And we're off

The training wheels came off yesterday. And it's pretty awesome.

He learned how to ride without training wheels at the end of the summer on his older, much smaller bike. But he couldn't get comfortable on this bigger bike. So we put the training wheels on and have been riding a lot lately. I have been asking for weeks (months) if he was ready, but he always said no. So Saturday we met friends who were also ready to take their training wheels off. Something about the peer pressure or the barometric pressure that day because he was ready.

Several people have likened this to potty training, "When they're ready, they're ready." Fortunately, this didn't involve any missteps that included bowel movements in sweaty boys underwear.

Bikes

I really like to ride bikes and I love that the kids are getting to an age when we can do it together. Andy can ride without training wheels but he likes them for comfort still (fine by me). Meg likes her tricycle but she's not fast enough to keep up. I have been letting her ride in the bike trailer (see below), but she's too big to want to be towed in what is really a big stroller. And I'm not patient enough to listen to her insist she wants to ride and then have to carry her and her bike half way around the block while begging Andy to slow down.

I'm starting to do some research now on the next step - the trailer bike. These are little half-bikes that attach to the back of the bicycle. The kid gets to pedal and help, a little, but if they do nothing, at least you're towing them vs. towing the kid and the trike.

I was all set to do this until a friend on Facebook recommended I look into a different invention, a bike tow hitch. Basically, you can attach the kids' bike to this trailer hitch and tow him/her like the trailer bike with the advantage of letting them ride on their own until they can't any longer, then hooking them up. I see potential. This could also be useful since sometimes I'd like to meet Andy after school to ride home, but there's no way really to get both our bikes up to the school unless we rode up there together at 7:20 in the morning. And if you know me, you know that just ain't happening.

Anyone have experiences with these, positive, negative, indifferent?

Merry Christmas!

Wow. After weeks of planning, plotting, purchasing, stressing, listening to the whining choruses of, "I want it right now," and , "But what if I don't get any presents!" Christmas is over. Bjorn made his Julia Child beef borgonionne for everyone on Christmas Eve, and damn, it was amazing. Bjorn was a champ in that the recipe calls for about 25 different steps, including cutting and drying about 100 different pieces of meat, and takes about eight hours to make start to finish. Damn it was worth it though. I consider that one of the Christmas presents to me!

We had 12 people all together for dinner, including four children. It was awesome to get to use the full range of our house for entertaining, complete with using every dish in the house. It took four loads in the dishwasher to get everything clean. So fun to have room to get out all that wedding stuff and entertain on such a grand scale.

Dallas did get like two inches of cold rain that day, the first precipitation of any kind all month. I was insanely jealous of all the snow throughout the rest of the South and blizzard warnings on the eastern seaboard. Fortunately good wine, good food and good family eased my jealousy.

It was a lot trying to keep our family traditions from Virginia and merging them into the new world order here complete with my cousin from Sydney, my sister on crutches from knee surgery and my uncle in a wheelchair. Like I made the mistake of hauling all our presents to my parents which meant Christmas morning was more bare with just a few Santa gifts. We also tried rushing over to their house to open presents after stockings and Santa, but we managed to annoy them by being late and I annoyed my own family by rushing them. We'll figure it out.

Of course, what works this year most certainly won't work next as we are thrilled that Bjorn's two brothers, his mother and all the kids are planning to come for the holiday. That would be the five of us (plus or minus Jennifer who isn't sure), four siblings and their spouses, four kids aged four to 15, plus Bjorn's mom. I am glad to have a year to get enough sheets and towels for everyone, but that's a good problem to have!

So far, winners for the holiday:
Bjorn's homemade Swedish glogg
Meg's new Yo Gabba Gabba bath toys
Andy's Nerf basketball hoop
Bjorn's beef stew
This iPad from Dad (Bjorn is insanely jealous)
Mom's egg nog
Dad's wine selection
Meg's dress up clothes (Andy also uses the shoes for "tap dancing"
Meg's new kitchen
Super Mario Galaxy
All the new puzzles

Surprisingly, the biggest duds are what I considered the biggest presents for the kids. Andy got a remote control helicopter that's harder to operate than it seems. Meg also got a cool "balance bike" that she can't figure out at all.

P.S. I have discovered Boardwalk Empire. Damn you, HBO. That's good stuff.

The bike I spent weeks researching. I was so excited to see her take off on it and she just can't figure it out at all right now. They did spend an hour fighting over my uncle's stocking stuffer, an old school magnetic toy. Typical. I am so getting these kids a box next year instead of the toy that goes in it.

