First tooth

Little nael lost her first tooth earlier today in school. She lost her bottom front tooth. She couldn't be happier. She's been waiting for this day. If you look at the photo, you can see her permanent tooth with jagged edges already popping out in the bottom. Our BIG girl is so excited...Right after school, we took her down the street for some frozen yogurt to celebrate. Snowboarder happened to get out of work early so he was able to join us in the celebration!

We'll see what the tooth fairy brings her in the morning.

training wheels

The last couple of days j has been bugging snowboarder to take the training wheels off his big boy bike. Snowboarder told j he'd do it this weekend but snowboarder came home early today and j asked him again. So, finally, snowboarder gave in and did it today. The wheels came off. The funny thing though was that while snowboarder was taking the training wheels off of j's bike, little nael kept telling j that it would be hard to ride his bike without the training wheels and that he would need dad's help. It was like she was trying to discourage j. In any case, J got on his bike and with a little help from snowboarder, j took off down the street with snowboarder right next to him on foot. When little nael noticed that j could do it, she then asked snowboarder if he could take her training wheels off too. She started off unsteady for the first few minutes but soon enough she was up and down the street with her brother! Our kid neighbors, Elli (9yrs) and Shad (5 yrs) were around to witness this milestone and they were cheering both kids on as they biked up and down the street feeling like BIG kids on their big kid bikes. Of course, all the kids wanted to do for the rest of the day was simply ride their bikes. But what's a bike ride without a bump, scratch, or a bruise? J got all three before the day was over.

Little nael had to take a break from riding her bike because she had ballet class but on the way home from class, she asked if she could ride her bike again before dinner. Who am I to say no? So she did and rode around with Shad (who learned how to ride a bike sans wheels at the age of three) up and down the street until the sun no longer shined.

Snowboarder and I can't be any prouder...

piano

Little nael had her first piano lesson today at the local school of music in downtown. After class, I asked her if she wanted to continue taking lessons and she nodded yes. So I guess for the next 4 weeks at least, in addition to taking ballet and religious education classes, little nael will be learning how to play the piano as well.

big time

After school today, little nael along with j had a playdate with Ethan (from school) and his sister Emma at a place called Big Time. We noticed this place last week when we had a playdate at a jumping/bouncy play area in the same shopping plaza and decided to check it out today. Big Time has trampolines for both the little ones and the grown ups and a huge, cool inflatable boot camp obstacle course. It was so huge it practically occupied the back area lengthwise. Little nael and Ethan climbed in so I had to join in and we had a blast in that thing! J had a fun time as well in the 7 and under kids play space with a foam pit, hoops, a playhouse and a trampoline area. There was also a maze which the older 3 kids tried and at some point, they got stuck and started yelling for help. Their mother and I heard them but we thought the kids were just goofing around. Little nael came out of the maze first followed by the two and according to little nael, Ethan and Emma got scared inside the maze and started screaming for help. Little nael said she was calm the whole time and eventually found her way out with the other 2 kids following behind her. Atta girl!

By the time our hour was up, all the kids were exhausted from all that bouncing and running around. We capped off our playdate with dinner at IHOP where the kids had a fun time eating their funny face pancakes!

growing up

A surprising interaction between little nael and j happened earlier this evening. Snowboarder and I had to do a couple of errands today and snowboarder decided to take the kids along instead of having them stay home with my parents. Snowboarder loaded the kids in his truck along with the balloons they got from a birthday party the night before. I found it strange that snowboarder would let the kids take their balloons but I didn't say anything. Our first stop was Home Depot and when the kids got out of the truck, I made sure the balloons were in the front seats so they wouldn't fly off when the doors opened. Our next stop was Kohl's. Before I got out, I told nael who was playing with the balloons to make sure the balloons don't fly out. She agreed with me, grabbed both balloons to put aside in the truck then I stepped out followed by j. J and I started walking towards the store entrance and not even a minute later, I hear snowboarder saying "Uh-oh, there goes j's balloon!". I look back up and I see a balloon floating away. I turned to J but he didn't seem to hear or notice anything so I didn't say a word. It wasn't until we pulled into our garage when j started asking for his balloon. As I unbuckled him, I told him to ask his father who in turn replied, "go ask your sister." J got in the house and asked his sister for his balloon. Snowboarder and I stood back and waited for nael's reply. Apologetically, nael explained that his balloon flew away by accident. Then, she handed j her balloon and told him he could have hers instead. J simply said "oh!" then gladly took big sister's balloon. Thankfully, there were no tears or whining on j's part. Snowboarder and I were surprised by how nael handled the situation. She owned up to her mistake and found a resolution without any prodding from us. I told nael right after how proud we were of how she handled the situation. She's not a little girl anymore...she's growing up!

wildlife animal sanctuary

Along with my parents, we all headed up north to check out The Wildlife Animal Sanctuary. It's a sanctuary for large carnivores - tigers, bears, lions, etc. A majority of these animals were rescued from abuse, neglect and euthanasia all over the country. At first, the kids thought we were heading to the zoo or to Wildlife Experience but as we drove on the highway, I pointed out a couple billboards with a picture of a tiger featuring TWAS and the kids got all excited. It was almost 100 degress today so it was pretty hot when we got there. As we drove up to the facility we spotted several black bears by the entrance. Inside, we saw a lot of tigers, a few lions, horses and also a camel which was rescued from euthanasia. We were also lucky enough to see 2 young cubs, 6 months old, being released in a lock down field. Watching the cubs playing with the dogs was pretty neat. While we were there, we had a picnic lunch then soon after headed home.

1K fun run

Little nael completed her first 1K fun run this morning at her new school. The morning started off with a 5K and snowboarder ran while nael and I cheered him on. About an hour later, nael took off with snowboarder down the hill, around the loop and up the hill down to the finish line. According to snowboarder, nael ran halfway till the water station, walked a few feet then when snowboarder pointed out a boy running past her, nael decided to run the rest of the way all the way to the finish line. Woohooo! When she got done, nael said she had so much fun and wants to run again. Atta girl!