The Mommy Bully

OK, well, here are all the gory details. So Dallin had lost his one top tooth the day before, and then yesterday, I was playing "mush-mush" (where one boy straddles my legs and I kind of swing him up and down) with the boys in the living room. Dallin was on my legs, and Kevin was next to me. Well, Kevin moved right as I was swinging Dallin up, so Dallin's mouth hit Kevin's nose. It didn't cut his nose, but it hit it hard enough to make his nose bleed all over my shirt. Kevin was freaking out because he saw blood, so he was screaming. I carried him over to the computer table to put tissue on it.

I looked over at Dallin, who was now screaming because his mouth was bleeding a little. I looked at his feet and saw what looked like two teeth. I hate mouth injuries (they make me feel so squeamish) so I was dreading looking in his mouth. I finally got him to look at me, and I realized only one tooth was missing (the one, to my defense, that was really loose anyway). I guess the other thing on the ground was something else (not that you could imagine that my floors are ever dirty). So Dallin and Kevin were crying and Ethan was standing next to me, trying to figure out what in the heck was going on. I knew Dallin's mouth was OK, and Kevin's nose wasn't broken, so I was tried to make Dallin feel better about it. I said, "Well, yeah! You lost another tooth! He said, "But it wasn't time yet" in the saddest voice that I will never forget! I felt so bad! I don't think it hurt too bad, but it was traumatic for him. Poor guy!

We (meaning me and the kids.... Devin was in Munich from Sunday night-Wednesday) packed in the car and promptly went to the toy store. Everyone knows that if you need to send an express letter to the tooth fairy, the toy store can get it there the quickest. Post offices take way too long. So, the boys played in the toy room while I "sent the letter to the tooth fairy." We came home and wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy, asking if she could make an exception this time, and leave a toy instead of a coin. Dallin also said he wanted to ask her if she could leave another tooth so he could shove it back in. :) (those were his exact words!)

Well, it all ended well. He woke up the next morning with a cute piggy bank from the tooth fairy and was very excited. It has two little dwarfs on the top that guard the money, which I think is adorable. He also was quite excited because the phone rang this morning while I was in the shower, and Dallin answered it. He usually is not allowed to answer the phone (especially when I'm in the shower!) but he said he thought it was Nana. It actually ended up being the tooth fairy on the phone. He was so excited about it. He told her that he could call her anytime. His only complaint was that she didn't say "I love you, bye." :)

His cute little face looks so different now that he has no front teeth! I keep having him smile at me cause I think it's so cute! I can't believe our baby is growing up! (with a little help from the bully mom)

Maybe it's not the tooth fairy we should be scared of....

OK, so I'm sitting here typing this with a bit of blood on my shirt. Not even 30 minutes after I posted the last blog, I knocked out (or actually, caused the action that knocked out) Dallin's other top front tooth. What a great mom I am. I can't explain everything that happened, cause I have to run out with the three boys (Devin's still in Munich) to ..... send an express letter to the tooth fairy, telling her to make it extra special cause of the circumstances. So, off we go. I'll post new pics tomorrow with all the gory details. :)

I think the Tooth Fairy is trying to kill us...

Dallin lost his third tooth! His two top front teeth were loose, but he fell while we were at the park on Saturday, so that sped Mother Nature up a bit. It was barely hanging on Sunday, then Monday it fell out. He was quite excited! The one next to it is really loose, so it will probably fall out soon, too.

He wrote his own letter to the "Toos Fairy" asking if he could keep his tooth. We put it in a special tooth box that we had just bought, and left it with the note for the Tooth Fairy. Right before he fell asleep, he called me to come talk to him. He told me to go look on the internet to see what the Tooth Fairy is bringing now. I told him the tooth fairy always brings money, and he promptly told me that Cedie, (a boy in his kindergarten class) got a truck for his tooth. So he wanted me to go check. All the boys were in bed and Devin was in Munich, so...um.... I couldn't leave to go tell the tooth fairy that Dallin wanted a toy instead of money. Well, in the morning, Dallin was delighted to find 3 euros and fairy dust. He came to wake me up to show me his coins, and very excitedly told me that I just had to go see something. He said there was fairy dust again, but this time it was different. He said that the fairy dust "looks like the stuff we can choke and die on." Interesting. To me, it looked like tin foil cut up in small pieces, but who knows. Maybe she is trying to kill us.

