work on that, but I have improved) more patient, more thoughtful...when i have a moment to think again :) In short, they have helped me grow as a person, and I finally feel like a real adult. Thanks, you two. Now if you can only stop making me feel old!

P.S. Thank you Joe for finally explaining how to properly use Who and Whom. How sad that it took me till 32 to learn that.

Girl Scouts

I must be crazy.

I went to sign up Willow for girl scouts, and ended up volunteering to be a leader. I am so nervous, and holy cow, there is a lot of paperwork and training to be done, and also excited, because I had a great time in girl scouts, and had a really great leader, Penny Solomon. I had no idea how hard she must have had to work on our behalf. Thank-you Penny! I hope I can do as much for my girls. I've met a very nice woman who will be my co-leader and with luck we can convince some of the parents of our troop to step up and help out with some of the jobs or maybe even join us as leaders. We have 14 girls interested now!....did I mention being nervous? I'm sure there will be more rantings from me on this topic as the troop gets up and running. Wish me luck!

Halloween

Willow was a cute Zebra this year. She worked very hard to paint the stripes on the costume and I think it turned out fabulously! We decided to make Zane a lion to go with the theme. He really liked wearing his little lion vest and kissing the head. Willow may want to go as Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ next year (I got lucky and got a costume on clearance after Halloween) so maybe we can get another year out of it with him as the cowardly lion. We lucked out on the weather this year, rain in the AM, but nice and dry by trick-or-treating time. Zane doesn't have the concept down yet, he just wanted to run! We ended up letting him stay home with dad while I took Willow downtown and around the neighborhood. She is at a really fun age now!