Whew, that's a relief!

So, Micah went for his first "real" dentist appointment a few weeks ago and my little buddy had two cavities on his back molars. Ugh. And to make matters worse, the dentist wanted to put Micah to sleep to fill them! As a parent, you want to make the best decisions for your kids. And it doesn't help that I like to make informed decisions. Putting my kid to sleep and paying around $1200 out of pocket seemed like a big deal to me, so I had a lot of questions. I could tell the dentist was a little perturbed by all my inquiries. The dentist felt that because of Micah's age, this would be the only way to get him to sit still long enough to fill them. In his words, "I've done this a long time and I don't think Micah will be able to do this. You might ruin his perception of dentistry for life and he will never want to come back." Naturally, I came home feeling beat down and began doing a lot of reading and talking to other parents about what their experience has been with pediatric dentistry.

Enter Dr. Love. A friend from church, Bill Love is a a pediatric dentist who's been in practice for a long time. I didn't initially take Micah and Katie there because he isn't in network with our insurance. But, Chris urged me to talk to him anyway. We had a consultation there yesterday and all I can say is Bill is my hero! Micah did great - he sat calmly in the chair and let Dr. Love look in his mouth. After a few minutes of poking around in his mouth, Bill says - hey, Micah is doing awesome. How about we just go ahead and fill them while you're here? We can just use a little nitrous oxide and he'll be done in about 10 minutes. By the time I picked my mouth up off the ground, Micah was done! All those weeks of agonizing over this decision and just like that, it's over. Needless to say, I think we've found our new dentist for the next 18 years!

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YEA - a milestone! I posted a few months back that I was 145 lbs and that I had a goal to lose 15 pounds. But, I hit my brick wall a while ago at 140. No matter what I did, I couldn't get below 140. That was somewhat expected - as long as I'm nursing, it's usually hard to get below a certain point because my body needs the extra calories to feed the baby. But, I finally broke the barrier. I was 139.6 today! It's been over 4 years since I've seen anything below 140 on the screen. I just had to share my excitement. Only 9.6 pounds to go! Amazing what not eating out and exercising can do for you. :)

Love grows love.

Most people who know me know I'm a pretty big Caedmon's Call fan. I have always loved their folk sound, their songs have a depth that is refreshing, and I learned to play guitar off their early music. One of the songs on their latest album, Overdressed, has struck a chord with me and it's been stuck in my head the past couple days. It's called Love Grows Love and as mushy as it sounds (and I'm not a very mushy person) - I think I like it because it is reminiscent of the story of Chris and I. Dating, getting married, having kids, going through life's experiences together, and growing closer every day.

You said to put on a happy face on a high school stage
But I read what you really meant, your handwriting on a Bible page
I waited like you told me, though we knew it right away
It took eight and a half more years to finally say

I fell in love with you, and the love became something new
It keeps getting stronger than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

When we got the news we had to call our families
And start painting the room a nice bright blue
Our vows, they started breathing and they took on flesh and blood
And we held them in our arms and tasted that God was good

I fell in love with you, and the love became something new
Added a name and we added a smile, keeps getting bigger ever further mile
There on your bended knee, we sowed the seeds of our history
Coming up stronger than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

If love is an echo of the heart, the heart is a canyon
It stretches wild and free without an end
It breaks through every wall that holds us in

I’m on the other side of the world to see what changed you so
My heart breaks with the broken and it dances with the hope
You told me I would find here what I could not understand
‘Til I’m walking here beside you hand in hand

I fell in love with you, and the love became something new
Added a name and we added a smile, keeps getting bigger ever further mile
There on your bended knee, we sowed the seeds of our history
Coming up stronger than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

It's just who I am.

I think I've finally realized something about myself - I'm a slow adopter. You'll never find me waiting at a store all night for the release of the next greatest (insert item here) . I think I even have a tendency to resist change. I need time to process, see if it's effective or worthwhile, read reviews, get opinions, etc before I'll even consider accepting something. It's kind of ironic since I work in the fast paced, always changing IT industry.

