Tooth Fairy Take Two

I have previously confessed to being the worst tooth fairy ever here. Well, I was ashamed to blog when my worst tooth fairy experience repeated itself. However, we are always trying to improve ourselves. Last night we had a much more positive tooth fairy experience.

Once the kids went down last night, Mark and I collapsed on the couch and started to watch the Biggest Loser. That's when we heard the dreaded sound - little footsteps coming down the stairs. Usually, that sound means that we are about to be tortured by Micah for an hour as we try to get him back to bed. We were pleasantly surprised when it was Elena that came around the corner, but she did not look very happy.

When anything happens that might rock Elena's world and it is after 7:00, we're in for an emotional cry-fest. Her big brown eyes were brimming with tears - I was almost afraid to ask what the problem was. "I have to tell you something..." she began.

Elena then proceeded to delve into a long, overly detailed story about losing her tooth. I'll just share the shortened version: Elena had some candy at church. It started off as a chewy candy, but then it started to crunch in the middle, and she thought is was strange, so she threw it away. Well, it turns out that the crunchy part of the candy was actually her lose tooth that fell out. She threw the tooth away with the candy. As she was laying in bed, she realized what had happened.

At this point in the story, with the way that she was telling the story, I was starting to worry that she really wanted us to go to church in the freezing cold and go from door to door, looking inside hoping that a janitor would let us in. I could already picture us with our winter jackets on, leaning on our cupped hands, looking inside for anyone to help. Instead of letting her come up with a solution, Mark interjected, "Why don't you just write a note telling the tooth fairy what happened?"

If you recall our last tooth fairy blog, Elena has plenty of experience writing to the tooth fairy. She liked this idea and perked up as she went to find a piece of paper. Once she went to bed, Mark got thinking, "Why don't we take one of the old teeth that we have upstairs and stick it under her pillow with the money and see what happens?" And that is exactly what we did. (You might wonder why we still have teeth laying around the house - when you do the tooth fairy thing at midnight you just throw the tooth on a high shelf and deal with it later.)

Mark went to go grab the note and place the substitute tooth and a gold dollar coin. He brings back a cute note that read:

Dear Tooth Fairy, I thought my tooth was a rock because I had candy and felt it. On axadent I threw it away. (I never claimed that she would win the national spelling bee. LOL)

This note was way better than the last note. The last time that I failed my tooth fairy duties was when Christina lost her first tooth (or at least the first tooth that she actually could find after it fell out.) I swear that note used the word "please" about 10 times....

The next morning Elena runs in the room. First, she said, "The tooth fairy came the first time!" (*ouch*) Then she said, "She found my old tooth. I guess she dug it out of the trash? Can I put it back under my pillow and get another dollar?"

Thus continues our tooth fairy adventures...

Who wants to be a millionaire?

I decided to blog today just because I am feeling a little burnt out. Micah called 911 for the 6th time this morning and Isaiah just walked by with a huge Tootsie Roll pop that he found somewhere in the house, leaving a dripping red trail of stickiness behind him. I feel like my sanity is about to reach the tipping point, so it's time for a little stress relief.

My last blog was about our last trip to McDonalds. As I was writing it, I remembered the other half of that adventurous fast food trip. Elena discovered the McDonalds Monopoly game. She is convinced that we are going to win a million dollars.

It all began when she saw the Monopoly tabs on the side of the french fry box. She pulled the tabs and started reading them. She asked what they were for. I told her that they were for a game and showed her the boards.

All of the sudden, she is peeling every game tab off of every box that we have, and then she began searching the floor for more. She was so excited, "Mom! We have Park Place. All we need is Boardwalk and we'll have a million dollars!" If only it was that easy...

Now everyone we meet and everywhere we go, Elena is sharing that we are going to win a million dollars. I don't have the heart to tell her that McDonalds has most likely only produced 1 Boardwalk tab and it is probably on a french fry box in the windiest part of the country, where the experts know that it will blow away before it will ever make it back to their corporate office. Actually, telling her would probably make my life easier.

As soon as we returned home from McDonalds, she had to call Mark and tell him the wonderful news. Then she pleaded for him to go to McDonalds for lunch so that he might find the "golden Broadway ticket." Mark must have been skeptical, because then she went into detail about the game works and how she is sure that the Broadway ticket is only a Big Mac away from fruition.

I remember when I believed that I was going to magically become a millionaire without lifting anything but a sticker on the side of my food box. Now I realize how the world works, but I can't break it to her. She hasn't believed in Santa since she was 6. I have to give her something! Plus, I have guilt from being the worst tooth fairy ever, but that is an older blog.

I'm not sure I'm done with this blog, but I have to save Isaiah from certain destruction. He's standing on my dining room table next to my crystal cake pan...

