TEETH. Secret confession style.

Scarlett has had some teeth trouble.

It is all because *TMI warning* we nursed with a nipple shield (or NS as we call it in our household!) and it acted like a bottle nipple would have in that it caught the milk and let it slowly drip into Scarlett's mouth even after she fell asleep.  Blech!  It has been a nightmare for me because we all just take care of our teeth and have minimal cavities, if any at all, so this came as a shock.  To add to the shock, I was uneducated in anything to do with bottle-feeding, so I had no idea the milk was slowly rotting her teeth.  I didn't even know it was possible.  The nurses at the hospital never mentioned it to me, but who can really blame them; I was adamant that I would wean Scarlett from her NS asap.  Little did I know that she would have nothing to do with that!  They assumed that she'd just be nursed regularly, so her teeth were never a concern for them, I'm assuming.

Anyway, the reason I'm being open about this now is because a.) it feels good to get it off my chest, b.) we have another dentist appointment next week and I'm nervous as to what they'll say about her increasing decay, and c.) because The Poe Fam just had a post about going to the dentist, cavities, and sedation.  It really made me feel better.  I'm not alone.  Maybe this post will do that for someone else!

I'm not sure what the dentist will say about Scarlett's teeth when we go.  We have been using MI paste, but her enamel is still as good as gone on her two front teeth and the two teeth on the top, left side of her mouth.  I'm pretty confident that we'll have to have her teeth capped, but I'm not sure how old they'll want her to be.  That will involve hospital sedation.  Scary.

What a relief when this whole ordeal is all over!  On the bright side, at least these are her temporary teeth and you can't tell in pictures!!!

They're dancing!  Swearsies. 

48 Hours Later...

and my face is still orange!  Sunless tanner is not my friend.

Even my eye brows joined in on the party.

We have snow!

She's ready!

Snow angels!

We were out there before the plow man!

Too cold...time to go home!

Future Gymnast. I can just tell.

So Scarlett had her first gymnastics class this afternoon.  We were late, of course, so we rushed in and I just start striping off her outer layers down to her (super cute) leotard and half- pushed her onto the blue mat.  The gymnastics instructor was already stretching with the other five gymnasts, so Scarlett just looked at me and slink-crawls back to me.

Okay, the beginning of the the class may have had a rough start.  Especially when she refused to roll down the triangle thingy and we missed half of the obsticle course, but then things started looking up...

It was time to hit the bars!

After all the other kids had their turns, the instructor reluctantly called out Scarlett's name.  Scarlett was surprisingly enthusiastic.

She quietly walked up to the teacher and lifted her arms...and the rest is history.  She rocked it.  Scarlett could hold herself up!  She did the spider, the peek-a-boo game, AND the hot dog.  All the other moms were commenting on how strong she was.  (I was loooving it)  And Scarlett had fun, too.  ;)

I see her on the USA gymnastics team in the summer olympics 2028.  She's that good!  Or maybe I'm just a proud Mum!  Either way, gymnastics was a success!

Scarlett did look pretty darn cute too:

Super-shy of the big kids taking over the gym after her class!

So What! Wednesday: FINALLY!

This week I'm saying So What! to:

1. The fact that I started this post on MONDAY.  I always forget, so I wanted to be on my game!
2. I love to hate the Kardashians.  I obviously watch KUWTK, all editions, buuttt Kim is just so freakin' annoying.  She was on Kelly! Live and always brought the conversation back to herself...kind of like Kelly!  Ok, why do I watch this show?!?!
3. I exercise to be able to drink coffee with cream.  1200 is just too little to waste 168 on coffee because then I'll just starve!
4. Cat-eye liner just doesn't look pretty on me.  No matter how hard I try to get it right, it looks strange.  
5. Adding on to #4, I have watched three, THREE tutorials on how to master the cat-eye liner look!  Shameful.
6. Scarlett was showing no interest in not snuggling with me all night, so we just moved her twin bed into our bedroom right next to our bed.  I will even admit that I love having her right next to me all night!  
7. I want to take 100 bajillion pictures everywhere, but I get too embarrassed to whip out my camera.  Super-ridiculous, I know.
8. I was late to the skinny jeans trend, so the second I saw super-flare jeans in a magazine, I jumped on that bandwagon!  I'm such a dork and a little bummed that I have yet to see another person wearing that style of jeans...I blame the fact that I live in Maine!
9. I definitely want more babies, but the thought of giving up my free time while Scarlett sleeps gives me heart palpitations.  
10. Our family has had two photoshoots so far just to try to get a nice photo of all four little ones together...let's hope that yesterday's shoot comes out better than the previous two!
11. Scott is my favorite Kardashian!  
12. I never know what day it is.  Ever.  I always have to really think about what has been going on to figure out what day it is.  That should tell you how exciting my social life really is!

She's TWO!

Scarlett turned two on January 19, 2012!!!

Last year, Tyler and I invited his extended family to come to my mom's house for a joined birthday party.  It went smoothly and everyone got along, but it was SOOO stressful for me.  Planning for the party was lots more work than I had anticipated and then entertaining guests meant that I couldn't really focus on Scarlett.  (We did have friends there, so that made it more fun!!!  Scarlett spent half the day just giving Delia hugs -- too cute!)

