Clara Loses Her Tooth

When we were in California for Alexis' graduation, I noticed Clara's gum slightly swollen behind one of her bottom, middle teeth when I was brushing her teeth one night. After closer inspection, I realized it was her tooth growing in behind her baby tooth. She wiggled it and played with it for a few weeks. Then, on July 7th, Clara lost her first tooth. Well, if we're being honest here, Jason said, "Let me see it." and then grabbed it and ripped it out. She was a little startled at first, but got over that quickly. She was so excited to tell everyone and asked me not to put it on Instagram so she could smile at people at family dinner the next day and ask, "Do you notice anything different about me?" She's funny. The Tooth Fairy left her $5 since it was her first and let her keep her tooth since it was her first (read between the lines: it was dark when she lost it and the Tooth Fairy actually just wanted to get a picture of the tooth with good lighting).

Here's Clara the night she lost it...

And here she is the next day when she let me Instagram it.

 

If you look closely, you can see how LONG her tooth was. I learned from my hygienist friend that is from the permanent tooth not growing in directly below it, which prevented it from "dissolving" more of the bottom. That's not the right word, but I can't remember the right word. 

The next week was spent trying to prepare for another vacation to California. On Monday night, we went to the Fillmore's to plan the meals for said vacation. We played a lot more than we planned, including messing around with the scuba gear in the pool and petting their pet California King Snake. Some people are just so much more fun I am. Glad we have good friends so our kids don't miss out.

Clara got these frogs and taped a "name" to each then made a little habitat for them to live in. I just love her little mind. The red ones were "heart" and "peace", the blue were "rain" something and I can't remember the second and green was "grass" and one other thing. I should have written it down. But I didn't.

Most late, late night weeks require a bag of mini powdered sugar donuts. One night I left the bag within Hazel's reach and this is what I woke up to. Not sure if I was more annoyed with the mess or the wasted donuts. ;)

Clara made a tower with our snacks for the car.

And I spent lots and lots of time working, jumping back from computer to computer. I wanted so badly not to have to work during the entire week we were going to be gone. Usually I leave town knowing I'll do some work, but this time I wanted to get everything to a point that I could leave it for a week so I could fully enjoy our vacation. I even put an out-of-office reply on my e-mail for the first time in years.

I had to squeeze some fun in for the kids, so we went swimming with some friends in the neighborhood.

And left just in time to watch this great storm blow in.

We went to Angela's and Clara blew bubbles for the little girls.

I think I dislike being self-employed the week before a vacation more than any other time. BUT, there are plenty of other reasons that make it worth it. :)