New lip and lost tooth

This is from a year ago.  You can see how the lip hangs down so you see all her teeth and her gums and it's so wide.
Here it's still lopsided, but it no longer hangs down and it's not as wide.  Notice the missing tooth.  We were sitting on the couch and she hands me something and asks real casually, "What's this?"  "Um it looks like a tooth!  Wait let me see your mouth!"  Sure enough, it as her tooth!  We checked on line and discovered that some kids do lose their teeth as early as 4.  It's very weird because she suddenly looks so big!  She asked me if she was old now and I told her yes.  

This is Cal's new move he loves it.  

Fathers and sons and daughters

Well what's new? Not much, but I feel like I should write and not just post pictures. I'm ready for fall, but I need to relax seeing as how it's suppose to be 103 tomorrow. Gabrielle has been in preschool for a few weeks and really likes it. Cal is talking non stop and has so many opinions-it's rather annoying-what happened to the kid who goes with the flow? The kid who stays in the cart? The kid who is happy with whatever food I place in front of him? He is long gone, but he's still liberal with his hugs so I guess it's ok. Luke is taking the kids camping tomorrow with a friend and his kids. Gabrielle is so excited. I'm excited to have a quiet house, but I will be hanging out with my friend's tomorrow night and then on Saturday I'll be going to Time Out for Women with my friends. I should be quite rejuvenated by Sat night. Also I have turned over a new leaf and I have decided to start doing things differently. I had an epiphany this morning when Gabrielle came in and woke me up. I thought-ooogh I don't want to get up- then I thought-this is ridiculous Andrea do something different, clearly what you're doing now isn't working for you so change it. So insted of going downstairs in a fog and getting Gabrielle breakfast, then trying to fall back asleep on the couch before Cal wakes up, I went to my bathroom, washed my face with cold water and a lemon scrub, got dressed, went downstairs and drank some water and a emergenC. Then this afternoon instead of picking up the kitchen and family room and being too burned out to get to laundry and upstairs etc, I started upstairs. I feel like my brain needs switching up-who knows what I'll do tonight? It could be anything-I don't even know! WHOO I'm crazy!!!! My inspiration came from George Costanza. Do you recall the Seinfeld where george did everything opposite of what his instinct was and then everything started going right for him? Dang that was a good show.

I love this picture. They made these at the gym daycare. You can kind of see Gabrielle's smaller lip in this one. It looks great. I'm just waiting another week or 2 to post a good pic of it when the incision is healed even more. We're really happy with it especially because she is. She says, "I can't even believe it my lip is tiny!"

"NO BUGS!"

There was a fly in the house while cal was eating his breakfast and he was not happy about it. When he would see it he'd yell, "No bugs!" and cover his eyes.
Looking apprehensive, he'd peel his hands away from his eyes checking to see if it was safe, only to see it again.
He eventually just kept one hand up to shield his eyes from the horror that is a fly.

I typed too soon...

Well we spent 2 freezing days in San Francisco for Gabrielle's surgery and it looks like we'll be heading back sometime in the future.  The plastic surgeon said he couldn't get it all.  He needed to be conservative because he didn't want to make it too small.  It is a lot better just not as small as we thought it would be.  We set the wrong expectations for Gabrielle and the first thing she said when she came out of anesthesia was "Is my lip tiny?  Are you sure it's tiny?"  Then she fell back asleep and when she woke up again she was licking her lip and asked, "Is it still big?"  It was really swollen so it obviously felt really big to her.  It's getting better and better and the incision looks so good-I don't think there will be any scar.  I'll post pictures in a few weeks when it's to it's optimal size.  

Bye bye hemangioma

We leave tomorrow morning for San Francisco for Gabrielle's pre-op. Her surgery is on Friday morning. Luke's mom will be watching Cal here so we can have a fun day with Gabrielle after her pre-op. Then we will stay in a hotel so we can be there for her surgery bright and early in the morning. I'm not really sure what to expect. I know it won't look perfect, but I am excited to see her with a normal size bottom lip-she's excited too except for the eating soft foods part. She will have to be put under so there is always that small nagging "what if something goes wrong" feeling, but I'm sure she'll be just fine. Of course we will be rushing her out of recovery since we get charged by the hour and her insurance does not cover it. ooogh insurance companies!!!!!!(I'm shaking my fist in the air at them). Well I will post pictures when I can!

Cabo!

Hawaii

Camping at Gualala and Cal's 2nd B-day

i hate moving

I don't know if I posted on this blog that I'm moving, but if not-we moved. About 15 min away to Rancho Cordova. Our renters moved out and we were sick of renting so here we are. I am actually really excited-I really like this house and we're getting new countertops. So our kitchen is not in working condition and I'm so sick of going back and forth between the 2 houses. We have maybe 1 more trip and then we'll have everything here. the actual act of moving sucks. What makes it worse is having crazy kids. What makes it even that much worse is when one kid is obsessed with being out front (of course it can't be the backyard-has to be the front with danger lurking everywhere) and this same kid has pink eye. I had no energy to deal with Gabrielle's drama if I didn't let her wear what she wanted to church today so I said ok to her outfit telling her it was out last Sunday here and that was the only reason it was ok. She wore a blue and white dress with pink leggings with an awesome peach and white scarf (thanks to Martha's knitting) tied tight around her neck. She wore it the whole day and was so excited telling me that everyone was going to love her outfit. Hopefully this scarf isn't the new "tiny black shorts".