He brought his tooth and a little sampling of fairy dust to kindergarten today and was very proud to show it to all the kids there. Poor Kevin was a little jealous of his brother. He was trying to rip his poor teeth out of his head. I keep telling him that when he's 5, he'll loose his teeth, too. Hopefully I'm not wrong, cause I can just imagine him asking me every day for a year when his teeth are going to fall out. :)

Someone put the pianist out of her misery

Well, I am very happy to report that all was well at church today. The kids were very good and as quiet as 3 cute boys could be. No screaming, crying, tantrums, and no one had to be taken out. I definitely count that as a good day. :)

Devin conducted his first sacrament meeting in German today. I think he did a wonderful job. Everyone could understand what he was saying, and he only made 2 mistakes on words. Not to focus on his mistakes (I've made worse mistakes that can't be written on a blog....), but they're just funny, so that's why I'm writing about them. :) He was trying to say that after we had a song, we would have the sacrament. In German, the word for sacrament is "abendmahl," which literally translates into "evening meal." What he said was after the song, we'll have dinner, or "abendessen". It was funny, but everyeone knew what he really meant. The other is that he pronouced the word 'song' (pronouced Lead) as the word 'pain' (prounouced Lide). So he was saying, "Our intermediate pain is..... our closing pain is......" :) We're just trying to keep everyone on their toes. :)

Tidbits

Here are a few random updates on the family:

*Ethan still isn't saying "mama." I'm pretty sure he's said it once or twice in his little life, but for now he still refuses to say an 'm' sound. I'm still referred to as "Dada or Dadeeeee" which means 'parental figure.' I'm not sure if I should be concerned because he's 18 months old, but he is talking and saying other words, so we'll see. He went to primary (there's only 2 classes for primary: one for older kids and one for younger) the last two weeks and actually did pretty good. He probably likes being in there with the older brothers.

*Before you read Kevin's update, I should ask you if you have just eaten, are eating, or would like to eat soon? If so, please just skip to Dallin's update. We're having special issues with Kevie right now. We tried tackling the whole potty training thing the first week of January, and I thought all was going good. He can hold it for quite some time, so he rarely had pee pee accidents. The problem was with the other function, which, at first, he would also hold for an inhumane amount of time (4+ days). So, we quickly changed to just reward him if it would happen, not worrying about where. After we got him more regular, he has now gone backwards in that area, having those special accidents every day. We tried bribery, special toys for his special job, treats, taking his K-nex away for accidents, etc. We also had an incident involving all three boys in the bath and some mysterious floaties. (We will leave out most of the details for your benefit) I finally got so frustrated that I gave up. I told him it was his choice, and he was choosing to be a baby so babies can't play on the computer and that he had to wear a pull-up now. When he decided to be a big boy and go on the potty, he could get his computer time restored. This was yesterday. Well, today, he finally told me he needed to go on the potty. What?? That is SO Kevin. He has to be the one to choose. :) Well, we'll see how things go from here. Cross your fingers.

*We got a babysitter on Valentines day. It was the first official babysitter we've gotten in Germany, and the first time we've ever gone out on actual Valentines day (we avoid big crowds like the plague so we usually go out to eat a few days later). Well, since Valentines day isn't such a huge deal here, we thought we'd take advantage. We asked Silke's daughter, Anna, to babysit, and Dallin was so excited. A few hours before she was supposed to come, Dallin spent about 30 minutes in the bathroom "brushing his hair." I checked on him a few times and he had a few hairdo's he was trying before he settled on one. :) He's so cute. He's been working on reading, and can now read the first 5 or so BOB books, which is really fun for him. He's also been insisting on being an official big boy lately by refusing to eat meals from the kid plates and utensils. He has to have the glass plates that Devin & I use and the normal silverware. No more cute plastic plates for him! Oh, they grow up so fast....

*Devin just got called to be the first counselor in the branch presidency. This poses an interesting situation for us (or our children, rather) because I play the piano for church. This means that our children will be parent-less for the time that I'm playing the piano while Devin's sitting on the stand. This should be quite interesting because our children are crazy when they have two parents with them, so none should be just dandy. This is our first official week, so we'll have to see how things go. Devin's been studying German church vocabulary a lot this week and has been trying to learn how to conduct a meeting in German. This will be a great opportunity for him to serve and also learn the language better. I know he'll do just great. The branch president and the other counselor speak some English, so that's good. On Valentine's day, we went shopping for a suit for him (suits are a lot cheaper here!). It was interesting because we understood most of what the sales lady was telling us (in German) but when she was trying to tell us that a seamstress could let out the pants up to 1cm, we didn't quite get that. She apologized, saying she only knew German and Italian. Devin said, "Oh, well, I speak Spanish!" So he spoke Spanish to her, and she spoke Italian back, and they pretty much understood each other. (Although I was in the dark) It was funny, I thought. :)

