mental illness

Woooohooooooo! We finally transitioned Logan to wearing short sleeves AND shorts! It took more than a month and lots of tears, but he's worn summer clothes to school the past three days. Ugh. Only three months until we have to transition back to long sleeves and pants. (I was insistent he wear shorts this summer because he has worn through the knees of approximately 754 pairs of jeans and pants in 2007 alone.)

The poor kid does not adapt well to change. Of course, neither do I. I always say Logan inherited all of Gene's and my worst qualities. His independence, stubbornness and general pain in the butt-ed-ness come from me. His freakish tidiness, extreme sensitivity and inability to accept change come from Gene. I'm not sure where he got his overwhelming need to stay on schedule but he NEEDS to be in bed by 8:30pm or we pay. Clothing tags are manufactured by Satan and one must be dressed to shoes within five minutes of waking in the morning. My 4-year-old neatly folds his two silkies (small security blankets) and places them on his pillow before making his bed. Logan's not perfectly behaved at school, but we often get compliments from his teacher about how helpful he is at cleanup time.

His need to do EVERYTHING for himself does come in handy. At age 4 he is capable of safely using the toaster and microwave. He uses a scissors to open packages he can't tear and can pour his own drink without making a mess. I never have to make him breakfast or get him a snack. He also taught his OLDER sister how to do all these things so I don't have to do them for her either. He rarely makes much of a mess because he's too tidy.

Hopefully some of his issues will improve with age, but considering his 38-yr-old dad just went to several stores (including Bed Bath and Beyond and Linens 'n Things twice apiece to buy and return) before he finally found a blanket that met all his needs and his 34-yr-old mom just bought her 10th pair of identical New Balance walking shoes he's probably screwed...

Teeth, ugh.

Kaylin has had a loose front tooth for well over two months. It is dangling in her mouth but she absolutely refuses to twist or even wiggle it because it hurts a teensy bit. She was at the dentist in early April and at that time I thought the tooth was so loose that it would come out any day. The dental hygeinist couldn't even stand to look at it! It's still there.

The tooth is icky to look at and is starting to stink. I have made so many bribes of "If you lose the tooth by ___, I'll buy you ___..." I can't even remember what all I've offered. We were at ToysRUs yesterday and I told her if she lost the tooth while we were in the store I'd buy her anything in the store. Anything. She wouldn't even wiggle it with her tongue.

Last night I went out with a friend. Gene took the kids to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Everyone was in bed when I got home but Gene woke up and excitedly told me Kaylin lost her tooth when she bit into her ice cream sandwich! I was completely thrilled. I deposited some Tooth Fairy cash under her pillow and fell happily asleep.

This morning when Kaylin woke up I rushed back to her bedroom to see the missing tooth. She gave me a big smile and shock of all shock, she lost the OTHER front tooth! The tooth that was barely loose in comparison to the hated, dangling one! WHAT??????? AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

So now the Hated Tooth looks even more disgusting hanging there in her mouth. Kaylin has a couple of slightly loose lower teeth that will probably fall out first. At least she's now motivated to lose the tooth because she's excited about having both front teeth gone. Gene said she was actually wiggling it last night! It's just beyond belief to me that a kid wouldn't want to lose a tooth. I would have messed with the thing constantly!