Toothless.

Jack would like to share with the interwebs that at 5 years, three months, and 26 days old - he has lost his first tooth.



At 10:30 pm the tooth fairy attempted to do her tooth fairily duties. It was, however, unsuccessful. Jack shot up in bed, looked JP in the eyes, and exclaimed "I'm waiting for the tooth fairy!!" We called it a dry run.

About 30 minutes later he was finally asleep...with his hand under his pillow protecting the tooth. Crap.

Thankfully I the tooth fairy was able to grab the goods, make a deposit, and get the heck out of there without waking the child. Never in my life had I ever imagined that I would be sneaking into my child's room, cash in hand, trying to steal his teeth.

The next morning as Jack emerged from his slumber, squeals of excitement rang through the hallway. The tooth fairy left $5, which Jack promptly shoved into his piggy bank.

::Side Note:: I think we got 50 cents for the loss of our first tooth when we were little...must be inflation.

...because those things only happen to other people's kids.

...or so I thought.

As a parent I never prepared myself for the possibility of something bad happening to either of my children. I saw the world through rose-colored glasses until a call I received on Friday April 29th changed everything...

It was a typical morning at work. I was on the phone with a customer who happens to live near the home where I bring my kids to daycare. Through her end of the phone I heard the sound of sirens in the background. We both commented on the ruckus and quickly shook it off. I work near a hospital and we hear sirens everyday. I got off the phone with the customer, but something didn't quite feel right.

Minutes later I received a phone call from the paramedics. They were at daycare. They had my 16-month-old daughter. She was seizing. I needed to meet them at the hospital.

I grabbed my keys and flew out of the office to the emergency room, calling JP on the way to meet me there. I beat the ambulance and waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to arrive.

When I was finally notified that she had arrived, I couldn't get to her fast enough. The rest of the day was kind of a blur, but I will never forget the look on my husband's face as he ran into the room and together we held our baby girl, and cried. This wasn't supposed to happen to us.

After one ambulance ride, three hours in the ER, one normal CT scan, one normal EEG, and one visit to the neurologist, it was determined that Reese had a grand mal seizure. We never got any 100% answers as to why, but we will be forever thankful for the health of our daughter - and will never take anything for granted again.

Frustration.

It's tough to be 1.
(sorry that the video is all wonky and sideways!)

JACKtionary

::Back Story:: Jack was talking with my cousin/his God father, Terry about who has known Jack's dad the longest...

Terry: I've known your Dad longer. I've known him for a really long time, since before you were born.

Jack: Nah-uh. I've known him my ENTIRE LIFE.


How do you argue with that?

JACKtionary

It's been awhile!

Jack: Mom, I can't wait until I grow up and have my own phone so I can call you from work and tell you what I want for dinner.

Me: ::blank stare::

Such a man.

a global citizen.

As some of you know, I grew a wild hair and enrolled myself back in school earlier this month to obtain yet another degree. Although I graduated from the same school in September, I am still considered to be a "new" student. A new requirement for all "new" students is to take a course on Global Citizenship to learn what is means to be, and what we need to do to become more of a, you guessed it, global citizen.

In week two I learned that one of the requirements that I need to meet in order to pass the course is to donate my time to volunteer; which would be all fine and dandy...if I had TIME. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE volunteering. But between work, other classes, kids, etc etc etc... I had NO idea where I was going to pull "time" from.

Last night I attended an optional meeting about the global citizenship project, and I will be forever grateful that I did. I learned that volunteering doesn't mean giving up hours of your time each week for a cause. There are many organizations that are seeking "virtual volunteers" for assistance on projects that can take as little as 15 minutes to complete right in your own home. There are even projects that I can have Jack help with. Winner, winner chicken dinner!

Volunteermatch.org is a site that was recommended to me, and now I am recommending it back to you! You can search for in-person and virtual volunteer opportunities in your area and it's a great way to give some good back to your local community without having to dedicate a lot of your time. What can you do today to make someone else's life better?

One of the (big) Boys.

Jack's snowmobile surprise on Saturday was a hit! My Dad and brothers made him a track in the backyard. Although it was a little rocky at first, by the end of the day he was doing really well! There was only one casualty of Grandpa's bushes and one minor incident in which my brother literally had to superman off of his snowmobile to catch jack before he took off into the slough.

Suiting up...



One of the boys...


It was a good day.