Easter Party

Easter Party

You've come a long way baby

Wow-I came across this pic yesterday. I'm amazed at how small her hemangioma is now!!! We'll see Dr Hoffman (plastic surgeon @ UCSF) next month sometime and hopefully get her surgery for her lip scheduled. I'll ask about her cheek too. It still has slight fullness on that side-it's very soft though. my only concern is the skin, but hopefully it's gone down slow enough so it won't be a problem.

Sunday duck feeding with friends

Gabrielle

Cal

Disgusting, yet satisfying

It has been a week now and I still can't taste. My cold turned into a sinus infection, which I've never experienced, nor do I want to ever again. The pressure/pain in my head, cheekebones, eyes-it's brutal. It feels like there is a 10lb sack attached to my post nasal area. I'm fine with pain-I grew up never taking pain meds (except when prescribed by a doc)-one of those weird things in childhood where it just doesn't occur to you that you have the power to change your destiny (like having my face wiped with a wash rag that was kind of smelly-that I hated and to this day I CAN'T use wash cloths in the kitchen) My mom feels bad to this day-why didn't I ever say, "Ew mom don't wipe my face with that nasty rag!" I digress...........Anyway what I'm not fine with is the fact that I can't tase food, except for brief moments, and when I sleep at night, there is no chance of breathing through my nose so-the mouth it is. That's very pleasurable-desert in my mouth-weird side note-since I've been mouth breathing I've had the weirdest dreams-super vivid. I'm on the verge of going crazy-a week without tasting food is a lot to ask of someone who loves food. So today my friend gave me this sinus nasal rinse thing. It is really crazy looking and gross, but it does the trick-I can now taste my food about 55%-as opposed to 0%. Things are looking up folks!!

Things I hate about being sick

1. Feeling like a fuzzy version of myself
2. Having to apply vaseline around my nose cause it's raw from tissue use
3. no energy
4. not being able to taste food
5. Having to sleep with 3 pillows propping me up because I'm all stuffed up if I'm not at a 45 degree angle-and if I choose to lay somewhat flat I have to breathe through my mouth which burns my already burning throat.
6. Needing way more sleep, but not being able to get it thanks to Gabrielle and Cal.
THE ONE GOOD THING ABOUT BEING SICK-Once I'm better, I'm so excited to feel normal that I'm so happy doing the mundane tasks that come with most days.

Gabrielle started gymnastics and got this sweet leotard-she feels sexy in it and that's all that matters. she started primary a few weeks ago-loves it. It was so cute when she came to me with her CTR ring on her chubby little finger that her teacher gave her. I'm in nursery now-so in case I don't get enough toddler stimulation throughout the week-I make up for it in those 2 hrs every Sunday. I have to keep chanting in my head "It's important to serve, It's important to serve" so now it's the lull of winter; rain, dark by 5 pm, kids going stir crazy, spring still a few months away....I am leaving on Thursday to go to Vegas for my sisters b-day-my other 2 sisters are going to see her too. I am so excited to be alone for 3 days-ahh. It's amzing the things that are fun after you have kids. I am excited to walk by myself to the gate, wait, board, chill with my sisters for 3 days and nights-I am very very excited. Thanks Luke.

Cal's love affair with a snowman

Santa's coming!! WHOO!!!

Santa was hitting the streets tonight with the Folsom Police and Fire to say hi to the kids and collect toys and canned food. It was really fun-Gabrielle loved it, but Cal was scared of the sirens. You can't really tell in the picture, but Gabrielle had these gloves on that clip together when you're not wearing them so they don't get separated-she did not want them unclipped so it was like she had handcuffs on the whole night. I was so cold and it's times like these that I don't know how I ever lived in cold weather, or how I ever lived in the Arizona heat for that matter. If I had to choose, I think I would rather deal with the cold-as long as I never had to drive in the snow.

Kind of obnoxious, but I had to put it on here

Little black shorts

Reading my friend's blog, I was inspired to start writing and not just post pictures. So here I am..writing or typing. Things are good-we're excited for Christmas-95% of my shopping is done-yes. I'm feeling good because I'm finally getting the rest of my baby weight off-ok technically Cal is not a baby anymore, but what's that one saying? 9 months to put it on, double that to take it off. Right? yeah that sounds right-so I'm right on track. Gabrielle is still obsessed with clothes. I went out the other night and Gabrielle was in the bath when I left so I didn't see her. All she wanted from Luke was to know what I was wearing. When Aunt Amy was here a few weeks ago, we were heading to Old town Folsom to walk around-when she saw what Amy had chosen to wear (Sweat short things and a t-shirt) she couldn't contain her disgust, "is that what you're wearing?" Amy thought better of the outfit and decided to change-Gabrielle was relieved. She is very excited about a new way to wear her clothes which I introduced to her over Thanksgiving down at my sister's house. She put on her little black shorts (originally intended to be worn with her leotard at gymnastics) put on a shirt, and was ready to rock the outfit downstairs for all the relatives to see when much to her dismay, the shirt was longer than the shorts. Mid meltdown I showed her this awesome thing-tucking in the front of your shirt-not the back (circa 1989). All was well-the shorts could be seen! So now she does it even when the shirt isn't too long. I'll post some pics illustrating this sweet fashion statement. This whole clothing situation gives me the most laughs and the most breakdowns-it creates an array of problems. ok off to pick her up from preschool I'll add more later!

Cal's crack