All I want for Christmas is my two front (bottom) teeth!

7 years 5 months old and Dylan has finally lost a tooth! Not only 1, no - he lost 2 in the same day! The only loose teeth in his mouth and he has to pull them the same day! These two teeth have been loose since before school was out. So needless to say at this point we were no longer prepared for the Tooth Fairy to visit! We had truly started to think those teeth would need to push themselves out!
We were able to make the arrangements for Tooth Fairy's visit anyway!

The going rate around this neck of the woods is $1-$5 a tooth. We decided $3 for the first tooth and $2 for each tooth after that was good. Since He lost 2 in one day we figured he should get $3 for each. We have heard of a few kids getting a special extra gift with the first tooth so a set of Lego's seemed fitting for Mr. Dylan!
Our Tooth Fairy seems to pay for teeth in uncommon coins! Dylan got 3 gold dollars, 4 half dollars and 1 Susan B. Anthony dollar.
Dylan has always had an interest in unusual/uncommon things. He loves learning about them. So these seemed only fitting....

He spent this morning putting his Lego set together. 258 pieces put together in less than half an hour. But played with all day so far!! When we re-decorated the boys room J.D. built two new shelves for Dylan to be able to display his Lego sets when he puts them together. He can't wait until J.D. gets home from work just so Daddy can put the set up on his selves!

I sure do love this kid and seeing him "toof wus" is so cute, but makes me realize how fast he's growing up. He was my baby then I blinked....now he's my big (little) boy!

I'm so proud of who he's becoming though!

Getting back into routine!

In less than two weeks we will officially have a 2nd grader & a kindergartner! So hard to believe time has gone by so quickly!

This last weekend we went out to buy two new pairs of school shoes, and a bunch of school supplies. Because we've had no major recent growth spurts we didn't have a need for new clothes except for socks and undies, but shopping for those things was hard enough. Why can't the underwear companies just work together to make only one style for little boys?? I mean really - do 2 year olds need a choice between briefs, boxer briefs & boxers?? I've got 1 kid in each style(by their choice) and it's a pain in the tush (no pun intended) to find the correct style in the correct size, but we were able to succeed!

Dylan & Ryan are getting so excited to start school. Ryan has begun asking each night "Is tomorrow a school day?!?!" To which we reply no and tell him how many days are left. He is convinced he is going to have the same teacher that he had for Pre-K this year too. We've tried really hard to explain that each year he'll have a different teacher and that we are pretty sure he'll love the one he gets this year too! (We hope he does, since we told him that!)

We have started getting back on our "school time" night routine/bedtime, which has been VERY off this summer! We have been getting the boys back into routine of nightly baths which had gone to every couple of days since they can't go outside to even get dirty due to the heat, and an 8:30 bed time....we'll just say we're still working out all the kinks! (The boys are GREAT at going to bed when asked, it's us getting everything done in a timely matter to get them into bed that is the problem!)

"Mommy school" ended up going a bit differently than I had originally planned this summer. We were going to be doing a State a day - learning things about each one, but that was quickly postponed due to me not feeling well so we went to the "mommy-made" worksheets. Dylan has been working on reading, writing, addition/subtraction/multiplication, and spelling. Ryan has been working on sight words, addition/subtraction, writing skills, letter sounds, and sequencing/patterns. We started "homework" notebooks last night so papers are easier to keep up with and works somewhat like the store bought workbooks only "mommy-made" with things they are ready to learn. They are loving them so far. Actually Dylan can't get enough of it. He actually woke-up today begging to start working on his....sometimes I have to ask myself if I'm sure he's really mine! (I was sooooooo not that into school work when little. Of course I don't remember doing anyone working on it with me at his age so maybe that's the difference.)

I'm already getting sad that they are heading back to school. I miss them when they are gone and love having them home. They have been such a blast this summer! They've also become very helpful with housework and helping take care of Aydan - who doesn't feel he needs to be taken care of because he's a "big boy!".

Aydan this summer has fully potty trained and of course I'm loving it! This is the first time in over 7 years that I've had time off of diaper changings! I get full weekends off now! (As long as I don't have any daycare kids here.) He's also started fully dressing himself, making up his bed, brushing his teeth(mommy still helps a tiny bit), and even helping with chores (by choice!!). He's getting so big! Growing up way too fast!

