Loose Teeth

Ethan lost his first two teeth!  The first fell out in the typical way: a couple of weeks of wiggling it then pop! it fell out on the way home from playing at Donovan's.

The second was not so smooth.  The adult tooth came in behind the baby tooth.  Our beloved hygienist told us during a regular cleaning that the baby tooth wouldn't come out on its own and would need to be pulled.  We scheduled the extraction.  Following extensive discussion with Ethan about what to expect, particularly with the Novacaine shot, the fateful day arrived.  Red flags appeared immediately.  Number one: favorite hygienist was not there.  Number two: they moved him into a new and strange room.  Ethan started screaming and crying and (red flag number three) was held down into the dental chair by two strangers.  Then he saw the very large syringe the dentist planned to use on him and commenced to freak the f' out and completely refused the shot.  After turning to Jeremy in confusion (red flag number four), the dentist pulled the tooth with no anestesia.  Jeremy was so, so angry and felt like he did not fully consent and that Ethan's distress and fear was handled so poorly.

Fortunately, Ethan recalls the dentist as very nice and the procedure as super fast, not too painful, and followed immediately by numbing gauze.  Several times in the week following he pretended to pull my tooth and put soothing gauze on afterward.  I think we worked through the medical trauma for him.  Let's hope that Jeremy can work through it soon.

Now we've got a loose tooth on the top.  We'll see how this one finds its way out...

Halloween

 Warm-up at our med school party, which involved bobbing for apples, eating lots of sweets, 

and Ethan destroying a pinata with his insane swing. 

Ethan totally led the charge of superheroes on Halloween night.  He ran from house to house and was the first to ring the bell and shout "Trick or Treat".  Such a change from last year, when he hung back in the group and walked up to each door, utterly silent, goody bag open.  

So amazing to watch him grow.

Candy Costume Cartoon Chaos

Snowstorm Dec 2013

Sam can't wait to join Ethan outside

Ethan shoveling a path for me and Sam

Huge snowball

Gleefully smashing snowballs

 Sam drops the shovels and makes a break for Marcy's house

Mama gets a few hours to snowshoe in the lovely powder

At the Hogans

Marcy has watched Sam alot lately as our fall schedules have been crazy (rotations, residency interviews, tutoring, helping out at Ethan's preschool).  He loves Marcy and screams when she leaves the room.  He also loves ripping the decorations off their walls, scaling the couch to reach the Shelf of Forbidden Items, opening and closing the printer, and playing with their dust buster.  All in a day's work.

I always get a few darling pics of Sam after a day at the Hogan household.  Usually in costume.

Behold.

  

They talk and it is funny and cute.

Ethan has come up with some real linguistic gems in the last few days.

• "I'm not going to be a doctor when I grow up.  I'm going to be Batman."
• On proper placement of temporary tattoos on the back of the hand: "Don't put it on my 'nickels' (knuckles) or it will get damaged!"
• On ideal procedure for getting a real tattoo: "They should mix sleeping medicine in with the ink so when they poke it in, you fall asleep and don't feel any pain."  Future anesthesiologist?
• On the status of a rash: "It completely vanished today!"
• Absorbed in play, Ethan voices his action figures.  A muscular lifeguard says to his trusty ladder: "Mr. Ladder, I was worried you were gone forever."  Mr. Ladder replies: "Don't worry, I always come home."

Sam took his time learning how to talk but now there's no stopping him. Amidst the large volume of emphatic but incomprehensible jabber, he throws in a couple of new words each day.  It started with a humble vocabulary of food:  chis (cheese), cashew, cak-kew (cracker or cereal).

Now we have:

• sauce (outside) - usually accompanied by insistently pulling on the door handle
• op-ay (open)
• buckew (buckle) - he loves buckling straps almost as much as he loves toilet paper and Marcy's printer
• sock
• shoes - usually while trying to force my shoes on for me
• bat (bath)
• up-ey (up)
• hat (for hat, hair or head)
• eyes
• nanay (banana)

Today we even heard opay buckew.  A sentence! 

He intermittently says things that sound like mommy, do-dee (Jody?), dada.  Maybe after he's mastered food and clothing words he will pick some names for us.

Dream Come True

Mount Cardigan

 

You know how some places are charged with emotion because of the things that have happened there?  Or some places sort of take on the essence of a time in your life because you've just been there so many times?  Cardigan Mountain is starting to feel like that kind of a place.  My sister and I worked at a hiking lodge at the base of the mountain in high school.  A few years later Jeremy and I got married in the same spot.  I've hiked the mountain - short, steep, great views - nearly a dozen times.  Now little Sam has been to the top too.  After you've carried both of your children up a mountain and married your husband at the foot it, that makes it kinds special.

 

Blast from the past:

Ethan on Mt. Cardigan April 2010