So this year, we did things a bit differently.

It was a Thursday, so Tyler took the day off and we spent it with Louisa and Mary doing things that Scarlett loves to do!  It was her day, after all!

So, she woke up to this:

I love her morning bed head hair!!!  

When she took a break from her babies, we showed her the toy room that was filled with balloons!

She and Lulu loved them!!!  Fiiiine, it was all Mary's idea, but it was a good one!  I think we'll have to do this for all of the future baby's birthdays!

Next, we went to Tim Horton's!!!  They have the beeeest sour cream doughnuts.  YUM!  Yeah, so that tradition might be a selfish one...ha!

After doughnuts, we headed over to Toddler Time!  Scarlett and Louisa both love it; the organizer just sets up tons of different toys in a huge open gym and lets the babies go wild!  It's fun to have a completely new selection of toys and we get to meet new friends!  Tyler has never been, so this was a treat for him, too!

We're almost there!

After Toddler Time, the little ones were ready for a loooong nap!  (YES!)  So we went home for a snooze/free time!  Auntie Molly stopped in just in time to see the Birthday Girl before her nap, so we chit-chatted for a bit!!!

Scarlett had lots of gifts to open, so when she woke up, we got a head start!

Baby Stella!

When Louisa was up, we packed up the gifts, cake, and ice cream and headed over to my mom's to finish our low-key celebration!

New location, new birthday outfit!

Scarjo and her Cup o' Sprinkles!

Mum and me!

Had to get at least one with Tyler!

She's still munching on those sprinkles!

READY for cake!

practice blows!

I forgot her candles at home.  Such a FAIL!

Mary, Lulu, Mum, and Cam!

Mary & Mum!

After cake and ice cream, Scarjo opened her presents!  What fun!

She opened puzzles, books, mail-themed gifts (she is a fan of the mailman!!!), and babies galore!!!  It took longer than we had anticipated, so it was a late night for the girls, but definitely worth the lack of sleep...

Once the gifts were open, the babies played while we cleaned and packed everything in the jeep!

Scarlett and her favorite baby of the day!

Scarjo & Lulu!

The next day was like Christmas!  We organized all of the new toys and set up the princess castle.

I think she's a fan!

It's hilarious because when she is in there and she can't see you, she doesn't realize that I still know what she's doing!  Sneaky, sneaky!

It was an A-MAZ-ING day with zero stress and insane amounts of little girl fun!!!  Such a success!

The birthday girl is FINALLY asleep!

Phew!  Scarjo's birthday is all over!!!  We didn't even have a party & I'm still exhausted!  More pictures to come, but here is my TWO-year-old sneaking some cake!  She's getting smart with her old age!

Birthday Girl!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my favorite little Katie Scarlett!!!

Two words: Nap. Time.

Aaahhhhh!  I'm sitting here, exercised, freshly showered and moisturized, watching The View while Scarlett sleeps upstairs...HEAVEN!  For some reason, Scarlett has been forgetting to nap this week.  It's all fine and good until 4pm comes around.  Lulu Watch out!

Anyway, after a two week hiatus from my blog, I have to tell you what I've been doing instead...it's not that amazing, so don't excited...!  I've been spending my evenings reading Kelle Hampton's blog!!!  I know, wild and crazy!

I discovered her blog through this post and have followed her ever since, but I never spent the time to go back and read her story.  Turns out, we had miscarriages within days of each other in 2009 and then delivered our little girls three days apart in 2010!  These similarities of the big events in our lives sucked me in.  Kelle is just so happy about life that she makes me want to be the same way!

Even though no one is my family admits to being smushy, I have to say that the way Kelle communicates her love for her daughters makes me happy.  I feel like that about Scarlett, but it's so hard to put that absolute love into words.  Kelle totally does that and her pictures just inspire me to take more of our everyday life!!!

Oh, and speaking of pictures...there will be lots when guess who turns TWO tomorrow...!???!!?!  It's hard to believe that my little Katie Scarlett is growing up so quickly...but it's true!  And there will be lots of birthday fun to be had!

We have toddler fun planned for the entire day and I cannot even wait!!!  In preparation, we are going to be painting her nails bright pink!  She loves to have her nails painted, so I think this afternoon will be a party!!!  Creating a toddler day of fun = lots of work for Mary, Tyler, and me!  We have to blow up balloons, wrap gifts, and make sure that we are all ready to start the day off ready, bright & early because we have doughnuts to devour, Toddler Time to attend, and presents to open! (Tyler has the day off, so he'll get to go to the Alfond Center with us!!)

Fun things that we're not going to be doing??  Birthday partying.  I know, horrible mother award right here, BUT I feel like there are only a few more years that we can get away with a fun, sparkle day with cake and presents instead of a crazy-hectic, friend-filled day with cake on the side and a little mummy love squished in there somewhere.  That's right, I'm hogging my birthday girl!  (and getting through a birthday with no stress!)

We're all in birthday mode here, so I'm off to blow up some balloons!  Birthday pictures to come, for sure!!!