Package Deal

My kids are a package deal. I have very little patience for kids that want to play with one of my kids and won't let the others participate. Now, I understand that younger kids can sometimes be a pest (especially little brothers), but I'm not okay with any of my kids excluding another for no reason at all. I always tell them that friends may come and go, but you have your family forever - so you should treat each other with love.

Elena just had the ultimate character test around this principle. She was forced to choose between her friend and her siblings and she chose her siblings. I just finished comforting her as she told me the story in tears. I want to share because I'm so proud of her! She is a pleaser and hates to ruffle any feathers, so I know that what she did was very hard for her.

Let me begin with our shopping trip yesterday afternoon. Elena and Christina were NOT getting along in the back seat. Usually they have fun together, but I noticed that Elena was being a little ruder than usual. I realized that she had been spending a lot of time with one of her friends, and whenever she plays with that friend, she is a little more negative and more rude with her siblings. After I separated the two, Christina suddenly blurted out, "I miss Elena! She and (her friend) wouldn't play with me and now Elena is mad at me!"

I asked Elena what the deal was. She said she never said anything to which Christina replied, "No! They said that I couldn't play with them and it hurt my feelings!"

Elena then began to explain the situation. Apparently, her friend said that Christina couldn't play with them and Elena said nothing. I told Elena that when she said nothing, she was essentially agreeing and was just as wrong. I have been especially passionate about this school of thought since I read The Autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." After our chat I think she understood that what she did was just as wrong.

Fast forward a couple of hours. I was talking to a friend and she said that her son thought that Elena was mad at him because she wouldn't play with him. That was when I learned that the situation with Elena wasn't a solitary incident. Mark and I had another heart to heart chat with her. We tried not to accuse her about the situations, we tried to put her in the shoes of the other person. I told her that her friend was sad and then I asked her how she would feel. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, "I would feel terrible!" That was when we knew that she understood.

Skip to today. Today the friend came to the door. I told her that I was not okay with her excluding the other kids. She tried to say that it never happened, but I had 3 witnesses. She agreed and I called Elena. Christina came up to me a little later and said, "Way to go mom. Thanks for standing up for your kids." I had to chuckle at that comment.

The kids played together well for a couple of hours -- and then the drama began. Elena came upstairs to the kitchen where I was baking and was visibly upset. She said that they were playing together on the Wii when the division began. Christina just left frustrated, but Micah was trying to play with Elena and her friend and the friend didn't want to play with him. Elena said that she stood up for Micah and the friend left mad at her. She started to tear up as she told the story.

Elena hates to make anyone mad, and she was so heartbroken. My heart was hurting for her. I hugged her. She was trying to not cry, but I told her that when something that hurts her this bad happens, it is okay to cry. "Sometimes it is hard to do the right thing, but we need to do it anyway," I shared with her.

She took a big breath, and kept trying to hold it in. I could tell that she just wanted to burst into tears, but she was trying to be strong. I finished what I was baking and she stared out of the kitchen sliding glass door. Then, she said, "Mom, I have to tell you one more thing..."

I looked at her and she started crying and babbling. I couldn't understand her between the tears. I sat with her and tried to get her to calm down. Finally, she told me the rest of the story, "When I stood up for Micah, she told me that she didn't like you, Micah, Isaiah or Christina anymore and then she left." This, for her, was the most terrible part of the story. She put her arms around me and started to cry non-stop. I could just hug her and assure her that she did the right thing. I think that her friend's last comment just justified her in her own mind.

I feel really bad for Elena. She is so good at pleasing people. In fact, I am so opposite from being a people pleaser that it really scared me. I was afraid that she would always go with the crowd as long as the crowd consisted of people that she really liked. Now I understand that as a parent I may have enough time to work with her so that she is able to stand up for what is right. Now my job is just to go cheer her up a little.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke

When we were your age, Pluto was a planet

Last night Elena was telling me and Mark about the 53 caterpillars that the second graders have at her school. She told us that about half of them are hanging out in their chrysalides (I just found out that is the plural for chrysalis). After she told us about the caterpillars, Mark was quiet for a moment and then he said, "Do you even know what a cocoon is?"

I smiled. I was thinking the same thing as Elena was giving us her very scientific run down. She looked and him and explained, "A cocoon is very similar to a chrysalis, but caterpillars spin chrysalises." (Okay, she didn't get the plural exactly right, but it sounded official to us.)

Mark replied, "Back when we were kids, they were called cocoons."

I absentmindedly added, "Yeah, and when we were your age Pluto was a planet."

Elena looked shocked. "I thought that people thought Pluto was a planet a way long time ago. WOW."

I had to chuckle. I just turned 32 on Sunday. I guess 32 is the new old.