Strep and the dentist

Andy started complaining Monday afternoon that his teeth hurt. I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong, but I knew that I had been meaning to take him to the dentist and so I was immediately worried that he had a cavity of some sort, naturally because I had been slack about brushing and the dental visit. He had a rough night of sleep Monday night. Bjorn remember that Andy fell on his way back from the pool Sunday and hit his knees and bonked his head so we figured he must have somehow knocked his teeth in the event.

I had actually scheduled a dental visit for October with a family dentist someone recommended in the neighborhood. I called yesterday morning and explained what we thought was going on and could we please come by to make sure he didn't have some tooth trauma. They recommended that I take him to a pediatric dentist because they don't normally see kids until age 5. I am pretty sure he was still 3 1/2 when I made the appointment two weeks ago so it was a little random that they didn't want to see him. She did give me the names of some nice pediatric dentists. I then went back to a recommendation from a friend for a pediatric dentist in Tyson's. Not ideal location-wise, but he came highly recommended and best of all, they could squeeze me in to make sure his teeth weren't knocked out or something.

The visit to the dentist was actually fairly pleasant for both of us. They obviously cater to kids so there were lots of toys and the hygienists were uber nice to Andy and engaging. They took and X-ray and good news, the teeth and mouth are fine. We could even see his permanent teeth on X-ray even though he won't get those until probably age 6. The dentist gave me information on what to do in future tooth trauma, pronounced him fine and sent us on our way with a nice lecture on getting rid of the binky and ways to do it.

Figuring all was well, I took him back to school and went back to work. Andy and I made a plan that after school, we would go home, get his binkies, throw them away and in return, he'd get a big boy bike. I wasn't ready to get him a bike necessarily since he really has just figured out the tricycle he's had for two years, but it was the one thing he really wanted and seemed motivated enough by it to give up those precious binkies. So we went to Target and picked out a lovely $36 12 inch bike with training wheels and a helmet (he's in a youth size helmet since his head is so big). We took it home and Bjorn put it together for us.

Andy was incredibly ornery and kept complaining about his mouth, but I figured he was tired from a rough night of sleep. The doctor said that he might complain about his teeth for a few days and to keep him on a soft diet for a week. I thought a good night's sleep would solve things. I was wrong.

We put him to bed sans binky and after about an hour in bed, he started to cry. He was asleep, but it was clear that he was in some kind of pain. It was pretty awful because he just couldn't be consoled. He just kept saying his mouth hurt and crying. After a few hours of this, Bjorn finally deduced that it was his THROAT that hurt, not his mouth/teeth even though that's what he was saying. Around 12:30, I called the pediatrician's office because he was just miserable and inconsolable. Dr. Murphy said to give him two teaspoons of Motrin and a teaspoon of Benadryl and see him at 9 a.m.

Andy and I ended up sleeping on the twin bed in Mark's room where he woke up about every 30 minutes to an hour, with a three hour stretch from about 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. It was pretty rough, mostly on him, but us, too (Meg, sweet angel baby, slept through the whole thing). You can bet that about an hour in I was really regretting throwing out those binkies.

Bjorn took him to the doctor's this morning and found out he has strep throat. The only thing we can think of is that the sinus pressure may have actually made his teeth and mouth hurt. Poor guy. Bjorn said the throat culture part was pretty terrible as Bjorn had to hold him down to scrape the back of his throat. They also tested him for mono, which is going around. He's now on antibiotics for 10 days and the prognosis is he should start to feel better immediately. Fingers crossed he knocks this out and no one else gets it. It is really hard to watch him be so uncomfortable and no know how to fix it. I can't quite believe the dentist didn't see the sore throat unless it wasn't red yet.

So, yesterday was a big day -- we tossed the binky, got a bike, visited the dentist and got strep throat. Happy August 19 everyone!

Milestones

Two milestones this week:
* Meg can consistently flip from stomach to back. She can also consistently sit on her own. She is going to be into everything before I know it. I guess I need to read up on babyproofing. It's been a long time since I worried about what Andy was inadvertently going to choke on.
* Andy has mastered the tricycle. We've had one for ages, but he never really had much interest in it. His new school has several on the playground so he's been watching the other kids and getting into riding the bikes there, which made him more interested in the one at home. This week, they even had "Bring Your Bike to School Day," which he loved. Today after work, I pushed Meg in the stroller while he rode his bicycle around the cul de sac. Last week, he was slow and seemed to lose his footing a lot. Today, he was so fast, I had to really push myself to keep pace with him and even then he beat me. Tomorrow I will wear better shoes. I am excited about this development as it means we can start talking walks again. Even if we just walk in circles to the end of the block and back, it's nice for all of us to get some fresh air. And nice that I don't have to either push two kids or carry Andy once he gets tired of walking.