Happy last day as a ONE-year-old, my little lady!

Because I can't post this on Facebook.

Scarlett is the SMARTEST. BABY. EVER!  Bam!  Said it.  Ok, I will say that I remember Alyssa doing this, but still...so smart!

We were driving into the Marden's parking lot and Scarjo says, "Mummy 'S'!"  AHHHH!  I encouraged the bejesus out of her and said, "Yessss!  Scarjo!  There's an 'S'!!!"

A-MAZ-ING!  We had talked about S's and practiced writing them yesterday, but I just can't believe she spotted it in an unfamiliar sign without being prompted!  Yaaaay!

There.  Done bragging.  (!!!!)

On a completely different note, here are some pictures from Christmas!  It was so long ago, it seems, but I just have to have some evidence of our family fun on my blog!  And Lulu was here this year, yay!  (I'm just going to admit that Lu may have had a little bit more fun with her gifts if she had still been stuck in the Arctic.  At least there's no Scarjo in Alaska to steal every toy you open!)  Mary and I tried so hard to make it perfect by buying each girl the same amount of gifts and mostly even the same gifts, but slightly different.  Still, without fail, once Lu's gift was open, Scarjo moved in for the steal trade.  I feel like it comes with the "little sister-ish" territory...right?!!!

Santa DID come!  Let's hope there's no coal in your stocking, Scarjo!

 (Also, please note my half-cross-stitched stocking.  Thank you, Mum, for never finishing "MEG."  It haunts me to this day!  ;)

Crooked picture.  Crooked tree.

She sat in the box for the majority of the morning!

Now who's idea was the metal weapon shopping cart?!

Camdyn (my mom's new daughter), Alyssa Lou, and Miss Louisa Violet Francis

Camdyn picked this out.  It is currently hidden out of Scarlett's sight.

Alyssa giving love, so everyone can see!

Another exciting thing happened during the holiday season; Mary won a free photo session with a local photographer!!!  She used the opportunity to get all of our girls' pictures taken in their matching Christmas dresses and jammies.  It was fantastic...until the photographer started pulling out her props.  Oh my.  And then she took her sweet time setting up each girl for individual shots.  With so many little ones, time is of the essence...it was nightmare-ish trying to keep them entertained and happy!  On the bright side, at least we have some decent shots with the girls all together...and they were free!

Now we have another photo shoot scheduled for the end of January.  My mom is in charge and has been emailing the poor lady with descriptions of the girls' personalities and what she'd like to capture...among other things.  We're even supposed to have individual mother/daughter shots; that I'm looking forward to!  

Happy Thursday!!!  It's two weeks until Scarlett's SECOND birthday.  Wow!!!  

HAPPY Twenty Twelve!

2012 has not been kind to me so far.  Well, until today.  Holy smokes, our house got the flu.  Ew.  It was horrible.  First Mary was sick on New Year's Eve and I was all, "Ew.  You look gross and pasty."  I'm a bit cold & heartless when comes to being sick.  If you don't take meds, you can't complain.  Little did I know that the thought of even ginger ale makes you want to DIE.  Even though I felt very little sympathy, like a good sister, I went and got Mary some drugs at Wal*Mart and took Little Lu with Scarjo and me to give Mary a break.  A little grudgingly, I'll admit...

And then Sunday came.

By noon, I was on the couch.  Karma was not my friend!  Blahhhhh!  And like the best sister ever, Mary entertained my little monsterbaby all afternoon.  Tyler got home at 4pm, and I sent him away with Scarlett to go get dinner and just keep her away from my sickness.

When they came back, Scarlett was such whiner.  She kept saying, "na-nights.  na-nights."  I was SO annoyed and kept trying to feed her dinner because I thought she was just hungry.  Little did I know, poor little thing was feeling the flu, too!  We went upstairs to go to bed, saw "Frexy" and took this picture.

"Flove for Frexy!"  --Scarlett

Looking back at it, I should've know she was sick; her eyes were so glassy, but it took her getting sick all over herself 20 minutes later for it to finally sink in.  Duh!  Little Scarjo is a sick-o!  It was the wooorst feeling, though because I couldn't even take care of myself, let alone a sick baby.  I barely pulled it together and we snuggled/were sick all night.  I made Tyler sleep downstairs with the baby monitor on, so that every time we needed anything, I could just call him up.  When Scarjo was sick, I would holler to Tyler and he would come running to help pick up and wash everything.

Well, at 2am, Scarlett woke up and wanted her "wa-wa-yeah." I handed her the cup that I had, but she wanted her water to come in her baby's cup.  I said that it was downstairs, so she yells, "Da!  Wa-wa-yeah!"  Haha, girlfriend knows what's up!  Tyler was so sound asleep that he missed it, but he got a kick out of it when I retold the story the next morning.

Thankfully, we are all healthy in this house now!  And even more thankfully, Tyler didn't catch it!  (He is suuuuch a baby when he's sick.  He kept saying, "blech!  ugh!  I think I'm getting sick.  I feel queasy...I think I'll be sick tomorrow...puuuh-lease!)