Oh happy day

I have the best husband in the world. Today he spent the day helping a new couple in the branch move into their house, and he brought back a treasure for me. Apparently, the woman half of the couple had a secret American military hook-up that could get her some Root Beer on base. She gave some to the men who helped with the move (only the Americans - meaning Devin and the missionaries- drank it. The Germans all thought it was the sickest thing ever). Devin smuggled one home for me, and I was so very happy. :)

She also gave us a jar of her honey. I guess she has a couple bee hives and makes her own honey. Yum! It will be interesting to get to know this lady!

Confetti, Witches, and Really Tall Men

At the end of Fasching, there were a few parades around. One of Devin's co-workers invited us to watch the parade with him and his family in a smaller town outside Ulm.

We picked up the boys after kindergarten, and drove to the nearby town. We barely made it to his house before they closed the road for the parade. The boys played with their kids and toys while we waited for the parade to start. To watch the parade, you had to buy these buttons, which cost a few euros. Then you wear the button during it so they know you paid.

I've never been the biggest fan of parades in the US, but I really enjoyed this one. It was fun, but not too crazy. There were some bands that played lively music and some that danced around while they played. There were lots of people in the parade who did silly pranks (I got a stamp on my cheek, Dallin got candy under his hat and then his hat pulled over his face, the man next to us got a chocolate ball stuffed in his mouth, etc.). I don't fully understand it, but from what I gather, people are in these clubs that are associated with the town. They put in volunteer hours and do things for the club, and then they can be in the fasching parade. The first year they can't wear a mask, but after that, they can. The masks are hand-made and can be very expensive (up to 10,000 Euros). So there were a lot of different groups of people (from these club things) dressed up in really cool costumes, throwing candy or something else in the parade. They would also yell phrases, and the crowd would answer, although I never quite got what it was we were supposed to say.

We noticed for some reason the men in the parade were uncharacteristically tall. I'm not sure why, but it was interesting. Our boys really liked it a lot. It was really cold and started raining at the end, so we were quite chilled, but I think it was worth it.

Afterwards, we went to Devin's co-worker's house and drank hot tea and ate some goodies. They lived in Florida for 5 years, so they know a lot of the frustrations and things we're going through. It was fun to talk to them.

This was one of my favorite costumes. It looks like a man in a basket on a woman's back. It was really funny to see them walking around! :)

A group who threw little bread balls to people (there was a child in this group who was chomping on a bread ball in one hand, and throwing them in the other) :)

A sheep (?) putting candy under Dallin's hat

Kevin, amid all the confetti. There was a group that had a catapult that they put confetti in and then shot it in our direction. There was confetti everywhere!

Dallin finally got his piece of candy!

Ethan was quite enthralled with the parade!

Wahoo!

I made my second digi scrap page without a tutorial telling my exactly where to put everything--AND without having a nervous breakdown! It's not that fancy or anything, but I am excited about it and wanted to post it. :)

Something fun for a momma

I used to love scrapbooking before I had children, and I still love it, but I can never find the time. It seems like it takes me forever to get all the supplies out, and then by the time I'm really ready, someone's awake from a nap, or something else needs my attention. So, I've wanted to try digital scrapbooking for a while, but I was too overwhelmed with learning the program. Tonight I took a short online tutorial and made my first page! I really can't be that proud of it, though, because the tutorial told me exactly what to do and where to put everything, but at least it's a start. :) Hopefully I can learn more and do more pages on my own. Anyway, I wanted to share my first page of Ethan in Rome.

Look, Mom! No hands!

Last Saturday we decided to go feed the ducks that live in our stream out our front door. There are tons of them upstream at a small park. I had been saving up our stale bread (bread here starts to get dry a few days after buying it, and rolls even the next day are dry!), so we had quite a bit.