It's been a WONDERFUL summer (minus a small portion that wasn't anywhere near wonderful). I'm really sad to see it go, but am looking forward to another school year of my children growing and learning! I can't wait to see what the future holds for them!

.....One Week....

...and somehow it passed me by. Somewhere I've missed a day in the past week because all week I've been dreading today, but today isn't Wednesday. I missed Wednesday! The weird thing is all day yesterday I was planning my regular things I do on Thursdays, but it never hit me that it was Wednesday. I even remembered Tuesday was over. Almost like I was trying to block it out, but I didn't do it on purpose!

Still...It's been one week since Eyvan returned to Heaven. It's been a little over 24 hours since I last cried, so I guess that means things are going better...right?
This morning I had to do the last(?) testing to make sure my body is back to "normal" though I don't think there's such a thing as "normal". Having a baby in Heaven isn't normal, trying to cope with it isn't normal, going to dr. appt.s to ensure your health after losing your child isn't normal.... So what is normal?

I'm still having to remind myself the baby is really gone. It doesn't seem real honestly. I've been so busy and so tired since last Wednesday that I truly don't think it has fully sank in. I mean the idea of everything I get, but the fact that it's real and forever I really don't think has sunk in... I keep thinking "when the baby gits here I have to...oh, wait...." The other day J.D. and I were out shopping for a couple of school clothes items for Dylan & Ryan when we walked by the newborn clothes and I got excited for a second when I saw an outfit that would make a wonderful coming home outfit for baby. Then it hit me that we don't need one of those. We are SUPPOSED to NEED one of those!!! I want to NEED one of those.
Ok, lets start that no cry count-up over....

So anyways I had to go in for blood work this morning. They want to test my HCG levels to ensure they are back to "normal". (again with that word that truly has no meaning!)
Every time I think it's finally time for me to stop having it shoved in my face it is again. Like here lets do more tests just to prove and re-prove it's really over because what we've put you through already just isn't enough!

I think a lot of people think I'm nuts for getting so upset over something like this because we weren't very far along. But it didn't live inside them, it lived in me! I had already begun to bond with this coming child. I had already started praying for this child...my child...my baby! Then all of a sudden this precious baby is gone. I never got to feel it kick, or hear it's heart beat(oh how I wish I had called to make an appt. sooner. If I had just called a week earlier they could have gotten me in & maybe I could have heard it's heart beating, but because I was so "busy" with everything else I put it off). I never got to hold Eyvan, or give Eyvan a hug, kiss Eyvan's little cheeks. I somewhat feel robbed of these things. I keep asking my self if it would have been harder to loose the baby if I were farther along or if it had been still born, or passed after birth....I really don't think that would have been harder - I almost feel like being able to see the baby and have a funeral would have at least given closure. Here there is no closure - it's just gone.

I figure all of this will get easier though as the weeks go by, at least I hope it gets easier. The next few weeks are going to be so busy anyways that it should at least help keep my mind off of the sad parts. This weekend is tax free weekend so we are planning to go buy new school shoes for the boys, we have lots of home redecorating to do, and 2 weeks from tomorrow Dylan & Ryan have their first day of school!! I think they are getting excited! I'm anxious to see who their teachers are!

Well, time to get on with my THURSDAY! The only good thing about missing a day this week is it makes the week seem shorter and tomorrow is Friday! I'm very ready for Saturday!

Eyvan

We have a really good friend Sean, who can draw like nobody's business... Well last Wed. night shortly after we had lost Eyvan I started thinking that I want to have Sean draw us a picture of Eyvan, but every time I thought about asking him to I'd get teary eye'd and worried he'd think I was nuts for asking. Well this morning he and his wife let me know they had a picture of Eyvan for us as soon as we were ready to see it! I told J.D. about it and found out he had been thinking about asking Sean to draw one as well! Is that not AWESOME! God knew we needed it! So Sean did it!

Here is the BEAUTIFUL picture of our precious sleeping angel!

I do ask that NO ONE copies this picture for ANY reason. Right now this is ours and we don't want it posted every where - only where we put it.