Just some recent experiences with that - Buying up houses to fix up and sell during the housing boom (now I'm super thankful we didn't do that!), Windows Vista (although, my reluctance was well merited), Blackberries (I still think they're evil), Blogging (now look at me), Facebook (now I think it's great!), Organic Foods (now I buy quite a bit of Organic foods - have you ever tried Organic milk? Yuuuumm!), and the list goes on.

And it only took me 29 years to figure this out.

Mommy, I want one more.

What am I to say when Micah is cuddling with me after waking up from his nap today and looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I want one more baby." ?

Sometimes I wonder if it is bothersome to him having to be the big brother, getting less attention than he used to get, and having to help with the other two all the time. But, it is becoming increasingly apparent that he absolutely loves his little sisters. And he enthusiastically continues to tell me he wants another brother or sister. It is so much fun to see the way he dotes over Amy Jo. I think she has captured his heart even more than Katie did just because he was old enough to understand what it meant for me to be pregnant and what it meant to have a new sister.

So, at least he has made up his mind on that topic. Now if Chris and I could make up our minds, we'd be good to go. :)

Victory!

I'm not much for sewing, but when it comes to my kids waking up earlier and earlier, I'll do just about anything. I like my sleep too much!

Over the past couple months, it has continued to get brighter and brighter earlier and earlier. Micah and Katie used to sleep consistently until 7am, if not 7:30am. But, since it was getting brighter earlier, their internal clock seemed to be adjusting. First it was waking up at 6:45am, then 6:30, and lately it's been more like 6:15am. I usually wake up an hour before them so I can have some perosnal time, but waking up at 5:15am every morning was not sounding too attractive. Amy Jo seems unphased by the daylight - she still consistently sleeps until 8am. But, now that she has become mobile over the past week, she has decided to wake up once a night for an extra feeding - I assume for the extra calories she's burning. I know some moms deal with their infants waking up several times a night until they are a year old or older, so I really have nothing to be complaining about. But, I've been sleepy and grumpy lately, so I figured I owed it to others around me to try to do something about this waking up early deal.

So, yesterday, I borrowed a sewing machine and put together some black out shades for their room. Let's just say... the extra hour of sleep this morning was heavenly!

What's in a name?

When I was a kid, I wasn't super crazy about my name - Judith Michelle. They called me Michelle for a while, but when I got to kindergarten there was a girl named Michelle that I didn't like. So, when I found out my first name was actually Judith (Judy), I made up my mind that I wanted to change it. I wasn't super crazy about that name either, but at least it was after my dad's mother - or so I was told. There were still a lot of people who called me Michelle, but over time eventually everyone switched.

Yesterday I went downtown to pick up a death certificate for my father (he died 13 years ago). You can imagine the irony when I saw his mother's name listed on the certificate as Vivienne Jean. Where was the Judy?? I could only laugh. I called my mom right away to let her know. She laughed, too. She said she wasn't crazy about the name Judy, but my dad talked her into it because he told her it was his mother's name. Seems he pulled one over on both of us! What's even more ironic is that my maiden name "Shane" wasn't a real name either. My dad changed his last name when he went into showbusiness (long before I was born). Consequently, I ended up with that last name when I was born. But, no one else in his family has that name except for me. Now that's a story I can't wait to tell the kids one day!

There's a first...

For the past several weeks, Chris' mom has been staying with us one night a week to attend a class down the street from our house. So, she keeps her makeup bag in one of the drawers in the guest bathroom. Yesterday, Katie decided to sneak in there, close the bathroom door, and play with Grannie's makeup. Of course it only makes sense that she would then need to climb on the toilet and onto the counter to see in the mirror to put the makeup on. When she realized she couldn't get off the counter, she began calling us. When Chris went to open the door - denied! Due to a poor cabinet design in the bathroom, the drawer that Katie left opened before she climbed on the counter completely blocks the door from being opened. And since Katie couldn't get off the counter to close it, we couldn't get her out. Sooooo.. we had no choice but to bust the door down. Chris got a crow bar and began beating a hole through it so we could reach in and close the drawer. Needless to say, Katie was pretty shaken up. I don't think she'll be getting playing in the makeup anymore. I can only imagine what the garbage men thought when the picked up the door this morning. :)