We had fun feeding the ducks for quite a while. There was quite a big group of ducks eating the bread while we threw it to them, when all of a sudden, they all suddenly just freaked out and flew away. It was so sudden that it even splashed me in the face a bit. Devin tried to scare me by saying there was an alligator in the water. I was watching the water when I saw a movement. I looked and saw the bread swimming under the water. I looked closer and realized it was a huge fish with the bread in it's mouth. We threw more bread in and the big fish would come to the surface and eat it! It was hilarious! So, we fed the ducks, then the fish. :)

After we fed the wildlife, we went over to the small park. We played hide-and-go seek, played on the slide, and then went to the swings. Dallin's learning how to pump himself on the swings, so he and his Dad were swinging for a while and then would count to 3 and jump out together. I'm not an experienced enough mother to realize that that wasn't a great idea. Anyway, Kevin joined them and Devin was trying to teach him how to pump his legs. In the process, Devin got going pretty high. He, being a man, and with testosterone flowing through his body, thought it would be great to do a big jump out of the swing. As he got to the top, he let go and went to jump out. Only, his body went backwards. He said he thought, "well, I guess I'm going to fall," except he kept moving. Apparently, he did a back flip on the way down. As he hit the ground, Dallin said, "Wow, Dad! That was AWESOME!" Meanwhile, I was helping Ethan and just turned around to see Devin on the ground. I had my camera around my neck, so I took a picture of him, thinking he was just playing with the boys. I was a little surprised that he was full-on laying on the wet ground, but you know, a daddy's gotta do what a daddy's got to do. After he started moaning a little, I found out what really happened, with Dallin repeating in the background, "that was so cool." I am grateful that he didn't break his neck on the way down! Well, at least Dallin thinks he has the coolest Dad in the universe now. (So do I) :)

In other non-related updates:

*our home voice mail is calling us again. A few months after we moved here, some recording kept calling me, several times a day. It was so annoying, and I didn't know if the recording was trying to tell us something major important. Well, one day it happened while Silke was over, and she just told me it was my voice mail. So, she helped me listen to like 30 messages. Apprently, when it gets full, it calls me. I don't know how to check it (Silke didn't either), so now I just wait until it's full, and it calls me! Now I just need to figure out what she pushed to get the lady to start playing the darn messages. So, if you've called us in the last 4 months and left a message, hopefully I'll be able to return your call by the end of the week.

*we got Devin's speeding ticket in the mail. It was actually quite interesting. It's a piece of paper with the exact location, date, time, speed posted, and your speed. There's also a postcard type thing attached that has their bank acct info on it so you pay your fee directly into their account. It clocked Devin going 11kph over, and the ticket was only 25 euros. We thought it was a pretty sweet deal. I don't think tickets in the states are ever under $150 (not that I've ever gotten one...)

*We got to participate in our first paper pick up today. Usually you have to take your paper to the recycling center (and, as I learned the hard way, you have to sort it even more than just paper: cardboard goes in one bin and flat paper in another). Well, there is one company that gives you a trash container for paper (BOTH kinds!) and they pick it up once a month. We ordered it in November. When we hadn't received our container by December, I asked Rika to call them for me. They said they would try to deliver our container by the end of the year. What? The service industry in Germany is definitely not in a hurry. Anyway, we received it when we got home from Prague, and we were happy this month to let them take our paper, and not have to haul it to the recycling center. Wahoo!

The safe attempt

The not-so-safe-attempt. Poor Devin.

Help!

I must have the IQ of a rock because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change my blog banner into something cute. Every time I try, it always just goes on top of what I have now. I tried the tutorial on Denise's site, but still had that problem. Any suggestions?

Fasching

Apparently it's "Fasching" right now, which is like Carnival or Mardi Gras. I guess the adults dress up in costumes and do things that they have to repent for during Lent, and the kids dress up and have cute little parties.

This past Thursday the kids had their Fasching party in kindergarten. Kevin chose a clown costume and Dallin an Indian costume. The party was in the afternoon, and as I was picking Kevin up from kindergarten, he told me he wanted to wear his Robin costume from this past Halloween. That would be fine except I thought he was going to be an adorable clown. So, I got on the internet and found some clown face images that he really liked. I had also bought some face paint, so he decided he wanted me to paint his face like the pictures on the computer. I can still say that he chose to be a clown, right? He was SO cute. I had to take him to the mirror every 2 minutes so he could see the progress. :) Dallin was a cute Indian except that he didn't want to wear the cute feather hat. I think he was worried that the feathers would fall out. :) I made Ethan dress up in his Lion costume from Halloween cause it was so dang cute. He was pretty ticked when I put the pants on, but then started growling when I put his jacket thing on.

They had a great time at their party. Kevin was so tired afterwards that he fell asleep before dinner and slept until the next morning!

Kindergarten kids

A cute lion

An Indian, Clown, and rogue lion who doesn't' want his picture taken

The cutest clown!