The tooth is out!

A gentle tug by Rene with some dental floss, and Erin has officially lost the first tooth. She was quite happy.

So tooth fairy, we're expecting you tonight!

Made in China - NOT!

I'm so sick of these toy recalls, aagh!  I'm done with buying crap.  We'd gotten into a bad habit of giving the kids a dollar or two and taking them to the dollar store, basically, to buy crap.  Crap that breaks.  Crap that contains who knows what kind of chemicals.  Crap, crap, crap.

My secret pastime for a while now has been reading craft / sewing blogs.  I'm inspired every day! (More on that later).  Some of these bloggers have posted great alternatives to buying crap.  

Soulemama just wrote a great post about this great wood shop that has fun wooden fruit,  doll like shapes you can paint, even wooden acorns!   And Amy Karol over at Angry Chicken (great name, eh?) posted a lot of alternatives to buying crap here.  I especially like the idea for this simple dollhouse.

Get the CD box for the dollhouse, some wooden dolls from Casey's wood, some paint, fabric, a few decorative items, and some lucky kid can decorate their own dollhouse and dolls!

I think that will be one (or two) Christmas gifts down.

Tooth fairy: please be on alert

Dear tooth fairy,

I wanted to inform you that Erin will likely be losing her front bottom tooth within a week or too, and I wanted you to be prepared.

Erin has been waiting to lose a tooth for over a year now, so she's excited for your arrival.  By the time this tooth falls out, the permanent tooth behind it will be almost fully in.  Our consultations with our neighbor the dentist, cousin Paul the dentist, and even our pediatric dentist assured us that all would be well.

Despite these assurances, Erin came home from school very sad one day a few weeks ago.  She claimed, you see, that she was the only one in her class who has not lost a tooth.  (A claim I later found out was not true!)  Her dear friend Chandler from across the street decided to help Erin out by tying a string to Erin's tooth and the other end of the string to a doorknob and then slammed the door!  Well that loosened the tooth a  bit, but here we are, tooth fairy, still waiting for your first visit to our home.  (I told Erin that it was a good thing she didn't tell Chandler that her leg hurt, as Chandler might have cut it off to be a helpful friend!)

So, tooth fairy, when the tooth falls out we'll be sure to let you know, and we hope you'll visit Erin that night with something special. 

Halloween

Halloween was fun, many opportunities to dress up and get all sugared up. Note that Erin was Sleeping Beauty on Halloween, but for other Halloween events, she was Tinker Bell. Erin was consistently a black cat. Annual neighborhood halloween photo shoot featured here, as well.  Last but not least, Daisy the wonder frisbee dog.  (Click on pics to see larger version, use the browser back button to return to this page.)